Nature, Woman, Wisdom: Uma, Daughter of the Mountain Speaks

India is a teller of tales with multiple layers of meaning.It recognized multiplicity of expression of an inexpressible reality rather early; hence, it imagined polycentric and polytheistic ways even when it recognized a nondual unity.  Among the many tales this ancient land tells, here is one from Kena Upanishad: Once upon a time, three male Vedic gods, Agni- god of fire, Vayu god of air, and Indra-god of thunder, were boasting about their powers.  A form appeared and put a blade of grass in front of them.  Agni could not burn it; Vayu could not blow it.  When Indra went to investigate, it disappeared.  Questing in the sky, he came across a beautiful woman, Uma Haimavati, the daughter of the Himalayas. He asked her who was that vanished spirit? 

Uma said to Indra: this is Brahman, the ultimate reality, thus introducing them to “real-ization” beyond theory.  This Uma is also Parvati or Shakti, the mildest form of the Great Goddess, who has to take her fierce Durga/Kali form to teach us what cannot be known through the head, intellect, or theorizing books.  At this auspicious time of Navaratri when Indiais joyfully preparing for the arrival of Durga, the invincible symbol of feminine force, even as the world continues in its violent ways, I offer this reflection on Nature/Prakriti, Woman/Nari, and Wisdom/Prajna.

Since my mother follows our traditional ways, I have become more aware of the lunar calendar and its connection with women’s quiet and joyful spirituality. With her I celebrated the last full moon day when the time of the Fathers (pitri paksha) began; at this time Hindus pay tribute to all the ancestors. The time of the Mothers will come after this fortnight when India will sing the mantra of the Mother.  So first, I fondly remember my departed Kali devotee father and all the fathers that instill in their daughters dignity and self-respect so that they may recognize the liberatory power of Shakti in the depth of their being. 

To continue my dialogue in this forum, let’s first take stock of the times.  Another shooting has taken place in the US, one more in Kenya, Syrians continue to die, and the Delhi rapists have been condemned to death.  Talking heads here continue to chatter whether it is the gun that kills, or the man holding the gun.  I won’t go there, but as an English professor enjoying her sabbatical, I can’t help remembering Chaucer’s“Wife of Bath” in the context of punishment for rape. In her tale, the Wife of Bath or Alyson narrates an Arthurian Knight’s rape trial who was condemned to death by the King.  The Queen intervenes and gives him a year to save himself if he can find out what women want! Sounds familiar?

If you Google this tale, you will find out that the exhausted knight after a year’s efforts was saved by an old hag who taught him a lesson about women’s need for sovereignty over their bodies.  The knight learns his lesson and lives happily ever after with the hag who magically turns into a beautiful woman.  In this tale as well as in real life people often ignore the woman who was raped.  This story captures a time when women’s sovereignty from the Avalon days were slowly taken away by patriarchal Christianity.  Chaucer was relentless in pointing out the misery caused by corrupt clerics of his times.  Today stories like the Mists of Avalon and other Arthurian Grail legends dimly imagine another possible time and another possible relationship between men and women. 

In the Indian scene where cyclical rather than linear notions of time pervade, there are more than enough hints of other ways of being if the innumerable stories reflect at least some facts about real life. It is a greater pity that in the only country where the Mother Principle could not be erased, crimes against women and girls define its current global identity. I am glad that an abysmally slow Indian “justice” system fast tracked the Delhi rape trial and came up with a verdict that might satisfy some people for the time being.  Reported or unreported, rapes in the meantime continue all over the world, and if evolutionary psychologists like Steven Pinker are right, it is not going anywhere any time soon.  

Although I am against the death penalty in principle, I do not really care what happens to these men. Such a penalty does have a role to play in satisfying vengeance and create some semblance of fear of the law. I must point out that their brutality was a symptom of male delusion that they actually are the owners of female bodies.  Like the male gods who thought in the above mentioned Upanishad that they actually have power over natural elements, men and women both need to know the role “woman” plays in helping us recognize who or what we really are. 

In India where we worship trees, rivers, animals and half animal half human gods, most people do not have any problem acknowledging our evolutionary and genetically determined animal past.  Nature as a whole can teach us a lot about how to be human if we drop our arrogant dualistic assumption that our minds are superior to our bodies. It is interesting that many cultures connect nature and women in both good and bad ways. While our Aghori Baba reminds us that both men and women have to deal with their “prakriti”or small nature, it is not an accident that Cosmic Nature, the primal teacher,too is understood as female.  Even patriarchal monotheism that does not generally accord divinity to anything female invokes Mother Nature when a powerful storm shakes its arrogant confidence in controlling her.

Women and men as creatures, or jiva, are very similar as human beings but also different in joyful ways. However, there is a reason why women are seen as closer to wisdom bestowing Nature; their menstruating and potentially birthing bodies hide an inscrutable secret knowledge that no uninitiated “man”has access to.  Ordinary woman (nari) too must awaken that energy - that awe and joy inspiring Shakti.  Uma Haimavati, Parvati, daughter of the Mountain teaches that knowledge that makes us break into dance and song at the sheer wonder that is life.

Traditional India’s magnificent flowering as a civilization of sophisticated learning and amazing aesthetic expression in temple art, music,literature, and dance was based on its paradoxical recognition that Kama(pleasure) and Moksha (freedom) belong to the woman.  Hence when attempting a division of labor, it put desire/kama and freedom/moksha/nirvana in the world of women and dharma(righteous action) and artha (money and prestige) in the area of men.  Today, tired of excesses of patriarchy, women all over the world have entered the external Yang world of money and power, but most men are not taught their deeply freeing inner Yin qualities.

Yogic and tantric paths train both men and women to submit to the Mother Principle because without her, inner freedom is not possible. Ancient India like many old cultures understood that Prakriti is Pradhana or primary. That core is reflected in the nondual Tantras, the practical path of self-realization. It is curious the role the prefix ‘pra’ has played since the Sankhya times when Pradhana/Prakriti was ‘theorized’. Sanskrit words like prakriti (nature), prajna (wisdom), pratyaksha (actualized knowledge), pran (life force/breath), pranam (surrendering protestation) and prem (sweet conjugal love)are all connected through this prefix. Not to forget the English word “practice.”

The word jnana which is etymologically connected to the word knowledge is usually associated with more androcentric, head heavy, and concept driven ideas.  When we add the prefix pra, we are at the very heart of Prajna Paramita and Mula Prakriti (Primordial Nature). She helps us unite the Yin and Yang aspects of our being and gets us out of the world-denying,heaven-inhabiting gods whose theories mesmerize us. Khepababa, KulavadhutaSatpurananda very kindly explained to me the root connection between theories (Greek theoria) and Theos and the importance of Theos (various theistic gods in India)in primarily non-theistic traditions of India. Theorizing is important, or we lose our extraordinary human intellect and our ability to truly understand and change our ways; however, to be stuck in theory is like knowing all about musical notes but never hearing a song.

While I have no easy solutions to the problem of violence, I take heart in Steven Pinker’s latest hopeful book, The Better Angels of our Nature: Why violence has Declined.  One of the reasons he gives is what he calls “feminization”and the rise of women’s rights world over. He cites Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only Japanese man who managed to escape both atomic bombs.  Yamaguchi said before his natural death: “The only people who should be allowed to govern countries with nuclear weapons are mothers, those who are still breast-feeding their babies” (684).  Referring to Margaret Thatcher, Pinker reminds us women operating within and benefiting from oppressive patriarchal systems are not an answer.  Putting the burden on women to reduce world-wide violence is also not fair, but encouraging what Pinker calls “female-friendly values” mainly “because of the psychological legacy of the basic biological differences between the sexes” is something worth theorizing about.

A young student friend Sarika Persaud who is studying psychotherapy and spirituality pointed out to me how rejection of prakriti in spiritual life in some interpretations of Indian texts lead to subduing prakriti or "feminine" side of our own psychology.  This leads to all kinds of disorders in both men and women.   If we combine east and west, north and south in developing a truly global awareness and learn from ancient knowledge systems along with 21st century science to forge our policies, we may contribute toward that reduction of violence.  I talk of the dharma paths of India that are a repository of extraordinary Gynocentric paths because that is my cultural and genetic inheritance.  I dedicate this to the next generation that includes my two sons who help me think and fill me with joy.  May the Great Mother in her myriad forms give our intellect the right orientation.