"A
widow should be long suffering until death, self restrained and chaste. A virtuous
wife who remains chaste when her husband has died goes to heaven. A women who
is unfaithful to her husband is reborn in the womb of a jackal. The
Laws of Manu Chapter 5 verse 156-161 Dharamshastras (Sacred Hind texts)" (Source: back jacket of DVD.)
The
film Water explores the 2000 year old custom where the widow of a Hindu
has three choices: 1. burn alive with her dead husband in the funeral fire. 2.
lead a life of self-denial, or, 3. if the family permits, marry her husband’s
younger brother.
Water is set in 1938 during Gandhi's rise to power and told through the eyes of an eight
year old girl, who married some years earlier to a man she has never met, now
finds herself a widow.
The
rational is that a woman is half her husband, so when the man dies the widow is
only half a woman. She is shunted off to a house for widows and dressed in white
so that she is recognisable as a widow to the rest of the community. She is treated
as a member of the lowest Hindu caste, an untouchable - even her shadow is enough
to pollute another human being. To remarry or have sex is the worst sin yet the
widows are used as prostitutes by the upper classes, in part because widows have
to rely upon begging for their existence.
At
a prayer meeting Chuyia the eight year old poses the question: "Where
is the house for men widows?" The other widows vilify her and reject her
question out of hand, and hence maintain their world view.
Kalyani a beautiful young widow falls in love with a Gandhi supporter who offers to marry
her. When the other widows find out they curse her and lock her in her room. Once
again when one of them is given the opportunity to free herself from her conditioning
and lead a better life the other widows fight to maintain their model of the world.
It shows how when we make progress towards what is true for us then friends, family
and society may sanction us and try to put us back in the cage. When others try
to improve their life then we may do the same. However it is only our childhood
conditioning and lack of awareness that keeps us in the cage.
In
the course Zen and the Art of Living we use a 7 step goal setting
model - the SUCCESS model. Step 5 is the ecology check: "Is
there any part of you or anyone in your life who may object to you achieving your
desired outcome? If so then you need to deal with this part in order for you to
achieve your outcome"
When
Kalyani finally leaves the house of widows the head widow warns her that she will
never be able to return. Once again covert or overt threats are sometimes used
to prevent us from moving forwards in life. But she leaves. However when Kalyani
discovers that the father of her fiancé is a client that she has prostituted
herself to then she commits suicide. The main income source for the widows having
been lost then eight year old Chuyia is forced to become her successor...
Even
though a law was passed in 1938 that allowed widows to remarry - in 2001 there
were still thirty four million widows living according to a 2000 year old Hindu
tradition.
Sometimes
it can take a lot of
awareness to even begin to see our conditioning and then tremendous courage to
step outside of it. If
you were given the opportunity to free yourself from your conditioning would you
see the opportunity and would you take it?
And
on a parting note, it can be easy to see that someone else is living in a cage
but can we see our own?
If
you want to learn more about how to master your life then feel free to have a
look at Zen and
the Art of Living.
Abby
Eagle 30/05/2007
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