SEEING GOD IN WOMAN.
Vengrai Parthasarathy
As someone said God cannot be everywhere; so he created woman as mother. Are we giving woman the respect that is due to her? Let us face it. This is a man’s world and Manu, the law giver, ( whom we like to quote at the drop of a hat) has assigned her an inferior place in society . Ironically, we venerate woman as Sri and Devi for her compassion but allot only as a woman– a secondary place in our lives.
Woman is a many-splendoured creation of God; but she lives in a small world which has its peaks and valleys and plateaus. Life is often a struggle, a trek up a bouldered path… a fight for survival, as it were,
Look around you for a ‘complete’ woman. You won’t find her anywhere. You will find her everywhere. In Bridge or hen parties; under the crushing load of bricks
in sweltering heat; behind starched white uniforms; in the queue at the hospital or bus stand; in the sweaty kitchen. Take your pick.
It is a gladsome development that the woman of today is coming out of the man-made shell and asserting herself.All round what we see is resurgent womanhood.
Complete woman? You will find different facets of a complete woman in every woman exuding that indefinable mystique
Let us look at the rear mirror for a while. Those were the days in the forties when night schools and Adult education classes were not thought of seriously. Somebody’s illiterate aunt in her late forties, took the bold step of enrolling herself in a missionary school to learn the elements of the three ‘R’s, starting with ABC and 1 2 3. And after matriculation, she reached the Everest of happiness in showing off her ability to read the day’s news in the English dailies. Was it a sort of personal fulfillment or awesome penance or an expression of gratitude to God? Or cocking a snook at man who has kept her under his thumb?
An Andhra lady, widowed at the age of 22—mother of a boy and a girl. Was she ready to be consigned to cook and wash and sweep and feed some ungrateful stomachs and be treated as human jetsam? No; she decided to go to school. She did her Masters in Social work and went on
to run an orphanage for the poor of the city. Was it her way of paying back to society and its cruel, unwritten traditions? Or, was it a thank you to God?
On the way to the operation table for cervical cancer a young childless woman pauses a while to admire the multi-colored butterfly sitting on the bonnet of the waiting taxi, forgetting the doom awaiting her. Was it a triumph of spirit over the mundane or was it some inner beauty mirroring love of God for His creation of beautiful things?
A grandmother presiding over a colossal joint family and nurturing everyone under a benign umbrella, forgetting the stresses and strains of life; what was she proving or saying ? Hey Manu, what sayest thou? When life throws a curve ball or googly in human form at her, is she angry? Her guideline? The simple adage;”Never let the sun set on your wrath”. Forget and move on.
St.Augustine put it all in a nut-shell: ’Love God and do whatever you like”—When you love God you will do only the right thing. An abiding catch-phrase which deserves to be emblazoned across the hearts and the sky!