(12th Jan 2013)
Delhi Gang-Rape and the modern Shurapanakha
“The sexual exposure we face is unparalleled in the history of
mankind… Because pornography and sex have such a forceful pull on us, if
left unchecked our society will erode before our very eyes. We will have
millions of people who have sexual addictions.”
- ‘Treating Pornography Addiction’ by Dr. Kevin B. Skinner
The horrifying gang-rape of a young physiotherapy student in a private
bus in Delhi has sparked outrage across the country. The innocuous-seeming
circumstances in which the rape occurred, the bloodcurdling brutality of
the perpetrators, the ineptitude of the police and the “Theek hain?” gaffe
of the Prime Minister have all added fuel to the fire.
Before addressing this issue, I offer my sincere prayers for the departed
soul of the victim and my heartfelt condolences to her bereaved and traumatized
family. Gita wisdom teaches us that all of us are relatives, connected
in God’s all-encompassing family. So we are all together in getting over
this tragedy.
The Delhi horror underscores undeniably that our female citizens absolutely
require much better security. We need a more vigilant police force, prompter
help-lines, and stronger and swifter punishments for sexual assaulters.
Yet will better security be enough? Might our society be suffering
from a more deep-rooted malaise of which this gruesome rape is an intolerably
stinking symptom? After all, the news periodically reports incidents of
scary sexual violence. School-teacher extracting sexual favors from a girl-student
in the classroom; father having incest with his daughter in the presence
of his son; mother and daughter hacking to death a man with whom both had
an affair – these are the headlines from just a week’s news.
Surely something is terribly wrong in our society, but what is it?
The topic of sexual assault is complex; sociologists include anger,
power and sadism among its causes. Here, I will focus on one important
aspect that has been largely overlooked by the media but is illumined by
Vedic wisdom.
The little-discussed Shurapanakha factor
In the Vedic tradition, the demon Ravana, the villain of the Ramayana,
is the emblem of lust. Ravana was so dominated by lust that he would abduct
beautiful women wherever he found them and force them to join his harem.
He even raped a relative, the celestial nymph Rambha, who was married to
his nephew. Thereafter he was cursed to die if he ever raped any other
women again. So, when he abducted Sita for enjoying her sexually, he threatened
to kill and eat her if she didn’t voluntarily comply. Thus, for the sake
of gratifying his sexual appetite he had a proclivity to rape and to commit
other types of horrible violence against women. He finally met his just
end when he was given capital punishment by Lord Rama.
The perversity of Ravana is widely known, but a crucial detail underlying
his perversity is less known. The Ramayana describes that though Ravana
was initially allured by thoughts of possessing Sita, he gave up his evil
intentions when he was told about the unmatchable power of Rama. However,
when his malicious sister Shurapanakha incited him by describing Sita’s
beauty explicitly and provocatively, he lost all sense and courted self-destruction.
Shurapanakha had her own scores to settle and she used Ravana as her pawn
by inciting him.
The Ramayana, in addition to being an ancient history, features characters
who are prototypes for perennial themes. In our current context, Ravana
obviously symbolizes sexual perverts like the Delhi rapists. What does
Shurapanakha symbolize? She symbolizes the forces that incite people sexually
and make them behave in Ravana-like ways.
The modern Shurapanakha
Today’s primary sexual inciter, the modern Shurapanakha, is the commercial
world that uses sex to sell its products. The commercial world knows that
sex is the best sales tool because nothing catches people’s attention and
triggers their imagination as much as sex. So it exploits sex as its ubiquitous
marketer and fills our culture with sexually provocative images.
This commercial exploitation of sex is all the more flagrant in the
entertainment industry, especially Hollywood and Bollywood, where sex is
arguably the most glamorized product on sale. And the modern Shurapanakha
is at its blatant worst as the pornography industry, where sex, even brutal
sex, is the only product on sale. Commercial porn websites, magazines,
books, videos, DVDs, cable television, etc. comprise one of the most lucrative
global industries. In the United States alone, porn revenue is larger than
the combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball
franchises.
Due to this massive commercial exploitation, sex is thrust upon us
from all directions – TV, theaters, internet, magazines and billboards.
Practically wherever we look, sexually provocative images are pushed into
our eyes. The way human culture has become sexualized in the last several
decades has no precedent in world history.
The Deadly Consequence of Liberalization
The modern Shurapanakha incites in a much more insidious way than the
Ramayana Shurapanakha. It fools us into believing that becoming its pawn,
that is, becoming sexually incited, is a sign of sexual liberalization.
To understand how such liberalization can entrap us, let’s first look at
the rationale for sexual restraint.
The Bhagavad-gita (07.10) offers us insight into the sanctity of sex:
when it is performed within the precincts of dharma, it offers us an opportunity
to experience the divine. Sex enables us to become co-creators with God
in bringing new life into the world.
At the same time, Gita wisdom cautions us that when sex is divorced
from this divine perspective and purpose, it becomes motivated by a deadly
force that impels people into perversity. In the Bhagavad-gita (03.36),
Arjuna asks Krishna: what makes people act sinfully, even against their
will? This eternally relevant question is presently resonant. Krishna answers
(Gita 03.37) that the evil inner impeller is lust which is the all-devouring
sinful enemy of the world. Then he outlines how a philosophically informed
and devotionally centered culture empowers us to keep lust under control.
Traditionally, the sexual force was regulated by the sacred inviolable
covenant of marriage. The modern Shurapanakha has persuaded us that this
covenant is too regressive and repressive, and so we need to liberate ourselves
from it. Being thus taken in, we approve the release of this force from
within the fence of covenant each time we delight in sexually explicit
imagery, language and music.
However, lust once released can rapidly veer out of control. The Bhagavad-gita
(03.39) states that lust is like an insatiable fire. Indulgence acts as
the fuel that aggravates the fire. So, when we release the force of lust
a bit through indulgence, it becomes that much stronger and demands more
release through greater indulgence. When we accede, it becomes stronger
still and demands still greater release, thereby trapping us. What we might
have thought of as unconscionable before we released lust may over time
become acceptable, then enjoyable and finally irresistible. This is how
the modern Shurapanakha makes many people into sexual perverts.
The English satirist Alexander Pope in his An Essay on Man echoes how
vice – the modern Shurapanakha in our context – inverts our sensibilities:
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
- Alexander Pope
Understanding this insidious nature of lust can help us see the link
between the generic commercial exploitation of sex and this specific ghastly
sexual assault: the force that we are releasing in the name of liberalization
is the same force that in a later stage is impelling such fiendish crimes.
By no means is this metaphorical analysis of lust as a monster meant
to shift the blame away from the rapists; they are responsible for letting
the monster pervert them. The purpose of this analysis is to point out
that their barbarism is not an anomaly that can be rectified just by stronger
legal measures; it is a detestable but natural consequence of the feverish
sexualization that has permeated our entire culture.
How the unconscionable can become the real
We may doubt: “Most commercial depictions of sex in the media portray
romantic and consensual sex. How can that lead to such perversity?”
Not all commercial sexual depictions are consensual; the reprehensible
glamorization of violent sex in extreme forms of pornography is a significant
exception. But even if we set aside this exception, the fact remains that
the commercial depiction of sex is designed to trigger lust. And once this
hideous monster is aroused, it can become blind to the difference between
sanctified sex and profane sex. It can become blinder still so as to see
no difference between consensual sex and forcible sex. And at its blindest,
it can no longer distinguish between sex alone and sex mixed with violence,
torture, maiming, and murder. Due to this blinding nature of lust, the
Bhagavad-gita cautions us that it is “the destroyer of knowledge and intelligence”
(Gita 3.41) and is “our eternal enemy” (Gita 3.39).
Those who give a free rein to this monster become the modern Ravanas.
In fact, they end up becoming worse than the Ramayana Ravana; the barbarous
violence of the Delhi rapists far exceeded what Ravana did to anyone. These
perverts need to be swiftly and visibly meted out the necessary severe
punishment, as was meted out by Lord Rama to Ravana.
But we also need to remember that the Shurapanakha which incited them
is inciting everyone, including us too. Of course, the savagery of the
Delhi rapists is unthinkable for any civilized person. Yet, appalling as
all incidents of sexual violence are, they happen frequently not just in
India but all over the world. So, it would surely be naïve and simplistic
to demonize these perpetrators alone and give a clean chit to everyone
else, including ourselves.
Perhaps this revolting gang-rape is the jolt necessary to drive home
the reality that we are being manipulated by self-serving interests who
are exploiting our sexuality to fill their bank accounts while propelling
us on a self-destructive track of ever-aggravating lust. Liberalization
is the ploy that is deceiving us to willingly, even eagerly, play into
the hands of the modern Shurapanakha.
If we don’t curb the modern Shurapanakha, then just as the knowledge
of Rama’s power couldn’t deter the lust-maddened Ravana, the knowledge
of severe legal punishments won’t deter the modern lust-maddened Ravanas.
The fetish for political correctness
Today speaking against sexual liberalization is widely considered politically
incorrect. Those who have the audacity to suggest that anything might be
wrong with liberalization are immediately silenced by a severe political
backlash.
Pertinently, the Ramayana depicts the results of a fetish for political
correctness. Soon after Ravana played into the hands of Shurapanakha and
abducted Sita, he started witnessing the consequences of his suicidal folly:
Hanuman with his tail-blazing exploits reduced nearly half of Lanka to
ashes.
The distraught Ravana called an emergency meeting of his ministers.
In that council, saying that the demon-king had erred in abducting Sita
was politically incorrect. So his bootlicking ministers just recommended
better security measures for Lanka as the solution. Hardly anyone dared
to go against the canon of political correctness. The only vocal politically
incorrect dissident was Vibhishana; he boldly and firmly urged Ravana to
give up his lust for Sita and return her to Rama.
Unfortunately, Ravana was too possessed by the monster of lust to even
consider this sound advice. He curtly silenced Vibhishana’s dissenting
voice and thereby sealed his own pact with death.
Despite the differences between this Ramayana situation and the gang-rape
aftermath, the central point of the parallel is valid and vital: will we
choose political correctness or corrective reform?
Towards a liberalizing respiritualization
If we choose reform, then each one of us can make a tangible contribution.
All of us have the power to stop being puppets of the modern Shurapanakha;
we can individually rebel against the rabid sexualization of our culture.
Each time we dress, each time we look at others, each time we respond to
sexually overt or covert language, we have the power to make a statement:
“We will no longer be pawns in the hands of those who exploit our sexuality.”
Every such statement is not just a statement; it is also a contribution
to the progressive curing of the sexual fever that is pandemic in our culture.
To accelerate this healing, Gita wisdom offers us an intellectual foundation
and a practical pathway. It helps us understand that we are not our bodies,
but are eternal souls. We are beloved parts of Krishna, who is our all-attractive
all-loving Lord. Our infatuation with sex is a distorted reflection of
our original love for him. By redirecting our love towards him, we can
relish a deep inner happiness that helps us regulate and transcend sexual
craving.
And the process of devotional service offers us a practical means for
redirecting our love towards Krishna. Devotional culture naturally focuses
on Krishna and minimizes all distractions. That’s why in such a culture
neither men nor women highlight or aggravate their sexuality. Instead,
both focus on developing their latent spirituality. We see each other not
as potential sex objects but as spiritual beings, as fellow travelers on
an epic devotional voyage back to Krishna. Such a vision helps us strive
undistractedly for inner fulfillment. The more we become spiritually fulfilled,
the more we become liberated from the constant craving for sex. When our
mental energy is no longer perpetually dissipated by sexual fantasies,
we become free to fully use our abilities and resources for our own and
others’ holistic well-being. That is real liberalization indeed.
Decreasing the sexualization of our culture and participating in its
re-spiritualization – that is the twofold solution to the grave problem
of sexual violence.
Courtesy : CCD
Thespiritualscientist
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