- “Goddess!”
How often have we (women) heard
this and how rarely have we connected it to its real meaning, let alone the one
who said the compliment!
This is one of the enigmas about which I have thought, mulled, meditated... so
much so that I came to think of it as the enigma of human existence, as the
most amazing thing. That in spite of constantly seeing that everything is full
of consciousness, human beings choose to live unconsciously.
A story that comes to mind
I once read a mythological
story in the Mahabharata, the Hindu
epic, in which a sage named Yudishtira had followed his brothers to drink from
a lake in the jungle. Upon reaching the lake he was surprised to see that they
all were lying, unconscious, on the ground. While trying to understand why, a
heavenly being appeared before him and challenged him to answer a questionnaire
or die as all his brothers, without drinking the water.
Yudishtira was a sage well
known for his virtues. With a peaceful mind, not giving way to lamentation, nor
trying to antagonize that being, he humbly accepted the challenge, and did so
with such sincerity that not only managed to drink from the lake, but the being,
pleased with his responses, returned his brothers to normal consciousness and showered
blessings on them.
Among the questions Yudishtira answered there is one that became famous, the
one which inquired about the most amazing thing in life. Yudisthira said that
it was "the fact that witnessing how countless creatures die every day, man
thinks and acts as if he were never going to die."
When I read it I said: yes, it is so, but I would rephrase it a bit, to assist
us now, because the most striking phenomenon of modern life is that millions of
people worldwide, though seeing that in and around them everything is full of
Consciousness, they choose to live unconsciously.
The paradigm-shift
The times are different. In the times of the Mahabharata human life did not last long and unless one was born in
certain privileged class, all that life perhaps elapsed without receiving any
instruction about the existence of God. And if you were born a woman... well,
why to get into the subject. The point is that now not only life lasts longer
and the media have erupted in diverse modes of expression allowing everyone access
to everything, but we are besides living in an era that some have begun to call
the ‘feminization of existence’ or ‘social feminization.’ Which would be like
saying that the paradigm has shifted. We changed from a paternalistic way to
understand and explain existence to a ‘maternal’ one, for lack of a better
term.
On the axis of the Feminine Consciousness
Humanity is rotating around the axis of feminine consciousness. Whether one
admits it or not.
The words ‘love,’ ‘feelings,’ ‘vulnerability,’ ‘beauty,’ etc, previously
considered weak, today are strong. A politician who includes those keywords in
his speeches will be much closer to the audience than one who does not. Today
to admit that one is vulnerable, nervous, or that feels in one’s heart that one
must do something, is the most direct way to gain the trust and affection of
the public.
The macho model, powerful, aggressive, direct, and devoid of feelings, is
history. And this goes for everything. For a software to be accepted in the
market it must be ‘intuitive;’ in order to solve labor problems, companies must
invite ‘friendly communication;’ so that regional markets may reach the desired
benefit one promotes ‘cooperation;’ for
a product to be sold one must care about the ‘aesthetic;’ for a family
relationship to prosper it must be ‘positively nurtured;’ to be successful you
have to have ‘emotional intelligence,’ and so on. We could fill a book with countless
feminine qualities present in our daily lives and that we are continually
presented with as role models for everything we do, say, think, consume and
produce.
Understanding ‘the feminine’
The feminine is viewed as kind, generous, creative, nurturing, seeking the
benefit of all, beautiful, dynamic, flexible, patient, always new, spontaneous,
sensitive, honoring life, inclusive, loving, close to the heart, expressing the
Soul.
Of course ‘the feminine’ is in all human beings and everything, that is why all
is about the Feminine Consciousness and not merely the feminine gender.
And why not?
In an age where the feminine is so evident, where everyone, precisely because
we are turning on the axis of the Feminine Consciousness, can more easily perceive
that nature is full of consciousness, it would be almost logical that one would
build one’s life at that frequency, so to speak. It would also be almost
logical that women could take the upper hand, now that they are playing at home. And
yet it is not so. Why?
Because, for the moment, humanity still tends to get stuck on the external
aspects of this unlimited manifestation. The Feminine Consciousness is so wonderful
that one can get caught up in the beauty of the silhouettes of its projected
shadows believing them the real thing.
The change is mine
The electricity may be back at my house after a power cut, and I know it
because I heard it on the radio, read it in the newspaper and was told by a neighbor,
but if I don’t switch the light my house will remain in darkness.
Likewise, the paradigm may change and thus open new avenues to understanding
humanity, but if I do not change with it, then it does not matter because the
next time I walk on the pavement and a man tells me “Goddess!” I will feel the
same limited identification with the body that, as the wise man said “it is
going to die anyway,” and I will forget again that the Goddess really lives in
me, that my heart is her altar and my mind her means of expression, that I can
let her take the reins of my life and use this body to express her grandeur,
her beauty, her intelligence and above all: her love.
Or, from the other side of the pavement, the next time I tell a woman
“Goddess!” I will do it thinking that she is a body and, what is worse, that
she is there to give me pleasure. And thus, identifying myself with what is bound
to perish and lowering existence to that level, forget the mother that lives in
me, in every beat of my heart and to whom I owe my life, and I will lose the
chance to become her worshipper, the opportunity to love and be loved, to live
consciously.
It is a matter of choice
We can spend a lifetime unconscious, believing that everything ends with the
body and the mind, or, taking by the hand the inner Goddess, walk consciously
seeing life through her eyes.
22 August, 2012
