Why ?

[sky]

Well know Guru's are mostly male, I was wondering why....

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by sky123

Well know Guru's are mostly male, I was wondering why....

Namaste.

It is because of the Brahmin Caste and their attitudes towards females. You'll also notice that most (not all) Gurus, both contemporary and historical have been born into a Brahmin family because it guarantees them immediate 'social respect' among the populace.

India is still a rather patriarchal, male-dominated society (evidenced by the fact that females still have to provide a substantial 'dowry' to be married) and a female child is seen as a burden on society, because they are not as strong or productive as a male...and heaven forbid...they bleed every month.

Menstrual blood is seen as being putrid...worse than the feet of a shudra (untouchable) and besides, according to Hindu Dharma, it is a woman's place to 'have babies' and not 'become gurus'....there have been some exceptions to the rule though and Indian society is slowly changing in regards, but it's why spiritual gurus are mostly men...added to which, there are more bands and granthis (psychic knots) for kundalini to navigate in a woman than in a man...supposedly.

Om Namah Shivaya

[sky]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Namaste.

It is because of the Brahmin Caste and their attitudes towards females. You'll also notice that most (not all) Gurus, both contemporary and historical have been born into a Brahmin family because it guarantees them immediate 'social respect' among the populace.

India is still a rather patriarchal, male-dominated society (evidenced by the fact that females still have to provide a substantial 'dowry' to be married) and a female child is seen as a burden on society, because they are not as strong or productive as a male...and heaven forbid...they bleed every month.

Menstrual blood is seen as being putrid...worse than the feet of a shudra (untouchable) and besides, according to Hindu Dharma, it is a woman's place to 'have babies' and not 'become gurus'....there have been some exceptions to the rule though and Indian society is slowly changing in regards, but it's why spiritual gurus are mostly men...added to which, there are more bands and granthis (psychic knots) for kundalini to navigate in a woman than in a man...supposedly.

Om Namah Shivaya

Thanks SD interesting....
So what are these guru's doing about this backward mentality, do they speak out and try to change attitudes of their followers, or does it suit them ( some not all ) to treat women as below them ?
Your the expert on Hinduism, enlighten me

I would have thought that spiritual leaders/ teachers etc: would have gone past the gender label and see all as equal, not so it seems because we see this inequality in most religions...
,

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by sky123

Thanks SD interesting....
So what are these guru's doing about this backward mentality, do they speak out and try to change attitudes of their followers, or does it suit them ( some not all ) to treat women as below them ?
Your the expert on Hinduism, enlighten me

I would have thought that spiritual leaders/ teachers etc: would have gone past the gender label and see all as equal, not so it seems because we see this inequality in most religions...
,

It's difficult to fight thousands of years of tradition within the space of half a century and of course, we know that absolute Brahman is genderless...we know that we are not this (female) body and neither does the opposite apply...yes, so I could set myself up as a 'guru' tomorrow knowing this within myself, but that doesn't mean those who are totally ignorant of the fact are going to know it...and there are more of them out there than us.

See, there are also many 'Gurus' who the majority in India or us in the west don't even know about, because they were not popularised by the media...or they lived before the time when such media popularisation was 'in vogue'...and they have basically been resigned to the annals of oblivion now...like Allama Prabhu, Basavanna and even those like Patanjali and Adi Shankara are fading because personages like Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharishi, Yogananda etc have video footage existing of themselves which proved they existed!

When people think of 'Gurus', they tend to think of Ramana, Buddha, Jesus, Ramakrishna, Aurobindo, Swami Sivananda, Ramakrishna...all male and all 'popularised through rhetoric' and so the trend continues...and it self-perpetuates...and meanwhile, if a Tamil Siddhar doesn't get noticed, if the Kashmir Shaivites don't get much mention, if people associate 'guru' with personages like 'Srila Prabhupada' because that is all they know...what chance does a woman have?

I was thinking about doing the whole 'kundalini yoga' thing but Nirmala Devi beat me to it and that isn't how I would go about teaching it...but she is famous now and I am not...ah well.

Om Namah Shivaya

[sky]

Thanks DS... I have never heard of the names you posted ( pre-internet ones ) but Nirvala Divi I have. She has an interesting background and if I'm right was brought up in a Christian home, she seems to have helped people a lot and was very much loved.
Yes she is on my next ( must read list ) now you have reminded me of her, , recommend a book please...

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by sky123

Thanks DS... I have never heard of the names you posted ( pre-internet ones ) but Nirvala Divi I have. She has an interesting background and if I'm right was brought up in a Christian home, she seems to have helped people a lot and was very much loved.
Yes she is on my next ( must read list ) now you have reminded me of her, , recommend a book please...

You know, I have seen videos of her giving 'Shaktipat' (energy transmission) to people...all of this 'cool breeze' stuff...all of her teachings which are rather cult-indoctrinating (to me anyway) despite the fact that other/many people love her, but I couldn't get through a single book of hers, unfortunately...you could try "The Divine Cool Breeze" which I had to put down after reading about a quarter of it.

When one has been totally spoiled by 'The Serpent Power' by Arthur Avalon, 'Kundalini and the Evolution of Man' by Pundit Gopi Krishna, 'The Kundalini Tantra' by Swami Satyananda Sarasvati, the 'Hatha Yoga Pridipika' by Swami Svatmarama and the 'Pancatattva secret ritual', the 'Tibetan Mahanirvana Tantras' and 'Soundarya Lahari' by Adi Shankaracharya, it's hard to read anything that Nirmala Devi writes, because it's like a university graduate trying to read a kindergarten book...'see Spot run...run, Spot, run'...meh.

Om Namah Shivaya

[Shivani Devi]

Namaste.

Here's a huge 'why?' for you, sky. It's all about human nature and relative hypocrisy.

Ever since I joined this forum, whenever anybody asked a question about Hinduism, whenever anybody asked about the Vedas, or a Mantra or Yoga...I was the only one to reply. The only one!

If I did not reply, the thread would go languishing and nobody did...nobody bothered. I was the one basically keeping this whole forum alive...and if you go back, you can see many instances of where this has occurred.

After I replied when nobody else did, the thread would immediately die...what I wrote always went unchallenged...nobody ever refuted or questioned whatever I wrote, nobody chipped in with their help or offered the opening poster any alternative viewpoint...my replies stood testament to an unalloyed truth.

Even the Opening Poster rarely returned to 'thank me' or say 'I helped' or anything like that...and in a few cases, after I replied, not another post was ever made by them on the whole forum.

Nobody seemed to care...nobody seemed to give a damn, until I said I was an enlightened Deva and then everybody and their Hindu dog crawled out of the woodwork to admonish me and tear pieces off me.

Now, when ever anybody asks a question in this forum, I feel like saying "would you like an enlightened Deva to reply, or just a regular human soul on this forum?" and watch what will happen...everybody will be falling over themselves to reply and help that person...this forum will explode into a hive of activity...it will be the busiest sub-forum on here.

I'm pretty much over this whole thing...I can see the total hypocrisy of the whole situation and I don't like the smell of it.

Also, people don't like hearing the blatant truth which can be proven by a simple forum search.

...and me asking 'why?' is merely rhetorical because I already know the answer.

Om Namah Shivaya