Feminine

This article would be based on a true and clear view towards Women in Upanishad. This article shows the overview of Upanishad in concern to women, upcoming articles would have comprehensive data on each Upanishad with concern to Women.

Like Vedas and other Hindu scriptures, the Upanishads were also written with men in mind. Likewise, the authors were mostly men, mentors were mostly men and students were also mostly men. The gods mentioned in Upanishads are also mostly men. In this male flashing world of the Upanishads, sometimes we hear the faint voices of a scholarly woman, a dutiful wife or a responsible mother. In Hinduism women have a very big and responsible back end role which she always performed in her life may it be as a wife, daughter or mother. Also, some women made their way to the front end, which will be covered in the upcoming articles.

To be precise with words, comparatively less mention of women in Upanishad doesn't make it a male dominant domain. If we say women were not given importance at all so it is a false statement. For example, there is one chapter in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in which one long verse lists an entire lineage of about fifty teachers. What is so special about it? All of them have the names of their mothers as their last names to denote that men derive their greatness from their mothers.

There are also references to wives of spiritual teachers and women participating in debates and discussions. In one chapter of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in the court of King Janaka, Gargi appears and challenges the best of the best, in a debate, Yajnvalkya. From Yajnvalkya's response, we learn that she was not an ordinary lady or a housewife.

Apart from her, Maitreyi, Jabali, Usati Chakrayana's wife, Janasruti's daughter, Uma Haimavati, Satyakama Jabala's wife are other women who appear in the Upanishads as the silent and subdued witnesses of a great era when spiritual wisdom unfolded through enlightened teachers of an ancient world.

We can find few important facts about the status of women in the Upanishads who lived in those times, although the Upanishad mainly contains deeper spiritual knowledge, philosophical and ritual information. The following are a few important glimpses that are worth mentioning about women.

1. Men without any ego shared their life talks with their women and cared for them and respected their opinion. A great real-life story on Usita Chakrayana defines the role of a woman, which is mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad. He lived in a village that was devastated by locust and famine but he was a great Vedic scholar. One day, his hunger for food made him beg for it from an elephant owner in the village where he lived. He begged for food when the elephant owner was eating the beans.

Despite the famine, the elephant owner was so rich that he could feed himself and his giant elephant. So, when Chakrayana begged him for food, he only had the means left which he was eating. The elephant owner was also hesitant to say that they were leftover beans. From Brahman's point of view he being so hungry, it was lawful to eat that leftover beans so the Brahman also said he won't mind anything and just eat it to satisfy his hunger. But still, the villager hesitatingly gave the beans.

As soon as Usita Chakrayana got the beans, he ate some of the beans there itself because he was so hungry and he also has to walk back to his hungry waiting virgin wife. When he gave her the beans she refused to eat those by saying that she already ate, and kept them for him for the next day. The next day morning, Chakrayana ate the remaining beans and went to participate in a Vedic sacrifice where he surprised everyone with his knowledge of the Vedas.

Here is a poignant story of sacrifice and caring relationship between a high-thinking erudite husband and an ordinary housewife, both going through a difficult phase in their lives and enduring the hardship. Chakrayana was hungry. Yet he carried a portion of the leftover beans to his wife. His wife probably did not eat anything that day, yet she kept them for her husband for the next day. You cannot expect it to happen unless there was a strong bond of affinity between them, which transcended their worldly comforts. Their marriage was not yet consummated but they still loved and cared for each other.

2. Men willingly engaged their wives in philosophical discussion and also shared their knowledge and wisdom. A typical narrow-minded thought connected to women which are they were treated as slaves or servants in the house is totally wrong. Men like Yajnavalkya engaged their wives in philosophical debates and discussion according to their interest.

There was no coercion in doing it. For example, Yajnavalkya had two wives and only one of them, Maitreyi, was interested in the deeper knowledge of Self and Yajnavalkya spoke to her only about it. From the conversation, we learn that Yajnavalkya saw in his wife not a wife or a woman but the immortal Self and loved her for that.

3. Women often interfered in the duties of their husbands and gave them counsel. In Mahabharata, there is a short and sweet poem which signifies the status of women and how men saw them and what were the male children taught about women.

“A wife is half the man, his truest friend;

A loving wife is a perpetual spring

Of virtue, pleasure, wealth; a faithful wife

Is his best aid in seeking heavenly bliss;

A sweet speaking wife is a companion

In solitude, a father in advice,

A mother in all seasons of distress,

A rest in passing through life's wilderness.”

It is true that women of those times gave counsel to their husbands and took interest in their professional duties and activities. For example, in the Chandogya Upanishad, we find another interesting story about Upakosala, the son of Kamala. He was a student of the famous Vedic sage, Satyakama Jabala. Upakosala, a determined young celibate student, worked hard for 12 years to please his master and learn from him the secrets of fire sacrifice, but Satyakam was not yet satisfied that the student was ready. Therefore, he was still reluctant to teach him the knowledge.

Sayakama's wife had been watching the drama that was going on for a long between her husband and his student. She was probably aware that her husband was rather harsh and strict with his students to bring out the best in them and prepare them well for their profession. Yet, she could not bear the suffering of the young student who had been fasting for several days and going weak by day.

She urged Satyakama to take pity on his student and teach him the knowledge so that he would not be blamed by the fire spirits of the household for treating him harshly. Satyakama did not heed her advice and went away to another village without teaching the boy. He took several days to return. Meanwhile, the student continued to fast.

Sensing that her husband would not return for days, Satyakama's wife requested the disciple to break his fasting and eat something, but he refused, saying that he was frustrated by his master's decision and would not eat. Fortunately, the domestic fires took pity on him and taught him the knowledge before the master returned. From this event, it is evident that although the wife of a teacher did not share the teaching responsibility with her husband, she had a role in the welfare of the students as a guardian mother and did not hesitate to interfere if the situation demanded.

4. Not all women were bound to their husbands or household duties by marriage. If a woman wants to live freely she has her choice without restrictions. For example, Satyakama Jabala's mother was a free-spirited woman. In her younger days, she worked as a maid and had a relationship with many masters. Later, after the birth of Satyakama, she seemed to have settled and lived a free life as a single woman, without a husband or a traditional family. Thus, cases of unwed mothers and single parenting were not unknown in ancient India, although society, by and large, did not favour those practices. From the law books, we can also infer that both men and women often cheated their spouses or broke their marriage to live with another for which the law books prescribed punishments. 

In short and simple words I see women as:

Women are really unsung heroes as their work is so important and tough still their work isn't rewarded. A woman is a hammer who shapes the life of a man from his birth as her mother and then after marriage as a wife. Men are clay who need to be moulded in different stages of life. Women take the lead in helping the family to adjust to new relatives and challenges.

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