Home Women's Initiative Part II Part III

Embracing Universal Motherhood for Peace & Harmony:
The Amritavarsham50 Women's Initiative

Speaking on "Women in the Workplace" was Prof. Mangalam Srinivasan, a special advisor of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. In pressing the importance of equal opportunity for women in the working world, Prof. Srinivasan quoted extensively from poets, feminist writers, Civil Rights leaders, astronauts, astronomers, politicians and religious figures. "The achieved woman is more than a mentor; she is a powerful change agent," she said. "Lest we might forget, let’s remember what Amartya Sen tells us: 'The effects of inequality impoverish women as well as men.'"

Prof. Manglam Srinivasan

Prof. Srinivasan ended her speech by making two challenges. The first was directed to the women of the world, that they make sure that even while they "grieve and rage over past injustices," they recognize that "the blame-game does not get us anywhere." The second was to the CEOs and business leaders of Amritavarsham50's CEO Summit, which would convene the next day. She challenged that assembly to set up a unique venture that would help "great women achieve great women power where ideas will be valued in the creation of great human futures." As she would be attending the CEO Summit, she proclaimed that she would personally lead the effort.

The next speaker was Swamini Niranjanananda, a resident acharya of the Chinmaya Mission. The swamini spoke on "Reinstating Women’s Roles in Religion," going in to great detail about how highly women were revered in Vedic times and lamenting their status in today's world. The swamini pointed to how, even though 27 of the hymns of the Rig-Veda were written by women, today women are often suppressed from reading those holy texts. She explained that in Vedic times women were invested with the sacred thread, performed puja, were free to become seekers of Truth and were even trained in the art of war.

In conclusion, the swamini praised Amma at length, saying the only hope for humanity was to develop the qualities associated with motherhood, as lived and professed by Amma. "One Mata Amritanandamayi, I feel, can bring about the integration of the people of the world in a deeper sense than any number of organizations like the UN." "The greatest Guru-dakshina [offering] that we can give to Mother is to carry out the work that She has envisaged and help Her in all ways to bring up this country, this nation, to the pristine glory that it enjoyed in the Vedic period. That, indeed, is Vedanta in its highest sense."

Dr. Poornima Advani and Amma

Dr. Poornima Advani, the chairperson of India's National Commission for Women, was the next to address the Women's Initiative. In her speech, "Altering the Image of Women in the Minds of Abusers," Dr. Advani came out strong against girl-foetus infanticide and other physical crimes against women, as well as the dowry system. Throughout, she also quoted Amma's teachings as a means to transcend the current situation.

Dr. Advani said, "Let us all ensure that the victims of violence fall within our balance sheet of concern: the victim of violence before she’s born, the victim of violence after birth, and the victim of violence when she is a divine soul but we call her a widow, and we ill-treat her. I was reading Amma’s statement that, ‘The only answer is that we have to call to Him, but call to Him in a manner that he should listen to you.' Yes, let's all join our hands at this moment and pray that we can really call to Him to bring out a new social order, a social order of love, compassion and peace, where true equality helps to, between men and women, bring about a change in the image of the women in the mind of the abuser."

Also speaking on abuses against women was Smt. Mridula Sinha, the chairperson of India's Central Social Welfare Board. In her talk, "Old Abuses, New Solutions," Smt. Sinha said we must spread throughout the world the idea that our small daughters are the future mothers, the symbols of the embodiment of motherhood. "Men and women are not equal," she reminded us. "Our boys and girls are not equal. I always say, 'Don’t go for equality.' Women are giving everything: birth of a child, love, affection, everything. We are giving, so our hands are upper hands. ... There is an ancient anecdote: When Brahma created the world, he was worried who would look after the world. Then he created a mother. So we have to treat them as a special, visesh." Smt. Sinha ended by saying, "The idea of Universal Motherhood that Amma has raised and is promoting—with the help of voluntary organisations and society in general—is so great that it will engulf a whole ocean. I end this talk of mine assuring you that I will contribute my drop-like effort to this oceanic endeavour of Amma."

Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, the founder and former academic director of the Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts in New Delhi, spoke next. Her topic was "Reverence or Exploitation: Portrayals of Women in Classical Art & Modern Media." Dr. Vatsyayan lamented the trivialization of Hindu culture in such things as the dances performed during Navaratri [the nine nights of celebrating the Divine Mother]. She also stressed that women "want the principle of complimentality and not of competition. The principle of being different, the principle of being one-not-complete-without-the-other."

Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts

She ended by saying, "The mother is the only one who understands herself and goes out to the other to understand 'the other.' Which is the beginning of altruism, which is the beginning of that selflessness, which all of mothers are conversant in."