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Article: Bahina Bai and mystical resistance.
- Article from:
- East-West Connections
- Article date:
- January 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Asian Studies Development Program's Association of Regional Centers. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"The Vedas cry aloud, the Puranas shout, 'No good may come to woman.'"
Bahina Bai
Max Weber compares Western and Eastern religions in Economy and Society and concludes that the distinctive element of Oriental mysticism is the believer's ability to accept contemplation not merely as a means to something else but as the goal itself. However, for Weber this mystical contemplation, a yearning to achieve absolute unity with the one God, does not have to be a flight from the secular world: "On the contrary, the mystic may demand of himself the maintenance of a state of grace against the pressure of the mundane" (Weber 1968, 548). Weber's "him" is not merely a ...