Conclusion: Embodying Holiness and Influencing Culture—Exploring the Contexts, Challenges, and Strategies of Female Religious Influencers in Hindu Society

DeNapoli, Antoinette E.

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Conclusion: Embodying Holiness and Influencing Culture—Exploring the Contexts, Challenges, and Strategies of Female Religious Influencers in Hindu Society

DeNapoli, Antoinette E.

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Publisher

MDPI AG

Date

9/30/2024

Abstract

We have reached the end of our journey concerning the study of holy women as “religious influencers” in Hindu culture. As the editors, we conceived this volume based on our joint interests in women’s religious experiences and how, through them, women are recognized as holy (imbued with divinity), gain power and authority, and become “influencers” in Hindu society. We understood the transformative potential of religious experience to change women’s lives and raise their status. It provides the basis of their knowledge, dignity, and respect. What was unclear concerned holy women’s relationships to their influencer status. What did they think, feel, and say about their influence on others’ perceptions and behaviors in the context of being a good Hindu? Were they comfortable or uncomfortable with their status and the responsibility it entailed? Did being an influencer protect holy women from or expose them to greater scrutiny? Did they see the role of their influence as an extension of religiously sanctioned feminine roles such as motherhood? Is being a religious influencer equivalent to being a divine parent? Along parallel lines, we wanted to explore how, by being influencers, holy women experience and navigate greater visibility and representation in a patriarchal society where being a woman can be difficult, as well as their struggles and strategies for succeeding as spiritual authorities.