Saluting Womanhood: International Women’s Day

Ranjeet Kumar:

“प्रेम वात्सल्य करुना की प्रतिमूर्ति आँचल की सानिध्यता पर गर्व

समाज की आधार स्तंभ को समर्पित विश्व मन रहा है आज नारी पर्व “

The concept of family cannot be thought without mother taking the centre stage. Despite of atrocities and discrimination they are the source of unconditional love and this fine interwoven matrix of love is what lies in the foundation of a happy family. The long gestation of a women ends with birth of both mother and child and this is what is reflected when OSHO says “The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. The mother becomes first school of a child and the child’s consciousness is the sum total of mothers continuous mental programming. Right indeed is the conclusive thought that God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers. Gandhi considers motherhood as highest honor to women. Gandhi called women the “Mother, the Maker and the Silent leader of man.”

The diversified role a women plays has constantly helped mankind; the true essence of love can be heartfelt always and in the various roles as mother, sister, friend, girlfriend, wife or colleague. Their tender touch and warm hug makes all our troubles sublime. They are the manifestation of God in action. The psychological programming is such that from gestation itself the love flows from mother to the growing child in her womb. Their intimacy has been well documented in Garbhoupnishad (hindi word meaning). The question of women as a plaything is shameful; Gandhi ji rightly said that “if I was born a women, I would rise in rebellion against any pretension on the part of man that women is a plaything. Man is born of women, he is flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone”.

The past millennium has witnessed revolutionary changes in the status of women from a shy housewife to a confident educated responsible intelligent entity that shares cares and dare to walk hand in hand with male counterpart. Going by the words of Swami Vivekananda “Soul has no sex; it is neither male nor female. It is only in the body that sex exists, and the man who desires to reach the spirit cannot at the same time hold sex distinctions” it becomes quite clear that a distinction on sex is a hurdle in spiritual progress. The need of the hour can be expressed by swamiji quotation that “I should very much like our women to have your intellectuality, but not if it must be at the cost of purity. I admire you for all that you know, but I dislike the way that you cover what is bad with roses and call it good. Intellectuality is not the highest good. Morality and spirituality are the things for which we strive. Our women are not so learned, but they are more pure.”

Briefly summing up the beauty of our cultural sanctity is the mother. So let us appreciate women as equal and lay the foundation of family on new dimension of equality. Let us not forget “The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women”.

The writer is a research scholar by profession working at CDRI Lucknow, a freelancer and poet by passion.