How feminists misread scripture

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so the result of this third level feminism is that as I said that if you see all of history as women have been exploited by men then the epics are books which are in India the epics and then other religions also there are other cultures also there are their founding literature so all of them have been re-read that way so even many classic books in the west there is Shakespeare there is Wordsworth there is Charles Dickens and there are feminist re-readings of all of these where they try to show how actually they are all biased against women so that has happened within India also so that what happens with feminist re-readings they say that women are simply seen as victims not as conscious agents with character and commitment so the strength of women is seen in a different way in scripture than the strength of men in the epics and that has been going on throughout history not just within religious history or religious texts but today it is expected that a woman is successful only when she has a career the way the man has so it’s a little strange that feminism claims that women’s rights will be asserted when basically when women become better equal or better copycats of men than men is that what is required so one of the biggest controversial aspects of the Ramayana is the exiling of Sita and that is seen as the classic example of how a woman was exploited and abandoned and rejected for no fault of hers now there are many different explanations given for this one is of course Ram was concerned about his reputation and for his reputation he abandoned Sita well okay that is one reading but what was the reputation over there that has to be understood now there are many other interpretations there is another interpretation is that again a feminist reading is that Dashrath was attached to Kaikeyi and because of that attachment to Kaikeyi he did something terrible he had Ram exiled to the forest so when Ram and Sita came back they united after the killing of Ravan and they were in Ayodhya so then Ram and Sita were very happy together in the kingdom and at that time Ram feared that I will become attached to Sita the way Dashrath became attached to Kaikeyi and then I will do something wrong because of that attachment and that’s why he was looking for an excuse to free himself from Sita and when this accusation came up that he just used that accusation as a pretext now this is such a ridiculous reading that Ram never considered Dashrath to be attached to Kaikeyi that was the accusation that Lakshman made that Dashrath is so attached to Kaikeyi that’s why he is doing this and Ram said no he is not doing this out of infatuation he is doing this out of obligation he has given his word to Kaikeyi and he cannot take it back so ascribing this motive to Ram is a completely distorted and perverted reading of the Ramayana now as I said Sita’s strength of character is seen even in her exile I have written a whole article on the exile of Sita and it’s in my book and I have a whole class on it but I will focus on this theme that women in scriptures are not victims, they are also conscious agents they have character, they have commitment and the best way to understand why Ram sent Sita away is to see that as an act of sacrifice and you can compare that act of sacrifice to another act of sacrifice when Dashrath sent Ram away to the forest and then Ram sent Sita away to the forest both are acts of sacrifice and Dashrath didn’t victimize Ram Dashrath was not getting any perverse pleasure in sending Ram away Dashrath was driven by his duty by his position and by his word he was forced against his will to send Ram away similarly Ram didn’t victimize Sita Ram got no joy in sending Sita away if that had been Ram’s reason, if Ram simply wanted to get rid of Sita, he could have got rid of her and he could have married somebody else he didn’t do that, even after he sent Sita away he still considered Sita to be so respectable that he had effigy of Sita made a golden effigy which would sit next to him during the fire sacrifices that he was supposed to perform as a king so Ram, just as Dashrath didn’t consider Ram to have committed any wrong in any way, similarly Ram didn’t consider Sita to have committed any wrong in any way if he had considered Sita to be impure why would he keep such an impure woman’s effigy in the fire sacrifice and why would the Brahmins allow such an impure woman’s effigy to be kept so it is an act of sacrifice now both when Dashrath sent Ram away that caused pain to Ram that caused pain to Dashrath also it was not that Dashrath was a power hungry man who was exploiting Ram both of them they had to sacrifice for the higher cause because that’s what duty called them similarly Ram and Sita sacrificed for a higher cause when they got separated now just Ram’s exile was an act of sacrifice similarly Sita’s exile is an act of sacrifice for a higher duty now the specifics of that duty may be difficult for us to understand in today’s world we may say that okay even if Dashrath had given some world to Kaikeyi is he does he have to keep that world to such an extent that he has to send his son away for no fault even Dashrath’s action may not make sense to us and similarly Ram’s action may not make sense to us but the point is the whole Ramayana is permeated with the spirit of sacrifice that for the sake of duty, for the sake of higher cause, sacrifice so Ram sacrificed for Dashrath’s sake then Lakshman sacrifices for Ram’s sake that Lakshman goes with Ram and Lakshman’s wife wants to come with him and Lakshman says no I want to be serving Ram and then Bharat sacrifices for Ram’s sake how is that? Bharat doesn’t enjoy any royal opulence, Bharat lives in a small cottage except voluntarily accepting terms of exile similar to Ram’s he takes on the responsibility of the kingdom without taking any of the privileges of the kingdom so Bharat sacrifices similarly Sita sacrifices when she goes with Ram to the forest, so that same act of sacrifice which is running throughout the Ramayana sees its culmination in Sita’s going away, so both Ram and Sita sacrifice at that time so it is not a rejection of Sita by Ram rather it is a situation that forces them to get separated and they sacrifice for that purpose, both of them sacrifice so the point here is Sita is going away or Sita is being sent away it is not Sita is simply a victim of Ram’s obsession with his reputation or something like that Sita also understands she is heartbroken to be separated from Ram but she understands I know why he has done it my heart can’t accept it but I know why he has done it and the test that Sita doesn’t have this victim mentality oh life is so unfair to me is that one proof many of you could have is that Sita never poisons her son’s minds about Ram she doesn’t tell anyone about who actually she doesn’t really tell them who the father is but normally if there is a couple that gets separated and then there are custody battles for the children and usually what happens each spouse poisons the children’s mind against the other spouse while the children are here the mother will say your father is so bad he did this and the father will say your mother is so bad so if Sita had that feeling of being a victim Sita would have spouted it out to Ram and Kush but she never did that so the point is that to think of Sita’s exile or to read the epics in terms of this feminist lens where women are victims that is a completely