How should India raise its daughters? || Acharya Prashant, with MMMUT (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 11.02.23, MMMUT Gorakhpur (Online), Greater Noida  Context: ~ Why aren't Indian women not in many key roles? ~ How to empower women in India?  ~ Why are there severe gender gaps in income in India?  ~ Why is gender-based discrimination a big problem in India? ~ How to educate our daughters?  ~ Where is our standard of beauty coming from?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Good evening, sir. Sir, the women in the Western world, we see, like they are in many prominent

00:07positions like in business, academia, in government, sports, etc. But in India, we see that although

00:15the education has quite opened up for the women, but they aren't seen in many key roles.

00:21So sir, what is the solution to this? What is the ideal way for India to raise its daughters?

00:28The parents, the society, the teachers will have to largely forget that the kid is a daughter,

00:41that the child is a girl child. As long as you are saying, I am raising a daughter, it's

00:49a daughter you will raise. And all daughters will become women. And a woman is a captive

01:04to herself. How can she be liberated? She is as much captivated within her physical

01:15identity as a man is. So, that won't do. Look at a child as a child. The differences

01:29between the two genders are quite minor. It is a society that really exaggerates them.

01:39And it's exaggerated out of ignorance and in the pursuit of pleasure. The man is made

01:47a hyper man, the woman is made a hyper woman. If you do not do that, then there are differences,

01:53but those differences are minor. Also, those differences show up only in specific life

02:02situations, specific physical situations. Otherwise, those differences don't even come

02:07into play. So, the father, the mother, the teachers, why address her in a special way,

02:22in a distinct way? I just do not understand why girls must have a different set of toys

02:32or why they must have different kind of clothes compared to boys. It's quite interesting,

02:41you know. Garments, even for four-year-old girls, are more expensive than those for four-year-old

02:51boys. It's as if both the parents and the girl are being messaged that the girl's worth lies

03:08in her body and therefore her garments. Otherwise, physically, a four-year-old girl and a boy are

03:17much the same, I mean almost the same. How can there be a difference, so much difference in

03:26their garments and in their pricing? And I also fail to understand how is it that, of course,

03:40the bodies are different, but not so different. We simply blow up the differences. It will never

03:49be intelligible to me why must girls have such long hair. I understand there are differences

03:56in height and in build and after puberty the differences get amplified also. All that is

04:08biological, but why must those differences be exaggerated so much? And you are training her

04:23to be body-centric. Do you see that? What is lip color? What are all those things that are gender

04:31specific? How exactly do they translate into beauty? These are very fundamental questions

04:37mankind should ask. At least parents, they must ask themselves these questions. Why must a

04:47responsible mother ever introduce lip gloss to her daughter? Is that not very very violent of her to

04:56introduce the daughter to lip gloss or to costumes that are very feminine? The girl

05:08hardly requires them. See, I am not talking about suppression of sexuality. Let sexuality be a

05:24celebrated thing in life and all that is okay. I am talking of turning someone body-centered at a

05:34very young age when she does not even know what she is going through. As a mature adult, you are

05:42free to discover your sexuality, experiment with it, enjoy it, celebrate, do whatever you want to.

05:50All that should be done with wisdom when you are mature. But when you are a girl and the question

05:57is how should India raise its daughters? When you are in that phase, when you are being raised,

06:02a very very responsible person should be hemming all this. Unfortunately, most parents are

06:12themselves in need of self-knowledge and education, life education. So, the way they treat

06:21their kids, especially their daughters, is pretty horrible. So, the way boys and girls are

06:41differentially introduced to sports and all the little cues that girls keep getting, little but

06:53continuous, continuous. There were seats at the dining table. Who is supposed to help with the

07:06dishes? Who's supposed to go outdoors to play? Who's supposed to have the guns and who will have

07:19the dolls? Who can walk around topless even at the age of seven or eight, right? Seven or eight,

07:33the bodies are not so different. But even if the girl is seven years of age and she's on a beach,

07:41the mother will probably ask her to not go topless and that's not about strangers prying on her. Even

07:51if there is nobody on the beach, the mother will say, oh you please cover up. So, all that turns

07:57the girl very body-centric and that plays havoc with consciousness. A caricature she turns out

08:13into with no appetite for anything sublime. The body becomes a toy, the body becomes a weapon,

08:26and the mind becomes numb. The result of all this is stupidity and then you have the caricature of

08:39the dumb blonde, right? Heard of it? All that is very unfortunate. But what's that meant to

08:49communicate? Someone who is gorgeous, sexy, sexually very compelling, but very dumb of mind.

09:01Why does it come to that, if at all? Why must this unfortunate thing be allowed to happen? No,

09:15it's not allowed to happen, it's made to happen. And we do that with our daughters,

09:20because we ourselves are body identified in the first place. So, these are just two genders,

09:35not two different species, right? Man and woman, these are just two genders, different genders,

09:42not different species. So, her fundamental identity is exactly the same as that of the man.

09:51Her fundamental urge is exactly the same and she wants liberation every bit as much as the man

09:57wants. But we do not realize that because the society itself has been historically man-dominated

10:05and man has no interest in looking at the woman as a conscious entity. Man would rather look at

10:14the woman as a material sexual object to be consumed. And very unfortunately, the woman too

10:24has imbibed this idea. This idea comes from the man and it's not that this idea serves the man,

10:35no. This idea has poisoned even the man's consciousness. Not that this idea is good

10:44for one gender and exploitative towards the other, no. This idea has destroyed both the genders.

10:53And the woman too has embraced this idea of her body, her identity, her life.

11:02It's the mothers that destroy their daughters the most.

11:11So, it's very curious, sometimes you find fathers being liberal and they do not want the daughter

11:23to develop into the typical woman.

11:32More liberal and broad-minded fathers and it's the mother who wants to

11:40confine the daughter and turn her into the stereotypical woman.

11:46So, that's the worst thing that can happen. The woman herself

11:53imbibing a male-centric idea of femininity.

12:06She does not need to develop herself as a toy for the man. She is consciousness.

12:18She deserves to know, learn, explore, experience. Learning is the purpose of her life. Growth is what she's born for.

12:29Growth is what she's born for.

12:39She's not born to give birth.

12:44She has taken birth for her own growth, not to give birth to five other entities.

12:53She does not exist to serve the husband or the kids or somebody else.

13:00Her primary purpose is to serve her own existential internal need and that is for liberation.

13:09That's what she wants. So, she has to get this body-centered image out of her mind.

13:17She has to stop believing that being a wife and being mother are very important things.

13:29Only then can there be liberation for the woman. As long as the idea of womanhood is tied to

13:38her sexual life, which includes life as a mother,

13:43there is no hope for the girl, the woman, and all that is quite sad. Let's change that.

13:53We have already had enough destruction. Let the girls of today put an end to all that crap.

14:02Right?

14:12Oh

14:25You

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