Women's intelligence
There’s a new fashion that is to say that women are less intelligent then man. Here I’d like to show what the scriptures say about it. In a certain way, it is indeed said that most part of women usually have a very soft heart. That might be aproblem because many times they can put their heart and feelings before theirintelligence or sense of discrimination. This is not exactly a lack ofintelligence, but a purity of heart that is dangerous for the person in adegraded world like the one we live in. In this way, pure creatures like womenand brahmanas should always be taken care of, so that they can be protected fromevil persons. There’s no question that the brahminical class is the mostintelligent class of the society (we are not speaking here of people who arebrahmanas because were born in family of brahmanas, but we are talking aboutreal brahmanas, with the brahminical qualifications). Similarly, the fact thatwomen are pure or, many times, innocent, or that they have to be protected, hasabsolutely nothing to do with a lack of intelligence. Sarasvati, the goddess ofintelligence is a woman!
“Agnihthram Tatachar swamy points out a specialVedic term : Purandhi, and explains its significance . According to the VedAs ,women are more intelligent than men (i.e) she is a purandhi. (…) By that term ,Women's superior intelligence is indicated.”*
Being aware of the capacity ofthe girls, the families and teachers used to train them just as they used totrain the boys. That was according to the Atharva Veda, which says that girlsshould be trained as students before entering marriage life. “Girls should trainthemselves to become complete scholars and youthful through Brahmcharya and thenenter married life.” **
The Atharva Veda also says: “Oh woman! You are thekeeper of knowledge of all types of actions (karma).” “Oh woman! You knoweverything. Please provide us strength of prosperity and wealth.” and “Oh woman!Utilize your vedic intellect in all directions of our home!”.
In the sameVeda it is also stated: “Women should take part in the legislative chambers andput their views on forefront.” And from the Rg Veda we have: “O men and women! Ascholarly woman who has practiced or teaches one, two or three Vedas or fourVedas and four upavedas, along with grammar, etymology etc and spreads knowledgeto whole world and removes ignorance of people is source of happiness for entireworld. A woman who studies and teaches all parts of Vedas brings progress to allhuman beings.” So, the idea that women can’t study the Vedas is just a modernnon-sense. Actually, they should not only study it, but also teach it, althoughwe see that in many spiritual societies nowadays women are not allowed to preachor teach.
According to The Rg Veda, women can say: “My destiny is as gloriousas the rising sun. I am the flag of my home and society. I am also their head. Ican give impressive discourses. My sons conquer enemies. My daughter illuminatesthe whole world.”
So, as we see, women from vedic age don’t think ofthemselves as poor non-intelligent creatures. They know their importance notonly for their family but also for their society. They are the had. So, theyhave intelligence and give directions. Their importance is not only to staybehind men obeying their orders. They say they can give impressive discourses.Of course they are not locked at home just cooking and cleaning, otherwise, thatstatement would make no sense. They are free to speak for many people and theyare impressive, so they have knowledge to cause that impression. Their sonsconquer enemies, but their daughter illuminates the whole world. Their daughtersare not burdens that are killed in the womb or who are less important then theirsons. No! They illuminate the whole world!
*SriPedia - http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/cgi-bin/kbase/Vedas/Women’
** Agniveer – Womenin Vedas - http://agniveer.com/vedas/women-in-vedas/
http://deviwoman.blogspot.com/
www.iskconbr.multiply.com
“Agnihthram Tatachar swamy points out a specialVedic term : Purandhi, and explains its significance . According to the VedAs ,women are more intelligent than men (i.e) she is a purandhi. (…) By that term ,Women's superior intelligence is indicated.”*
Being aware of the capacity ofthe girls, the families and teachers used to train them just as they used totrain the boys. That was according to the Atharva Veda, which says that girlsshould be trained as students before entering marriage life. “Girls should trainthemselves to become complete scholars and youthful through Brahmcharya and thenenter married life.” **
The Atharva Veda also says: “Oh woman! You are thekeeper of knowledge of all types of actions (karma).” “Oh woman! You knoweverything. Please provide us strength of prosperity and wealth.” and “Oh woman!Utilize your vedic intellect in all directions of our home!”.
In the sameVeda it is also stated: “Women should take part in the legislative chambers andput their views on forefront.” And from the Rg Veda we have: “O men and women! Ascholarly woman who has practiced or teaches one, two or three Vedas or fourVedas and four upavedas, along with grammar, etymology etc and spreads knowledgeto whole world and removes ignorance of people is source of happiness for entireworld. A woman who studies and teaches all parts of Vedas brings progress to allhuman beings.” So, the idea that women can’t study the Vedas is just a modernnon-sense. Actually, they should not only study it, but also teach it, althoughwe see that in many spiritual societies nowadays women are not allowed to preachor teach.
According to The Rg Veda, women can say: “My destiny is as gloriousas the rising sun. I am the flag of my home and society. I am also their head. Ican give impressive discourses. My sons conquer enemies. My daughter illuminatesthe whole world.”
So, as we see, women from vedic age don’t think ofthemselves as poor non-intelligent creatures. They know their importance notonly for their family but also for their society. They are the had. So, theyhave intelligence and give directions. Their importance is not only to staybehind men obeying their orders. They say they can give impressive discourses.Of course they are not locked at home just cooking and cleaning, otherwise, thatstatement would make no sense. They are free to speak for many people and theyare impressive, so they have knowledge to cause that impression. Their sonsconquer enemies, but their daughter illuminates the whole world. Their daughtersare not burdens that are killed in the womb or who are less important then theirsons. No! They illuminate the whole world!
*SriPedia - http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/cgi-bin/kbase/Vedas/Women’
** Agniveer – Womenin Vedas - http://agniveer.com/vedas/women-in-vedas/
http://deviwoman.blogspot.com/
www.iskconbr.multiply.com
Replies
Very fine piont vasoo prabhu,yes a woman must be protected,hence when she is protected she protects the rest of society by no producing unwanted children.When she is godly by nature her intelligence becomes very glorious,she directs her husband and family towards spiritual emancipation.Rather than accepting ''man after man'' for sex.....and contributing to being the cause of ''varna sankara'' children whom are the direct cause of wars pestulence famine and all kinds of social disturbances like crime and mudrers,she stands tall... bereft of this absorbtion in the lower modes.!This is what iskcon needs, families which create ecstatic males and females whom nourish the preaching.Especially by creating solid families the grihasta ashram will create woman of fortitude and resiliance whom follow in the footsteps of gurus like Kuntidev.Faced by duryodhana attempting to kill her and her sons she continued to take shelter of krishna.Hence she welcomed adversity as an opportunity to get krishnas darshan ,hence even the men should accept the teachings of queen kunti as signifigant and instructive.Socially we accept the reality that men and woman need to be divided to allow finer qualities of human culture to manifest.But on the spiritual platform when we serve krishna we are all female in essence, which means we are meant for his enjoyment his pleasure.There is no shortage of opportunities to use our personal traits be they male or female in krishnas service.Over there years i have seen empowered female devotees build and finance centres ,they have created wonderful vaisnavas and left an endelible service in Srila Prabhupadas mission.
I am glad you got the proper answer. Sorry I came way short.
Just so you know, I dont think men are superior to women or anything of that nature.
@Thank You Yuga Avatar Das for wonderful way you have explained everything.
Hope I have learnt something here.
Hare Krishna.
Think about this, 500 years ago (during the time when Mahaprabhu appeared was dark ages) or now?
Where many mothers now, cant afford to stay with their own new born baby and have to get back to work because they can't make the ends meet, without two incomes to pay for the big screen tv, 2 car payments, credit card payments and a 30 year mortgage payment.
We are more enslaved now than ever before.
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