A society which values its womenfolk must necessarily reach great heights
January 24th, 2008
“A society which values its womenfolk must necessarily reach great heights in social wellbeing and cohesiveness. And our Hindu tradition has always stressed the importance of women and their wellbeing”, Justice C.V. Wigeswaran, at the 3rd Annual Nahammal Kasipillai Memorial Oration held recently at the Sivananda Nilayam, Saiva Mangaiyar Kazhagam, Wellawatte.
As Chair of the Memorial Oration Event, the Retired Judge spoke of the contemporary situations, imbibed in context of Tamil, Hindu, Western heritage and philosophies and spirituality.
[Portrait of Ms. Nahammal Kasipillai, at Sivananda Nilayam, on Jan 16, 2008]
Full text of remarks by Retired Supreme Court Justice C.V. Wigeswaran, at the The 3rd Annual Nahammal Kasipillai Memorial Oration, on January 16th 2008:
Guru Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheshwaraha
Guru Saashat Parabrahma Tasmai Shree Guruve Namaha
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Our roles are changed today. Mrs. Duraiswamy who chaired the first memorial meeting two years ago has kindly consented to deliver this year’s memorial oration. The oration itself has taken on a professional hue during the last two years, in that when I delivered the first Kasipillai memorial oration, we were too close to Miss. Kasipillai’s demise that more of her life and achievements were predominant in our minds at that time. Last year Miss.Mathivathani Ponnambalam spoke on her experiences in the Gem industry as well as her experiences during her school days when Miss. Kasipillai was Principal and this year the oration is centered around the theme “The Woman and the Changing World-the Hindu Response”.
The role of the Hindu woman in society was a theme close to the heart of Miss. Kasipillai. She was concerned about the Hindu values of the past and the social norms of the present ear and strived hard to evolve a happy blending of both standards.
She was aware of the difference in perspectives. The Hindu way of life being steeped in religious thoughts and behaviour looked not at man or woman individually. Man an woman had their roles to play in a wider spectrum of family, society, and mankind in general. The purpose of life was to have a happy childhood (Brahmachariya), HAPPY MARRIED LIFE (Grahasta), happy retreat in life (Vaanaprastha), and contented meditative life (Sanyasa). In this process male and female had different roles to play to complement each other’s life. The wife was to be protected and cherished. She ran the home. The husband and children rallied round her in the home while the wife and children looked upon the man of the house as the pater familias of the family. The respect expected to be given to the man of the house by the lady of the house bordered on obedience. Often there was considerable age difference between husband and wife, and this attitude of mind in a society which respected its elders and valued the ideal of duty was easy for the younger wife who respected and yielded to the husband’s wishes wand wants.
Inretreat or Vaanaprastha life in the woods, the woman had to cater to the needs and comforts of the husband, while he spent most time in study and contemplation. While the husband followed the contemplative path or the path of Gnaana or wisdom, the wife followed the path of Karma Yoga. Neither of the religious paths was greater than the other. Infact by following the path of Karma Yoga some of the women had reached a perceptional dimension of a very high order. You are aware of the story of Vasuki, the wife of Thiruvalluvar.
Sage Konganar had a very vicious temper eventhough a celebrated Siddhar. While he was in meditation, a stork which flew above him had dropped its faecal excretions his body. The moment he looked at the stork with anger in his eyes, the stork got burnt to ashes.
Such a powerful Siddhar after this incident went to the house of Thiruvalluvar for alms. Vasuki was drawing water for here husband’s use I his worship and prayers. She would not discontinue her dutiful service towards her husband merely for the sake of the sage. She was little late in ushering the sage into their house. Konganar was furious and looked at her if to burn her. The lady was calm and dignified. She merely asked him “Oh Sage Konganar! Did you think I am a stork?”-”Kokkendru Ninaiththaayo Konganavaa?” goes in Tamil words used. The Siddhar was surprised that what happened in private at his Ashram was known to this lady doing service to her husband. He understood her greatness, he hailed her as a “Pathivirathai” or chaste wife and went his way. Such was the power of Vasuki who merely did sincere service to her husband relegated to the Ashram premises.
How was this possible? Just as much as today many of us are able to get the grace of our Gurus like Sathya Sai Baba and others, when we sincerely pray to them, whenever we are in the ancient way of life, the husband was positioned in the role of a Guru and the wife’s love and faith in her husband worked wonders on them.
I have often wondered what grace is. I have seen Muslim friends, Christian friends and Hindus often relating many a miraculous incident in their lives which they attribute to Grace of Allah or Lord Jesus Christ or Hindu Gods or Gurus respectively. Even the late Balangoda Ananda Maithri Thera, a Buddhist referred once to the Grace of Sai Baba. Is Grace extraneous or an internal process catalyzed by something extraneous which culminates in miraculous incidents? When so many from different religions speak of their respective Gods or Gurus, there appears to be something internal that takes place within all of us-the working of faith and the consequent rendering of miracles.
It is the faith in us whether we be Hindus, Christians or Muslims which really promotes and sustains miracles. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to relate a story. There was this Guru on this side of the river. He was a little egotistic and assessed himself quite high. A young girl from the other side of the river used to cross the river and bring milk to the Guru. One day the river was in spate. The girl was delayed. The Guru was furious. He scolded her when she finally arrived saying “If you had faith in me, the river would have allowed you to pass unhurt. Your lack of faith has been the cause for your delay”. The girl was taken aback. She decided to have full faith in the Guru. The next time a heavy rain brought rush of waters to the river. She simply thought of and prayed to the Guru and walked across the river with faith. The river allowed her access.
The Guru was surprised to see the girl. “How did you come in this inclement weather?” he asked. “I prayed to you; I had faith in you; I simply walked across the river, and here I am”, she said. The Guru was pleased. He went to the river and thanked the river for allowing the milkmaid free access and stepped into the water for a similar access across. The river simply knocked him down and dragged him away. The Guru did not matter. The faith in the girl mattered. The story explains the inner power of faith. The extraneous Guru was not important. The inner working of the mind or heart of the girl was what mattered. So too the husband did not matter. The faith of the wife did matter.
Whatever the shortcomings their respective husbands may have had, the inner faith, their surrendering spirit, the ideal of duty they pursued, made the chaste women of yore powerful human beings not to be trifled with.
Times changed. The inner content of the human beings was lost sight of. The larger perspectives of community harmony and family wellbeing were taken for granted. The ideal of duty was forgotten. Outer social standings of these units of family and society became more relevant. Thus the complementarity of sexes made way to equality of sexes. The protests and agitations by women in the Western communities cam about from a definite social necessity among the Western nations, where women were not considered as complementary units in a familial get together, but a chattels to be used and discarded or tolerated.
There was a basic difference between the Western and Indian view of life. While human beings were viewed as functional units of a society by earlier ancient culture the world over during the past five centuries or so, the Western mind evolved differently mostly by dealing with concrete objects. Reasoning and questioning were the hallmarks of the so called scientific mind. Annie Besant, the Great Lady of exquisite spiritual values and an outstanding orator among the Theosophists, once said, I quote “Ahamkara, the “I” making principle produces the mind and this mind in its lower separative form sees difference everywhere. As this developed, the man’s sense of separateness of his own personal “I am I” increased. “I am myself”; “You are yourself”; “This is mine”; “That is yours”-these feelings of the personal self grew and flourished exceedingly. This underlying tendency moved some of the keenest minds in the West to formulate this sense of “I” ness, of “My” ness into an ideal. The ideal of the single, independent man, man in isolation as a self reliant, self independent being the single man standing by himself with a right to exercise all his powers for his own advantage”. (unquote)
Jean Jacques Rousseau in his social contract gave form to this ideal of man as an independent being clothed in his rights. “Man is born free. None has any title to his obedience. None may command him without his own consent”. These were the ideas that Rousseau put forward to build up his theory of social contract, whereby the free man gave up some of his natural rights in exchange for protection from the society in respect of the rest of his rights.
So the concepts of individuality of man and woman, equal rights between the sexes, emancipation of women and so on came to the forefront. No doubt the mixing of Islamic and Western cultures with the ancient Hindu culture brought in its wake social perspectives foreign to the indigenous way of life. Woman being a complementary unit in an equal partnership picturised by the idea of Artha Naareeswarar was relegated to a position of a slave and an object of lust. Naturally the liberation movements of women the world over became a reaction to the state of being that had crept into society.
Women actually enjoyed a privileged position in society in India in early times. She was protected, cherished and respected because she gave birth to the next generation. If I am not misunderstood let me say that one of the proud boasts few years ago in Jaffna Peninsula, when the present occupation Army from the South had not recaptured the area, was that a young woman can wear her expensive jewellery and walk along any street of Jaffna even after sunset without in any manner being harassed or abused. And this was true. Obviously the Tamil youngsters had understood the values and perspectives of our ancients. A society which values its womenfolk must necessarily reach great heights in social wellbeing and cohesiveness. And our Hindu tradition has always stressed the importance of women and their wellbeing.
It is my pleasant duty to introduce Mrs. Sivanandini Duraiswamy to this audience, where most of you know more about her than I do. Her social, educational and cultural activities, all of you are familiar with. Therefore let me refer to the lesser known facts about her.
This contemporary illustrious Sri Lankan Tamil is accomplished both in Arts and Fine Arts. A Graduate in Arts of the University of London. She plays the piano and the Veena with equal ease. She has held many exhibitions of her paintings in Beijing, Manila and Colombo. She has studied sculpture and architecture having done research study on Hindu Art under the guidance of the Director of the Museum in Calcutta under the auspices of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture.
She is the author of many books including “Remembering Hindu Traditions”, “The creative touches of the chisel- Hindu sculpture and architecture” and “The Foot falls on Time- A story of our saints and sages”. She is presently President of Saiva Mangaiyar Kazhagam, which conducts many projects-educational, religious, cultural and social and Hindu Council of Sri Lanka.
She has won many awards for the innumerable social, literary and educational services rendered by her including Zonta International award, Colombo Kamban Kazhagam award and the Peace award by the Justice Ministry. She has traveled extensively with her late husband who was career diplomat and has been involved in peace initiatives for quite sometime. She has presented many papers on various aspects of Hinduism at different fora in Colombo and abroad. There is no doubt that Mrs. Sivanandini Duraswamy who claims to be elder to me since her younger brother Sanathkumaran and I were classmates at Royal, but who looks at lease fifteen years younger to me, will refer in detail to the Hindu response to women in changing world.
I would call upon her to deliver this year’s Nahammal Kasipillai Memorial Oration on the theme “The woman in the changing world-Hindu response“.
I thank the Kasipillai family for giving me this opportunity again to be involved in a function which remembers Miss. Nahammal Kasipillai, a unique Hindu woman of yesteryears.
Related: Remembering the legacy of Ms. Nahammal Kasipillai
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by Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai~Email:dushi.pillai@gmail.com
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