World without Her

Without Her, He would not be He.

What kind of world would it be? A world without her weakness and strength; a world without her naivety and prudence; a world without her tears and laughter; a world without her impulse and maturity; a world without her chide and love. Imagine...A World without Mothers!!!

Each woman is a mother because of the sanctity of her womb, the very womb which God chose to become Human. Biblically, the first woman was named Eve. Eve means “The Mother of all who have life”. This makes it implicit that she is indeed the source of our existence. For a woman to become a mother should she give birth? If so how did Mary become the mother of John? How did Pharaoh’s daughter become the mother of Moses?  How did Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s wife Sarada become his mother? How did the sisters of Cappadocian Fathers become their mothers? Motherhood is something that is acquired rather than inherited. It is a divine virtue that every woman invariably has in her. When a woman lives in communion with God her womb smells Christ and in that fragrance the entire mankind gets nourished. That is exactly what happened with Mary. She was filled with grace to the brim so as to bear Christ.

Companionship has always been her Divine destiny and she and only she exemplifies it at its best. No one else can outweigh her in it. When does Man think that He could leave Her? Shall we end our relationship with her as soon as our umbilical cords are cut? Shall we abandon her once her stream of milk goes dry? Man ought never to abandon her else his existence would be at stake. But what happened to this Man? Where did he get the audacity and nerve to violate her? When did sex, a divine act, become a means of exploiting and dominating her? When did she become an object for him to quench his lust? Right from Frottage to Necrophilia, Man has become worse than animals. A woman who has been violated in any form slips into the abyss of despair predominantly because of the parochial notion of society. Who said that virginity is something that is associated with the body? Rajneesh Osho reckons “Virginity is a state of mind”. Who gave this society the right to claim monopoly over the body of a woman? What credentials does this society have to valorize a Woman and call her impure? I challenge this society, church and its offshoots. Tell me which part of a woman is impure and I shall tell you the purity of Man. If instigated by demonic emotions look at your navel O Man to hear the cry of your Mother.

Today a relationship survives or is accepted by the so called society only if it has the burden of a name. In this extremely volatile era which relationship should a woman trust and seek shelter under? Father, brother, husband, friend, uncle, grandfather, teacher, pastor….? Which is the place where she can breathe fearlessly? Home, office, school, college, Church, public transport..? Now-a-days even a womb is not safe. All thanks to Obstetric Ultrasonography. Evelyn Cunningham, an American journalist reckons, “Women are the only oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their oppressors.”

Woman cannot feel safe in a society whose morality is defined by ruthless Patriarchy. She cannot feel safe in a Church which still believes that her life giving menstrual blood is a matter of ignominy.  So where shall a woman go? This fills my eyes with tears as I remember a poem by Gagan Gill

Child, go home

Your home is nowhere?

Then go back to the womb.

No mother’s womb?

Go to father’s semen.

Your father is nowhere?

Go to mum’s tubes.

Is the egg there barren?

Then, little one, flow away

In her menstrual blood

just as her longing

goes down the drain –

go that way to

Let the girl be.

Child, go home.

Nangeli was her name. She belonged to the central region of Kerala, in a place called Chertala. It was a time when women had to pay tax to get permission to cover their breasts, Breast Tax or Mula Karam. In the year 1803, Nangeli was brave enough to unflinchingly defy the orders of the State. When the news spread of her defiance, the parvathiyar or the tax collector arrived at her house to collect money. She instead of placing the money in the plantain leaf cut off her breasts with a sickle and presented to him. Her body succumbed to the excessive bleeding and she died. In protest, her husband Chirukandan jumped into her pyre, out of grief and committed suicide. The place she lived came to be known as Mulachiparambu (meaning land of the breasted woman).

Oh God, how many pyres of Her might have burnt for Him to hold his head high? I thirst to repay Her. But how can I…? Today is International Women’s Day but I do not even have the courage to wish her.

This Lent, let us be mindful to protest against any sorts of oppression against women we come across in our private and public spaces. Our small remonstrations could eventually make a big difference after all each drop makes an ocean.

Let us pray

God who incarnated from the womb of a Woman, grant us the hearts to feel the agony and pathos of the women surrounding us. May our intercession to Mother Mary remind us of our responsibility towards affirming the dignity of each woman. For Christ’s sake we pray. Amen

Prayers

Dn. Basil Paul