Vedic Wives: Quit Your Job, Ditch Your Underwear, and Be Happy! (8 photos)

In recent years, the term "Vedic wife" has been popping up everywhere. Hundreds of spiritual mentors and life coaches are lecturing women on how to behave according to the Vedas. The main ideologues behind this movement are Oleg Torsunov and Olga Valyaeva, whose books serve as the primary source of "ancient wisdom" for most of these self-proclaimed experts. But what actually are the Vedas, and how does a "Vedic wife" differ from an ordinary one?





Vedic Wisdom: Myth vs. Reality

The Vedas, so trendy nowadays, are an ancient collection of sacred Hindu scriptures. There are four canonical Vedas: the Rigveda ("Veda of Hymns"), the Yajurveda ("Veda of Sacrificial Formulas"), the Samaveda ("Veda of Chants"), and the Atharvaveda ("Veda of Spells"). Notice how not a single title even hints at femininity or family harmony.



Another crucial detail: the Vedas were meant strictly for the initiated—specifically, the "twice-born" members of the three upper castes. Shudras—ordinary working folks, servants, and peasants—were strictly forbidden from reading them. Women were also banned from even touching the Vedas, which already speaks volumes.

So why is the image of the "Vedic wife" being sold to us so aggressively if the Vedas contain zero guidelines for women, and the texts themselves were off-limits to females in the first place? It’s simple: the gurus peddling "Vedic" values know full well that the average person knows next to nothing about the Vedas, beyond having heard that it's a sacred Hindu text, akin to the Christian Bible or the Islamic Quran.





How could such a book not contain centuries of wisdom for every occasion? Easily, because the Vedas are actually a collection of mantras—chants and rituals for various orders of priests. The things that Torsunov, Valyaeva, and dozens of other "Vedic philosophy" devotees tell gullible readers aren't in there at all. Exposing the lie is easy enough, but who has the patience to read the Vedas from cover to cover?

Meanwhile, buzzwords like "Vedic philosophy," "Vedic psychology," "Slavic Vedas," "Aryan Vedas," "Indian Vedas," and "Vedic femininity" sound authoritative and mystical—making them insanely marketable. So what exactly are these resourceful gurus serving up under this exotic sauce in their heavy volumes?

A Woman's 25 Vedic Duties

Guidelines for Vedic wives preach that a woman owes a few things. But to avoid alarming anyone, it's framed as something she owes not to others, but strictly for her own female happiness.



Family happiness and prosperity are supposedly guaranteed as long as the wife pleases her husband. Spiritual leader Oleg Torsunov—a doctor, though not of Vedic science, but of dermatovenereology—has drawn up 25 duties for wives:

1. Create a family

2. Preserve the family

3. Build up her Man

4. Organize all household chores

5. Perform all household chores

6. Be faithful to her Man in body, deed, and thought

7. Become her Man’s best friend

8. Be beautiful and attractive for her Man

9. Inspire her Man

10. Eat sweet foods

11. Wear jewelry

12. Enjoy beautiful clothes

13. Wear long skirts

14. Always feel close to her beloved Man—never distance herself

15. Respect her Man

16. Value and praise her Man

17. Admire her Man

18. Submit to her Man

19. Master her emotions

20. Have endurance and patience

21. Speak in a quiet, gentle voice

22. Be sensitive and attentive

23. Take part in raising the children

24. Serve her Man—do so with love

25. Never do a Man’s duties.

It's easy to see that these rules say nothing about women or female happiness—they revolve entirely around men. Tellingly, "Man" is capitalized throughout. As for the ladies, there are only two rules even remotely tied to female happiness: eat sweets and dress nicely.



Though if you look closely at Dr. Torsunov's works, it becomes clear that dressing nicely is meant to feast the husband's eyes, while eating sweets is supposed to prevent tantrums and avoid irritating your master. So real female happiness, as we know it, is nowhere to be found in this dermatologist's version of "Vedic science."

Vedic Happiness: Ditching the Undies

Olga Valyaeva is a disciple and student of Dr. Torsunov who has managed to outdo her mentor in both productivity and monetization. Calling herself a "Vedic psychologist," she churns out book after book, while also hosting psychological workshops and training sessions. Unsurprisingly, this self-proclaimed expert has zero formal education in psychology.



The page promising a "Resume" in almost every one of Olga’s books is virgin clean. While some might see a hidden "Vedic" meaning in this, the reality is simply that she has nothing to put there. Everything this Vedic psychologist teaches is based solely on her personal experience. She claims that as soon as she quit her job and became a Vedic wife, her family life clicked into place, and her husband struck it rich.

Given how well Valyaeva's books sell and how popular her seminars are, it's clearly not about these 25 steps, but rather shrewd brainwashing and clever marketing. Speaking of her spouse, Olga writes:

"My husband is my rock, my inspiration, my marketer, and my tech specialist."

In other words, she produces the content, and her husband handles the technical side and promotion. A neat little Vedic family business. Yet by running this business at all, Valyaeva directly contradicts herself. Like her teacher Torsunov, she insists that women shouldn't work. By that logic, providing her husband with a job isn't quite right either.



Valyaeva surely knows she’s contradicting herself, but business is business. She feeds her audience exactly what they want to hear. What woman wouldn't want to dress nicely and eat sweet treats? Tears become a form of feminine magic—why think, analyze, or work on a relationship when you can just break down sobbing?

According to the Vedic psychologist’s books, working is bad for women, and getting an education is completely unnecessary. There’s an excuse for everything: any kind of job destroys femininity and gets in the way of keeping the hearth. The expert in Vedic female happiness also offers some very hands-on advice—like wearing skirts at all times.

If you believe the author, this helps channel energy from Mother Earth, since pants block the path through which it flows freely. Better yet, ditch your underwear altogether—it also hinders your connection with higher forces. Ditch the panties, and your life will fall into place: your husband will become a millionaire, and your home will be filled with grace and total harmony.



From all of the above, only one conclusion can be drawn: all this Vedic nonsense is just another way to push patriarchal ideals that the civilized world abandoned long ago. But why would modern women strive to return to a dynamic they spent centuries trying to escape? It's simple: lack of security. Despite having plenty of formal rights and opportunities, women still lack real legal protection against male abuse.

Most men avoid paying child support after a divorce, while a mother with two or more children finds it almost impossible to secure a decent job. Single mother benefits are laughably small—barely enough for a pack of diapers. Isn't it just easier to cater to your husband in every way, as Torsunov and Valyaeva advise, hoping he stays satisfied and sticks around?