Harimedia Forum

I offer to discuss the next topic here:

In modern society, where the rationalism dominates, it is natural that the only God is a man, rough God, the father. The worship him is considered high-culture sign, monotheism, in contrast to so-called heathenism. Modern people orphaned, they have no mother. The feminine energy have been deprived the Divine status. When I faced ancient mythology, I was impressed that there was a big cult of Goddesses, they have esteemed feminine energy, feminine beauty, the sexual experience was like high spiritual experience.

But I have noted: although I understand that God combines the male and female origins, when I refer to him I continue to identify Him with male origin. If there is only one God, one has to choose male or female image. It is impossible to refer to one always thinking that He "consists" of two contrary origins. On the other hand, I have tried to refer only to one, female entry of Divine and have felt that some unintelligible fear stops me, as if I break some prohibition.

Very interesting point. I often run into the same problem. I feel it is more a product of the limitation of the languages we use than a conceptual problem. It becomes very complex in the English language to refer to a person without using the personal pronoun. One has to create convoluted sentences and juggle phrases just to avoid having to come right out and state ‘he’ or ‘she.’ Sometimes it maddens me! So I deal with it by saying, ‘They,’ although I am well aware that it sounds strange. How bound we are by language and the way it sounds in our ears! We are born that way. We learn language mainly by hearing the cadence, rhythm and feelings which are placed into it, and then later we start to piece together the proper manner in which concepts are structured. We never forget the ideal we learned that it has to sound right. When new words are coined, or new ways of saying things are developed, we initially rebel against them unless we find them fitting to the way we expect things should sound.

For example, my wife, Kamala, said something to me long ago which I will never forget. We were watching some movie and when things got more intense she said, "The thick plottens!" Now this is not English yet any English speaker immediately understands it and thinks it sounds great. This is because it has a sound that is acceptable, not because the usage is correct.

When we say ‘They’ to refer to God, we cannot accept the sound. This has nothing to do with whether it is right or wrong, it is a product of prejudice. For so long we have insisted that God is a He (do not forget the capital H!) and Krsna, Allah, Jehovah, Yaweh, and so on, is God and is He. We grew up with this, we believed it, we accepted it, we embraced it, and now some weirdo comes along and says that we have to stop using that word and use another. Totally unacceptable to the mind and worse, it does not sound good at all. So we reject it and start to lament about how to express this existential truth that we know to be true.

I sometimes say ‘He’ in public because everyone understands this. I like to speak in ways that people understand and go the route of least resistance when explaining complex concepts. Yet, I find it annoying to say ‘He.’ I cannot say ‘She’ for the same reason. Neither of these words express what I want to say. Since I feel that God is They, I experience that God is They, and I am happy with God being They, I want to call God They. Instead, most likely because I lack self-confidence in my capacity to transform the languages of the world (I wonder why?) I say God. This is the easy way out since using the word God allows me to avoid the he and she dilemma.

Unfortunately, this shortcut also feels lousy as I feel like a traitor to Them. So I try to deal with it with multiple sentences which clog up my lectures and writings and give the listeners and readers brain fag. I am truly sorry for this. I wish we could just say "They" and not be disturbed by it. We are so brainwashed, is it not?

I like Lord Caitanya because when I speak about him I avoid all of this. He is They. Yet, he appeared as a He just to resolve me of this constant struggle to express myself. I can say He and refer to They at the same time! So nice of him.

This is easy. You should start speaking in Finnish. We do not use he/she but "hän" which refers to both sexes.