Unknown Pilgrims

Author(s): N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi

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The Unknown Pilgrims
other, there is needed a transformation in spirituality or religion as lived out in daily life. This book endeavours to show the close relationship which links the two in a case which is, no doubt, particular, but which has paradigmatic value, namely, that of feminine spirituality in one of the most ancient monastic traditions of the world.
I do not propose at this moment to emphasize further the relationship between these two aspects of human life and what I have just inferred concerning the emergence of a transhistorical epoch of human existence. While prehistoric human life is characterised by the importance of the Great Goddess and by fertility cults and while the period of 'history' is noted for its repression of the feminine within the great cultures of the world, the transhistoric mode of existence ushers in a new awareness both of the feminine and of human religiousness. I say this in order to stress the importance of this study and to assign it straightaway to its proper place within the general framework of the awakening of human consciousness in its more specifically feminine dimension.
This study is closely related to the new awakening of feminine consciousness that is taking place today under the most diverse forms. Of the fact that woman has hitherto played a subordinate role in most human societies, while very often shouldering their most weighty burdens, monasticism provides one extreme example.
The author of this work is convinced, as are so many others of our contemporaries, that our age demands a new life-style, a new form of holiness, in short, a fresh spirituality. But this is not brought into being by laws, nor even by the human will, however well-intentioned it may be. In order that contemporary spiritualities, may succeed in bringing present-day humanity to its full flowering, to its perfection and plenitude, they must blossom spontaneously or appear as ripe fruits through a fecundation between the past and the present as well as between different human experiences. We can merely hasten this process by clearing the ground, ridding it of weeds, manuring it, sweeping away the dust of history and routine, dispelling ignorance and misunderstandings and preparing our own selves by an authentic life lived in depth.