East vs. West

A lot has happened in Umred since I last wrote. While it was tempting to share my thoughts about the safety of women in India but talking about something that one cannot do anything about just adds to the noise, thus the refrain. 

I must say however even at the risk of annoying my friends in India that as a woman, I am very fortunate to live in countries like Canada and France at this time in history. People may throw all kinds of statistics to defend and to say India is safer but I can only speak from my experience. 

I live carefree here without having to worry about getting out late at night and eve teasing is as foreign in Canada as is the sight of snow in Mumbai. Living in India was, however, a different story.  But please do not be too quick to judge, this isn’t an article about how everything in the west is good and everything in the east is bad. To the contrary, I feel proud to be of an Indian origin. Let me tell you why.

Equality and Respect for life are important values in most of the countries that I have lived in. And this is the very core of what Hinduism teaches but we have left our ancient teachings on the side, which is a pity because these “developed” nations can learn a lot from ancient Indian scriptures. 

I must warn you that this may get a little religious here so let me make my position clear. I am not a religious person, but it is my belief that every major religion has some wisdom hidden in it that our material mind has not fully comprehended. If an enlightened mind has written something, only another enlightened mind can fully understand. Right?

For example – 

Snake in the Bible represents temptation and Eve (mind, feminine energy) pushes Adam (physical body, masculine energy) to fall for it but people who do not understand this metaphor place the blame on all women. 

In Hinduism, snake around Lord Shiva’s neck portrays a deity that has risen above all temptations and has his mind (Shakti) as his consort as an equal but some Hindus instead of mastering their senses and using the female energy (Kundalini Shakti) within to rise above temptations try to be a “master” of their wives and see women as inferior which is contrary to the teachings.

Finally, in Islam, the “fundamentalists” entirely misunderstand the message of putting a veil on their own physical senses to strengthen their mind and instead they put women behind burqas suggesting that their conscience and resolve is fickle and weak when it comes to one kind of temptation. What about their other senses? 

A disclaimer: This is entirely based on my limited understanding and I could be totally wrong. (This should keep those sensitive souls at bay).

Now for the Atheists and Humanists – if you try to understand this from a scientific perspective then you would agree that everything, every atom in the universe has to have both male and female charge. Then it follows logically that every person is made up of two energies as well and thus this reasoning. Anyway, enough of that mumbo-jumbo.

My point here is that – it is probably not religions but our limited understanding of different religions that causes most problems in the world. Equality and respect for life should be at the core of every culture since it is taught by most religions anyway. Women, embrace your masculine energy – exercise your body and will to decide for yourself. You do not need a male body to control or to guide you. As for men, you can do just as well as women at controlling your senses if not better, embrace your own feminine energy (mind over matter), live and let live because all our bodies will die and disintegrate one day, what form will you be then?