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Why women are eager to do what sastras prohibit ?

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Rama Krishna K • March 28, 2020 


Priya Bhagawatas,
Asmadsrigurubhyonamaha!!
Srimathaynarayanayanamaha!!!
With reference to the following email Adiyen would like to put forth
some points to ponder
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Message: 1
   Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 15:34:35 -0000
   From: "nappinnai_nc "

Subject: women and prabandham
Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya nama:
Dear saha bhAgavathAs,
         Salutations to all. Keeping vedas aside,let us take
prabandham. Both men and women may ask why women don't participate in
prabandham ghoshti. In ThiruvaiyARu Thyagaraja ArAdhana festival both
male and female singers sing pancarathnam. So why not prabandham?
What is the reason behind it? I will post an article based on my
observation(music). Would like to know what other readers have got to
say.
AzhvAr EmperumAnAr Jeeyar ThiruvadigaLE sharaNam
NC Nappinnai
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     When similar question was posed to the Jeeyar swamiji, we were told
that first of all  we should ensure whether what  all are supposed to do
especially the male members of  the so called vedic community are really
doing,  like Yagnopaveethadharana, sikha dharana, Trikala
sandhyavandanam, nitya Tiruvaaradhana, observance of Azhwar/Acharya
Tirunakshatram, Itihaasa Paarayanam, Srimadbhagawadgita parayanam etc.
to achieve supreme bliss for one and all  After ensuring that all the
vedic community without an exception are doing what they are supposed to
do cent per cent, then we can come to the subject how other sections of
the  people should do what they  are not supposed to do.

    Coming to the subject of women in  Sanskrit/Dravida veda parayana
goshtis, His Holiness told that when  sastras are granting women
everything without doing such veda parayanam but just supporting the
rest of the  family/society to comply with vedic rituals, why they
should be so eager to do first hand rituals what sastras prohibit
especially in this kaliyuga?

>From common sense point of view putting forth the bare facts, every
member of the vedic community, especially members of this type of forums
recognize the fact that women in periods get 'asuchi' and not eligible
to participate in  auspicious rituals like veda parayanam or
Bhagawadaaradhana.  It is also known that the periods (total number days
of  'asuchi' extends to
4- 5 in general) not only do not come accurately but also come sometimes
unnoticeably.  Thus,  if  our sastras pertaining to the kaliyuga did not
bar women from veda parayanam, Bhagawadaraadhana, sandhyavandanam etc,
then women participating in goshtis of  prabandha parayanam or vedic
rituals either may have to walk out immediately noticing the outcome of
periods; or sometimes it may become too late and the whole vedic ritual
might have got already contaminated.  Thus our sastras which always have
a long foresight, might have formulated some prohibitions to avoid
unwarranted/ugly situations.  Thus one can visualize what all the
problems the vedic rituals might have to face if there is no bar at all
on the participants.

This would not have been the case in tretayuga or kritayuga where the
physicial characteristics of people are far different from kaliyuga
regarding age, growth, strengths, physcial controls etc.

Jai Srimannarayana

Dr.Kilambi Ramakrishna Ramanuja Dasan









[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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