Page 73 - Hinduism

man begins to perform a rite, his wife has to co- operate and help him; a woman, on the other hand, cannot undertake to do a work without the permission of her husband. If she does anything against the wishes of her husband, it will turn fruitless. The upshot of all this is that the primary duty of a wife is to follow the wishes of her husband (pativratā). According to our Śāstras marriage is a sacrament (saṁskāra) and not a civil or social affair, and so the marital tie is unbreakable. A women, once married, cannot desert her husband even if he were addicted to vices or devoid of good qualities. Conversely a man cannot abandon his wife and if he does so he is publicly censured. Husband and wife should be attached to each other for life, and love and be contented with each other.
Although independence has been denied to women in religious duties, she is the mistress of the house. All domestic duties are in her charge and she commands equal respect with her husband in the family—nay more. It is said that the father deserves hundred times more respect than the teacher and the mother thousand times more than the father. A man may abandon his father but he should, under no circumstances, abandon his mother. The wife also deserves equal respect because our sāṣtras say that a man is born in the form of his son through his wife. As he is born in his wife, she is called his jaya. Where women are respected, there the Gods rejoice;any rite becomes fruitless if it is done in a place where women are not respected; a woman is 73