01 Mar 2023
[Ms. Thrylokya asked: It is said in the Shastras that the intelligence of a woman is destructive in nature. Is it true? At Your Divine Lotus Feet, Thrylokya]
Swami replied:- “Strībuddhiḥ pralayāntakaḥ” means that the analysis done by women creates the final dissolution. The other lines of this shloka say that your own analysis gives happiness and the analysis done by the Sadguru gives lot of happiness. Except these two, the analysis of a third person leads to the destruction and if the third person happens to be a woman, such analysis leads to the final dissolution of this entire world. Listening to this, women may be hurt. But we have to analyse this point carefully. This statement was told regarding the women belonging to older generations. Those women were without education and were married in their very early age. As a result, the ancient women were not having any opportunity to get the education. These women were doing cooking and growing the children with good character and conduct. Cooking food with very good taste and growing the children with good qualities were given a lot of importance in the duties of women.
When education was absent, the intelligence was not properly working and hence, it was said that the analysis and advise given by women led to total destruction. This is logical because when wisdom is not grown due to lack of education, such horrible result is quite expected. But, this verse cannot be applied to modern times because women are equally educated like men. In fact, women are wiser than men. In the ancient times also, several women like Maitreyii, Gaargii, Sulabhaa etc., were great scholars in the Vedas and other scriptures. Sage Yaajnavalkya felt a lot of difficulty in arguing with Gargii! Sulabhaa was appreciated by king Janaka in the subject of divine knowledge. Therefore, we should not give much care about such verses because the possibility of insertions by some scholars in the scriptures is a headache. Differentiating souls by caste, gender and age is not logical. In fact, the Veda says that all souls are women only and are also the wives of God because God alone is male or Purusha (Striyaḥ satīḥ puṃsaḥ).
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