TRADITION AND
MODERNITY IN
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S ATTITUDE
TO WOMEN
Dr. C.T. INDRA
University of Madras
It is well known that Swami Vivekananda was associated with the Renaissance in India, that he was one of the leading thinkers of the emerging new India at the turn of the century. He was regarded as a prophet who gave a clarion call to a tired nation with a hoary culture to awake, arise. A whole culture was to be reborn from servitude, lassitude and fickleness. He could rejuvenate that culture, and act as its spiritual ambassador to the West. But it is perhaps not so well known that Swami Vivekananda was deeply committed to the welfare of women. One of the overriding issues of the Indian Renaissance was the position of women in our society and the oppression women faced both at the institutional and individual levels. It is interesting to examine Swami Vivekananda’s stand on the issue of women’s rights. It reveals his deep insight into Indian culture and spiritual history, for it is they which have shaped our tradition and traditional institutions. Vivekananda’s call for liberating women is very different from the shrill cry of the Western suffragette for franchise or “liberation”. It is the result of an inclusive understanding of a whole way of life.
I base myself largely on two instances of lengthy discussion wherein Swami Vivekananda looks at the issue of women with reference to the history of Indian culture. One is a conversation with a disciple about establishing a Math for women at Belur, dated 1901, and the other an address to the American women, delivered at California in 1900. Other relevant talks, notes and reports of Swamiji’s speeches – such as “On Indian Women – their past, present and future” – will be incidentally referred to when required.
We may begin with an aspect central to his thinking, namely; Indian spirituality and the place it accords to women. Like all great seers, Swamiji never made a distinction between men and women from the spiritual point of view. He could contemplate both men and women from the heights of the soul which is beyond sex. Women as well as men could pursue spiritual Sadhana Yogic call is something which makes no distinction between sexes. Swamiji’s feelings of annoyance are obvious when he remarks:
It is very difficult to understand why in this country so much difference is made between men and women, whereas the Vedanta declares that one and the same conscious Self is present in all being.1
He goes on to say:
In the highest reality of the Parabrahman, there is no distinction of sex. We notice this only in the relative plane. And the more the mind becomes introspective, the more that idea of difference vanishes. Ultimately, when the mind is wholly merged in the homogeneous and undifferentiated Brahman such ideas as this is a man or that a woman do not remain at all ... Therefore do I say that though outwardly there may be difference between men and women, in their real nature there is none. Hence if a man can be a knower of Brahman why cannot a woman attain to the same knowledge? 2
In support of his assertion he cites instances from the legendary line of women during the Vedic period who aspired for the highest knowledge: Maitreyi and Gargi.
If in ancient India people were inspired by such sublime ideals in a monolithic culture, how did we come to lose that absolute vision? Vivekananda blames it on the narrowness and stultifying and distorting interpretations of scriptural truths for the degeneration of women in India. He draws our attention to the difference between the “Aryan” and “Semitic” ideals of women. While the Semites considered the presence of woman dangerous to devotion, and she may not perform any religious function, the Aryan man could not perform a religious rite without a wife. Vivekananda contends that with the Puranic age and Post-Buddhist influence, women lost this equal importance and came to be subject to many taboos such as for example that she may not touch Shalagrama or the household idols.3
He repeatedly condemns the reduction of women to “mere manufacturing machines”.4 He is irate at men who criticize women but do nothing for their uplift, “who write down Smriti, etc., and bind them by hard rules”.5 He deplores the chauvinistic attitude toward women. He traces its emergence to what he calls “the period of degeneration” when the priests disqualified other caste for the study of the Vedas, they also deprived the women of all their rights. During the Vedic and the Upanishadic age we hear of Gargi challenging sage Yajnavalkya for a discussion. What has gone wrong with such a country with a such a cultural history?
Swamiji diagnoses the malaise in terms of depriving women of education. He gives a deep thought to what he calls “female education”. To the American women he says how in ancient India education was open to all, whereas in so-called advanced countries like England and America women were not admitted into Oxford and Harvard Universities, to name just two premier institutions in the West. Vivekananda propagates the idea that in women’s education alone lies the solution to their problems. He believes in a system of education which will bring out involved faculties. History, both secular and spiritual, provide instances not only of women mystics (Maritreyi and Gargi) but also women philosophers who could sit in judgment over metaphysical debates.
Witness Sarasavani, wife of Mandanamisra, arbitrating the discussion on ultimate Truth between Mandanamisra and Sankara. Vivekananda was insistent on reviving such a tradition. Taking into account the miserable plight of women, Swamiji thought of a special programme for educating women by establishing a Math at Belur. It is not surprising that Swamiji should place a high premium on spiritual education which will include secular education as well. He planned to have in the school unmarried girls and Brahmacharini widows. The idea was to catch them young and initiate them into a higher life … Swamiji drafted curriculum which he thought best shaped a woman’s personality. It was bipartite, so to say, one line intended to give knowledge – Literature, Sanskrit, Grammar and English – the other meant to develop skills - sewing, culinary art, rules of domestic work, and upbringing children, to help them to an economic freedom or independence. The girls would be performing Japa, worship and meditation. The aim was to give them a rounded education. The high point of the Math was a training in Brahmacharya by older Brahmacharinis and in Yoga. Vivekananda visited Malhakali Pathashala run by Tapaswini Mataji and was gratified to note that it was to a great extent moving in right direction. His one objection, however, was against what he called “pitchforking” some male householders as teachers. Swamiji envisaged opening such centres in villages and towns for the spread of “female education”. He conceived of the proposed Math as a nucleus for fitting women to life now and hereafter.
Vivekananda preaches freedom for women so that their personality could flower in an atmosphere of liberal, enlightened values. No doubt his native philosophic vision of oneness was enhanced by his visit to the West and exposure to occidental ideas. Happily enough he responded to the positive aspects of Western social organization in respect of woman. He chastises his contemporaries for their meanness of spirit and poverty of intellect. He deplores in indignation:
To
what straits the strictures of local usages have· reduced the women of this
country, rendering them lifeless and inert, you could understand if only you
visited the Western countries. You alone are responsible for this miserable
condition of the women and it rests with you also to raise them again.
Therefore I say, set to work. What will it do to memorize a few religious books
like the Vedas and so on? 6
A modern aspect of Vivekananda’s plan for the upliftment of women is the respect he has for their personality. To a question from a disciple, apparently hide-bound, whether the inmates of his proposed math should marry, Swamiji answers thus:
They must be given education and left to themselves.
After that they will act as they think best. 7
That takes us to an allied aspect of Swamiji’s thinking. He shared the reformist spirit of his times and consistently censured early marriage of girls. When a disciple wondered whether the ancient law-givers who supported this custom of early marriage had their own reasons, Swamiji energetically questioned their wisdom. He argued that it is early marriage which accounts for most women dying early. He took a scientific attitude to the issue and pointed out how the progeny of such marriages tend to Jack vitality, they “go to swell the ranks of our country’s beggars.” He strongly believed that “married a little later and bred in culture, our mothers will give birth to children who would be able to achieve real good of the country. The reasons why you have so many widows in every home lies here, in this custom of early marriage. If the number of early marriages declines, that of widows is bound to follow suit”.8 He is far-sighted in proclaiming that a time will come when educated, accomplished girls will find a happy place in society. Like a true seer he did not feel deterred by opposition from conservative quarters of the society to his bold move to start a Math for women and the blue-print of its educational programme. “Struggle,” he said, “is the sign of life.” He called for raising women of our times to the legendary heights of Maitreyi and Gargi in intellectual acumen and the mythological heights of Sita, Savitri and Gargi in womanly virtues.
We may pause to observe how well Vivekananda has assimilated tradition. Tradition is not an indiscriminate bolus to be swallowed; assimilating tradition involves a “historical sense” which is a perception, not only of the partners of the past, but of its presence, it is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together.
The address Vivekananda delivered at the Shakespeare Club House, in Pasadena, California, on January 18, 1900, called “Women of India” is very much a testimony to his assimilation of tradition as defined above. His acquaintance with Western ways and social values enlarged his Indian Hindu sensibility and helped him to see the issue of women’s rights in a wider perspective. He perceived the wrongs perpetrated on women in India, blighting the light of Vedic wisdom. At the same time he underscores the essentially Indian image of woman as mother foremost, wife only next. Even God was looked upon as mother in India. That concept is the fountain-light of all our culture and social organization as well. Elsewhere talking of establishing a Math for women when Swamiji refers to the Shakti cult, a disciple recalls how he was sharply critical of the Tantric tradition of worship of women. Swamiji clarifies his position when he says that he was against the corrupted form of Vaamaachaara of the Tantras and not against its Mother-worship. Here as in other places he traces the corruption to the downfall of Buddhism.9 He tells his American audience how the worship of the Divine Mother is cardinal to Indian religion and how it helps at the social level to cultivate an attitude of reverence and devotion to the mother, attributing a significant role to the mother in rearing good and noble citizens. The institution of marriage is held as a sacrament by the Hindus and a couple pray for children rather than using the relationship for self-aggrandizement or gratification. Swamiji contrasts the Western woman’s attitude to marriage and family in all these respects. The Western woman is “individualistic”, whereas the attitude of an Indian woman is “socialistic”.10 The woman as wife is a companion helping the man in his pursuit of his Dharma. Thus Vivekananda exalts the institution of marriage though occasionally, being a monk and an ascetic, he does not seem to accord a very high place to that institution in life. He canonizes chastity as the supreme virtue of a woman, in keeping with his orthodox monastic tradition. (But with firmness he says chastity is also for man to observe.)
Swamiji has a sociological and pragmatic angle in dealing with the institution of widowhood. It is true that his stand is conservative by contemporary standards, when, for example, he accepts the injunction against widow remarriage. He does see that it may mean a life of deprivation at the individual level. However he views widowhood in a surprisingly egalitarian light. That is, in a society where women outnumber men, when a widow chooses to remarry, she may deny the chance to another girl who has not had a chance at all to marry. Further as Sister Nivedita observes, “With all his reverence for individuality, he had a horror of what he called the crime of the unfaithful widow ... The white unbordered sari of the lonely life was to him the symbol of all that was sacred and true”. 12
Apart from this one issue relating to women, in all other matters Vivekananda has shown an admirably progressive and enlightened attitude because it is rooted in his perception of Indian cultural history. To recapitulate: Swamiji looks upon woman as the human embodiment of Shakti, the Divine Mother and as such enjoins her to observe the noblest sense of chastity and consecration. At the social level he shares with the reformists of his time like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Bankim Chandra and Dayananda, sympathy for the much abused Hindu woman. He sees redress only in a system of women’s education which will be in tune with the spirit of the ideals of our culture. He is for abolishing early marriage of girls and for recognizing equality of women. By habit and by environment they have been finding it more easy to develop the qualities of the heart, which has perhaps resulted in a neglect of the intellect imposed on them by a social organization which is male-dominated. Therefore men came to believe that women were only fit to bear children. Vivekananda views this as an unenlightened attitude, for given the same training women can develop as sharp an intellect as men. He cites the case of Vaachaknavi, the maiden orator – Brahmavaadini, as the word of the day was – who questioned Yajnavalkya at the court of King Janaka. It is remarkable that her sex is not even commented upon. “Like two shining arrows in the hand of the skilled archer are my questions,” she says. 13 We now know that in an ideal education system biological constraints can even be overcome and children can be brought up without an awareness of the distinction of sex. We find remarkable anticipation of such revolutionary ideas in Vivekananda’s thinking. In the words of Sister Nivedita, Swamiji “would never tolerate any scheme of life and polity that tended to bind tighter on mind and soul the fetters of the body. The greater the individual, the more would she transcend the limitations of femininity in mind and characters and the more was such transcendence to be expected and admired”. 14 Swamiji reminds us how in our old forest universities there was equality between boys and girls so that in this nation we may not have to learn from Tennyson’s long poem Princess about educating a woman. Thus equality of sexes and freedom is the burden of Vivekananda’s speeches and writings concerning women. But as Sister Nivedita points out, “The growth of freedom of which he dreamt, would be no fruit of agitation, clamorous and iconoclastic. It would be indirect, silent and organic”.15 As the Irish poet W. E. Yeats so beautifully put it in his “A Prayer for my Daughter”, women should cherish the “cornucopia”, “the horn’s plenty” and must not think of developing intellect at the expense of the heart and the soul. A real education does not believe in a lop-sided development. The decline of women in an essentially male-dominated society accounts for the militant tone of modern women’s lib movement. Vivekananda, the true prophet that he was, rang out the old order and ushered in the new order.
REFERENCES
1 Selections from Complete Works (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram (1987). p. 445.
2 Selections from Complete Works, p. 447.
3 The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Fourth Edition (Mayavati Memorial Edition) (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1964), Vol. V, p. 229.
4 Selections from Complete Works, p. 443 and Swamiji’s Message to a Disciple, Recorded by Sarat Chandra Chakravalii (Calcutta: Advaitha, Ashram, 1964), p. 153.
5 Selections from Complete Works, p. 443.
6 Selections from Complete Works, p. 446.
7 Selections from Complete Works, p. 447.
8 Swamiji’s Message to a Disciple (Reprint from the talks with Swami Vivekananda), Recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarti, p. 56.
9 Swamiji’s Message to A Disciple, pp. 246-47.
10 The Complete Works, Vol. VIII, p. 63.
11 Complete Works, Vol. VIII, pp. 63 - 65.
12 Sister Nivedita, The Master as I Saw him, 13th edition (Calcutta: Udbodhen Office, 1983) p. 238.
13 Complete Works, Vol. V, p. 230.
14 The Master as I Saw Him, p. 241.
15 The Master as I Saw Him, p. 242.