Baba
Dogmatic marriages & subjugation of girls
Namaskar,
Here we uncover the shameful chapter of human history where members of one gotra would forcibly kidnap women from other gotras. And that message is conveyed still in traditional Indian marriage ceremonies. This letter concerns the Hindu dogma pervasive in traditional Indian marriage ceremonies where the female / bride is presented as the defeated party and captured as slave, while the male / groom is viewed as the victor-hero-king. Baba reveals the historical background of this dogma and how humiliating it is for the bride.
The entire marriage solemnization is essentially a dramatization of what took place on the battlefield in those olden days when the king and his victorious army would invade, attack, besiege a different hillock inhabited by a competing clan. The victorious king would beat and bloody all the females and capture them for his use - as slaves, servants, concubines etc. This is the gory and shameful scene that would take place and this entire drama is portrayed in today’s Indian marriage ceremonies. It grossly undermines and violates the dignity of women.
The key point is that the male and female, groom and bride, are not on equal footing. The red mark on the bridge signifies her crushed head. When today a bride is marked by that red color it is a sign of her submission. It is completely humiliating. Baba explains this here below - read carefully.
Females: defeated in battle & captured as slaves
Ananda Marga philosophy states, “All this invariably led the different clans into bloody conflicts. Those who were defeated in battle were captured as slaves and the women were taken to the harems of the victors. The victorious clan would then occupy the hill, the gotra of the vanquished clan. Thus within one gotra, there were many sub-gotras, called pravaras.” (1)
Men would strike the heads of the women with an axe, causing blood to flow
Ananda Marga philosophy states, “The women were forcibly carried away, their hands bound in iron chains. Even to this day, women in Bengal and some other areas wear iron bangles on their wrists after marriage – the symbols of their ancient servitude. One should clearly understand this. The males who would attack the neighbouring hills would tie up the women and carry them to their own hill. Even today, during the marriage ceremony in certain parts of India, the bride’s clothes are tied to the clothes of the bridegroom. This enslavement of the defeated gotra was a great humiliation, especially for the women. Sometimes, during the battle, the men would strike the heads of the women with an axe, causing blood to flow. Up until the present, at the time of marriage, women use a vermilion cosmetic mark on their foreheads – a symbol of blood. However, Shiva, by introducing the Shaeva system of marriage, brought an end to this shameful chapter of human history.” (2)
Forcibly kidnap women from other clan
Baba says, “each clan used to live on a separate hill, and the leader of that clan was respected as rśi of the clan. The affiliations of the gotra people were indicated by the name of that particular rśi. After the patriarchal system was established, the members of one gotra would forcibly kidnap women from other gotras to their own gotra, their own hill. Thus immediately after the marriage, the woman’s gotra would change, because she was then a member of a different gotra, a separate hill.” (3)
So this is the long and tortuous history and still today in some form or another this is going on in that the females are taken from the defeated party. The bridegroom is the victor and the female is the subordinate. The symbols remain firmly in place in today’s typical Indian non-margii dogmatic marriage ceremonies. There is a clear-cut winner (bridegroom) and a vanquished party (bride). On the one side there is the vanity ridden winner (bridegroom) party and the other side humiliated party (bride). This is the shameful history and painful chapter of dogmatic, Indian marriages.
See here below this photo of a recent marriage ceremony. While looking at the photo try to identify as many of the dogmas which Baba has pointed out above. Then compare your list with what has been described below beneath the photo.
So many of the dogmas which Baba has pointed out are present in the above scene from a recent, traditional Indian marriage ceremony.
1. The girl has a vermilion mark on her forehead. As Baba has pointed out this signifies the blood rushing from the female’s head when they were brutally ransacked and attacked and taken away as slaves / captives by neighoring clans.
2. The groom has just arrived mounted on a decorated horse. So he is the key figure, just as in olden days the victorious king would arrive on horse as the commander of the army when claiming victory. Furthermore, the groom arrives surrounded by people standing around him just as the victorious king would have a retinue of foot soldiers in his entourage as he arrived on horseback.
3. The girl’s arm is covered by bangles which signify her capture and bondage. In the past the women were bound in iron chains and forcibly dragged away. The victorious party treated those females as their booty, one of the rights of victory. That is the meaning and history of the bangles which females wear today in the marriage ceremony.
4. Often the girl applies a mark upon the groom. This symbolises her accepting defeat to the victorious male king. It is a demonstration of submission. This sets the tone of a male-dominated society where the female is the property of one male.
5. This entire marriage scene is taking place at the bride’s family property just as the king’s victorious party would march upon the defeated clan / hillock and capture all their females.
6. This whole scene depicts the humiliation of females and how they are subservient to the dominant males.
As Sadguru Baba points out, this whole scene is quite humiliating and denigrating for those girls but due to their ignorance they feel ecstatic and glorified during this ceremony. When that girl was small she was taught that a one fine day she will become the property of another family. So they believe that this is a respectful and dignified outcome - i.e. to live as the property of someone else.
These are not innocent affairs
This defective mentality is similar to that of a caged bird that has been caged for so long that it cannot conceive of its own freedom. It likes that small, puny cage.
Baba is warning us about this dogma and it is our duty to educate the public and remove this social injustice and gender difference. Females are not anyone’s personal property. A few confused or very new margiis attend this dogmatic Hindu marriage ritual. But every true Ananda Margii must think long and hard before attending any such type of event etc - sincere sadhakas understand they cannot support or attend this Hindu ritual / dogmatic Indian ceremony. After all, these are not innocent affairs, but rather represent the imposition of dogma and the exploitation of women.
Ananda Marga philosophy states, “Renaissance people will have to start a movement immediately to fight against all these disparities; otherwise if fifty percent of the population, that is the ladies, remain downtrodden, how can there be all-round progress of human society? So these are all the social duties, the social responsibilities of the Renaissance movement. Renaissance people will have to wage war on these disparities, these inequalities – they will have to be rooted out of the society.” (4)
Conclusion
The above about Indian dogmatic marriages. Our Ananda Marga revolutionary marriage system is completely different - it is grounded in neo-humanism and dharma. Most Ananda Margiis perform Ananda Marga marriage ceremonies. But some pseudo people do both.
The purpose of this letter is to educate everyone that dogmatic Indian marriage do not give equal status to females and it si quite humiliating. The duty of all Anada Margiis is not to participate in such marriages and try to educate and convince the hosts about the harmful symbolism. By this way this dogma can one day be eliminated.
Namaskar.
In Him,
Sulekha' Singh
References
1. Namah Shiva Shantaya, Shiva – Both Severe and Tender (Discourse 2)
2. Namah Shiva Shantaya, Shiva – Both Severe and Tender (Discourse 2)
3. Namah Shiva Shantaya, Shiva – Both Severe and Tender (Discourse 2)
4. A Few Problems Solved - 7, Renaissance in All the Strata of Life
== Section 2: Important Teaching ==
Special place for sadhana?
You might have heard some people say that, “This place is very good for sadhana.” Especially you will hear this in Ananda Nagar, Jamalpur, Tiljala, Ranchi etc. They like to create the feeling that in order to get a special blessing you have to come in Ananda Nagar, Jamalpur, Tiljala, Ranchi etc and sit under that particular rock or tree etc. And then only sadhana will be best. Because that place emanates a spiritual vibration. Baba’s below teaching debunks this idea.
Ananda Marga philosophy states, “To differentiate between different places for sádhaná, to consider one place more suitable than another, or to regard a particular spot as good and another bad, is to divide Brahma. Every place in this creation is the manifestation of the Supreme Cosmic Entity (Brahma), and to call one place good and another bad is to attribute these qualities to Brahma. If sádhaná is based on the consideration of good and bad, it will never be possible for one to develop the feeling of oneness with the rest of creation. One will never be able to love others as oneself. To Brahma every place is the same, and sádhaná can be practised anywhere.” (1)
If some place is isolated or a natural setting and there is no pollution of any kind, then that is suitable for sadhana in comparison to a noisy bus stop that smells like an open sewer. That is based entirely on the environmental qualities. The above teaching debunks the myth that some place is spiritually important whereas other places are not.
Reference
1. Ananda Marga Elementary Philosophy, Why Are People Afraid of Intuitional Practice?
== Section
3: Links ==
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