Woman and Goddess in Hinduism
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For the renowned philosopher of hermeneutics Hans-Georg Gadamer (2000), the acknowledgment of the Other as a self-aware subject, with existence and experience that may challenge and alter our perspectives, should be at the root of our understanding. Keeping this position in mind, let us regard this quotation from his essay “Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity; Subject and Person” in which he distinguishes between Heidegger’s and his own approach to intersubjectivity:
I was trying, in opposition to Heidegger, to show how the understanding of the Other possesses a fundamental significance. The way Heidegger had developed the preparation of the question of Being, and the way he had worked out the understanding of the most authentic existential structure of Dasein, the Other could only show itself in its own existence as a limiting factor. In the end, I thought the very strengthening of the Other against me would, for the first time, allow me to open up the real possibility of understanding. To allow the Other to be valid against oneself—and all my hermeneutic works gradually develops from there—is not only to recognize in principle the limitation of one’s own framework, but is also to allow one to go beyond one’s own possibilities, precisely in a dialogical, communicative, hermeneutic process. (284)
Thus, according to Gadamer’s vision, intersubjective dialogue provides a means for the extension of one’s own possibilities for growth and understanding. To “allow the Other to be valid against oneself” means to relativize one’s own position/belief/worldview and understand that it is only one among a variety of possible positions; it also helps one to recognize that every stance one takes has been informed by one’s own background and presuppositions. This premise seems self-evident after decades of postmodern discourse. Nevertheless, the fusion of horizons that Gadamer famously advocated for has yet to fully manifest, because its point of departure is not merely that “all things are relative.” It begins with the premise that we have something to learn from the Other; that we grow conceptually when we take the Other’s self-understanding seriously and find the lacuna in our own vision filled by new insights gleaned. This conceptual growth does not include the uncritical legitimation of every view held, and every practice engaged in, by the Other. The keyword here is understanding, not legitimation. Clearly, the Other may be beholden to highly problematic worldviews and lifestyles. Yet, even in such a case, inter-subjective approaches will, as Gadamer notes in the citation given earlier, “open up the real possibility of understanding” because no actual comprehension of the impact of the ideas and practices of the Other — whether positive or negative—is possible without understanding how these things are actually experienced by the Other. Intersubjectivity allows for further travel along the hermeneutical path because only in conversation can I discover whether I truly understand what I believe I understand. As philosopher Simon Glynn (1998: 9) notes:
There is, of course, an ambiguity in [the] notion of the Other, in that it is not (only) the world of objects, but, or so Hegel, for example, would claim, other subjects, that reflect me to myself, thereby rendering me self-conscious . . . [Thus], entering into communicative relation with the other we come to re-cognize this relation as the primordial ground from which the notions of self and other, together with the problematic of communication, derive.
Glynn, like Gadamer, is pointing us to the insight that in the intersubjective exchange, understanding—not only of the Other, but of the self—is enhanced. Only when the “Other” is regarded as subject and not object is such intersubjective encounter possible. But a critical reflection on our internal response is also necessary. This is where dialexis becomes relevant. Hans Georg Gadamer, especially, through his extensive arguments for the indispensability of “Vorurteil“ (prejudgment, culturally and historically conditioned presuppositions), has convinced many of the necessity of arguing in a “virtuous circle” when dealing with understanding anything in depth. “Circle,” in such a context, is no longer mere metaphor but a true description of the process of understanding that moves from a given premise to embrace a new situation in order to return to the origin of the question. The acute awareness of our own preconceptions can provide the space for self-examination and lead to greater clarity and comprehension, not only in a given field of study, but in terms of our own lifeworld. Indeed, perhaps hermeneutical spiral is a better description of this process.
In the process, not only is understanding achieved, but the questioner is rewarded with a deeper understanding of the possibilities that exist for her/his own worldview. The hermeneutical circle is often visible in the works of comparative scholars who, in their quest to understand the Other, uncover deep insights and hidden intuitions within their own traditions. Francis X. Clooney’s comparative work, for example, often exhibits the marks of the hermeneutical circle. For this to occur, however, one has to engage across styles, by way of which one can see over and through the lexical choice of the “Other” (not by suspending prejudgment or Vorurteil, for this is impossible, but by being conscious of it and of the form it may impart to one’s understanding).
Consequently, as Ricoeur (1981: 44) observes, “understanding ceases to appear as a simple mode of knowing in order to become a way of being” (emphasis added). The hermeneutics of intersubjectivity offers an orientation whereby such a transformation becomes possible when faced with a lifeworld different from our own.
BEYOND THE EMIC/ETIC CHASM
This volume attempts to provide a forum for constructive intersubjective scholarship on Hinduism and the Feminine. As scholars, whether we study the elements of our own tradition or those of another, we are, due to the very nature of our work, “outsiders.” Therefore, in this context, the cultural or religious background of the scholar is not at issue. What is significant is the hermeneutical methodology. This group of essays applies (i) an intersubjective constructive or critical lens to encounters with the feminine in Hinduism within (ii) the framework of dialexis. In offering constructive, reflective examinations without the requirement of a confessional stance, this project challenges current conceptions of the emic/etic chasm and its expected impact on scholarship.
THEMES
Part I: Theological Reflection
The essays of this volume apply a hermeneutics of intersubjectivity to elicit a nuanced and multilayered examination of the philosophical and pragmatic value of Hindu understandings of the feminine, human and divine, in terms of three major orientations. First, there is an exploration of conceptual resources, within greater Hindu traditions of the feminine divine, for thealogical reflection and reconstruction (Sharma, Clooney, and Saxena, in this volume).
“Sat, Suttee, and Svitr,” written by Arvind Sharma, observes that the ideals traditional Hindu women are supposed to follow are enshrined in Hindu traditions in the expression “Sat-Svitr.” This expression refers to two ideal women within the Hindu tradition, the details of whose mythic or legendary life are much celebrated in Hindu lore and known to most Hindus, at least in broad outline. It is also conventionally believed that the ideal for the traditional Hindu widow is similarly represented by the figure of the woman who burns herself with her husband at the funeral pyre, or in other words, by the wife who performs Suttee. Sharma argues that although Svitr is placed alongside Sat by tradition as the carrier of traditional norms (in the expression Sat-Svitr), she really turns out to be a countermodel to the Sat/Suttee. The biographical details of her life call into question at least three aspects of the “traditional” patriarchal Hindu values, namely, that the birth of a boy is to be preferred to that of a girl; that the virtuous daughter accepts the husband chosen for her by her parents, instead of choosing him herself; and that if he predeceases her, then she should ideally accompany him in the afterlife by committing Suttee. Sharma argues that the real significance of the projection of Svitr as an ideal type, as embodying the power of a woman’s tapas (the “heat,” or power of ascetic practices) to transvalue traditional patriarchal mores, has been overlooked.
Francis Xavier Clooney’s essay “F
emale Beauty, Female Power: Seeing Dev in the Saundarya Lahar” suggests that the one hundred verses of the medieval hymn of praise for the Great Goddess known as the Saundarya Lahar is a promising resource for a rethinking of gender that can be relevant to both Hindu and wider contexts. The Saundarya Lahar praises the Goddess (Dev) as consort of iva and as world foundation and world ruler, as the energy pervading the Tantric cakras and rising as kundalin through them, as represented indirectly in yantric designs and secret mantras, and as the beautiful focus of liberative visualization. Commentators on the hymn have highlighted, by literary analysis, the interaction between theoretical and practical theologies of bliss and the soteriological aesthetics of beauty. In this literary tradition, conventional expectations are honored but revisioned in a way that does complexify and privilege appearance, physicality, and relatedness in a thealogy that has much to offer contemporary reflections on femininity, physicality, and divinity.
Neela Bhattacharya Saxena undertakes a personal hermeneutical journey in “Mystery, Wonder, and Knowledge in the Triadic Figure of Mahvidy” to uncover the nuances of meaning hidden in the worship of the esoteric deity Chinnamast, one of a major iconographic group of ten forms (the Mahvidys) of the Great Goddess. Chinnamast is quite well known among the tantric practitioners, but she is hardly known among lay worshippers of the Goddess. There are very few temples dedicated to her, and her image is not meant to be worshipped by ordinary people. This essay is a personal, constructive exploration into the meaning of Chinnamast. Saxena observes that the mystery, wonder, and knowledge intrinsic to that icon illustrates how the mind is capable of visualizing ultimate abstractions in the most concrete of images. She argues that in this liberating figure congregate many philosophical ideas: the nondual nature of reality reflective of Upaniadic thinking and dualities such as death and life or spirit and matter merge in that icon in such a way that the nondualist vision becomes immanently real, making the world of lived reality radiantly numinous.
Part II: Reclaiming Alternative Modalities of Feminine Power
Hindu perceptions of the divine feminine inform and shape Hindu expressions of female agency and authority that are beginning to be articulated in a different key from Western feminist ideals. Taking this as a point of departure, the second thematic discourse is toward an examination of alternative modes of construction of the feminine, available within the Hindu traditions, that offer empowerment to women and potential for cross-cultural dialogue on interpretations of the feminine in feminist philosophical and sociological discourse (Herman, Pechilis, and Biernacki, in this volume).
In “St Rasos and kta Phas: A Feminine Reclamation of Mythic and Epic Proportions,” Phyllis K. Herman challenges stereotypes of St, one of the most important Hindu conceptualizations of the divine feminine, as weak and victimized. Herman notes the existence throughout India of kta Phas, places affirmed as mythic sites of power and sacrality that contain parts of the remains of the sacred body of Sat; (one of the forms of the Goddess) and are renowned as pilgrimage spots. Less well known, but perhaps equally intriguing, are pilgrimage sites dedicated to the remains of the “kitchen” of St, the much loved and long-suffering heroine of the epic Rmyaa. These St’s kitchens (St Rasos) are understood to manifest the power of St (an exemplar of the feminine—both human and divine). Interestingly, St Rasos and kta Phas coexist on the ground in at least two significant locales noted in the Rmyaa, and the nexus of the two models of feminine sacred space combine in a manner evocative of the potential of the power vested in providence and nurturance with which St is so deeply associated. Herman re-envisions this important mythic paragon of the feminine in a way that suggests the veneration of these shrines and the pilgrimages associated with them can empower women by bestowing dignity and valor on that which is and has been such a ubiquitous part of being female. She argues that it is not the name of St’s abnegation but her self-agency that the daily kitchen work of women can be reclaimed as, and transformed into sacred ritual. The ways that this reclamation speaks to, and of, the lives of ordinary women who seek a connection to the divine from within their own pragmatic life experience has important implications for a more pluralistic understanding of the relationship of the feminine and the divine.
“Spreading akti” by Karen Pechilis contributes to the academic discourse on the relationship between women and the feminine divine by focusing on how female gurus (often perceived as embodiments of the Goddess) mediate between their dual identity as guru and woman. At times, this embodiment is made explicit through particular actions of the guru; frequently, it is, in fact, a primary way for devotees to express their understanding of the nature of the guru. The identification of female gurus with the Goddess posits a direct relationship between human women and the feminine divine, both in terms of the guru’s identity and the guru’s relationship with her followers. This direct relationship offers a locus for the constructive study of the implications and preconceptions of tradition, feminism, thealogy, and sociology in the Hindu traditions. Of particular importance is the guru’s simultaneous embodiment of the universal and the particular. The essay reflects on the continuities and contradictions inherent in examining gender within this dynamic, and its implications for cross-cultural explorations in gender construction.
Loriliai Biernacki offers a new understanding of the place of women in Hindu tantra in “The Kl Practice: Revisiting Women’s Roles in Tantra.” Looking at tantra with an explicit focus on gender, Biernacki argues that contrary to the current scholarly assessment of the role of women in tantra, one particular form of tantric practice existing especially in Northeast India in the late medieval period (sixteenth–eighteenth centuries) did in fact empower women by recognizing their capacities for spiritual attainment and through a specific practice of generating an ethic toward women. She focuses on texts that have been entirely overlooked, and yet, she contends, they offer a vision of radical dimensions—the possibility of a recovery of the marginalized subject of woman, the other—in a space outside of and antecedent to the modern Western world. The Kl Practice, on which her argument is centered, particularly presents a way of viewing women that, she avers, valorizes women and also facilitates shifting deeply ingrained attitudes toward them. The praxis involved in the Kl Practice explicitly transcends the limited space of rites of worship of women; the attitude of reverence and respect toward women was expected to be maintained at all times. Working with eight published texts, which have so far been left out of the Western scholarly discussion of women’s roles in tantra, this essay argues for the presence of an alternative view of women. Biernacki’s constructive approach to determining the actual ground realities for women in tantra suggests that an attentive appraisal of this tantric tradition can offer the possibility of a dialectical engagement, the possibility to rethink our own twenty-first-century views, by adapting some of its conceptual formulations to our current context.
Part III: The Feminine Principle in
Hindu Thought and Practice: Problems and Possibilities
The third thematic orientation of the essays is toward a critical assessment of the ways that Hindu principles and practices could, or do, help or hinder women and attitudes toward femaleness in contemporary society (Patton, Jarow, Howard, in this volume).
In “Hindu Rituals on Behalf of Women: Notes on First Principles,” Laurie L. Patton argues for the application of a “feminist” Mmsak perspective. Mmsakas were traditional interpreters of Vedic ritual hermeneutics. Mms (“investigation”) is one of the six stika (“orthodox”) schools of Hindu philosophy that has, as its central task, inquiry into the nature of dharma based on careful hermeneutics of the Vedas. The purpose of the essay is neither to legitimize ancient myths in order to valorize the current situation for women in India nor to raid ancient myths for equally problematic feminist purposes. Rather, Patton argues that certain formal perspectives and knowledge from the Mms and other Indian philosophical traditions could also be of great use in employing time-honored ritual moda
lities for the well-being of women.
Patton suggests a method that focuses on the power of metaphor in certain kinds of Vedic texts, and a fourfold modus operandi: first, following Mark Johnson’s work Moral Imagination (1993), the assumption is that ancient texts can provide us with both metaphors and narratives, which Johnson argues are the stuff of more informed and complex ethical thinking. Second, we assume that this idea of ethical thought is the Sanskrit equivalent of pramna, or right reasoning, of traditional Vedic interpretive philosophy. Third, an inquiry into strdharma, or the codes of conduct by and about the lives of women, is a legitimate and necessary form of inquiry that should be the appropriate topic of Mms. Fourth and finally, because prama can and does outrank sadcara (or traditional concepts of right conduct, morality, or duty) as a form of reasoning about Vedic texts, reinterpretation of Vedic texts can and should provide a critique of current sadcara, or contemporary traditional practices, such as female infanticide in present-day India. In other words, basing her arguments on these four principles, Patton suggests that we might use Vedic texts to provide a sophisticated, traditional argument against religious practices concerning abortion or indeed any other practices that harm women. Patton asserts that the reasoning of prama can and should be understood in ethical as well as “logical” ways. Given the preponderance of Hindu rituals being performed today, she notes the possibility of marshaling the flexibility of traditional ritual philosophy, in tandem with a discussion about women’s health and human dignity, to create ritual alliances with health care on behalf of women and female children. If homa offerings can be performed on behalf of peace, as was done at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta after 9/11, then surely such basic rituals for women’s health can also be part of a contemporary ritual repertoire conducive to the public good.