Mother’s Responsibility
A woman is like a field, while man is just like a seed. If we do not have a field, the seed cannot sprout. For all life on earth, woman is responsible. Great people, great saints, and even great avatars have come into the world because of the help given by a woman functioning as a mother. Thus the strength of a woman is really very sacred. The gopikas were such that they provided luster to the very womanhood. Whether in the matter of patience, or forbearance, or friendship, they showed exemplary conduct.
Digest, p. 330
Without modesty, woman is devoid of beauty and culture. Humility, purity of thought, and manners, meekness, surrender to high ideals, sensitivity, sweetness of temper—the peculiar blend of all these qualities is modesty. It is the most invaluable of all jewels for women. The modest woman will ever keep within limits, through her innate sense of propriety. She becomes automatically aware which behavior is proper and which is improper. She will stick only to virtuous deeds and behavior.
Digest, p. 331
Modesty is the test of woman’s grandeur. If a woman has no modesty, she is injuring the interests of womanhood itself, besides undermining her own personality. She is like a fragranceless flower, which the world does not cherish or honor, or even approve. The absence of modesty makes life, for a woman, however rich in other accomplishments, a waste and a vacuum. Modesty lifts her to the heights of sublime holiness. A modest woman will not crave for honor or praise.
Dharma Vahini, p. 25
Really, woman should strive to achieve the knowledge of the soul and live every moment in the consciousness of her being only the atman; she must evince always a desire to become one with the Divine consciousness. The home where the woman is such, and where the husband and wife are leading their lives in the shade of great ideals, where they together sing the glory of the Name of the Lord and spend themselves in good deeds, where there reigns Truth, Peace, and Love, where regular reading is done of holy books, where the senses are under control, and where there is equal treatment for all creation prompted by the knowledge of the basic unity of all creation, such a home is certainly heaven on earth.
Dharma Vahini, pp. 27-28
It does not matter, how bad or low the husband is; the wife must, through love, bring him round and correct him and help him gain the blessings of the Lord. It is not correct to feel that her progress alone matters and she has no concern in his improvement or uplift. She must feel, on the other hand, that the welfare of the husband, the joy of the husband, the wishes of the husband, the salvation of the husband, these are the panacea for her also. Such a woman will receive the Grace of the Lord automatically, without special effort. By her virtue, she will ensure the salvation of her husband.
Dharma Vahini, pp. 28-29
