ILLUSIONS – 6

It was night, when the train arrived at kancheepuram. The elderly blind widow and her attendant went directly to the kanchi Mutt. The Kanchi Mahaswami was still awake as if waiting for them. He asked the mutt attendant to take them to a nearby devotee’s house for them to stay.

Next day, before daybreak at around 4 a.m, the Kanchi Mahaswami went with the mutt attendant to the see the blind widow. He asked the attendant to wait outside and went inside the house. After a few minutes, a lady screamed from inside the house, “STOP! STOP! enough, I cannot take it anymore”. The screaming stopped. The Kanchi Mahaswami came outside and told him, “Leave them in the Railway station”.

The attendant was intrigued as to what happened within such a short span of time. He was curious too. On the way back, he questioned the blind widow as to what actually happened. She replied, “At a very young age, I became a widow and the society outcasted me and I had to be dependant all my life. I started spending my entire time in worshiping Devi in my heart, without anyone knowing about it. In time I became blind as well. It was my wish to have the darshan of Devi – Mother Divine in the sahasrara chakra on my head and that’s why I came here. When the Mahaswami blessed me, I had the darshan of Devi in my Sahasrara chakra but the light from her radiant, opulent form and efflugence were so bright I couldn’t take it even though being blind. That’s when I asked the swami to stop the darshan as it was beyond my capacity to withstand Mother Divine. The Kanchi Mahaswami has fulfilled my wish and my sadhana is accomplished”.

The Kanchi MahaSwami himself had to follow strict rules & rituals laid down by the ancients and he followed it without questions. For example, he had to take a bath if he encounters a widow or a woman who had not plaited her hair when he went outside. But the same Swami blessed an elderly blind widow for she is a Devi upasaka and it is Devi’s will for which the Mahaswami is only an instrument. This shows that the rituals and rules were created for men and women for certain reasons of societial norms and when love for the Divine wells up, every rule and ritual gets flooded and washed out.

Kavitha M. Chinnaiyan in her book, ‘Shakti Rising’ expounds quite remarkably as to how the feminine power was sidelined, “When I visited the ancient palace of Knosos of Crete, where the high status of women in Bronze age Minoan culture is evident…..but as I explored more recent archaeological sites , I made an interesting discovery. The temples and shrines that honor male deities had originally been built for female deities  and became reassigned over time. Over the centuries, the earth and snake goddesses of the Bronze Age were entirely replaced by Zeus, the king of Gods. Female deities, including the wise and powerful Athena, assumed secondary  and often subservient roles……… A similar theme unfolds when we consider the history of yoga, which is said to have been discovered and propagated by women of the Indus Valley Civilization……. Cyclical changes of bleeding and birthing gave women the advantage of being able to observe their physiology and its effect on the mind , emotions and behavior……… Originally revered as learned yoginis steeped in knowledge, bliss and ecstacy, these women were banned altogether by the establishment of patriarchy. Eventually, women were banned altogether from yoga due to the very physiological processes like menstruation that helped shape it. Over the centuries and influenced by the pervading culture, women have come to view themselves as inferior. Bodily functions like menstruation are treated with disdain, and it is not uncommon to refer to it as the “Curse”. Unknowingly, we teach our daughters to hate or fear it, entrenching ourselves in the perception of inferiority”.

On deeper analysis into history, looks like in the age of materialism, truth becomes topsy-turvey. When a lie is said often times over centuries and cultures, it goes on to become a morphed truth with no validation. Anyone who attempts to validate becomes blasphemous and outcasted or worse still sent to the gallows, it is continuing even today. ‘Only Men can, Women can’t’ is an illusion. The truth is ‘Only women can, Men just copy’, period🤫😁 .

Sri Devi Om, in her brilliant post ‘The Creation theory’ mentions , how the Singular consciousness becomes two and everything comes into manifestation. Is it possible to concise the entire Sanatana Dharma into a lucid post? Yes, and she has done just that.

Sri Ramakrishna gives an anology, “When the snake is idle, it’s Brahman. When it moves, it’s Shakti”.

With the advent of Saints and Avatars like Sri Ramakrishna and Om Swami, the reinstatement of the Divine feminine to it’s original glory has begun I presume.

JAI MAA!!!