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Re: [sv-rituals] RE: Abhivadanam

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sriram Ranganathan • April 24, 2002 


Sri Narayanan wrote: "Is this because of male domination? ...It is high time
we have women priests in the temple and head of religious institutions.."

Dear Members,

By nature we all have certain qualities that make us more suitable for some
tasks than others. Given that and a host of practical factors applicable to
the Vedic era, men were probably considered a better fit for gurukula based
Vedic-learning / priest positions and it had stayed that way.

Things considered impossible back then have become possible now and
vice-versa too. Hindsight is always 20/20. Condeming our traditions for
perceived gender bias or whatever name one may want to call it, is perhaps
not the right thing, for:

(a)     We don't know the answer to all such questions correctly and
convincingly one way or the other without a thorough research
(b)     Upon proper research, what sounds absurd today may indeed turn out
to be a perfectly right thing tomorrow, and
(c)     Our hoary history spans thousands of years and our society had
adapted and adopted several practises and it continues to evolve at its own
pace

IMHO, there are several thousands of slokas that both men and women can
learn, aside from the Vedas. There are several traditional support tasks
that we can take up aside from priest roles. Guess it is human nature to go
after the forbidden fruit!

Nonetheless, I believe we should not attempt to get ahead of ourselves
especially when it comes to religion.

Sriram