It is only when we achieve gender equality that we will be able to establish balance in the society, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj
The Constitution of India not only grants equality to women but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women for neutralising the cumulative socio economic, education and political disadvantages faced by them. In spite of such a powerful protective tool, yet we find women at the receiving end, finding it hard to survive on their own. Why is it so that our society is still afflicted with the disease of gender inequalityIJ It has taken us years of struggle to reach a developed stage and yet our core thinking hasn’t changed as far as gender equality is concerned.
The reason behind this is because since ages it was believed that the different characteristics, roles and status accorded to women and men in society are determined by sex, that they are natural and therefore not changeable. Hence, gender is seen closely related to the roles and behavior assigned to women and men based on their sexual differences. So, from the very moment a child is born, families and society begin the process of gendering. This is quite visible to all of us that how the birth of the son is celebrated and the birth of a daughter is filled with pain. While growing up boys are encouraged to be tough and outgoing; whereas girls are encouraged to be homebound and shy. In short, all these differences are gender differences and they are created by society of which we all are a part.
In this whole stupidity we fail to realise that it is not compulsory for men and women to have opposite interests and antagnostic attitudes, instead they need to play complementary roles to maintain proper balance. We should remember one important thing that the human soul, whether it be in a male or a female body, can simultaneously or equally have the male qualities of courage, hard work and strong willed action as well as female qualities of compassion, caring, nurturing and giving sustenance. The innate, inherent or core qualities of the soul in the male or female body are the same and the qualities which people generally relate to gender, are acquired qualities which can be acquired by both.
Hence it is possible to have these kinds of qualities and further use them in human development by a shift in consciousness — by being soul conscious instead of having body consciousness and connecting the self with the supreme source who is the most powerful entity. It is this spiritual connection between soul and supreme that really leads to right type of empowerment,for not only does it restore self-respect, self confidence and self reliance but it also leads to holistic development of the individual who would now have both types of qualities (male-female) and have honesty, humility and respect for others as also respect for the self. But, if one who fails to connect self with the Supreme Power, he/she would end up having half development because we should understand a fact mentioned in our scriptures that ‘Almighty’ has both the types of qualities and hence by linking self to him one gets both the types of divine qualities.
However identification of the self with the male or female body may deprive a person of half of these and hence spirituality becomes a pre-requisite to facilitate this union between soul and supreme because it ends hostility, antagonism and clash of interests and divisionism in the society, and brings integration, strength and solidarity. It opens the third eye of wisdom and enables us to reach our inner,inexhaustible source of power and purity that leads to strengthening of will.
So, the ultimate solution for gender inequality does not lies in replacing the male chauvinism by female chauvinism, but by liberating both the halves of the society from gender bias, based on body consciousness.