Not long ago, I received an extremely thought-provoking comment from a woman who watched a video I
produced on "Advaita, Non-Dual Spirituality."
That video traces the evolution of Advaita from the sages of ancient India to famous
traditional teachers like Shankara, and finally, to more recent figures like Ramana Maharshi.
After watching the video, she asked, "Where are the women?"
Her highly perceptive observation made me suddenly realize that my 72 minute video documented
2500 years of spiritual teachers without mentioning even a single woman.
Now, please don't think I'm sexist or inclined to ignore the accomplishments of women.
The fact is, there are relatively few major female figures in the entire history of Hindu
spirituality, and even fewer in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta.
There were a handful of female rishis like Gargi and Maitreyi, and later devotional icons
like Andal and Meera bai.
But hardly any women prior to the 20th century are acknowledged today as great spiritual
leaders.
No doubt, many female saints and gurus lived in ages past, but their lives were apparently
omitted from recorded history, perhaps because those history books were written mostly by
men.
Hindu culture, like most world cultures, is androcentric or male-centered, and has been
for millennia.
This is an unfortunate but undeniable fact.
Until recently, government, business, science, religion and spirituality have all been more
or less the exclusive domains of men.
Women, on the other hand, have generally been relegated to domestic domains.
Nowadays, all this is changing rapidly.
Nevertheless, past generations of India's religious and spiritual teachers lived in
a highly patriarchal society in which male gurus taught their male disciples.
To make matters worse, many of them had adopted celibate lifestyles, and for that reason,
they vilified women as a threat to their celibacy.
Today, educated people readily acknowledge the complete equality of men and women in
all spheres of activity, so there's no justification for gender bias of any kind.
And from the standpoint of advaita, non-duality, your true nature, the inner divinity called
atma, is pure consciousness - unborn, limitless and eternal.
As such, atma is neither male nor female.
Your body is male or female, and your mind contains both masculine and feminine traits.
But atma itself is genderless.
In spite of the gender bias woven into Hindu culture, there are some traditional stories
that actually portray women as being equal to or even superior to men, especially in
spiritual matters.
One of those stories is found in the Yoga Vasishta, a massive scripture of 29,000 verses,
attributed to Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana.
The Yoga Vasishta is full of amazing stories, including one about King Shikhidhvaja and
Queen Chudala who reigned in the kingdom of Malava.
Their love for each other was so strong that they were virtually inseparable.
They did everything together - they ate meals together, they took long walks in the forest
together, and remarkably, they ruled the country together.
Contrary to convention, Queen Chudala was an equal partner in running the kingdom.
As they grew older, their thoughts gradually turned away from worldly concerns and towards
spiritual growth.
They sat side by side as they listened to gurus, studied scriptures, and meditated for
hours each day.
Eventually, the queen became enlightened.
She discovered her true nature, the inner divinity, atma.
She realized that her essence as pure consciousness was utterly unaffected by worldly troubles,
completely untouched by pain and suffering.
As a result, she remained perfectly peaceful and content at all times, even in the most
difficult of situations.
Queen Chudala continued to accompany her husband in all their activities, but the king noticed
a difference in her.
She seemed more beautiful and radiant somehow.
When he asked her what had changed, she replied, "I have transcended this worldly plane and
realized my true nature as atma, pure consciousness."
The king laughed in disbelief and said, "Only great sages can realize atma.
How could you, a mere woman, have realized it?"
Queen Chudala just smiled and chose to remain silent.
She felt sorry for her husband.
His ignorance was so deeply engrained that it not only prevented him from seeing her
inner transformation, but it also prevented him from discovering his true divine nature.
Consider this.
The king and queen were both engaged in the very same spiritual practices, so how is it
that she gained enlightenment while he remained immersed in ignorance?
It's a fact that before you can gain the highest spiritual wisdom and become enlightened, you
must first become fully prepared; you have to be a fit aspirant.
For example, before you can study integral calculus, you must first master algebra and
trigonometry.
So too, before you can gain knowledge of atma, you must first master your mind and emotions.
Your mind must be capable of one-pointed attention and deep concentration.
Your emotions must be completely purified, cleansed of desire and free from attachments
of any kind.
Queen Chudala had gained these qualities in full measure, and therefore, her spiritual
practice culminated in enlightenment.
Her husband, on the other hand, lacked those qualities and continued to struggle.
King Shikhidhvaja became increasingly anxious about his lack of spiritual progress.
Whenever the queen tried to offer him some advice, he wouldn't even listen.
Eventually, the king announced to his wife, "Today, I am going to renounce worldly life
and retire to the forest where I can meditate without distraction."
The queen told her husband that it's really not necessary to renounce worldly life to
gain enlightenment.
Not surprisingly, her words fell on deaf ears.
The king left the palace and traveled far, to the foot of Mount Mandara where he built
a crude hut of sticks and grass and undertook a life of extreme austerities.
The queen awoke one night in her luxurious bed and wondered about her poor husband sleeping
on the hard ground in a grass hut.
She felt sorry for him and wanted to know if he was ok.
Because of the tremendous intensity of her meditation practice, she had developed several
yogic powers, known in the scriptures as siddhis.
One of those siddhis enabled her to leave her body and travel through space.
Using that siddhi, she traveled to Mount Mandara to see her husband.
From a distance, she could tell that he was still struggling to control his unruly mind
and break free from all attachments.
She wanted to help him, but she knew there was nothing that could be done until his ascetic
practices finally helped him acquire the full measure of preparedness he needed for enlightenment.
In the king's absence, Queen Chudala ruled the kingdom with skill and justice for eighteen
years.
Then one day, using her siddhis, she went to see her husband again.
He had grown quite old, but she could tell that he had acquired the intellectual and
emotional preparation necessary for enlightenment.
All he needed now was a little more spiritual instruction from someone who was already enlightened,
as she was.
Yet, she knew that he would never accept her instruction.
So, she used her siddhis to transform herself into a wise sage named Kumbha and then she
approached her husband in disguise.
The king recognized Kumbha's great wisdom and immediately accepted him as guru.
Then, Queen Chudala, in the form of Kumbha, was able to impart to her dear husband the
teachings he needed to gain enlightenment.
This story shows the unfortunate consequences of the king's sexist attitudes.
If he had accepted his wife's spiritual guidance at the outset, he could have gained enlightenment
without having to leave his comfortable palace and live in a crude hut for eighteen years.
This particular message of the story is especially relevant for us right now.
Too many men around the world still fail to draw upon the wisdom and skills of women,
excluding them from many domains in life simply because of their gender.
By doing so, those men forfeit fully one-half of the precious human resources available
to them.
Queen Chudala had the skill to rule her kingdom and the wisdom to free her husband from suffering.
So too, women today have the ability to improve the quality of life for their families, for
their communities, and for their countries.
When more women are empowered to use their skills and wisdom in all aspects of life,
the world will be a better place.
This is the second video in a series that answers questions submitted by viewers.
If you have a question that would serve as a good topic for a video like this one, please
email me at this address, and be sure to indicate "video question" as the subject of the email.
I'll try to address your question in a future video.