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
It is a good idea to explain what it means by less intelligent.
We are definitely not talking about man's superiority over women's ability to code in c++ or solve complex math problems.
Prabhu, would you be kind enough to explain what Prabhupada meant when He said women are less intelligent, less intelligent are also, men who are Sudra (someone having a job/receiving a pay check) and Dwijabandhu (man fallen from Brahmanical activity)
When one realizes one's original spiritual form it has the shape of a female anyways.. So who is the male here except Supreme Lord Krishna
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Hare Krishna, dear Sarvopama prabhu.
Please accept mu humble obeicances. All glorie to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Gurumaharaja.
Dear Sarvopama prabhu, very nice ,this one of your examples.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu said in the Caitanya Caritamrta that women and men are equal on the spiritual platform.
Haribol.
I have a confusion in mind- In kaliyuga- everyone is supposed to be a shudra unless the person proves otherwise by taking up Bhakti of the supreme Lord Krishna irrespective of whether one is a man or women. then is it right to generalise & call women shudra's in this age? recently saw a cartoon illustration showing a boy and a girl holding hands-the boy had an innocent smile while the girl has a cruel crooked smile.in my limited exposure to this world i have seen men doing far worse thngs and the picture can be reversed in majority cases.
i have great respect for brahmacharis and sanyasis and understand that contact with women is detrimental to their spiritual life.and i also accept the sub-ordinate position of women as per the vedic system but this kind of gross negative representation disturbs me.
i guess my thoughts are foolish and fully depict my neophyte stage in Bhakti but feels good to share
plz forgive my offences and pray for me to transcend over such disturbances so that i can progress in my spiritual life
Hari Hari
YS
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