"Who burns with the bliss
and suffers the sorrow of every creature within his own heart, making his own
each bliss and each sorrow: him I hold highest of all the yogis." Chapter 7 The Yoga of Meditation, Bhagavad Gita
It
was our experience with the chowkidar’s youngest daughter that fed our desire
to help girl children if we could. Her
name was Cheema. When we first met her, her hair was orange in colour
indicating severe malnutrion. She had a
distended belly and was fond of eating handfuls of dirt – the body’s desperate
attempt probably to get some minerals.
She looked forlorn and unkempt.
Every day, we invited her to eat meals with us. Swamiji would pay special attention to her so
that the family would recognize how important and how deserving of love,
attention and care she was. A daughter was supposed to be a goddess in the
family. Instead, we came to re
alize
Cheema’s life was the norm in many poor families – an example of the endemic
discrimination against girls in the culture.
How could it be? India was one of the only ancient surviving Goddess
cultures, where the divinity of the Feminine Force was still a living
tradition. Shakti Ma was still worshipped and yet her human counterpart endured
the most severe restrictions as well outright cruelty. Her participation in
society was unequal and unbalanced.
We decided that education was essential, and more importantly needed for girls – even basic literacy was denied many girl children in poor homes. Though our own means were limited, we decided we would at least start to do what we could locally in the vicinity of the ashram. Here is a picture of the first school children with the first teacher Shakuntala in 1974. Cheema is front and centre. She is wearing Krishna’s crown as she played the central role in a skit about Lord Krishna’s days in Gokul as a cowherd.
It
was our experience with the chowkidar’s youngest daughter that fed our desire
to help girl children if we could. Her
name was Cheema. When we first met her, her hair was orange in colour
indicating severe malnutrion. She had a
distended belly and was fond of eating handfuls of dirt – the body’s desperate
attempt probably to get some minerals.
She looked forlorn and unkempt.
Every day, we invited her to eat meals with us. Swamiji would pay special attention to her so
that the family would recognize how important and how deserving of love,
attention and care she was. A daughter was supposed to be a goddess in the
family. Instead, we came to realize
Cheema’s life was the norm in many poor families – an example of the endemic
discrimination against girls in the culture.
How could it be? India was one of the only ancient surviving Goddess
cultures, where the divinity of the Feminine Force was still a living
tradition. Shakti Ma was still worshipped and yet her human counterpart endured
the most severe restrictions as well outright cruelty. Her participation in
society was unequal and unbalanced.We decided that education was essential, and more importantly needed for girls – even basic literacy was denied many girl children in poor homes. Though our own means were limited, we decided we would at least start to do what we could locally in the vicinity of the ashram. Here is a picture of the first school children with the first teacher Shakuntala in 1974. Cheema is front and centre. She is wearing Krishna’s crown as she played the central role in a skit about Lord Krishna’s days in Gokul as a cowherd.
