Ethics for the new millenium

Vedic Hinduism sees the universe as a Big Woman-Mother Nature. Truly, I am not aware of a culture which has named Nature after the Father. Nature is feminine; it is playful delight and majestic terror. It feeds, protects and devours. Femininity is a mystery, a trap, an illusion, a wonder, a dream, a terror, a charity, a sacrifice, fertility, individual consciousness, seductiveness, compassion, change, desire, poetry, a fecund field, unconditional loyalty, worship, and death. Femininity is a sign and reflection of the Creator Himself when He has decided to love Himself in Another when He creates the world.
The femininity of existence, of the created world, assumes then the shape of a Devi or Goddess. Devi (from the root div which means “to stand”) appears in several of its key aspects. These aspects are the Word (Sarasvati), the feeding aspect (Anapurna), the warrior aspect (Durga), the aspect of wellbeing and happiness (Lakshmi) and the aspect of dissolution (Kali).
Femininity is the visible part of the invisible essence of the Creator, Deus ludens. Femininity is a drama of manifestation and its scenery, the magic of play and harmony, the costume of a billion-fold actor and viewer, conforming to the will and the idea of the Director himself “that is motionless and yet faster than everything that is moving.” According to this understanding, the feminine assumes the male form as well. “Whatever God has created is truly feminine in gender!” exclaim the Indian Rishis.
“The rules of my order to not allow me to spend a night under the same roof with a woman” a hermit said to a woman who knocked at his door in the middle of the night during a storm. She laconically replied, “And I thought that God was the only male in the universe!”

ABOUT WOMEN

I think that the paramount question for women today is the question of their alienation from their own nature. Moreover, I think that the lack of understanding of women and lack of respect for women has as its consequence the raping of the mother earth. It is even an ecological question. Failing to understand and respect women has war as its consequence. If woman is not understood, the consequence is that man and his role are not understood either.

Look at what is feminine in gender in all Indo-European languages that make a gender distinction. These are very important things: beauty, goodness, truth, love, science, philosophy, art, happiness, essence, wisdom, joy, culture, religion, thought, grace, hope, faith, church, and strength.
It is not only important to have woman’s salaries be equal to men’s but also not to focus only the social perspective or paradigm. It is not that important to have women’s political rights be equal to those of men. What is needed is to pay due respect to the feminine nature and mission. Being a part of every being’s soul, it is not possible to underrate and suppress the female without causing serious problems. Thus, the attitude toward woman is by far a more significant and overriding question than women’s social status, although the latter is a starting point.