21 May 2021
[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on May 15, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Devotees’ questions answered by Swāmi are given below.]
[Śrī Bharath Krishna asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmiji! You have recently given a discourse about women wearing the maṅgala sūtram. I sent it to one of my friends. After reading it, she said that she agrees with the point that wearing a maṅgala sūtram helps a married lady by reminding her of her love for her husband. But she disagrees with the point that there was some injustice done by not allowing women to chant the Vedas. According to her, there is no partiality or injustice against women in asking women to refrain from Vedic chanting or wearing the sacred thread (yajñopavītam). She says that chanting the Veda, especially the Gāyatrī Mantra, damages women’s physiology. She supported her argument by referring to a web page which logically explains how the continuous chanting of the Gāyatrī Mantra by women leads to disturbances in their menstrual cycles.
The webpage seemed to be well-researched. It claims that the seven invisible cakras in a person can be influenced by the vibrations produced by some mantras like the Gāyatrī Mantra. Specifically, the vibrations produced by the Gāyatrī Mantra activate the ājñā cakra in the forehead. It diverts more energy towards this higher cakra, leaving less energy for the lower chakras, namely the mūlādhāra, svādhiṣṭhāna, maṇipūra, which are necessary for the procreative power of women.
Also, as the Gāyatrī Mantra, activates the ājñā cakra, it also causes a decreased flow of apāna vāta (one of the five vital airs) which is responsible for the downward moving menstrual flow. Further, there are also influences on the hormonal system. The ājñā cakra, which the Gāyatrī Mantra activates, is correlated with the pituitary gland that is responsible for the production of reproductive hormones in both men and women. Although an activated ājñā cakra is good for the health of men, it can disrupt the menstrual health of women.
Thus, as per this web-page, the chanting of the Gāyatrī Mantra by women activates the ājñā cakra. This in turn disrupts the energy flow to the reproductive organs, causes physiological changes (apāna vāta dośa) and hormonal changes which adversely affect women’s menstrual health.
Could You please comment on this? Thank You so much for answering all my questions continuously and also for motivating me to put in more efforts in the spiritual path. At Your lotus feet, Bharath Krishna.]
Swāmi replied: All this is sheer, sheer and sheer nonsense. These people are neither true scholars of science nor true scholars of ancient logic. Both science and logic oppose this. Even if you prove that Gāyatrī Mantra causes more menstrual flow, it must be a scientific fact pertaining to the frequency of sound energy of Gāyatrī Mantra. In such case, it becomes a scientific fact of the science of sound and is not a miracle because any woman uttering that mantra is causing menstrual flow. It is not causing menstrual flow to men because they do not have menstrual cycles. When it is a scientific fact, what is the miraculous power in it? You are telling that hence, Gāyatrī shall not be recited by women. Let us agree to this because it is a proved scientific fact. In such case, why do you object the recitation of Gāyatrī by men of lower castes, who are not having menstrual cycles? Dr. Nikhil also referred to a crystal crumbling into pieces by the recitation of a mantra by a person. I immediately told Dr. Nikhil that the experiment shall be repeated by an atheist also and then it should be observed that whether the crystal breaks or not? If it breaks, it means that this is a scientific phenomenon and not a miracle. If it does not break, the person, who broke the crystal with that mantra, must be a devotee to God. If that person is not a devotee and if the power lies in the words only and not in the meaning of the words that kindles devotion to God, the breakage of the crystal must be done by anybody with that mantra. If the breakage is done by anybody through that mantra, then it is a scientific phenomenon pertaining to a specific frequency of sound energy that can perform such action. If the breakage is done by a special person only through that mantra, that special person must be having a speciality, which is different from the scientific phenomenon.
I agree that there are some faults introduced by some ignorant followers in our tradition. We shall remove such dirt only with the help of powerful scientific logic. Jiddu Krishnamurthy says that all the dirty water must be removed and then the lake of tradition should be filled with fresh good water. Is it not better to remove dirt from the water and keep the remaining fresh good water in the tradition-lake? He says that the image created by somebody stands in between the observer and the true object so that the observer is unable to study the true object. But, if the image already introduced by others is already a true image, what is the necessity of removing that already introduced true image? He wants to empty all the contents of consciousness, which is totally impossible. I say that let us keep the good contents and throw the bad contents. The logic will help us to identify and discriminate good from bad contents. Hence, the war of these modern philosophers on the entire tradition is the biggest foolishness. The tradition is very good to a large extent. The little dirt introduced by some ignorant followers can be easily removed through perfect scientific logic. God Dattātreya always starts with miracles, proving the existence of unimaginable God and this topic is cleverly avoided by all these so called modern philosophers!
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