Where are the women? You might find this title a bit odd. There’s a reason why I chose it, and why it is a worthwhile question to ask when we consider the topic of women and spirituality.
Some days ago, I was in the audience at a seminar in New Delhi. The esteemed speaker, a gentleman well-advanced in scholarship and years, was listing the notable saints and sages of Banaras, the ancient sacred city. I listened keenly for the women saints of Banaras. None were mentioned. I could not help ask the gentleman and other scholars on the panel – where are the women? They didn’t have an answer!
It is hard to imagine that in India, with its rich and ancient tradition of exploring the nature of truth and reality, and of spiritual adventuring and apprenticeship, that there did not periodically emerge women seekers, adepts and teachers. Yet this is what we are given to believe – that the women who did venture on to the spiritual path were few and can literally be counted on the fingers of our hands. What’s going on here?
I think the problem is two-fold. One: of patriarchy, and two: of lack of documentation. And they are connected. Because women were not valued, their lives and pursuits were not considered worthy of documentation. This is a trend that is now recognized in history, not only vis-à-vis women but also those who were dispossessed and marginalized, and were the ‘common folk’. History has always been written under the aegis of those in power. In patriarchy, this would be the men.
This historical lacuna is now being rectified with the Subaltern Studies movement, and the ‘history from below’ approach that focuses on the perspectives and experiences of those who were not considered important earlier – such as the working classes, regions like Asia and Africa, certain ethnic groups, and yes, women.
I will not go into detail here about either Subaltern Studies or Feminism, both complex areas of scholarship. It will suffice to say that a lack of credible documentation of the spiritual lives of women has been an inspiration for my research in this direction.
This is the work of ‘Herstory’, or the recording of women’s experiences in their own voices. As many of the women interviewed for my research project on contemporary women’s spirituality, said, ‘It is not because there were few spiritually accomplished women that we don’t hear of them, it is because nobody wrote down their stories. Nobody thought it was important enough.’
Women masters have also not been documented because of their own wish to remain in the background – a sort of internalization of gender-based cultural conditioning. For instance, there is an anecdote Tsultrim Allione recounts in her book Women of Wisdom (Snow Lion Publications, 2000). Ayu Khandro is 114 years old, an accomplished woman master of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet. Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is a young 17-year-old student who is sent to her for spiritual instruction. And she says to him, ‘What can I teach you? Why do you want to know about me?’ Allione remarks that she doesn’t believe there is one male teacher who would say the same thing in her position. The reason we know she existed at all was because Namkhai Norbu persisted with her, got her story, and smuggled it out with him when he escaped from China-occupied Tibet in 1959.
Since the beginning of 2006, I have been speaking to a diverse range of women, conducting interviews, traveling to homes, ashrams and nunneries all over India. Some of these women are gurus and teachers, some head monastic communities, while others juggle families and careers with their spiritual practice. They form a vibrant, motley group, and are drawn from a cross-section of religions, wisdom traditions, socio-economic backgrounds, even nationalities.
I have tried to be as inclusive as possible in terms of traditions and religions, and have given primacy to the spiritual over the socio-religious. This has meant emphasizing the quest for deeper meaning, a seeking for the reality of life and indeed oneself, over formalized religious institutions and practices.
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