-- Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj ji
The reason behind this is because since ages it was believed that the different characteristics, roles and status accorded to women and men in society are determined by sex, that they are natural and therefore not changeable. This is quite visible to all of us that how the birth of the son is celebrated and the birth of a daughter is filled with pain. While growing up boys are encouraged to be tough and outgoing; whereas girls are encouraged to be homebound and shy. In short, all these differences are gender differences and they are created by the society of which we all are a part of.
We should remember one important thing that the human soul, whether it be in a male or a female body, can simultaneously/equally have the male qualities of courage, hard work and strong-willed action as well as female qualities of compassion, caring, nurturing and giving sustenance. Hence it is possible to have these kinds of qualities and further use them in human development by a shift in consciousness, i.e. by being soul-conscious instead of having body consciousness and connecting the self with the supreme source who is the most powerful entity.
But, if one who fails to connect self with the supreme power, he/she would end up having half development because we should understand a fact mentioned in our scriptures that ‘Almighty’ has both the types of qualities and hence by linking self to him one gets both the types of divine qualities, however, identification of the self with the male or female body may deprive a person of half of these and hence spirituality becomes a pre-requisite to facilitate this union between soul and supreme because it ends hostility, antagonism and clash of interests and divisionism in the society and brings integration, strength and solidarity.
So, the ultimate solution for gender inequality does not lie in replacing the male chauvinism by female chauvinism, but by liberating both the halves of the society from gender bias, based on body consciousness.
