IN RESPONSE TO SHUBHALAKSHMI BAGCHI'S COMMENT TO MY POST ON THE 'SAHADHARMINI'

Sugata Bose : Try not to be merely a wife but be a companion in virtue as well, the sahadharmini.

Shubhalakshmi Bagchi : And what about men? They will be mere husbands?

Sugata Bose : Sahadharmini implies that the husband must be dharmic. So, he is not merely a husband any more but is a companion to his wife in the performance of dharma. A wife cannot be sahadharmini unless the husband has initiated dharma in his life for she is often the anugamini (follower) and often the shaktisvarupini (energiser) of all action undertaken by way of performance of the dharma. They hold each other in a cooperative and conjoint mode in living the righteous life even as the same righteousness holds them. This familial conjugal observance of dharma is the nucleus of the larger observance of it in society and in the world as understood and defined by the rishis of yore. So, the husband and the wife are co-participants in this sublimity of living which is the ideal of marital life and which serves as the bedrock of the larger organic living of humanity. So, there is no distinction here in terms of gender on the physical basis for dharma itself is the thrust towards the spiritual life that transcends such physical barriers or connotations thereof. @ Shubhalakshmi Bagchi