CIVILIZATION AND SOCIAL ISSUES

How Does Hinduism View the Women's Movement?

The Women's movement or feminism is largely a political and intellectual movement to provide women with the same social rights, education and intellectual expression that have been given to men. It is part of various political movements that have occurred in the world for providing social justice to different groups that have been historically oppressed or discriminated against. It is a well-justified movement that can hopefully help rectify some of the mistakes of human culture today.

Hinduism has presented the world with a well-developed tradition of Goddess worship and with many great female saints, sages and yoginis, which tradition is still flourishing today. This tradition is not merely an intellectual or religious belief but based on a direct experience of the Divine Mother and her cosmic powers by various practitioners. It is a matter of the heart (devotion), not an intellectual or political view, though it does have its philosophies.

However Hindus have also oppressed women and not allowed them to develop their intelligence as freely as men, keeping them subordinate socially. This is a fall from Sanatana Dharma and has been one of the causes for the decline in Hinduism that has occurred through the centuries. In this regard the Women's movement can help reform Hinduism in a more universal light.

The modern feminist movement has been helpful in upholding the material and intellectual rights of women. It also needs to reclaim a true women's spirituality or path of Self-realization, which its political and materialistic values may not always support. Unfortunately the feminist movement may still define women according to outer values, in which personal pleasure and egoistic achievement are the main goals of life.

To the extent that women do this they are not upholding real spiritual values, though this might improve the state of society. Fortunately many women are looking in a spiritual direction and for this taking interest in the experiential forms of spirituality, such as Hinduism, in which the Goddess still lives and communicates to us.

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