Let me a get a few points clarified here. What is the contention here, whether you feel that women are being suppressed by the men or were they in the past? If you think yes then I would beg to differ for the following reasons:
1. As I stated in my previous posts just because a woman was in a separate place during her periods we all jump the gun and ridicule. Have you ever thought what kinds of anushtanams the sastras has men to do? Many are not anyone followed over the last few decades but the theetu is for men as well. How may times we as children were told to stay from home or keep a certain distance when some important yajnam is going on?
Normally men (malefolk) would be asked to keep away from homam/pooja
only if such men had not taken bath, were not wearing "madi" clothes and/or not done Sandhya; the other case is when a particular individual in a joint family has pollution due to death which affects him only.
One was in case of shaving/haircut...
Taking a bath after a haircut is purely a hygienic step so that the clipped hair pieces do not pollute food, water, etc. in the house. But our elders/saastra twisted it and said the barber is an untouchable so since he has touched you, you should take a bath.
and there was time every year for a mandalam (48 days) when I have seen a lot males undergoing Ayyapa vradham. I'm sure how much how of you have seen or heard of it but it starts with having a bath in cold water at Brahama Muhurtham (around 4.30 AM) with very strict rituals surrounding food, what you see, no footwear and wearing on the floor.
Ayyappa was a deity predominantly worshipped by the (so-called, I have to use this term though I don't subscribe to what it purports to denote) lower castes. Some 50 or sixty years ago it was not known much outside the then state of Travancore; even people from the adjacent Cochin state did not come. The main ascent to the hill was all on foot and took many days. In order to build up enough stamina to face the tough trek, the "vratam" for 41 days was observed. BTW, Malaria was endemic in the sabarimala area in those days and taking opium was also a part of the "vratam" of those days. Becasue of the preponderance of the low-castes, the TBs as well as Namboodiris did not consider it as very meritorious. The temple had a major fire accident sometime in 1950; it might have been arson or an accident, not yet known. The original idol which is, as per scholars and historians, a jaina one, was completely destroyed and a new one was made and installed. Since the time of that fire, there was less number of people going there. It was then that the Travancore Devaswom Board embarked on an ambitious "Yatra" in a motor van with the picture of Ayyappa prominently displayed, leaflets and books being distributed free and all that. Slowly, with the economic advancement of the country and the fact that there is no discrimination in Sabarimala on the basis of caste/creed, it has become a major pilgrimage centre. Once you reach this side of the Pampa river, you will find that you cannot follow even normal hygiene, let alone anything that your saastras prescribe. That is it about sabarimala.
The same happens during various rituals and Yagmans where men toil in front of agni (I'm sure you will agree with how hard it is to sit in front of an Agni Kundam for hours together). All these things were done for the welfare of the family and to an extent to the welfare of the world (even if one did not wish to, the mantras mean that).
Just for my enlightenment, can you cite some of the mantras for aahutis which pray for universal welfare?
'BAKTHI/DEVOTION WITHOUT DISCIPLINE IS OF NO USE' - These are not the words of mine but the words of various gurus and acharayas who have lived in the Karma Bhoomi (India).
We have several instances where bhakti is extolled without emphasizing discipline. One instance that comes to mibd immediately is Bhadrachala ramadas; another is Sabari. So, who are the gurus who said "BAKTHI/DEVOTION WITHOUT DISCIPLINE IS OF NO USE"?
Now one of the biggest disconnects I see my self with this group is when there is a conflict of ideas we need to refer back to scriptures/sastras or through a proper guru, who removes the darkness, but what I see is the opposite. With due respect to all our theories, ideas and rationale behind we rely on what we see for the past few decades and then go by a few what we see, few by what we hear and a few by what we read. It is indeed a pity we do that and do not refer to what the sastras/gurus say in the regard and form our own opinion. It is good have your own opinions but when it comes to sensistive issues like this I think it will be prudent for us to go back to our revered gurus and sastras and see what is in it. Of course, I'm not denying that there all exceptions and exaggeragations in every single doctrine and that is the precise reason my request to go and check our sastras.
There are two items here, Saastra and Guru. What exactly do you intend when you say "saastra"? As to gurus we have had whole threads analyzing the present day gurus and the guru cult. So it may be useful if you read those.
2. There is another argument/counter-argument that is floating around which I do not understand. The saying is if mind is clean then we should not worry about other things. Does that mean all the rishis, great avatars and revered sadhus who carried on all the anustanas and acharaas were not clear in mind and were trying to clean it the whole time and we are all born pretty clean and do not need it ? Just like practice makes a man perfect it is those anustanas/acharaas that makes the WANDERING MIND come to a certain degree of control and help us progress realize the self. I have to give my own example here, a few years ago I was thinking all the anustanas and acharas were exaggerated form of rituals but one revered guru made me understand the significance behind and I could see quite a of changes mentally. Again, it is we understanding the significance and rationale behind it, do it with sincerity and you will see results over a period of time. Again I do agree some misunderstand the concept behind and may over do it or misunderstand but in that case we need to find out the truth rather than condemning the ritual/practice and totally abolishing it. Let me give you an example, now I say my mind is clean, but sleep with many women, drink and pray to god without taking bath and keep telling every body that if the mind is clean there is no necessasity for even having a picture/idol of god and praying it.
If the mind is clean we need not be finicky about ritual purity; only if the mind says "I am unclean, my veshti is not "madi", someone came near me and so I have become polluted", etc., we have to look again and again into the ritual purity. As I have said elsewhere, the "madi" concept itself varies from region to region and hence it is a social conditioning of the mind; for example many old Kearlites used to take bath in the temple pond and then remove the water from their clothes by wringing and wear such wet clothes while doing darsan, since that alone ensured full "madi" for them, and this was followed by many TB women in Kerala too. Of course, according to another opinion among TBs wet clothes should not be used for any auspicious event according to saastras and they deride this.
The presumptions you make, about rishis, sleeping around with many women, etc., appear to me as outcome of your mental fixation with the outer paraphernalia of religion more than its central concepts. I cannot say about sleeping with many women, but even drinking, with a "pure/clear mind" won the day for Abhiraami Pattar.