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The Jaina Philosophy simplicity and devotion by the entire family. When sacrifices were to be offered, religious devotions performed, prominent in that picture is seen the woman who is the wife and the mother. In those early days and down through all mutations, and at the present time, the most worthy households from every point of view are those households in which grand parents, parents, sons and their wives, dwell together in unity and in the bonds of love, each doing his and her part for the comfort, instruction and happiness of the home, not alone in domestic industries, but in the rights and ceremonies of religious devotion. I will give you a few of the prayers of the Rigveda pertaining to this exalted condition :
"Oh ye gods, the married couple who prepare oblations together, who purify the Soma juice and mix it with milk – may they obtain food for their eating and come united to the sacrifices, may they never have to go in quest foods. They worship you with the best offerings, blest with youthful and adolescent offspring, they acquire wealth and they both attain to a mature age. The god themselves covet the worship of such a couple who neglect not religious sacrifices and duties, and who offer grateful services of worship and gifts to gods and who embrace each other to continue their race, and they worship their gods.”
Again a beautiful picture is that of highly educated women who, themselves, Rishis (sages), because of their learning and devotion, compose hundreds of hymns and perform the sacred services, the same as men. In those days before my country knew the demands, the tendencies and the restrictions of other civilization against women, there were no restrictions of an unwholesome character, nor were they kept in seclusion, denied education, or excluded from the highest positions in society. Wives and brides were veiled often, not through any law or custom imposed upon them, but in obedience to the modest
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