Regard toward women in Hinduism

Can anyone speak to the regard towards women in Hinduism?

From the Mahbharata:

Women in particular, the Rishis have said, are false in behaviour. Women in paticular have been declared in the ordinances to be false. In the very Vedas one may read that women are false

and also:

Women are fierce. They are endued with fierce prowess. They have none whom they love or like so much as they that have sexual congress with them. Women are like those Atharvan incantations that are destructive of life. Even after they have consented to live with one, they are prepared to abandon him for entering into engagements with others. They are never satisfied with one person of the opposite sex. Men should feel no affection for them.
Nor should they entertain any jealousy on account of them. Having a regard only for the considerations of virtue, men should enjoy their society, not with enthusiasm and attachment but with reluctance and absence of attachment. By acting otherwise, a man is sure to meet with destruction. Reason is respected at all times and under all circumstances. There is none in the three worlds who is capable of protecting women.

I thought women were to be worshipped by their households, but these teachings seem to contradict.

[psychoslice]

I think its really too silly to talk about, these words that were written by men never came from a higher power, but from their little brains between their legs.

There’s allot of misogynist stuff in other religions that deserves to be left in the spiritual waste bin. Don’t your core energies tell you that this stuff is bogus & corrossive? That ugly nonsense about women sounds like it was written by a man as it sounds much more like how some males view these issues than how females do.

Beware of those who want to worship females by putting them up on the pedestal. This is just a more subtle & skillful way of isolating them! When one is put up on a pedestal this is usually the first step of getting knocked off of it, w/ the fall off the pedestal being much more severe than the fall if one is standing on the ground, level (equal) w/ the one knocking them off the pedestal. If being up on that (isolated) was really so great why are men not clamoring for the position??? ROFL. Because they know it isn’t one of any power!

There may be other parts of Hunduism that are worthwhile. One need not throw the baby out w/ the bathwater. With all religions, consider the times in which these works were written. Often these were times when women had absolutely NO rights at all & men didn’t have allot of rights unless they were the privileged few percentage of the upper echelon of society.

Give your self the freedom to take from any religion or belief system what works, declining as archaic or N/A what you don’t resonate w/ or what doesn’t make sense. TRUST your gut instinct to make this judgement call.

Misandry, the hatred or dislike of males, is no more useful than misogyny in moving all of us forward. Sometimes there is an inclination to react to misogyny w/ misandry, but the way to move past this isn't to turn the tables & apply the same flawed prejudicial nonsense to males but to to appreciate that all humans have basic rights & while being female may be different from being male in many ways, it isn't a defect. While males can also be very different from females, their difference is also not a defect.

Thank you for your replies. My intent was not judgemental of the writing or of Hinduism. I am also aware of the misogyny throughout other religions and the rest of the world. I am currently about to complete a semester in a world religions class, and was tasked to write a research paper on the vilification of women in the christian bible and hindu scriptures, as it relates to the moral instructions of each religion. It is a compare and contrast assignment of the two aspects, not of the two religions themselves. Also it does not defend or attach either religion or the Patriarchal systems the scriptures were written in. I needed to address the issue with an active Hindu as part of the assignment.

Originally Posted by cchuck

Thank you for your replies. My intent was not judgemental of the writing or of Hinduism. I am also aware of the misogyny throughout other religions and the rest of the world. I am currently about to complete a semester in a world religions class, and was tasked to write a research paper on the vilification of women in the christian bible and hindu scriptures, as it relates to the moral instructions of each religion. It is a compare and contrast assignment of the two aspects, not of the two religions themselves. Also it does not defend or attach either religion or the Patriarchal systems the scriptures were written in. I needed to address the issue with an active Hindu as part of the assignment.

I did a Anthropological essay about Hindu women in India last year, about how Hindu women were traditionally viewed and there is a lot of of it that actually does come from the scriptures - wheither people want to accept it or not, I remember reading for my essay, that a woman's Shakti (energy) can only be maintained by her father (as a young woman), by her husband (as a wife) and then by her son (when she is a widow). But all that aside, this is not a popular view in today's Hindu society, as times have changed, ideas have changed as well.

Also weither you like it or not, it isn't about hating the other sex/gender, it is about research - especially in Anthropology, it is actually preached that you can not be baised. And that the studies of women have actually always been supressed, until recently - so really the world is catching up if you look at it. And why are you guys so quick to dismiss something that is actually interesting to research? I am not a hardcore feminist in anyway, but your comments did make me question what you said. When really majority of history is written about and by men - and it is not about misandry, it is the truth, isn't? So I say go for it, Chuck! If it interests you, then go for it, it is history, it is in the scruptures, it is what it is - no point dismissing it, or hiding from the truth of what happened.

But Chuck, we can discuss this via PM if you like, just to avoid un-necessary arguments here in the forum, as I have said my piece, rather not continue here.

Originally Posted by cchuck

Can anyone speak to the regard towards women in Hinduism?

From the Mahbharata:

Women in particular, the Rishis have said, are false in behaviour. Women in paticular have been declared in the ordinances to be false. In the very Vedas one may read that women are false

and also:

Women are fierce. They are endued with fierce prowess. They have none whom they love or like so much as they that have sexual congress with them. Women are like those Atharvan incantations that are destructive of life. Even after they have consented to live with one, they are prepared to abandon him for entering into engagements with others. They are never satisfied with one person of the opposite sex. Men should feel no affection for them.
Nor should they entertain any jealousy on account of them. Having a regard only for the considerations of virtue, men should enjoy their society, not with enthusiasm and attachment but with reluctance and absence of attachment. By acting otherwise, a man is sure to meet with destruction. Reason is respected at all times and under all circumstances. There is none in the three worlds who is capable of protecting women.

I thought women were to be worshipped by their households, but these teachings seem to contradict.

Mahabharata is a large work, and says many things. There may be some contradiction even.
In fact, women play a key and important role - Satyavati, Kunti, Gandhari - all are portrayed in a powerful and positive way. Also, much is made of the freedom of women to choose their husbands, something that didn't exist in Europe under the feudal system, which I guess is similar to the social order the Mahabharata portrays.

No doubt all the old religions were a bit down on women - there's no reason to single out Hinduism in particular on this score.

Also many female teachers in modern times, such as Sarada Devi, Anandamayi Ma, Sweet Mother of Pondicherry, Amma etc.