Woman is the energy aspect of the supreme consciousness.Without her, ther is no creation. All women are the part of that Adyashakti – Mool Prakriti or the divine power that manifests, sustains and transforms the universe as the one unifying force. She is the mother of humanity and divinity manifest. She is strength, love, purity and magnanimity. To revere that Divine power and manifest the inherent transcendental qualities in women and hence to awaken the crowds, the four houses of the school are named after seer women of the yore. The children of classes I to XII are divided into four houses, viz, Arundhati, Bharti, Gargi and Maitrayee. All these are the names of wise and learned women from India’s illustrious past. They are the embodiment of knowledge and wisdom, purity and chastity.
First is Arundhati. Mata Arundhati was the wife of the great sage Vasistha. She was the ideal wife, living in perfect harmony with her husband, and the epitome of all the virtues that a married woman should possess. During her exile, Sitaji wore Arundhati’s clothes. Due to Arundhati’s purity, her clothes always emanated a divine fragrance and light.
In her regard, an incident is described. She was the mother of 100 sons. The renowned Sage Vishwamitra killed all of them. Despite this, she did not grieve and said that death of her sons was predecided, Vishwamitra only became the instrument to execute the divine will. Such was the height of her wisdom.
The second is Bharti. Bharti is one of the names of goddess Saraswati i.e. goddess of knowledge, the word Bharati also means “feelings for India”, the word has a power and expresses an extraordinary kind of love for nation. The light of sun is also known as Bharti. Vidushi Bharti was one of the exceptionally learned and erudite women of India. She was the wife of Mandan Mishra and she challenged Shankaracharya in a debate.
The third house is named after Gargi. She was a celibate of the highest order. She was also called Bramhavadini. Once she visited the court of Raja Janaka to debate on spiritual matters. There, all the courtiers started looking at her. Upon this, she commented, “O Rajan, your court is full of cobblers because they have eyes only for the skin.”
The fourth house is named after Maitrayee, wife of Yajnavalkya. She was the image of chastity, wisdom and dispassion. When her sage husband made up his mind to forsake the marital life, he decided to divide his wealth between his wives. When Maitrayee came to know about this, she said that material wealth could not give her eternal joy and asked for that knowledge which could lead her to the path of divinity.
