The Awakening of Universal Motherhood (part 1)

Women and men are equal in Amma's eyes. Amma wants to honestly express Her views on this very subject. These observations don't necessarily apply to everyone, but they do apply to the majority of people.

Women have to wake up and arise! At present, most women are asleep. The awakening of the dormant power of women is one of the most urgent needs of the age. Not only should women living in developing countries wake up - this applies to women all over the world. Women in countries where materialism is predominant should awaken to spirituality*. And women in countries where they are forced to remain inside the narrow walls of religious tradition should awaken to modern thinking. It has been widely believed that women and the cultures in which they live will awaken through education and material development. But time has taught us that this concept is too limited. Only when women imbibe the eternal wisdom of spirituality, along with modern education, will the power within them awaken - and they will rise to action.

Who should awaken woman? What obstructs her awakening? In truth, no external power can possibly obstruct woman or her innate qualities of motherhood - qualities such as love, empathy, and patience. It is she - she alone - who has to awaken herself. A woman's mind is the only real barrier that prevents this from happening. The rules and superstitious beliefs that degrade women continue to prevail in most countries.

The primitive customs invented by men in the past to exploit and to subjugate women remain alive to this day. Women and their minds have become entangled in the cobweb of those customs. They have been hypnotised by their own minds. Women have to help themselves in order to extricate themselves from that magnetic field. This is the only way.

Look at an elephant. It can uproot huge trees with its trunk. When an elephant living in captivity is still a baby, it is tied to a tree with a strong rope or a chain. Because it is the nature of elephants to roam free, the baby elephant instinctively tries with all its might to break the rope. But it isn't strong enough to do so. Realising its efforts are of no use, it finally gives up and stops struggling. Later, when the elephant is fully grown, it can be tied to a small tree with a thin rope. It could then easily free itself by uprooting the tree or breaking the rope. But because its mind has been conditioned by its prior experiences, it doesn't make the slightest attempt to break free.

This is what is happening to women. Society does not allow the strength of women to arise. We have created a blockage, preventing this great strength from pouring forth. The infinite potential inherent in women and men is the same. If women really want to, it won't be difficult to break the shackles - the rules and conditioning that society has imposed on them. The greatest strength of women lies in their innate motherhood, in their creative, life-giving power. And this power makes women able to bring about at least as much change in society as men can accomplish. Antiquated, crippling concepts devised in the past are blocking women from reaching spiritual heights.

Those are the shadows that still haunt women, evoking fear and distrust within. Women should let go of their fear and distrust - they are simply illusions. The limitations women think they have are not real. Women need to muster the strength to overcome those imagined limitations. They already possess this power; it is right here! And once that power has been evoked, no one will be able to stop the forward march of women in every area of life.

Men normally believe in muscle power. On a superficial level they see women as their mothers, wives, and sisters. But there is no need to hide the fact that, on a deeper level, men still have a great deal of resistance when it comes to properly understanding, accepting, and recognising women and the feminine aspect of life.

Amma remembers a story. In a village there lived a deeply spiritual woman who found immense happiness in serving others. The religious leaders of the village chose her as one of their priests. She was the first appointed woman priest in the area, and the male priests didn't like it one bit. Her great compassion, humility, and wisdom were appreciated by the villagers. This caused a lot of jealousy among the male priests.

One day all the priests were invited to a religious gathering on an island, three hours away by boat. As the priests boarded the boat they discovered, to their dismay, that the woman priest was already seated inside. They muttered among themselves, "What a pain! She just won't leave us alone!" The boat set off. But an hour later the engine suddenly died and the boat came to a standstill. The captain exclaimed, "Oh, no! We're stuck! I forgot to fill the tank!" Nobody knew what to do. There was no other boat in sight. At this point the woman priest stood up and said, "Don't worry, brothers! I'll go and fetch more fuel." Having said this, she stepped out of the boat and proceeded to walk away across the water. The priests watched with great astonishment, but were quick to remark, "Look at her! She doesn't even know how to swim!"

This is the attitude of men in general. They are conditioned to belittle and condemn the achievements of women. Women are not decorations or objects meant to be controlled by men. Men treat women like potted plants, making it impossible for them to grow to their full potential.

Women were not created for the enjoyment of men. They were not made to host tea parties. Men use women like a tape recorder, which they like to control according to their whims and fancies, as if they were pressing play and pause buttons.

Men consider themselves superior to women, both physically and intellectually. The arrogance of men's mistaken attitude - that women cannot survive in society without depending on men - is obvious in everything that men do.

Even in materially developed countries, women are pushed back when it comes to sharing political power with men. It is interesting to see that, compared to developed countries, developing countries are far ahead in providing opportunities for women to rise in politics. But, except for a few who can be counted on one's fingers, how many women can be seen in the arena of world politics? Is it this way because women are incapable, or is it due to the arrogance of men?

The right circumstances and support of others will certainly help women to awaken and arise. But this alone is not enough. They need to draw inspiration from those circumstances and find strength within themselves. Real power and strength do not come from the outside; they are to be found within.

Women have to find their courage. Courage is an attribute of the mind; it is not a quality of the body. Women have the power to fight against the social rules that prevent their progress. This is Amma's own experience. Though a lot of changes have taken place, India is a country where male supremacy is still the rule. Even today, women are exploited in the name of religious convention and tradition. In India, too, women are waking up and springing into action. Until recently, women were not allowed to worship in the inner sanctum of a temple; nor could women consecrate a temple or perform Vedic rituals. Women didn't even have the freedom to chant Vedic mantras.

But Amma is encouraging and appointing women to do these things. And it is Amma who performs the consecration ceremony in all the temples built by our ashram. There were many who protested against women doing these things, because for generations all those ceremonies and rituals had been done only by men. To those who questioned what we were doing, Amma explained that we are worshipping a God who is beyond all differences, who does not differentiate between male and female. As it turns out, the majority of people have supported this revolutionary move. Those prohibitions against women were never actually a part of ancient Hindu tradition.

They were in all likelihood invented later by men who belonged to the higher classes of society, in order to exploit and oppress women. They did not exist in ancient India.

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[* The spirituality that Amma refers to here is not about worshipping a God sitting somewhere up above the clouds. Real spirituality is to know oneself and to realise the infinite Power within. Spirituality and life are not two separate things; they are one. Real spirituality teaches us how to live in the world. Material science teaches us how to air-condition the external world, whereas spiritual science teaches us how to "air-condition" the internal world.]

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