BY: ROUPA MANJARI DEVI DASI
Oct 02, 2012 — LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (SUN) —
The biggest problem I witness repeatedly is young women giving up their career goals and extra-curricular goals to be with a man or because they want children before they are ready to handle the responsibility or realize what they are in for…then they are even less able to cope when they discover that “a man is not a plan” and learn too late the they are married to a Sex Addict, Gambler, Drunk, Liar, you-name-it and it’s too late to back out or address the issues. Then they eventually end up alone and below the poverty line after sacrificing everything for the hope of security and lifelong relationship, all vaporized.
Yes that is HALF of women today and there is virtually no selective/cultural pressure for men to grow up and get a clue and there is no evidence that will change anytime soon. Unless women organize, get emotionally strong, and set an example for men the world over and take an according stand, we are unlikely to advance our humanity past this profound darkness in gender and family roles.
(From a concerned mother in San Diego, CA)
Before addressing symptoms, let us consider that we are living in a blackout culture of ignorance which also substitutes spiritual knowledge with a widespread obsession with material exactitude, which even when properly calculated according to mathematics and other universal formulae often turns up varying results and discrepancies, thus in some cases invalidating the theories and hypotheses that precede them.
Therefore I believe that it is safe to say that the material energy itself is impermanent at best, and as such we cannot rely too heavily upon the laws which have been designated by various scientists of the modern age as infallible. In Sanskrit this word is written as ASAT: sat means eternal and changeless; asat means temporary and always changing.
Our bodies are prime example of asat. From conception to obliteration of the body it is changing continuously, undergoing metabolic processes, creating byproducts, and at last dissolution. So what is it that does not change? According to the Vedas and Krishna’s Words in the Bhagavad-gita, only life itself, or the Soul, is changeless. Even to the common man, once the Soul transmigrates, putting off its expired machine for a next more suitable machine, the body reveals itself to be nothing more than dead matter.
So, in order to properly assess the entirety of the situation, I recommend we look first at the fact that the entire human life is a proportionate and scientific breakdown of dharma, or duty, as noted by you [author of the above] during this last truly pleasurable visit with your good self and your husband, of the Soul. The Soul indeed has a natural propensity for action according the specificities of the given material form. In this respect the body does command certain action which, when followed via the Instruction of Supersoul/Krishna in the heart (called in modern lingo as “intuition” or “instinct”, for which there are no words in Sanskrit), serves to advance the Soul in question to progressively higher levels of consciousness.
This is where the total lack of knowledge, understanding, or practice of dharma in the modern western culture creates chaos and degradation for everyone involved. We are being killed in terms of consciousness by the fact that having no cultivation of ‘human’ qualities, we are collectively backsliding into the only alternative, namely animal qualities, governed by eating, sleeping, mating, defending.
The duty of a human being is to become self-realized, hence man is endowed with the capability of self-awareness. If we are not propped up the way a tent is propped upon its center pole then the automatic result is a descent into sense gratification. Taken to an extreme, we have a whole society factually built upon sense gratification, and in fact people are being and have been taught for the breadth of their lives, even from birth, to think in terms of ‘feeling good’ and having a ‘good time’, and working whatever is necessary in order to obtain, even if that work is slavish and all-consuming. So we are all trained to be like donkeys, working and working and working just for a tiny morsel of feed.
And this over work is functional also in the regard that it keeps people busy and preoccupied with little time left over to consider any alternatives… most people tend to the opposite, reinforcing the function, saying “I have such little ‘free’ time, I want to use it ‘well’, I don’t want to think about anything serious”.
So they go to bars, prostitutes, entertainment, gambling etc., to try to squeeze out whatever fleeting pleasure can be had from the temporary satiation of lust, which drives all of us in this material world. Spiritual life in a nutshell is the taming and gradual dissipation of lust, to be replaced with genuine eternal spiritual vision, whereas material life is the continuous incitement and re-incitement of lust, thus causing heart attacks, obesity, STDs, and so many other unnecessary afflictions.
So what is the link between this current socio-spiritual wasteland in which women are clearly suffering? The first step is to assess the natural dynamic between men and women. In general women are not as intelligent as men, at least in terms of sheer brain substance (and I am not talking about empowered Reitman/Zakheim women, I am talking about the general population), and they are by nature emotional rather than rational, and subject to being affected by their external environment and people.
If we consider that a women’s very body is a chalice, then it stands to reason that her nature is to accept or receive energy from the outside. Man’s physiology is such that he is a constant giver of energy, and his nature is to provide. So we can understand that in terms of woman to man, female is subordinate to male.
Vedic Dharma takes this to a very pure level and says that a chaste woman is so much devoted to her husband, who by marrying her takes responsibility not only for her lifetime, but for her deliverance from this world altogether, that she focuses her attention and renders willing service exclusively to him….and in return is given pure undiluted energy and empowerment from her husband, not just in the tangible form of children, but in the ever-increasingly refined quality of her own consciousness. In this way a woman can become truly happy, satisfied, fulfilled, and embark upon an ever-progressive path of self-realization.
So this view is certainly unorthodox in the modern western world, which encourages women to work in the workplace….sleep with different men to ‘find out which one is right for her’…break up with their boyfriends/husbands….fight and argue and find fault with their husbands… and pressure their husbands into doing tasks that are their own prerogative such as cooking and cleaning.
All of these behaviors serve to break the precious natural bond between male and female and can only have the direct and immediate result of the degradation of women. We see so many women having to artificially act like men simply in order to survive. Why? Because there is NO PROTECTION for them whatsoever. Why? Because as Chanakya Pandit says, “If milk is available in the marketplace, who will go to the trouble to keep a cow?”
Women are so desperate for some sort of protection that they will give their one commodity – sex – without first becoming married. And if they do not give the sex then the man loses interest and moves on to a woman that will. So from this, what is the natural result? Unwanted progeny. Women give sex without marriage, become pregnant with unwanted children, then are forced to raise the children from their own dependent, rather than independent nature. And thus the children grow up believing that men are dogs, rascals, cannot be trusted, etc. And the boys follow the lead of the father and the girls follow the lead of the mother….thus the cycle begins again.
So culture is finished when women are not protected. Krishna and Arjuna discuss this with some emphasis in the Bhagavad-gita…..”When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Krishna, the women of the family become corrupt, and from the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, comes unwanted progeny. ” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is 1.40)
My husband and I consider that Srila Prabhupada brought the Krishna Consciousness Movement to USA for the salvation of women and children, who right now are at the mercy of government, men, and institutions. Children are pumped in and out of schools where their heads are filled with material information which no longer has much purpose in terms of guaranteeing work and survival in the world. Women are forced into the workplace, separated from their children, often single and struggling, completely dependent upon some charity, or simply alone without any aid.
We consider that if God Consciousness, Krishna Consciousness is restored to the hearts of people around the world then they will lose their propensity for unrestricted sense gratification and instead become engaged in genuinely happy and productive endeavor in the service of Krishna, who is actually the Lord of everything.
This is the center pole of life itself, and when upheld, all other things fall naturally and perfectly into place. Men protect women, women protect children, and families are protected by a society in which God/Krishna is accepted as Sole Proprietor….that means peaceful cooperation in service rather than ongoing conflicts between different individuals due to bodily differences.
Spiritual Life means living on the platform of eternal Soul, and therefore has completely inverse qualities to material life, which is the platform of temporary body. On the material platform there is not enough room for anyone to live comfortably, resources are always limited, divisions must be made, competition, judgment, etc., etc. But on the Spiritual Platform there is more than enough room for everyone to coexist in peace and joy, experiencing ever-increasing levels of knowledge and bliss.
No one is safe in this dog-eat-dog world, particularly women and children….but if we transform the consciousness from the material to the spiritual, and give real engagement to people which is strictly for the satisfaction of the Lord — not an overseer, friend, family, society, etc. — then they will feel true peace and inspiration in their lives which will automatically diminish their interest in degraded activities. Such is the nature of attraction to a “higher taste”.
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