Foreword
We perceive this world, each through our own lens of understanding. Each of our experience is coloured by this lens created by the impressions we carry from our childhood onwards – our Hindu scriptures lead us to believe these impressions are carried forward through multiple births. It is quite imperative that even the stories we hear including our epics and puranas are similarly coloured by impressions of people who have passed it on from generation to generation and also the authors through whose human eyes we read these stories.
In our society, where women are considered the weaker sex, ones who ought to be protected under all circumstances, I believe we have utterly failed to recognise the giant personalities of the lady heroes of our past. I believe there is a skewing of our perspective because of the way these stories have been told in the past.
I have decided to write five stories about the women companions of our spiritual giants in order to show a perspective we probably have missed.
Starting with the infamous abandonment of Sita. When we think of the personality of Sriram, which was consistently, non waveringly just at all times, the said episode of desertion of his beloved wife, does not match with the rest of the plot of Ramayan. It brings out ire of disapproval from the modern feminists and is also very difficult to swallow for most average modern people. We have seen most liberal outlook of Sriram in every move of his, deliberately breaking social norms, in order to establish by example what a man or woman of character should do, and how a society ought to function.
Such exemplary behaviour does not match with the cruelty of abandoning his wife. If Sriram truly was what each one of us can aspire to be and Sita truly was the best example set out in front of women, then the story needs to be retold. There was no desertion, no victimisation, no suffering. We are talking of people far above these human trivialities. Let us acknowledge their true greatness!
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- Maithili
- Radha
- Yashodhara
- Mary Magdalene
- Sarada Devi
Kritisanchay 