Baba
Exploitation of females
Namaskar,
I was blessed to have attended all the annual DMC's from 1970 onwards. DMC was such an important and blissful gathering for all Ananda Margiis. In particular, it was a special occasion for Indian margiis as it was a time for the whole extended family to come together. My wife and I would arrive with our family of 15. Then our relatives from thousands of kilometers away came from Assam (far east India), along with my wife's family from Gujurat (West India). We were all living together for one week at DMC. This was common in India as the entire laokika family would take initiation (diiksa) into Ananda Marga sadhana. So there was always a huge family gathering at DMC.
http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Sadly, some family acaryas were not introducing their laokika relations to the Marga and our AM way of life. This was a mystery. Ultimately, some changed, but many did not.
About dogmatic Hindu marriages
The following is a colourful description of dogmatic Hindu marriages, as those marriages are filled with so many degrading rituals. That is why it is so astounding why some family acaryas actively accepted Hindu marriages, i.e. the dowry and all those dogmatic rituals. All margiis know that the dowry is blatantly against Baba's system. And here is more about some of the other rituals:
(a) The bride must wear a long sari and cover her face with a 2 foot long veil. So the female’s face is completely hidden during the ceremony and oath taking.
(b) The Hindu priest ties up the bride and bridegroom by making one knot using the tail from the excess cloth of their dress. They are tied together like two train cars, one in front of the other.
(c) In this manner they both circle 7 times to the fire god while the priest repeats the mantra from ritualistic religious books.
Verily there are so many rituals in this dogmatic Hindu ceremony based on the dogmas of old wherein women were humiliated and the bride's family was beaten and even taken captive by the bridegroom's clan. Obviously Ananda Marga philosophy is against all such Hindu rituals.
http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Females brutalized: mirror image of dogmas of old
The central point is that current day Hindu marriage ceremonies were born out of dogmatic practices from days of old. Baba describes this in detail in His book, Namah Shivaya Shantaya. Several thousand years ago history witnessed the times when one hill clan fought with other hill clans for superiority. People born of the same hillock were treated and respected as brother and sister in those days of old. But there was strong aggression toward other clans from other hill tops. So fights regularly occurred.
The entire army of that gotra or clan would attack other clans. Even all the youths of that clan would go into battle. And after the attack the victors would arrest all the youths, females, and males. Generally, the males who were not killed were treated as slaves. The females were treated as servants or captured for marriage. So the males were arrested and taken into custody and females were taken captive to be submissive wives of the victorious party.
The defeated party suffered terribly. The males were beaten or killed while the females were battered and often bleeding from the head. Under the rule of brute force and cruelty, marriages were conducted. There was the system that a marriage could not take place between two people of the same gotra. Still today it is continuing. Today symbolically this same system is going on in Hindu dogma. Those days in battle they were attacking females with a stick. Often females were wounded and would be bleeding from the head. Now, in place of oozing blood in the battle, the red vermilion mark is made on the forehead. In the past, women were chained and they were kept in handcuffs and nowadays bangles are used on the wrists during marriages as a show of bondage. Without bangles, marriages are virtually impossible in the Hindu system. Bangles are the sign of slavery. No doubt in the old days those bangles were made of iron while nowadays they are gold, bronze or silver. But the significance is the same. In those days of old, females were humiliated and today it is still continuing.
http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
The bridegroom's family are the 'victors'
The present day dowry dogma stems from the old days when the victorious clan looted the defeated party. Now the “victorious” male party collects a huge dowry from the “defeated” female family. During those days of old, the army would march in with the commander, prince or leader carried by slaves using poles on their shoulders to carry a small hut that contained the regal prince. Generally, 4 male slaves would carry the prince from the front side and 4 males slaves would hold from the back. In this show of force, the prince would ride while being carried on the shoulders of slaves from one hillock to the next.
Those victors would tie up the sisters from that defeated clan and make them slaves and bring them back to their own clan. Even today symbolically everything is present in the dogmatic Hindu marriage system. The groom goes with his marriage party sitting on a horse or carriage; they are the victors. So today’s Hindu marriage represents males as princes and females as captives or slaves. All these things are symbolically included in ritualistic marriages at present. That is why in Hindu dogmatic society the biggest problem is getting your daughter married.
Today the bridegroom party is treated as the victorious group and the bride's party is forced to accept the superiority of the bridegroom. The bridegroom’s party arrives as the victors. And the bride's family is regularly faced with the burden of supplying housing - and all living accommodations - to the guests of the bridegroom family for their entire stay, i.e. up to 7 days during the marriage ceremony. In arrogance, pomp, and show, the bridegroom family claims the upper hand. All these rituals symbolically demonstrate how one clan conquered the other clan and that the wife is subservient to the bridegroom's family.
http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Because of the superiority of males and exploitation of females, in India the birth of a female is unwanted. Especially these days when medical science is developed. As soon as it is confirmed that the baby in the womb is a girl, the family wants to get rid of that child. Only boys are accepted and welcomed. Everyone is not like that but it is a widespread problem. That is why the government has banned this medical facility. The root cause is the dogmatic Hindu religious marriage ceremony wherein a dowry is paid etc.
Conclusion
In dogmatic Hindu marriages, the status of females is very pitiful and highly insulting. Those with a human heart feel pain by seeing all these tortures to females. That is why Baba discarded and condemned these dogmas and has given equal status to males and females. That is the AM marriage system. It is surprising that some family acaryas attended, witnessed, and appreciated all the Hindu ritualistic events for their own son’s marriage, where a dogmatic priest presided over the whole ordeal.
Altogether this Hindu marriage dogma is suffocating. True margiis never appreciate this - especially the disparaging insult to females in this dogmatic Hindu marriage system. Baba has assured us that the golden day is not far off when by strong, dharmic leadership the dharma of Ananda Marga will spread across this entire universe in lightning speed.
In Him,
Diipavali
~ In-depth study ~
Ananda Marga philosophy states, "In those days life was full of conflict. There were frequent clashes between the different hills. The people living on one hill treated each other as brothers and sisters, so whenever they wanted to get married, they had to bring men and women from other hills. Those who emerged victorious in an inter-hill conflict would marry the women of the vanquished gotra. These women were brought to the victor's hill bound in chains. Even today in many parts of India the newly married couple knot their clothes together after marriage. This practice is symbolic of the time when the girl of the vanquished party was forcibly brought home by the bridegroom. In ancient days, they were brought home captive, their hands bound in chains. Even today in East India, particularly among the women of Bengal, there is a custom of wearing iron bangles. These bangles, reminiscent of those ancient chains, symbolize that the bride has been brought home captive. Besides that, many women had their heads cracked open in battle. Blood flowed from their gaping wounds. These days, of course, such atrocities do not occur. However, to represent the flowing blood of those wounded in battle a vermilion mark is placed on the forehead of a newly married woman." (1)
Sadguru Baba says, "As I told you a little earlier, 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."
"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."
"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." (2)
“I'm going to bring you a maid-servant”
Here Baba tells more about the exploitative history of the Hindu marriage system and how it lives on even today:
"Today I will relate to you an episode of Tantric history – an episode which has almost been lost. I think you all know that Sadáshiva was the first Tantric Mahákaola on this planet. His mission was Kurvantu vishvaḿ Tántrikam – “To get the whole universe initiated into the Tantric cult”. To become a Tantric means to fight directly against the opposing forces and obstacles on the path of progress and to preach the lofty gospels of universal humanism. That human beings are the greatest of all living beings is to be proven in action, not in mere words or theoretical moral principles.
"In that early phase of human civilization, there were more rifts and clashes among the different clans and tribes than there are today. It was therefore safer for human beings to live on hills. Later, with the development of civilization, they moved down to the plains and settled in woods and forests. But in those early days, they would sleep in hill-caves after blocking the entrances with big rocks. Fire had not yet been discovered, so they could not protect themselves by burning fires around their encampments in the caves and forests. Fire was discovered much later.
"The hills on which people used to live were called gotras in Vedic Sanskrit. So if a person called Ráma lived on a certain hill, the hill was called “Rámagotra”. Similarly, the hill where Shyáma lived was known as “Shyámagotra”, and all the people who lived on it belonged to that gotra. This was the system followed in that early period of social development. Prior to that [patriarchal system], each hill was ruled by a gotramátá, or clan mother. The clan members would all obey her and would introduce themselves by her name; and likewise the hill itself would be named after that matriarch. These days this system has evolved into a dogmatic clan or caste system.
"So each hill was named after its sage. If Maharśi Káshyapa [The Great Sage Káshyapa] was the leader of a hill clan, that clan was called Káshyapagotra. If Maharśi Bharadvája was the leader, it was called Bharadvájagotra. Thus, the early matriarchal system was followed by a patriarchal system of leadership.
"Those people who lived on the same hill under a common patriarch lived just like brothers and sisters. However, they considered the members of other hill communities to be their deadly enemies. And since all on one hill were brothers and sisters, they could not marry among themselves. So what would they do in order to marry? One clan would defeat a neighbouring clan in battle, and they would forcibly drag the vanquished women, with hands bound, back to their own hill for a life of domestic servitude. The males of the defeated clan were utilized as slaves.
"Even to this day, there is a custom whereby the mother asks her son on the eve of his marriage, “Where are you going?” He replies, “I'm going to bring you a maid-servant.” It comes from those days when the victorious clan would drag the defeated women back to its own hill. Not only that – to bind someone you need a rope or a chain ([now] called a gánt́chaŕá). The women would be brought back in those days with chains on their wrists, otherwise they might run away. The iron bangle that a married woman wears today is a symbol of that early servitude. In those days women also fought in battle, and were often hit on the head and severely injured. A small vermilion mark then came to represent the blood streaming from their cracked heads. But today a woman must wear that vermilion mark if she is to be recognized as married. This is quite different from the original idea. Actually these are all just different dogmas...
"...So even today women bear the mark of servitude by wearing iron bangles on their wrists, thus giving the impression that they have been vanquished; they still use the vermilion which originally symbolized bloodshed; they still tie the gánt́chaŕá after marriage, which symbolizes their being forcibly carried away; and the bridegroom still often says to his mother on the eve of his departure for the marriage, “I'm going to bring you a maid-servant.” How absurd! No one is anyone's servant. The system of slavery was abolished long ago. You should oppose these dogmatic beliefs. They are very objectionable. You should understand the history behind them, and then do the right thing. (3)
References
1. A Few Problems Solved - 3, The Evolution of Human Civilization
2. Namah Shiváya Shántáya, Shiva – Both Severe and Tender (Discourse 2)
3. Ananda Vacanamrtam - 7, Bhaerava and Bhaeravii
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The below sections are entirely different topics, unrelated to the above material.
They stands on their own as points of interest.
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The below sections are entirely different topics, unrelated to the above material.
They stands on their own as points of interest.
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== Section: Important Topic ==
Your 50 propensities
Here are the first 49 propensities of the human mind...
Ananda Marga philosophy states, “dharma (psycho-spiritual longing), artha (psychic longing), káma (physical longing), mokśa (spiritual longing), avajiṋá (belittlement of others), múrcchá (psychic stupor, lack of common sense), prashraya (indulgence), avishvása (lack of confidence), sarvanásha (thought of sure annihilation), kruratá (cruelty), lajjá (shyness, shame), pishunatá (sadistic tendency), iirśá (envy), suśupti (staticity, sleepiness), viśáda (melancholia), kaśáya (peevishness), trśńá (yearning for acquisition), moha (infatuation), ghrna (hatred, revulsion), bhaya (fear), asha (hope), cinta (worry), cesta (effort), mamata (mineness), dambha (vanity), viveka (conscience), vikalata (mental numbness due to fear), ahamkara (ego), lalata (avarice), kapatata (hypocrisy), vitarka (argumentativeness to the point of wild exaggeration), anutapa (repentance), śad́aja (sound of peacock), rśabha (sound of bull), gándhára (sound of goat), madhyama (sound of deer), paiṋcama (sound of cuckoo), dhaevata (sound of donkey), niśáda (sound of elephant), oṋm (acoustic root of creation), hum (sound of arousing kulakuńd́alinii), phat́ (putting theory into practice), vaośat́ (expression of mundane knowledge), vaśat́ (welfare in subtler sphere), svaha (performing noble actions), namah (surrender to the Supreme), vis'a (repulsive expression), amrta (sweetness in expression), apara (mundane knowledge)...” (1)
And the 50th propensity and the only vrtti a sadhaka should seek is: para (spiritual knowledge).
References
1. Yoga Psychology, Glands and Sub-Glands
== Section 2: Links ==
Other topics of interest
