Barren women What is auspicious in society is decided by certain people and you know how sensibly those people are living their lives, first of all! Those women who have a dozen children, in what way are they more complete than somebody who does not have children and is still happy? One person does not have children by choice, and maybe someone else is incapable of bearing a
child due
to some biological reason; then she suffers, since she is incapable of doing something that is a simple biological function of being a woman. It’s just a simple biological function. So, if the woman has chosen not to have children, she has no problems with it by herself. It is just that social stigma can come for anything that you do. Even if you sit and meditate you may get a social stigma! For a very long time - for thousands of years - India has had an agriculture-based society, not a huntinggathering kind. Only small tribal segments have been the hunting-gathering kind. Agriculture is always labor-intensive. Today, we hire labor to do things, it’s a different situation; but earlier everybody worked on their own lands and made their own food from the land. So, how many children you had was a great asset; it was a great asset especially if you had male children. As you know, women who have only girls are also considered inauspicious. Only when she bears a boy is she auspicious. The king determined this, because without a boy there was nobody to take over his position. He wanted only his blood to take over this position, which is just an extension of himself. His son ruling the kingdom is just like him continuing to rule the kingdom after his death. If somebody else takes it, it’s not good enough; that’s the mentality. So, children were a very important part of life for survival and for economic and social situations. Also, people did not experience life to any depth with any other aspect except by bearing children. It’s as if you have not experienced life. A woman who has borne a child has experienced some intense moments of being involved with another being in some way. When she sees another woman who does not have children, she thinks that the woman has not known this involvement with life at all - it could be true. This involvement matures the person in so many ways, so the other is scoffing at the one who does not have a child, “You have not known involvement; you are barren with life. Not only as a physical body are you barren, you are barren with life! You have not known life.” Just as people say, “If tears of joy and tears of peace and love have not washed your cheeks, you are barren.” Just like that they are speaking to the childless woman. There are various aspects involved - social, economic, emotional, physical, biological aspects also. Over a period of time, if such a natural function as child bearing does not happen, the woman is a freak in some way, as far as society is concerned. So, whatever you are incapable of, people have always made fun of. If you cannot hear, they will make fun of it. If you cannot walk, they will make fun of it. It took a lot of time, evolution and culture for people to understand that if someone cannot walk, it is not a laughing matter. He needs love, compassion and support. Similarly, if somebody cannot bear a child, she needs love, compassion and support. It will take a lot of time for people to understand that. I think people are beginning to understand that now, which they did not in the past.
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Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is a yogi and mystic with profound mastery of the ancient science of yoga. He is one of few yogis capable of transmitting the subtlest aspects of yoga, enabling every person to become meditative. Sadhguru oversees Isha Foundation, an entirely volunteer-run, nonprofit service organization dedicated to cultivating human potential through yogic science. At the core of the Foundation's initiatives is a customized system of yoga called Isha Yoga--a set of programs and practices specially designed to address the challenges of modern living. www.ishausa.org, www.BeBreatheBlossom.com
