Role of Women in Spirituality
Happy International Women’s Day to all the beautiful women who are reading this.
We are celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8th every year and we already know that there are women excelling in all walks of life — sports, mountain climbing, women being pilots, politicians, astronauts, physicians, engineering, etc.
We are aware that women are gifted by ‘Nature’ for procreation and nurturing a child and she nurtures the future of humanity in her womb right from conception until she gives birth. So, traditionally pregnant women are asked to read spiritual books and meditate.
“The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World” is a poem by William Ross Wallace that praises motherhood as the preeminent force for change in the world. We had an example of this of a great king and warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Indian History, whose mother Veer Mata Jija Bai had a pivotal role in shaping him as a great king.
‘What about the Role of Women in Spirituality?’
Studies have shown that women have been specially gifted by nature with qualities that make them harbingers of peace and harmony in times of conflict. These qualities are gentleness, selflessness, compassion, mildness, and, above all, a spiritual approach to life.
Feminine qualities such as love, tolerance, compassion, understanding, and humility are qualities of leadership. They are also needed for spiritual progress. Without them, it would be impossible to come close to God and attain self-realization. Every human being possesses those qualities, but women are more easily and naturally able to tap them, for feelings of love and devotion are often more natural to women, combined with a profound sense of discipline and order.
We had great spiritual stalwarts from all around the world like St. Joan of Arc of France, Mother Theresa, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Rabia Basri of Sufi tradition, and many more. In Indian history too, we had St. Meera Bai, Sant Saku Bai. St. Akka Mahadevi from Karnataka, St. Andal from Tamil Nadu In India, Mata Sharada Devi from West Bengal (Wife of St. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa), and many more. So what motivated them to choose the path of Self Realization or God-Realization?
The most prominent name of a woman within the Sufi tradition is that of Rabia Basri C.E. (713–801). She was born into a poor family in Basra, Iraq. She devoted her life to worshipping God and serving others. The experience of divine love inspired Rabia. She is one of the first female Sufi saints of Islam and the first in a long line of female Sufi mystics.
Rabia al-Basri is noted for her steadfast love of God and her expression of this poetry. Her expressions inspired many later Sufi masters and philosophers.
O my Lord,
if I worship you
from fear of hell, burn me in hell.
If I worship you
from hope of Paradise, bar me from its gates.
But if I worship you
for yourself alone, grant me then the beauty of your Face.
She emphasized pure divine love, Rabia championed love as a path to the Divine; and it became favored by the communities of believers who found greater resonance in approaching God through Divine love, rather than out of fear of God.
St. Mira Bai, C.E.(1498 –1547) was a Hindu Mystic Poet and staunch devotee of Lord Krishna. She was one of the most significant saints of the Vaishnava Bhakti movement. Her poems commonly known as (bhajans) or sacred songs. In most of her poems, she describes her unconditional love for her Lord and promotes Krishna bhakti as the best way of life. One of her popular bhajans is here below:
Pāyojī, maine nāma raṭana dhana pāyo
(pāyojī, maińe nāma raṭana dhana pāyo)
Wastu amolaka dī mere satguru,
kirpā kari apanāyo
Janma janma kī puñjī pāī,
jaga meń sabai khovāyo
Kharcai nahiń koī, cora na levai,
dina baḍhata savāyo
Sat kī nāva khevaṭiyā satguru,
bhavasāgara tara āyo
Mīrā ke prabhu giridhara nāgara,
harakha jasa gāyo
Translation of the above bhajan is:
I have found, yes, I have found the wealth of the gem of chanting the Holy Name.
My true spiritual master gave me a priceless thing.
With his grace, I accepted it.
I found the treasure of my several births;
I have lost the whole rest of the world.
No one can spend it, no one can steal it.
Day by day it increases one and a quarter times.
On the boat of truth, the boatman was my true guru.
I came across the ocean of existence.
The Lord of Mira Bai is the Courtly Lord Giridhara,
of whom I merrily, merrily sing His glories.
In 1936, at the age of 60, Dada Lekhraj, a wealthy diamond merchant from the province of Sind (now Pakistan) experienced a series of powerful visions. Within a year or so, Dada Lekhraj, later known as Brahma Baba, had sold his business and established a spiritual university. He nominated a group of 12 young women to assume all administrative responsibilities for the group of almost 400 people that met regularly to study spiritual knowledge and meditate. For, Brahma Baba to place women in charge of a spiritual university at a time when they were still hidden by the veil literally and figuratively caused a huge uproar. But he was determined to carry out this gentle social and spiritual revolution. He believed that the balance of spiritual and social power would not change unless the inequalities were redressed, and women, both young girls, and mothers were given the right to serve the community as spiritual teachers.
Daaji, Global Guide of Heartfulness Meditation says that women perceive things differently from men, they have a direct ability to feel things and what men keep on thinking for months together, they can solve in few minutes and their consciousness is more evolved than men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPbdVZsZ9RU
For insights into this topic, join us for Heartfulness GLOW Webinar by Mira Bai Bush, Author — Working with Mindfulness, Co-Founder, Centre for Contemplative Mind in Society, Founding Board Member, Seva Foundation, on 6th March 2021 at 7 pm IST/8.30 am ET/1.30 pm London Time.
Watch LIVE:
