Divine Faces of the Self: Gender and Hinduism
A review of the concept of gender identity as explained by society and Hinduism, the consistencies with one another, and their noticeable conflicts.
BY: RHEA JOHAR
From parents, to peers, to institutions, and the media that construct our realities, external influences aim to define who we should be. However, the path to self discovery is not a drawn out map with a marked destination—understanding identity is much more complex.
Starting in my early teens, I had always wondered where I would “find” myself. Maybe in my interest of painting and drawing; or on an impromptu trip to a country across the globe; in a new bustling city away from my suburban upbringing; with roommates or friends that become like family; or in my future career that I would dedicate my life to. Reflecting back on the time I spent feeling lost and confused about who I was, filled with melodrama, excitement, fear, longing and agony, I was in search of something that did not exist.
The question of selfhood and identity is a tale as old as time. The answer to this question might lie in self-reflection and deep thinking, through asking challenging questions, meditation, or faith in a higher being; Or defined by roles and expectations as members of a fabricated society that favours traditional attitudes that have held up overtime. Through the search for identity and personhood, we create a constant internal battle of needing to identify and define ourselves. However, identity is not something that can be sought out, as an attainable ideal of personhood. Defining identity through traits, behaviours, and stereotypes, is one of society's biggest flaws that stiffens the cultivation of young individuals towards acceptance of individuality. It instead tempts them to conform, hide, and repress in order to fit into pre-existing identifiers and categorizations built into society. Constructs– such as gender binaries– are built for the ease of others, marketed as a way to help us understand each other when in reality, it only creates more polarization, judgements about one another, promotes gatekeeping behaviour, and the discomfort of being defined by traits that are often not universal to complex human identity. Encouraging the exploration of individuality through acceptance allows us to value the goodness of individuals for their unique ability to share knowledge, perspective, eccentricities and love with others.
Some of my earliest ideas of what it meant to be a girl came from parental and cultural norms. Living in east Brampton all my life, I experienced the best of both worlds when it came to Indo-Canadian influence while growing up in a neighbourhood concentrated with Indian culture and families. With the confidence and trust that stemmed from similar experiences and backgrounds (ie. through cultural practices, religion, values, traditions, festivities, cultural food and attire), year after year the culture was mutually accepted, celebrated and shared with ease. One of the major cultural practices included the Hindu celebration of Navratri. The nine day celebration of the goddess Durga has many names and varying ritual practices based on the regions of India but follows the basic idea of worshiping the divine feminine.
Durga // Photo via Deviant Art
Every year at the end of Navratri, on a cool Autumn morning, my sibling and I were welcomed into our front-door neighbors’ home to partake in the ceremonial Kanjak puja. Traditionally, the purpose of the ceremony is to worship nine prepubescent girls that represented the nine forms of goddess Durga called Devis. The legend goes that Durga disguised herself as a young girl to be able to kill demon Kalasura (or Mahisasur) by deceiving the villain who took her for innocent and weak. However, I always viewed the ceremony in passing, not understanding the context behind why she would wash my feet, tie a moli, red thread, on my wrist, and apply a tika, red pigment, to my head in front of the statues she kept in her prayer room, handing me a lunchbox with puri, chana, and halwa—a traditional meal of fried dough, chickpeas and a semolina sweet—with a toonie.
Kanjak bhoj halwa puri. // Photo via Pinterest
As I have grown older, the roles have now reversed where I help my mom deliver lunch boxes to other young girls in the community temple, who sit patiently in rows, wearing their best dresses and hairbows, waiting to receive food and gifts. Now that religion is no longer an obligation for me, I have accepted it as a part of my culture and identity, growing my fascination for learning and exploring more about Hinduism.
Much of the religion seems to value women, with the devotion not just being allocated to masculine presenting Gods, but also many Hindu Goddesses. It would make sense that dedicating auspicious days to these Goddesses would translate into social understanding of women as valuable and possibly items of worship in mortal women in society. However, in Hinduism, the feminine and masculine refers beyond gendered man and woman, and instead refers to spiritual traits of a person. Traits such as power, abundance, security, and wisdom define feminine divinity expressed through these Goddesses, who are worshiped by devotees for wealth, protection, fertility, and strength.
As young people grow out of the singular family influence towards socialization in school communities, it is often easy to fall in life with the social order enforced by peers. Although leaving a sheltered upbringing can often seem like a daunting change, this is a process that helps a person break down barriers. A resistance towards these unwritten rules through self exploration although initially may result in social isolation, it also propels a person towards people, communities, spaces to find acceptance. In a progressive society, this often means creating safe spaces in such institutions for youth that are looking for allyship and community with regards to gender and sexuality. At UTSC, clubs such as SC:OUT create a safe social lounge space for students on campus to hang out with friends in the 2SLGBTQ+ community, or the UTSC Women and Trans center that enforces resources and education towards intersectionality of racialized and queer identities.
Extending our social exposure towards new and enticing perspectives and lenses in which to view the world can sometimes lead to life-altering changes in mindset and outlooks.
In Hinduism, the feminine plays a key role in the creation of the universe. Represented by Shakti, the divine female energy that exists in the cosmos, contributes half of the role of the formation of the conscious universe, alongside her masculine counterpart Shiva. Shiva provides the masculine, unlimited yet dormant consciousness. His being is a vessel for Shakti who alternatively possesses dynamic properties of movement, change and action. The contrasting energies represent a duality, and highlight the importance of both parts that do not exist as polarities but rather a singular manifestation of the balance of the universe that need each other. Lord Shiva is also picturized as the Ardhanarishvara, an androgynous being that is half female. However, he is not the only God in the religion that has been picturized with tales of ambiguous gender as many others possess the ability to adopt forms of the opposite sex or posses traits of both, proving the multi-gendered nature of these idols.
Ardhanarishvara Painting. // Photo via My God Pictures
Hinduism is a religion that has seen so many generations, where myths are often passed down through storytelling. Ambiguities of what encompasses the ‘true’ history leads followers to believe that Gods either have no gender, that Gods are androgenous and embody both genders, or that only specific Gods are both genders. Regardless, Hinduism highlights how unisexuality might be overshadowing what we might recognize in ourselves as both masculine and feminine traits, outside of assigned labels.
Similar to the Western world, issues of gender and sexuality continue to exist in India as well. The country dominated by the Hindu religion has recently seen progress in 2018 when homosexualiy was decriminlized, and has since continued to see more activism towards equal rights and social progress demonstrated by major cities such as Chennai, Delhi, and Lucknow hosting Pride parades. However, the LGBTQIA+ community continues to face challenges and socio-economic barriers in its transgender and intersex community in North India, called Hijras. The community defined as a third gender finds themselves isolated from society, partaking in closed practices and teachings, living amongst each other and away from their families. Hijras are seen as spiritual and supernatural figures that are believed to bring either lifelong curses, or alternatively, blessings of health, prosperity, and fertility to newborn babies and newlywed couples. Highly rejected by society, they are often found in positions of lower class, crashing celebrations to dance and sing for a couple rupees, or prostituting themselves due to the lack of acceptance in traditional work environments. The religious, superstitious and traditional cultural ideas around transgender identity subjects Hirja’s to the role of figures of worship, rather than human beings deserving of equal rights.
Carol Foote. 2021 // Photo via Catalyst
Notions of what a man and woman should be continue to be accepted and internalized in society, even though we carry the modern knowledge of the fallacies that follow these institutional barriers, and constructs. Initiatives towards education, awareness and resources allow people that do not align with normalized social constructs of gender or sexuality platforms of visibility where they feel welcome. However, the issue runs deeper than bringing awareness to the discrepancies faced by a specific set of members in society. It is the notion of gender binaries that results in the initial need for building these new, alternative groupings and institutions. Designed only for a selective group of people, new categorizations can sometimes become exclusionary and trickle into gatekeeping when mishandled.
Although social media has been the catalyst for bringing about social awareness, the attraction towards divisive content effortlessly turns social media craze into hate. Current trends on TikTok glorify the narrative of the dark feminine that, at face value, embraces hyper femininity, female dominance, and feminine sexuality as something to worship and be proud of. However, the movement is fueled by hatred and anger, congregating into other media agendas such as "hate all men" speech. The trend that often crosses the line from women empowerment into divisive hate-speech rather than finding solutions. The product is a weaker and less genuine community that slows down potential for change by polarizing populations. Being on the same agenda for gender equality regardless of labels can lead to progress fueled with compassion, acceptance, and understanding towards one another.
Photo via TikTok
In a world where the days feel like a rinse and repeat cycle, it is a concept that we all have the awareness of, but one that is not acknowledged enough: I am a thinking, feeling human being in this moment. With this awareness, I would argue that we are not cogs in a machine, but rather conscious beings in the world with infinite potential for transformation.
By approaching life as a character in a game, my outputs cause butterfly effects, producing specific results from the world around me in return. When I wake up each morning, I choose how to conduct myself, present myself to others that day; either outward self expression through makeup and fashion, or my emotional interactions with those around me, and my ability to approach others with positivity. Those outputs I generate produce certain inputs that influence my thinking and feeling brain. Repeatedly engaging in this process would then suggest that days are not a static cycle, but each is an opportunity and learning experience. A chance to grow, influencing my personhood by shifting my reality.
I propose the hypothetical scenario: What would happen in a world where women and men were no longer valued as separate entities, but rather similar to Hindu philosophy, all people hold traits of both divine masculinity or femininity? I wonder how society would change. In a world where gender no longer defined us, but masculine and feminine traits can be embodied and expressed in a free manner regardless of sex.
Fiona Art. // Photo via Pexels
With gender norms and roles, pronouns built into our linguistic structure, and ancient cultural traditions and values—shared through institutions including the media, schools, and family structures—most often, men and women are social polarities. Although efforts towards equality have made recent strides, this does not undo the history and conventions associated with the mental conditions of man and woman. The notion that gender binary even exists, and holds merit of importance, has led to the damaging function of labels being abused as tools to other groups from one another in modern society. When humans are not valued on equal playing fields and instead seen as completely separate, a black and white contrast, to one another, it puts us in a position to never see eye to eye. However, I believe seeing each other as human beings at core essence is a way to find forgiveness and compassion for one another. Although the lines of gender are becoming more and more blurred, with modern understanding that gender is simply a construct, I hope for a shift towards a gender neutral society.
People are shaped and molded, by both intrinsic intention, and external influences, that constantly shift and transform our actions, values, and therefore, identity. I understand my own identity as a free form, a shifting rainbow of colours where certain parts illuminate brighter at certain points in my life. Some colours remain forever, while new colours are added to the chaos. Others escape from the form entirely, no longer a part of who I am, or something I have grown out of.
Humans find themselves in constant flux and motion, like a cascading river. Endlessly evolving into ourselves, we never reach a destination as vast amounts of data constantly flow in and out of us on a daily basis. Identity is not our assigned gender antonyms, nor can they be defined in any simple terms. As pieces of matter in the vast universe, it might be more productive to see ourselves and each other as prisms, each with a set of different faces that reflect and shine on the world in unique ways.
Loosening the shackles on outdated ideologies of social construct will allow us to accept human identity as complex, multifaceted and unfixed. Understanding each other as a conglomeration of self-empowering qualities allows us a glimpse of hope into transforming society into a utopian community of acceptance that detests constraining labels, standards, categories and boxed thinking.
