[Advaita-l] Women and Vedas

[Viswanathan N]

Adithyaji,
   
  I appreciate you calling the spade a spade without mincing words. Infact I too wanted to respond the same way almost with the same conclusions. But later thought we should look beyond these petty things and start looking things just beyond words , thats why in that way....
   
  Pl look in this way too....Every human mind is  mixture of these qualities (man/woman, dev/asur, human/animal) in diff proposition. All our minds are so made and seen as as such, which is dominant. I was of the opinion that the mind of feminaine nature is soft and delicate to take the vedantha route, so its better to 
  take the route of Love..that is Bhakthi. Like wise the one with the mind set of kshatriya, who is tough but not all that matured, can take the route of action , that is Karma yoga. Again, I am not refering to the physical body but the mind set.
   
  One more thing ....
  I am of the opinion that once your understanding has reached a level, all these scriptures should be set aside. YOU and only YOU are the source for all further janana  . So it really doesnt matter.
   
  Fondly,
  Viswanath 
   
  

Aditya Varun Chadha <adichad at gmail.com> wrote:
  Viswanathan ji,

while your post seems well meaning, I don't think it is productive to
ignore unambiguous statements made in the scriptures regarding this.
The fact that "women" is the word used in the literature is
undeniable. there is NO evidence that "being a woman" is considered a
state of mind by the scriptures. Being a woman was the same then as is
now. If it were considered a state of mind, bhakti would be considered
a feminine tradition.

The first step is to call a spade a spade. only then can you start
justifying that well the spade is also wood and metal, and both are
just matter, etc. etc. Let's not make distortions while trying to
justify the controversies of our books. Nowhere in the scriptures is
it stated that womanhood is not meant in its usual way, but in some
esoteric idealistic denigrating way.

Let's first accept that women (having feminine physical
characteristics) and Shudras (by the Varna system) are denied the
right to recite the Vedas. Then we can try to find reasons behind it.
distorting the premises does not facilitate objective discussions.

As long as our minds have not fully subsided, it is counterproductive
to not use them or use them without conviction. Sorry if I have hurt
feelings here. I am open to any criticism.

Things that are left vague can be debated. Atman and brahman are the
very subject of the entire vedantic tradition, so their nature can be
debated. But within mAyA, there are some clear definitions and
ignoring them cannot lead us towards knowledge.

--
Aditya Varun Chadha
adichad AT gmail.com
http://www.adichad.com
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