Most Ignored Side of Women Empowerment

Acharya Prashant: What does the body want? Attachment? Possession? And when it cannot have what it wants, there is anger and jealousy and such things. And especially, the woman's body has been raised or evolved in a way that there is a lot of insecurity. Because the woman's historical, practical, natural role was to raise kids, and in the jungle, that's a very important role. In fact, that's the central role of one's life.

We are talking about the woman. If you look at the jungle, the woman exists to be pregnant, the woman exists to breed, that's how it happens in the jungle, right? The woman does not exist to become an artist, a painter, a dancer, a scientist, an explorer, a thinker, or a meditator. No, in the jungle, she exists just to survive and to give birth. So, she will eat, she will seek physical and mental protection and security, and she will seek a mate who can impregnate her.

Now, that is continuing even today, and if that continues, no empowerment makes any sense. Even if you change all the institutions, the external ones, we have talked of the religious one, the educational one, the legal one, we have talked of the role of media, and so many other things. Even if you take care of all those institutions, the woman would still not be free. Even if you bestow all kinds of powers on her, she would still either refuse to wield those powers or would misuse those powers. Because internal bondage is way more severe than any kind of external bondage.

If you give her external freedom without caring for her internal freedom, external freedom will make very little difference. In fact, external freedom will become dangerous because it will create an illusion of freedom. She will think she is free; she will claim she is empowered, whereas she is as much in bondage as she always has been. And that is the case for a lot of so-called empowered women today. They say we are empowered, but internally they are still living in the jungle variety of bondage.

So, that's where self-knowledge comes in. She needs to have self-knowledge, and that's where wisdom literature comes in. That is what is Atmagyan or spirituality. That's where Vedanta comes to the woman's rescue. Vedanta tells her, ‘Oh, come on, learn to keep the body aside. You are not the body.’ The body is, at most, a resource that you can use to attain some legitimate objective. But what is a legitimate objective? That has to be known by knowing yourself. When you know yourself, then you know what your goals must be.

So, self-knowledge. You know yourself, and then you know what your goals must be. And in the pursuit of those legitimate goals, you can use your body. That's fine. The body includes everything. It includes memory; it includes the wholeness of your brain, the intellect, your power to argue, creativity, everything. And it includes your muscular strength. It includes everything that you are physically.

So, you must know yourself, and then you can use the body for the right purpose. And then you will not use your body just to seek security or sometimes attract the other gender so that you can have a comfortable nest. All those things will then appear very childish to you. You will say, I am not born for that. I am a human being. I exist to realize. I am a human being. The purpose of my life is liberation, illumination, and understanding; that's why I was born. It does not matter what my gender is. The gender is just a thing of the body. And I am not the body. I am a consciousness seeking to be liberated. That's who I am.

So, these things, in my view, constitute the empowerment of women. Modification and reform of external institutions, the institution of family, the institution of religion, society, law, education, and media; have to be taken care of. And more important than that, the woman has to have self-knowledge and, to that end, you require specialized courses in schools and colleges. You require wisdom literature to be a part of the standard curricula and you need perspective. You need a society that gives importance to spiritual understanding.

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