HINDUISM AND WOMEN
Adapted from Shakti Initiative a great place to learn about Women and Hinduism
One of the most profound attributes of Hinduism is the recognition and worship of God as feminine. In fact, Hinduism is the only major religion that has always worshipped God in female form and continues to do so today. Many Hindus revere God’s energy, or Shakti, through its personification in a Goddess. Many festivals, such as Vasant Panchami, Navarātri, and Dussherā, are wholly dedicated to Goddesses. While social practices have not lived up the the Hindu ideal of gender equality and mutual respect, Hinduism remains one of the few major religions in which women have occupied and continue to occupy some of the most respected positions in spiritual leadership.
WOMEN IN SCRIPTURES
Since ancient times, female figures have featured prominently in Hinduism, both in human and divine form. Many of the sages associated with the realization and authoring of the Vedas were women. The Rig Veda contains hymns composed by women such as Lopamudra and Maitreyi. Sage Gargi appears in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad where she poses a volley of questions to Sage Yajnavalkya on the nature of the soul, and teases out core teachings from Yajnavalkya that a courtroom of male philosophers failed to. Hindu epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana idealize women, embodied by depictions of Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandava princes in the Mahabharata, and Sita, the wife of Prince Rama in the Ramayana. There are also many Puranic texts which elucidate the stories and symbols of solely the feminine divine. Stories and prayers from the Devi Mahatmyam and Devi Bhagavata Purana, for example, are the subject of art, poetry, dance, drama, and worship. Of course, consorts of male Gods such as Vishnu and Shiva, also figure centrally in respective Vaishnava and Shaivite scripture.
WOMEN AS PRIESTS
Degeneration and Change
Traditionally women were not priests, but some are getting trained in officiating rituals. This topic is best explained in the words of Mata Amritanandamayi, the world famous, God-realized Hugging Saint:
Amma has long championed the rights of women to perform Vedic rituals, with women performing homas in Amma's ashram for decades now. Amma says, "When we put in effort to remove outdated social and religious concepts that suppress women, we will often find support. Until recently, women in India were not allowed to worship in the inner sanctum of temples; nor could they consecrate a temple or perform Vedic rituals. Women didn’t even have the freedom to chant Vedic mantras. But our ashram is encouraging and appointing women to do these things, and I myself perform the consecration ceremony in all the temples we construct. In the beginning, many protested against this. To those who questioned us, I explained that we are worshiping a God who is beyond all differences, who does not differentiate between male and female. In the end, the majority of people supported us. In fact, those prohibitions against women were never actually a part of the Hindu tradition. They were in all likelihood invented later by men in order to exploit and oppress women."
ABOUT US
Here at Rice Hindu Students Council, we see the value in everyone. We want to be a catalyst for positive change, and since our beginnings in 2000, we’ve been driven by the same ideas we initially founded our Non-Profit Organization upon: support, empowerment, and progress. Learn more about our mission, our vision, and how we go about making the changes we want to see.