Sambodhi 1989 Vol 16

Author(s): Ramesh S Betai, Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 28

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curtain on the face was never a custom among women in ancient India. It was a distinct Islamic influence on Indian culture. Moreover in Islan marriage is believed to be a contract which can be terminated by its utterance with the result that its influence on Hindu society was grievous. Woman was regarded as a chattel in family and her privileges were largely curtailed. In a joint family woman could not enjoy her individual respectable life. In modern times there is a notable change among Hindu young men and women towards individual separate families. There a visible rush towards urban life deserting rural conditions and community life.
Aims of Life
Four aims of life, Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha provide for adequate channelisation of desire, security, sex, love, aspiration for righteousness and liberation in life and human communication. Radhakrishnan writes that 'It seems never to have entered into the heads of Hindu legislators that anything natural could be offensively obscene, a singularity which pervades all their writings, but is no proof of the depravity of their morals. Love in India, both as regards theory and practice, possesses an importance which it is impossible for us even to conceive."16 Radhakrishnan says that 'when natural instinct of sex is guided by brain and heart, by intelligence and imagination, we have love." Marriage as an institution is a device for the expression and development of love. The Hindu view thinks highly of the ideal of marriage and householder. 'As all living beings depend on the support of the mother, so do all the stages of life depend on the support of the householder. Home is not what is made of wood and stone, but where a wife is, there is the home.'18 The Hindu view regarding marriage does not advise persons to become saints but to strike means in satisfying passions as part of achieving comprehension of life. 'Spiritual freedom is to be secured not by arbitrary suppression of desires but by their judicious organisation.' Again, 'The highest ideal even in sex matters is that of non-attachment, to use the relations when valuable and forgo them without trouble.' Radhakrishnan advises persons to understand and approach marriage in a 'sacramental spirit'.
While exhorting the married" relationship Radhakrishnan is cautious. about separation, breakdown and undesirable unions between husband. and wife. He favours divorce when separation is found to be inevitable. It is true that in later period of Hinduism birth of a son was welcome in family whereas birth if a daughter was looked upon with sadness and ill-luck. Even the blessings of marriage priest to the wedding.