Food for Thought! sent by Visakha Priya dasi: Leo Tolstoy’s Appeal to Women<\/p>\n
As stated in the Bible, a law was given to the man and the woman-to the man,
\nthe law of labor; to the woman, the law of bearing children. Although we,
\nwith our science, avons change tout ca, [have changed all this], the law for
\nthe man, as for woman, remains as unalterable as the liver in its place, and
\ndeparture from it is equally punished with inevitable death. The only
\ndifference lies in this, that departure from the law, in the case of the
\nman, is punished so immediately in the future, that it
\nmay be designated as present punishment; but departure from the law, in the
\ncase of the woman, receives its chastisement in a more distant future.
\nThe general departure of all men from the law exterminates people
\nimmediately; the departure from it of all women annihilates it in the
\nsucceeding generation. But the evasion by some men and some women does not
\nexterminate the human race, and only deprives those who evade it of the
\nrational nature of man. The departure of men from this law began long ago,
\namong those classes who were in a position to subject others, and,
\nconstantly spreading, it has continued down to our own times; and in our own
\nday it has reached folly, the ideal consisting in evasion of the law,–the
\nideal expressed by Prince Blokhin, and shared in by Renan and by the whole
\ncultivated world: “Machines will work, and people will be bundles of nerves
\ndevoted to enjoyment.”
\nThere was hardly any departure from the law in the part of women, it was
\nexpressed only in prostitution, and in the refusal to bear children–in
\nprivate cases. The women belonging to the wealthy classes fulfilled their
\nlaw, while the men did not comply with theirs; and therefore the women
\nbecame stronger, and continued to rule, and must rule, over men who have
\nevaded the law, and who have, therefore, lost their senses. It is generally
\nstated that woman (the woman of Paris in particular is childless) has become
\nso bewitching, through making use of all the means of civilization, that she
\nhas gained the upper hand over man by this fascination of hers. This
\n[statement] is
\nnot only unjust, but precisely the reverse of the truth. It is not the
\nchildless woman who has conquered man, but the mother, that woman who has
\nfulfilled her law, while the man has not fulfilled his. That woman who
\ndeliberately remains childless, and who entrances man with her shoulders and
\nher locks, is not the woman who rules over men, but the one who has been
\ncorrupted by man, who has descended to his
\nlevel,–to the level of the vicious man,–who has evaded the law equally
\nwith himself, and who has lost, in company with him, every rational idea of
\nlife.
\nFrom this error springs that remarkable piece of stupidity which is called
\nthe rights of women. The formula of these rights of women is as follows:
\n“Here! you man,” says the woman, “you have departed from your law of real
\nlabor, and you want us to bear the burden of our real labor. No, if this is
\nto be so, we understand, as well as you
\ndo, how to perform those semblances of labor which you exercise in banks,
\nministries, universities, and academies; we desire, like yourselves, under
\nthe pretext of the division of labor, to make use of the labor of others,
\nand to live for the gratification of our caprices alone.” They say this, and
\nprove by their action that they understand no worse, if not better, than
\nmen, how to exercise this semblance of labor.
\nThis so-called woman question has come up, and could only come up, among men
\nwho have departed from the law of actual labor. All that is required is, to
\nreturn to that, and this question cannot exist. Woman, having her own
\ninevitable task, will never demand the right to share the toil of men in the
\nmines and in the fields. She could only demand to share in the fictitious
\nlabors of the men of the wealthy classes.
\nThe woman of our circle has been, and still is, stronger than the man, not
\nby virtue of her fascinations, not through her cleverness in performing the
\nsame pharisaical semblance of work as man, but because she has not stepped
\nout from under the law that she should undergo that real labor, with danger
\nto her life, with exertion to the last
\ndegree, from which the man of the wealthy classes has excused herself.
\nBut, within my memory, a departure from this law on the part of woman, that
\nis to say, her fall, has begun; and, within my memory, it has become more
\nand more the case. Woman, having lost the law, has acquired the belief that
\nher strength lies in the witchery of her charms, or in her skill in
\npharisaical pretences at intellectual work. And both things are bad for the
\nchildren. And, within my memory, women of the wealthy classes have come to
\nrefuse to bear children. And so mothers who hold the power in their hands
\nlet it escape them, in order to make way for the dissolute women, and to put
\nthemselves on a level with them. The evil is already wide-spread, and is
\nextending farther and farther every day; and soon it will lay hold on all
\nthe women of the wealthy classes, and then they will compare themselves with
\nmen: and in company with them, they will lose the rational meaning of life.
\nBut there is still time.
\nIf women would but comprehend their destiny, their power, and use it for the
\nsalvation of their husbands, brothers, and children,–for the salvation of
\nall men!
\nWomen of the wealthy classes who are mothers, the salvation of the men of
\nour world from the evils from which they are suffering, lies in your hands.
\nNot those women who are occupied with their dainty figures, with their
\nbustles, their hair-dressing, and their attraction for men, and who bear
\nchildren against their will, with despair, and hand them over to nurses; nor
\nthose who attend various courses of lectures, and discourse of psychometric
\ncentres and differentiation, and who also
\nendeavor to escape bearing children, in order that it may not interfere with
\ntheir folly which they call culture: but those women and mothers, who,
\npossessing the power to refuse to bear children, consciously and in a
\nstraightforward way submit to this eternal, unchangeable law, knowing that
\nthe burden and the difficulty of such
\nsubmission is their appointed lot in life,–these are the women and mothers
\nof our wealthy classes, in whose hands, more than in those of anyone else,
\nlies the salvation of the men of our sphere in society from the miseries
\nthat oppress them.
\nYe women and mothers who deliberately submit yourselves to the law of God,
\nyou alone in our wretched, deformed circle, which has lost the semblance of
\nhumanity, you alone know the whole of the real meaning of life, according to
\nthe law of God; and you alone, by your example, can demonstrate to people
\nthat happiness in life, in submission to the will of God, of which they are
\ndepriving themselves. You alone
\nknow those raptures and those joys which invade the whole being, that bliss
\nwhich is appointed for the man who does not depart from the law of God. You
\nknow the happiness of love for your husbands,–a happiness which does not
\ncome to an end, which does not break off short, like all other forms of
\nhappiness, and which constitutes the beginning of a new happiness,–of love
\nfor your child. You alone,
\nwhen you are simple and obedient to the will of God, know not that farcical
\npretence of labor which the men of our circle call work, and know that the
\nlabor imposed by God on men, and know its true rewards, the bliss which it
\nconfers. You know this, when, after the raptures of love, you await with
\nemotion, fear, and terror that torturing
\nstate of pregnancy which renders you ailing for nine months, which brings
\nyou to the verge of death, and to intolerable suffering and pain. You know
\nthe conditions of true labor, when, with joy, you await the approach and the
\nincrease of the most terrible torture, after which to you alone comes the
\nbliss which you well know. You
\nknow this, when, immediately after this torture, without respite, without a
\nbreak, you undertake another series of toils and sufferings,–nursing,–in
\nwhich process you at one and the same time deny yourselves, and subdue to
\nyour feelings the very strongest human need, that of sleep, which, as the
\nproverb says, is dearer than father or mother; and for months and years you
\nnever get a single sound, unbroken might’s rest, and sometimes, nay, often,
\nyou do not sleep at all for a period of several nights in succession, but
\nwith failing arms you walk alone, punishing the sick child who is breaking
\nyour heart. And when you do all this, applauded by no one, and expecting no
\npraises for it from any one, nor any reward,–when you do this, not as an
\nheroic deed, but like the laborer in the Gospel when he came from the field,
\nconsidering that you have done only that which was your duty, then you know
\nwhat the false, pretentious labor of men performed for glory really is, and
\nthat true labor is fulfilling the will of God, whose command you feel in
\nyour heart.
\nYou know that if you are a true mother it makes no difference that no one
\nhas seen your toil, that no one has praised you for it, but that it has only
\nbeen looked upon as what must needs be so, and that even those for whom you
\nhave labored not only do not thank you, but often torture and reproach you.
\nAnd with the next child you do the same: again you suffer, again you undergo
\nthe fearful, invisible labor; and again you expect no reward from any one,
\nand yet you feel the sane satisfaction.
\nIf you are like this, you will not say after two children, or after twenty,
\nthat you have done enough, just as the laboring man fifty years of age will
\nnot say that he has worked enough, while he still continues to eat and to
\nsleep, and while his muscles still demand work; if you are like this, you
\nwill not cast the task of nursing and care-taking upon some other mother,
\njust as a laboring man will not give another man the work which he has
\nbegun, and almost completed, to finish: because into this work you will
\nthrow your life. And therefore the more there is of this work, the fuller
\nand the happier is your life.
\nAnd when you are like this, for the good fortune of men, you will apply that
\nlaw of fulfilling God’s will, by which you guide your life, to the lives of
\nyour husband, of your children, and of those most nearly connected with you.
\nIf you are like this, and know from your own experience, that only
\nself-sacrificing, unseen, unrewarded
\nlabor, accompanied with danger to life and to the extreme bounds of
\nendurance, for the lives of others, is the appointed lot of man, which
\naffords him satisfaction, then you will announce these demands to others;
\nyou will urge your husband to the same toil; and you will measure and value
\nthe dignity of men acceding to this toil; and for
\nthis toil you will also prepare your children.
\nOnly that mother who looks upon children as a disagreeable accident, and
\nupon love, the comforts of life, costume, and society, as the object of
\nlife, will rear her children in such a manner that they shall have as much
\nenjoyment as possible out of life, and that they shall make the greatest
\npossible use of it; only she will feed them luxuriously, deck them out,
\namuse them artificially; only she will teach them, not that which will fit
\nthem for self-sacrificing masculine or feminine labor with danger of their
\nlives, and to the last limits of endurance, but that which will deliver them
\nfrom this labor. Only such a woman, who has lost the meaning of her life,
\nwill sympathize with that delusive and false male labor, by means of which
\nher husband, having rid himself of the obligations of a man, is enabled to
\nenjoy, in her company, the work of others. Only such a woman will choose a
\nsimilar man for the husband of her daughter, and
\nwill estimate men, not by what they are personally, but by that which is
\nconnected with them,–position, money, or their ability to take advantage of
\nthe labor of others.
\nBut the true mother, who actually knows the will of God, will fit her
\nchildren to fulfil it also. For such a mother, to see her child overfed,
\nenervated, decked out, will mean suffering; for all this, as she well knows,
\nwill render difficult for him the fulfilment of the law of God in which she
\nhas instructed him. Such a mother will teach, not that which will enable her
\nson and her daughter to rid themselves of labor, but that which will help
\nthem to endure the toils of life. She will have no need to inquire what she
\nshall teach her children, for what she shall prepare them. Such a woman will
\nnot only not encourage her husband to false and delusive labor, which has
\nbut one object, that of using the labors of others; but she will bear
\nherself with disgust and horror towards such an employment, which serves as
\na double temptation to her children. Such a woman will not choose a husband
\nfor her daughter on account of the whiteness of his
\nhands and the refinement of manner; but, well aware that labor and deceit
\nwill exist always and everywhere, she will, beginning with her husband,
\nrespect and value in men, and will require from them, real labor, with
\nexpenditure and risk of life, and she will despise that deceptive labor
\nwhich has for its object the ridding one’s self of all true toil.
\nSuch a mother, who brings forth children and nurses them, and will herself,
\nrather than any other, feed her offspring and prepare their food, and sew,
\nand wash, and teach her children, and sleep and talk with them, because in
\nthis she grounds the business of her life,–only such a mother will not seek
\nfor her children external guaranties in the form of her husband’s money, and
\nthe children’s diplomas; but
\nshe will rear them to that same capacity for the self-sacrificing fulfilment
\nof the will of God which she is conscious of herself possessing,–a capacity
\nfor enduring toil with expenditure and risk of life,–because she knows that
\nin this lies the sole guaranty, and
\nthe only well-being in life. Such a mother will not ask other people what
\nshe ought to do; she will know everything, and will fear nothing.
\nIf there can exist any doubt for the man and for the childless woman, as to
\nthe path in which the fulfilment of the will of God lies, this path is
\nfirmly and clearly defined for the woman who is a mother; and if she has
\ncomplied with it in submissiveness and in simplicity of spirit, she,
\nstanding on that loftiest height of bliss which the human being is permitted
\nto attain, will become a guiding-star for all men who are seeking good. Only
\nthe mother can calmly say before her death, to Him who sent her into this
\nworld, and to Him whom she has served by bearing and rearing children more
\ndear than herself,– only she can say calmly, having served Him who has
\nimposed this
\nservice upon her: “Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” And this
\nis the highest perfection, towards which, as towards the highest bliss, men
\nare striving.
\nSuch are the women, who, having fulfilled their destiny, reign over powerful
\nmen; such are the women who prepare the new generations of people, and fix
\npublic opinion: and, therefore, in the hands of these women lies the highest
\npower of saving men from the prevailing and threatening evils of our times.
\nYes, ye women and mothers, in your hands, more than in those of all others,
\nlies the salvation of the world!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Visakha Priya dasi: As stated in the Bible, a law was given to the man and the woman-to the man, the law of labor; to the woman, the law of bearing children. Although we, with our science, avons change tout ca, [have changed all this], the law for the man, as for woman, remains as unalterable as the liver in its place, and departure from it is equally punished with inevitable death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}