Periods, parents and society.

Periods,  parents and society.

1] Balanced views come with experience, encounters and educated evaluation. So no wonder it is an article with very balanced views on very sensitive topic.

Here is the link to the article

http://mythrispeaks.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/menstrual-taboos-and-ancient-wisdom/

2] Baseless and blinding beliefs, fettering faiths, tormenting traditions, rigid religious practices, mutilating mores, senseless social taboos, human reason confining cultural dictates etc must be weeded out for any sane human emancipation.

3] Dominating streams, institutions and individuals have always subdued other subjects, institutions and individuals to progress as effectively as they ought to have and curbed many great souls and their findings.

This has happened and continues to happen as an inevitable part or aspect of evolution.

4] But what is worse is uncritical love and unloving criticism leading more towards justification of either one of those stands rather than relevant reasoning that actually further  strengthens such predatory and predominating factors so much that even when they are fossilized return to haunt us. The frustration of all the stake holders the predators, prey manifest in extreme stands and vindications leading to venerating the venal and vilifying the values.

5] For example today in India the film world and media gets predominant and disproportionate importance. While many great scientists are working in silence and unrecognized the half baked news reporters and film stars who appear in a single film get prominence and majority of our gossips, discussions, obsessions, media projections , programs and even so called cultural programs are all weaved around them. Actually we do not realize we are wasting much of our valuable time, with which our life is chronologically measured, engaging in these activities. This trend is very dangerous for a society’s culture, education and values.

6] This type of predominance has happened even in the case of many great scientists like even Newton, Galileo, Swammerdam, Boyle, Pascal all fell prey to religion which was a dominating stream in their days .

Recognition for Galileo had to wait till 1992- 350 years after his death. He was denied even a public funeral.

7] But the consoling factor is that I find a positive trend in many countries and among many individuals who have decided to come out of their shell and question, analyze, boldly criticize the accepted authorities with solid reason to enable progress and bring people out of their ideological and identification cages.

8] For example even in science Thomas Crumps writes that “as a scientist Aristotle is unequalled, both for his influence on posterity and for his capacity to be mistaken about fundamentals”, and the great Bertrand Russell went on to say, “everything…..that Aristotle said on scientific subjects proved an obstacle to progress”.

9] A few months back I got this article. Very true observation and any rational thing coming from any source we must try to understand and accept even it goes against the centuries of tradition

http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2013/10/lets-talk-periods-can-talk-women-empowerment-without/

10] Ramakrishna pramahamsa used to be served tea in the evening by which time he would mostly come out of the Kali temple to answer queries from his disciples. Once he was in such deep trance he did not come out and Saradha devi had come with hot tea as usual and finding him still inside the sanctum sanctorum said loudly I have brought tea but I cannot come inside as I am having menstrual cycle to which Sri Ramakrsrishna paramahamsa laughed loudly and said, “if persons with menstrual period cannot enter then what about Kali Maa herself . I am seeing her in human form with all the biological aspects of a human being. So stop getting influenced by useless, meaningless and irrelevant taboos and do come inside”. Can there be a greater saint than Ramakrishna paramahamnsa.

11] Already it is one of the most nauseating things to experience i.e. any involuntary and uncontrollable discharge from any of the 9 holes in the human body.

12] The problem happened when religion and people manning religions, mostly males reigned over everything and framed rules irrelevantly for even purely biological aspects interpreting them with many cultural, social and religious traditions and taboos.

13] Leviticus 15:19-30English Standard Version (ESV)
19 “When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. 20 And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. 21 And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 22 And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 23 Whether it is the bed or anything on which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening. 24 And if any man lies with her and her menstrual impurity comes upon him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean."
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+15%3A19-30&version=ESV

14] All traditions and taboos must give way for reason and scientific knowledge, and more importantly resort to evaluate everything with relevant tools and not entangle, entrench and engulf everything with ancient religious mores, irrational cultural and social evaluations, traditions and taboos either regional or global.

15] When I read the article in above link I wrote this http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/12/life-or-product.html

16] All these have continued because the society has been predominantly androcentric and in human species the mechanisms of dominance are subtle and oft times lurking and once someone/some group emerges as a predator or a predominating figure they always try to continue to have control.

17] It is this tendency to exercise control and resort to competing rather than co operating and complimenting that most of the problems erupt among various human relationships   

18] Here is another article http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2013/11/ever-increasing-vicious-circle-menstrual-taboos/

19] Here is very thoughtful comment for one the article by a girl called Ritu

“Next time when you refer to a woman’s menses, think of it as a process of preparation of the insides of her body, for it to be able to instill life into a fertilized egg and nurture it, till it becomes a tiny human being, ready to come into the world.

No part of a woman’s menstrual cycle is ‘polluting’ anything, anyone, or anyplace.

So let us talk about periods per se: I suppose it will be useful to put together some v. common facts (already mentioned in different comments and the article itself), for some of the uninitiated readers of this article:
a. It is not blue. It is Blood Red, Cherry red. Plum red. Deep red.

b. Degree of pain during periods varies among different girls/women. Also the degree of pain may even differ from time to time for the same girl/woman.

c. It is part of the natural process to prepare the lining of the womb for nurturing a fertilized egg. Since an egg is released every month and (Therefore) there is a chance of ovulation every time, this process repeats every month.

d. A lot happens inside the body between periods. Its just as similar a system as the systems of digestion, respiration, immune…

It has nothing to do with tradition, religion, faith, beliefs etc or any abstractions of the human mind.

It is a purely scientific system in the functioning of the human body and, I’d say, humanity. And if you call the Human Body a marvelous creation of God, well periods are a very integral part of the same marvelous creation.

Some amazing content related to periods:
1. When a man wore a pad! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rd8TkzhDfw
2. In Humor – Women don’t bleed blue! http://www.openthemagazine.com/…/women-don-t-bleed-blue”

20] Most important lesson out of all these is that we must question everything and stop not until we get rational response and refrain from justifying by comparing what other religions do? What other societies do? Who is authorized to decide on such issues etc? All these are symptoms of pinning life to traditions, unwillingness to accept facts, escape change etc. For want of time and space and to avoid controversies I have avoided scriptural nonsense on this issue.