A major conference by women opened in Abuja on Tuesday to discuss women’s inclusiveness in governance. It is a subject that will not go away since the 35 percent Beijing Affirmation Declaration of 1995 adopted by 189 countries. Speakers at the Abuja conference referred to the latest edition of ‘Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2024’. The Snapshot was launched by the UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
The conference on Tuesday dwelt at length on women’s representation in national legislatures, according to Realnews online report. The UN women say the pace of achieving gender parity in legislative houses is slow and fear that at the current pace, the goal may not be achieved until 2063. I have decided to yield space today to a lady Professor who has reflected on the purpose of women in our world.
Over to Professor (Mrs.) Olufunmilayo Fawole of the University College Hospital, Ibadan:
What is the purpose of woman on earth? This is a question we need to begin to ask ourselves in view of current happenings in our world. These happenings are multifarious and a cause for concern. They include amongst others, women living in same-sex unions, women’s reasons for marriage and women’s attitude to the family including men and children. Also, women activities are food for thought – some embark on extreme sports (e.g. mountaineering), male professions (e.g. mechanic), bad male habits (e.g. smoking, drunkenness) or dress like men. Others decide to engage in sad activities such as turning themselves into women of easy virtue (including milder variants of it- flirting, good time girls), sexually provocative dancing, while others abuse drugs. Women now engage in a number of heinous crimes. It must be stated that a lot of silent/hidden crimes are perpetrated against women, too! These and several other more examples we may know will suggest that things are not as they should be as regards the state of women in this world.
To address this unfortunate state of affairs, several discussions and meetings have been held by international organizations, governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the quest for improvement in the rights of women. The meetings press for gender equality and equity. Some actually help through women empowerment programmes. Special days are set aside globally to pay attention to special needs of women and girls. These, undoubtedly, are commendable. However, laudable as some of them are, it is important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The bigger picture cannot be complete without also considering the spiritual dimensions to an issue, as we are human spirits whose home is Paradise (Heaven). Our stay on the planet earth is temporary. A popular song says it all: “This world is not my home; I am just passing through…..” There are local aphoristic pronouncements that say the same thing in various ways. There is an adage, for example, that says, ‘The earth is a market place while our home is in Heaven’; another says, ‘The earth is a school’.
With this background in mind, we would need to ask ourselves what then is the purpose of women on earth if somewhere else is where they have their home? Why are they here since they are spirits and their home, it must reasonably follow, is in the Spiritual Realm? In other words, from the spiritual point of view, why are women on earth? What is her duty to other creatures? To man, children, animals and the environment? Is she fulfilling her role? If no, what went wrong? What are the consequences of going wrong? How can she now do the right things and thereby fulfill her role? How can men help in this matter? If yes they can, how?
The knowledge mediated to us mankind in the work “In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message’ will be greatly useful in proffering answers to these questions. The Author of this Work laments that the word ‘Earthwoman’ touches the sorest spot in what He has described as Subsequent Creation, the spot which needs the greatest change, the most lasting purification. In The Work, woman is described as the saddest figure among all creatures in this world, in this Subsequent Creation! The Author, Abd-ru-shin, states that but for a few women on earth in whose souls the Will of God is still anchored, it would be better if a movement of the Hand of God would sweep away womanhood from His glorious Creation. These words, severe as they may sound to us, stem from out of love. They show the sorry state of affairs with woman on earth today.
We now know from the work that the belief/delusion that woman’s main vocation is motherhood has effectively debased womanhood! This belief has been very much engrained within us, that we may not be aware of its futility any more. Surely, we agree that from birth the thoughts of parents are concentrated on ensuring their daughters are secured through marriage! Even a girl’s education, her thoughts, her speech and all her activities from her childhood until she attains maturity are directed towards preparing her for motherhood. This delusion was a very clever move introduced by the Darkness behind which is Lucifer, the Archangel, with the purpose of debasing human womanhood. For if motherhood was the real purpose of woman, then, we can safely assume that women, who do not have children for one reason or the other, have failed! But, does this sound fair? Or Just? Can something like this emanate from The Almighty Creator, Who is Love and Justice? The Grail Message says that with this wrong belief Lucifer sought to deliver a crushing blow against humanity! “He deceitfully flattered human beings with the thought that motherhood was woman’s highest task! But to attain to motherhood the earthly instinct is needed, and it is this latter which he wanted to place on a higher pedestal through the thought of motherhood, so that it would become the dominant factor and force the thinking of mankind on earth into this one direction. A plan he conceived with admirable cunning! He played upon man’s feelings…and he succeeded completely”.
Following the fall of woman she became calculative. “Her every thought, every wish was subjugated to the basest calculation, and all the innate grace bestowed upon her as a gift by the Creator, was dragged down and exploited for earthly aims only!” The Author of the Grail Message says that woman allowed the coarser spiritual element within her to have its way and the distance from the proximity of God (being on the earth) allowed it to triumph! “Woman could fall but she did not have to do so! For she has help enough at her side, but she did not accept the help”.
Men are just as guilty as women! Man did not show contempt for the woman’s wrong doings, but instead welcomed the fall of woman because she therewith corresponded more nearly to the weaknesses and desires which he already carried within himself. The wrong belief in the motherhood role invariably resulted in strengthening of the physical instinct. And mankind (both men and women) were caught and became slaves to their sexual instincts! But for the men, the effect is worse. We are told that for the male sex, ”the effect was like an incurable plague!”
Even man’s good intentions were misdirected. He wanted to accumulate excessive worldy treasures to please the woman. The unspoken desire to protect woman, also gradually led man to erroneously view woman as the weaker sex, in need of his protection. “Thus this term did not really originate from an evil volition or a disparaging judgment, but only from ignorance of the true reason for his intuitive perceptions. In reality man is not the stronger sex but only the coarser sex, i.e., the denser one; womanhood, however, is not the weaker sex, but merely the more delicate one, the less dense one which has nothing to do with weakness. The fall of woman manifested in various ways some of which are:
Loss of sense of shame: The sense of shame is an expression of the most delicate intuitive perception of noble womanhood. It is a sign of loss of shame when women expose their bodies to the glances and hands of all. Not to talk of arguing or fighting in public and other not lady-like acts that show a lack of shame.
Loss of sense of beauty – the delicate intuitive perceptions of the woman also open her sense of beauty! The effect of a good sense of beauty should be found everywhere around a woman – in her dressing, home, work and activity. It pervades her entire environment, everything around her. But if the delicate intuitive perception is lost what a deplorable state of affairs must ensue.
Coquetry and loss of happiness in the home – flirting is the inevitable result of foolishly just following what fashion dictates such as exposure of the body. Engaging in flirtatious behavior is a grave danger for both body and soul. It also disrupts the happiness in the home. There is, therefore, recourse to free companionship and companionate marriage, especially among the youths as they see marriage as a way to get away from this unhealthy situation in the home and society. It may also be a sign of rebellion of their spirit which had hitherto been so beclouded. Harmony could not arise from this type of union because of lack of faithfulness.
Distorted souls: Some women become distorted souls because they knot threads of fate in such a way that even though they have a woman’s soul they must be reincarnated as a man. This is an aberration. A distorted soul is not a woman, yet can never be a man. Sadly such souls are not useful building blocks that can be made use of in the upbuilding of Creation. Woman’s failure also brings harm to the planes of the ‘beyond’. The harm, after a long time, manifests also on earth. All that comes into being on earth first has a prototype or copy in the astral plane (the beyond). So a woman who fails to fulfil her role pollutes the environment of the beyond as well.
Because motherhood and mother love belong to animals, a woman who makes these the sole purpose of her life is held captive and lost in the planes of the animistic (Animistic region). It is the highest level animals can attain. A human spirit cannot be as selfless as the animals in their care for their offspring. Unfortunately, because women on earth have lost themselves in the animistic, they have not been able to develop properly. The woman became confused about herself and brought confusion even into the Animistic World because she does not belong there. Because of the harm a woman may have done to herself, souls that want to incarnate are unable to hold on to the pregnant distorted soul mother because the bridge has become damaged. The damage is because the woman has acquired male characteristics which displace the delicate part which only women possess (This is also the resultant situation when a distorted male soul incarnates as a woman in his next earth life). The souls looking forward to an opportunity of another earth-life have their hopes dashed. Because of the unwomanly nature of the prospective mother being a man in a woman’s garb, they release themselves before an earthly birth can take place, hence what are called miscarriages–or infertility.
Hardly do we give thought to the relationship between a child’s health and the nature of its mother. If the constitution of the mother is impaired, it should follow that the health of the child will suffer. The health of a child is conditioned, retarded or furthered through the flawlessness and purity or otherwise of the higher spiritual bridge of the mother, the abundance of the spiritual endowment unique to women which is known as substantiality. Men are drained of this treasure as they set out, headed as it were, for the earth as men. For them to possess this, it would hinder their activities which are essentially coarse in nature. What I am driving at is that the ill health of a child has a lot to do with the defectiveness of the bridge, which souls need in order to walk along their earthly path with strength and security. The defectiveness as well as woman not standing aright at her post unfortunately results in children with difficulties, illnesses or weaknesses.
Woman is equipped with a delicacy of intuitive perceptions, with which she should easily swing herself up high–to the Luminous Heights. She is, in fact, to form the bridge to Paradise (heaven) for all humanity. We are told that streams of Light should flow through the Woman. Is this the situation with woman on earth today? We learn that the invisible power flowing from higher realms into the Universe, first and completely seizes the woman because of her special make-up and the endowment of her more delicate intuitive perception. She should then convert it into deeds. Man receives this power only partially. With this power, woman is supposed to uphold, nourish, move and drive the whole Universe. It was for this reason that she has been created, and that is her high, pure and wonderful goal! As opposed to the popular belief that woman is the weaker sex, woman is psychically stronger than man. Not in herself, but through being more closely connected with the Creative Power, which grants her a more delicate intuitive faculty, which enables her to be more receptive to spiritual promptings and currents.
For the same reason, it is said, “woman is more closely connected with Nature than is man! Through their more delicate intuitive perceptions womanhood has the ability to distinguish with infallible certainty what belongs to the Light and where there is still hope for it, and what has irretrievably surrendered to the Darkness and must perish with it (according to the Holy Will of God). She thereby can protect herself and humanity from evil!”
The principal task of woman on earth, therefore, is to ennoble her surroundings and ensure a continuous flow of radiations from the Light. This is something which only woman through the delicacy of her intuitive perception can do! Ennoblement, however, is bound to bring about ascent towards the Luminous Heights! With her intuitive perception, woman forms the anchorage for man with the Light, the support which he needs for his work in Creation. It is important to state that marriage is not required to accomplish this, not even an acquaintanceship or personal meeting with a woman. The mere existence of woman on earth already brings about the possibility of this fulfillment.
From the Grail Message we learn that, it is the woman, whom the Creator once chose to be the Guardian of the Flame of Holy Longing for the Light in all His Creations. To enable her fulfill this purpose she is generously endowed. She came into existence in order to receive the radiations of the Light without hindrance, and to pass them on in the purest way to the man as well as to her particular surroundings. The starting-point of the greatest power is, for her, home and hearth! There alone lies her strength, her unlimited might, but not in public life! In home and family her abilities make her queen. From the quiet, intimate home her incisive virtue extends through the whole people, present and future, and pervades everything.
Do away with the belief in a sacred motherhood and the high praise bestowed upon mother-love. This constraint must now be removed from womanhood on earth if they are to ascend to their heavenly home! We need to have the courage to accept the fact that maternal bliss is rooted only in the animistic! Woman’s most sacred vocation, however, lies much higher, it lies in the spiritual! Marriage and procreation exist only for life on earth. Womanhood, however, exists in all Creation. Woman can never fulfill her vocation on earth while she has any vanity, (which always involves shamelessness), but only through that grace with which she alone is endowed as the most beautiful spiritual gift! Every look, every movement, every word of a woman must bear the stamp of her nobility of soul, so is mankind admonished in the Grail Message. It entails a complete change in our social beliefs, values, and expectations from women – everything must become new.
Woman needs to cultivate Grace and conduct herself gracefully. Grace makes the woman. Grace, however, cannot be contemplated without purity! We usually wish ourselves during birthdays to ‘age gracefully’, but do we really understand? Such loving best wishes flow from loftiness, from deep our hearts.
As for men, they need to recognize in woman that great help which they need and can never dispense with if they want to swing in the Laws of God. The way in which a man intuitively feels towards the woman (not necessarily his wife) will become the gate to the Light for him. If he recognises the help he needs in woman, will he still be able to abuse her verbally, physically, emotionally as is becoming increasingly common?
From the foregoing, would it not be most beneficial if we could also promote the spiritual role of the woman in our societies, schools and during our various programmes, meetings and conferences. Then men and women will follow.
Olufunmilayo Fawole is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ibadan.
