News : Rohini S Shenoy
Udupi, May 17: Women speakers narrated their tale of woes when it came to spirituality for themselves and for inculcating spiritual values among their children, even while acknowledging its importance.
They were speaking out their hearts and minds during a conference on “Women and Spirituality” held at Shri Mahalasa Narayani Devi Kshetra, Harikhandige here on Sunday May 15. The women who took part in the conference from different parts of the state included educators, professionals and home makers.
In his remarks, Guruji Suresh J Pai, said that a woman is the most neglected force today. “A woman has a lot of potential in her. She has satvik bhakti, satya and sahanshilta (pure love of God, truth and tolerance,” he said.
He said, “we must take out the two words ‘impossible’ and ‘postpone’ from the dictionary. We should set our priorities right.” He called upon women not to stress more on material life, give up self-ego and transfer all your responsibilities to God. “He will take care of everything.”
Savitri Kini, an educator, said that, when asked, an old woman told her: “You can embark upon this path (of spirituality) only when all your responsibilities are over”. She questioned that in today’s hectic, competitive world, when mothers too are working, how was it possible to get involved in spiritual activities. In such cases, it was more difficult in encouraging children towards spiritual activities.
While putting the blame on non-cooperation being faced by some women from their husbands, she also said the society in general questioned what benefit will a child get from chanting Shri Vishnu Sahasranama or Shri Rama Raksha Stotram and how it will benefit him in his education.
She also mentioned incidents that happened at home. While she wanted to watch programmes on religous channels like Aastha, she could not do so because the children object to it.
Replying to her, Premkala Mallya of Divine Park and a follower of Swami Vivekananda, said that we have to practice before we preach. “Instead, what we do is we ask the children to go to another room to study and then we watch our favourite TV serial.
TV was also the favourite punching bag of many other women speakers, with Sunita Pai pointing out that preference to watching our favourite serials took precedence over going to temples.
She recalled the days when there was no electricity and women would gather and sing bhajans.
Sunita Pai also stressed on “atma” or soul. “What is atma? How can we reach parmatma (supreme God)?” She narrated some incidents with regard to anger, jealousy and lust, which cause distraction from the path of spirituality.
Shashikala Shanbhag told the gathering of women who had arrived from different parts of the state that one need not leave home for dharma prasar of spreading spirituality.
“One should have the desire to lead good, beautiful life. A mother has an important role in inculcating good sanskars from the womb itself. It is only through mother that the child gets the dharmik boudha or knowledge. We have inherited a lot from our ancestors so we cannot say we have lazinesss or don’t know about it,”she said.
“We must remove the words ‘I’, ‘we’ or ‘mine’ from our dictionary,” she added.
Earlier, Premkala Mallya exhorted the women to learn to conquer their minds. “Whatever happens, happens for one’s own good, like if you miss the bus don’t curse but think that maybe God saved you from an inevitable accident”.
Another speaker, Jayanthi Prabhu shared her own experiences in the path of spirituality. She had seen lots of ups and downs in life but said she will not blame God for it. “In fact, we should be thankful for whatever he has given.”
The conference was held on the sidelines of the ongoing Ati Rudra Yaag at the Devi Kshetra that concludes on May 22.