04 Jan 2013
Today, forcible rapes of young girls and women is the burning issue for which the death penalty is vehemently suggested by the public. Remember, in ancient India, the ethical scriptures suggested the death punishment for the illegal contact. The scriptures say that any illegal contact, be it a forcible rape or be it a mutually consented illegal contact, should be punished with death only. In any case, only the sinner is punished and thus, in the case of rape, the male criminal is only punished, where as in the case of mutual consent, both male and female are punished. The scripture says that a red hot metallic statue of the illegal lady is forcibly embraced by the male criminal so that death is given to him. Similar punishment is given to the lady also. The criminal may escape the punishment here by some intellectual ways or bribing the anti-corruption agency in this world. But, the criminal cannot escape the punishment given by the Omniscient God, as this point is emphasised by mention of the description of the sin and its direct link to the punishment given in the upper world. It only means that even if you escape the sin here, its punishment in the upper world is inevitable. Hence, this should not be twisted by saying that every sin will be punished in the upper world only and not here. Thus, the Garuda Puranam, an ethical scripture describes all type of sins and the linked punishments in the upper world. If you say that rape alone should be punished with death, it means that the enjoyment in illegal contact is allowed since there is no force from any side. Rape is not a specific sin, but it is a part of a category of sins, which is called as illegal contact. Both rape with force and secret contact without force is included in the same category of illegal contact only and the same punishment is given in both the cases.
The main basic point here is that the present controlling systems like police, courts etc., are ineffective due to two reasons. 1) The sinner is investigating various ways to escape the sin here so that the sinner can enjoy the fruit of the sin since there is no fear about non-existent God and non-existent hell. 2) Based on the above reason, the controlling agencies are also becoming corrupt. Therefore, unless the root of the sin is eradicated or controlled, there will not be permanent remedy. What is the use of searching for the best among the ineffective methods to control a specific crime called as rape? If you can implement the single effective method, which can control all types of sins, the problem is solved forever. The nature of crime is the basic substance present in all the sins. The reason for the criminal nature is only that one can do the sin here and enjoy it provided the sinner can escape the punishment enforced here by controlling agencies like police, courts etc. Due to this basic concept, every sinner is doing intensive research to find out the way to escape the sin here. This point becomes very strong when it is believed that God and hell are non-existent. It becomes quite logical for anybody to enjoy the fruit of the sin especially when there is no fear for hell and God. Everybody is logically convinced for doing any sin provided there is a way to escape its punishment here since nothing happens if once you escape the sin here. Really, it becomes foolish if you don’t enjoy the fruit of the sin in case nothing happens later on, if one escapes the sin here. The atheists argue that they are against the sin for the sake of balance of the society and not due to fear for God. This is only theoretical hypocrisy. When the fruit of the sin is attracting you for enjoyment, especially in the absence of any future danger, which fool is not attracted to do the sin? In such case, every sinner thinks that his individual sin may not affect the balance of the huge society. It is just like thinking that if you pour one tumbler of water in the tank in which everybody is expected to pour one tumbler of milk each. The total danger is that everybody thinks in the same way and pours a tumbler of water only!
Therefore, there is no use in searching the best suitable among the ineffective punishments for a specific sin called rape. Instead, it is better to bring out the only effective method, which can control all types of sins in one instance. Such wonderful effective method is to develop the in-built control of every sin in the mind of every human being. What is that single effective method? The single effective method is patronising and propagation of spiritual knowledge in the humanity by which the faith in God and fear for sin result. Such preaching of spiritual knowledge should be linked with the education from the childhood and should be also propagated as informal system of preaching the spiritual knowledge to illiterate human beings also. When the resistance to sin is built in the heart of every human being, the society achieves perfection in self-control avoiding the need of any controlling system. It is with this tremendous deep insight, in ancient India, kings spent huge funds in propagating the spiritual knowledge in temples etc. The modern foolish government thinks that the ancient kings were foolish in spending so much on the useless theoretical spiritual knowledge. This shows the lack of deep foresight of the result of such spiritual education, which helps the government itself in maintaining the peaceful balance in the society, which helps its smooth administration.
The ethical scripture (Dharma Shastra) does not differentiate the illegal union by force (rape) and illegal union by mutual consent and provides the same punishment to both the cases because the real sin in both is the illegal union. The women should not only protest against the first type of sin but also equally protest against her mind to do the second type of sin also. Really, the men attempting rape are beasts because such nature is seen in the beasts only. But, the women should also examine their contribution to such type of sin by exposing their bodies with half covered dress especially in streets. The women should not blindly argue that she can wear any dress of her liking without observing its provoking effect on the men. Hinduism insists on covering the whole body of the lady with a big piece of cloth called as ‘Avagunthanam’. Islam also follows the same tradition. Even in Christianity, you find such custom adopted by the bride in her marriage, who is fully decorated and the exposure of the special beauty of the bride to the public may lead to problems. Women should understand all this with positive spirit of co-operation so that a rectified pure system prevails over in the society.
Women Should Always Be Escorted by Men
The woman is physically weak as per the nature of the constitution of the body and hence, should go outside associated with the male escort. The woman from her childhood is always associated with some gold jewels to which thieves may be attracted and sometimes the woman may have danger to her life in the hands of thieves. Therefore, Manu told that woman shall not have independence. Here the word ‘independence’ should not be taken in wrong sense that she should be under harsh control. The word ‘independence’ means that she should not move outside independently without the male escort especially at night. The male escort in the childhood shall be father, in the youth shall be the husband and in old age shall be the son (Baalye pitruvashaa kanyaa… Manu Smruti). In old age, even though the husband is alive, he will also be old and hence, the young son should be the escort. The word ‘control’ in this verse means only escort and not harsh suppression. If it means harsh suppression, the meaning fails in the case of son because the son should be in the control of mother and not vice-versa. The same word ‘control’ is used in other two cases also. Hence, to maintain the same sense everywhere, the word ‘control’ cannot be harsh suppression in any case. Moreover, Manu says that women should be worshipped like the Divine Mother or Devi and then only Gods are pleased (Yatra naaryastu pujyante...). Hence, the word ‘control’ never means harsh suppression, but only means the escort.
The men should not imitate Lord Krishna, who played romance with Gopikas in the Brindavanam. If you are also the Lord, lift a mountain on your finger as done by Him to prove your Lordship and then play the romance in the society. You should not bring the case of God (Nivrutti) into the system of rules and regulations of humanity (Pravrutti) to spoil the balance in the society. God always preaches Pravrutti and gives top most importance to Pravrutti only. Let the students learn (Nivrutti) or not, atleast the class room should be atleast basically silent and disciplined (Pravrutti). God preached Pravrutti only in the Bible and the Quran. Even in the Gita, God says that He will come down again and again to establish justice (Pravrutti) in this world (Dharma Samsthaapanaarthaaya... Gita). God never told in the Gita that He will come down to preach Nivrutti or salvation. If you follow the rules of God in Pravrutti, God will be pleased with you and will preach Nivrutti to you. First, the class room should be disciplined with perfect silence before the actual teaching of the lesson is started.
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