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Since
decades, the debate over the equality of man and woman has
been launched. Many organisations have found the day and there
is a revolution in the world in connection with the
emancipation of women. Manifestations, seminars, amendments to
existing laws and many other initiatives are being undertaken
to give woman a more respectable place in our so-called modern
society. No doubt, the attitude and position of women have
changed significantly during the last fifty years. Close
observation, however, will reveal that there is a sort of
competition between both sexes. How can an issue such as
‘the due of our women’ be dealt with in an atmosphere of
competition, aggressiveness, comparison and hatred?
The
revolting attitude of women towards men is much
comprehensible. Man has subjugated woman to domination since a
long time. This state of affairs is the responsibility of both
man himself and the wrong interpretation of the scriptures. On
top of all these, man is aggressive and dominant by nature. He
has been a prey to his own innate tendency. However, the way
women are fighting to liberate themselves from the wrong
perception of women by men is basically wrong. Such a thing
should be done in an atmosphere of mutual understanding. When
the child goes astray, the mother must win him over by love,
affection and wisdom, not by showing her superiority or her
right over the child, for no one has any right over whosoever.
Similarly, women should keep in mind that men are not their
equal but their complement and vice versa. Is not the woman
also a mother? If she always maintains the role of a wife
only, then she may not win over the love and affection of the
man. When the need arises, a wife should also be able to
shower motherly or friendly affection on the husband.
No
two things are equal in this whole existence - each particle
has its uniqueness. Through rights, laws and other
impositions, things will become artificial, love will not
prevail. The relation between man and woman should be that of
love and understanding. Both man and woman have a unique
position in this universal drama. However, this has to be
understood that both of them have fundamental differences. To
be able to give either of them their respective place in the
march of both material and spiritual evolution, a global
understanding of the inner and outer life of both man and
woman is essential. And such wisdom lies only in the heart of
the enlightened one. Occult knowledge of both feminine and
masculine psyche is of paramount importance, for only this
will make one understand that man and woman are not equal, but
they are divine potentials which can be unfolded using their
own natural tendencies.
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Before
delving deeper into this subject, it has to be understood that
both man and woman are the reflection of God. “Dieu créa
l'homme à son image” – ‘l'homme’ that
is, homus or that which comes from the earth. Hence,
both man and woman are referred to as ‘l'homme.’
God is both male and female, positive-negative, matter-energy,
darkness and light and so on. We have seven bodies, they are
the gross physical, the etheric, the astral, the mental, the
spiritual, the spatial and the invisible or Void bodies.
According to Osho, the first four bodies have gender. The
first body of the woman is female while her second one is
male, the third or the astral body is again female while her
mental body is male. For man, it is the opposite. The first
body is male, the second body, also called the emotional body,
is female. His astral body is male while his mental body is
female. Beyond the fourth body is the spiritual body or body
of light which is asexual. When someone reaches at this
juncture of his spiritual evolution, he transcends sex. This
does not imply that he becomes impotent or develops disgust
for sex. It simply means that he identifies himself with a
body which is genderless and is Pure Light. In that condition,
he does not need the pleasure of sex or any kind of pleasure.
Bearing
in mind these differences, how can we claim to be equal or
superior and inferior? Though woman bears resemblance to man
physically, there are a few things that make her different
from man. The sexual apparatus, the uterus, the hormonal
function and menstruation are the marks of the female body.
The penis, a coarse voice, hard nerves and a few other
qualities distinguish the physical body of man from that of a
woman. We need not expose all the features, for our purpose is
much deeper than that.
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Life
is a gift and as such, there must be free
but wise choice in using it. It has been
given to both man and woman for the purpose
of attaining fullness of life, which is also
called God-realisation, and this is possible
only in human life. But being caught by his
own aggressive nature, man has dominated
woman and has used the quotations from the
scriptures to support his acts. While the
scriptures are for guidance, man has made
wrong use of the precepts. By so doing, he
has offended divine knowledge. The Bible
says that woman was made from man’s rib
and this has become an argument in favour of
man’s dominion.
Now,
women have been offended by men so much so
that they no longer believe that the Lord
might have created woman from the rib of
man. Even if this is true, the praise does
not go to men, therefore they should not
feel arrogant about it and women should not
feel offended. This allegory is pregnant
with meaning. The bone is made out of the
sperm or the male principle, the dynamic
state of energy. Therefore, the bone from
the rib of Adam implies maleness,
aggressiveness, dynamism and energy. Things
are as they are and the capacity to accept
is-ness is a sign of wisdom. In the East,
the motherhood of God is propounded and
woman is supposed to represent the Divine
Mother. The Cosmic Shell or Golden Egg that
manifested in the beginning of the Universe
is also called Hyranyagarbha. It is
a feminine epithet. A garbha is a
womb and hyranya means golden.
Therefore, Hyranyagarbha is the egg
of the Mother God. The same egg transforms
itself into the whole cosmic theatre.
A
woman will first have to find herself her
divine status and this will put her on the
exact pedestal of life. Nothing will be
achieved by being aggressive. Certainly,
some material benefits will be achieved but
by killing her femininity (and this is being
done by many women unfortunately), she will
miss a rare opportunity of attaining the
inner womanhood, which is her real nature.
Of course, I am not pointing towards
absolutely all women on this planet. Also,
by stating the above-mentioned fact, I am
not trying to despise women. Instead, I am
trying to awaken women to their true
identity.
The
Devi Mahatmya or the Durga Saptashati
exposes the nature and glory of God as
mother or the motherhood of God. Thus, is it
not the duty of women to realise that their
divine nature that is latent should be given
the opportunity to manifest itself? Among
the many mantras, there is this one:
“Ya
devi sarva bhutesu lajja rupena samsthita
Namastasye namastasye namastasye namo namah”
“Salutations to the Goddess who
exists as shyness in all forms of matter.”
Matter
is feminine because it has female qualities.
Though passive, it is bubbling with energy,
receptivity and expectation. The ovum will
be waiting shyly for the sperm to enter it;
the woman has the same quality, though
nowadays the situation is being reversed. Lajja
can be defined as shyness which is, of
course, not shame. Lajja or shyness
is that thing which if lost, does not leave
a woman any more as a woman. Let the reader
judge for himself how many women still have
it today. Never should a woman tolerate any
man to exploit her. She has to fight for her
rights by all possible means such as court
actions, public demonstrations,
sensitisation talks, articles in the press
and so on to awaken the whole world towards
her deserved status in society. But
please do so by remaining feminine! At
times, the woman can also be aggressive and
hard but all these should be used as a
means, not for the sake of revolt or
vengeance.
Women
have been offended, injured and exploited,
and it is natural that they react. But if
they go too far in their reactions, the
damage may be irreparable. By trying to
prove that they are not inferior, a deep
inferiority complex has developed in the
feminine world. This is reflected when women
perform work that used to be done by men
alone. Their attitude is masculine while
performing such work. Since existence is
both male and female, yin-yang, Sati-Shiva,
the way Nature functions also reflects these
qualities. Both the male and female
principles are manifested in nearly all
aspects of Nature. For example, let us
consider night and day: night is female
because it is cool, mysterious, passive,
profound. It is called Nisha in the East and
Nisha is a feminine name. Day is symbolised
by the sun which is heat, the stirring
element of life; it aggresses the earth and
comes in a serpentine way like the sperm to
fecundate the earth. Motion is male while
passivity or equilibrium or rest is female.
Therefore, women should do work that suit
their temperament, though at this juncture
of life, it may not always be possible to
adhere to such practices. However, it is not
wrong for women to perform work that demands
male character, but vigilance should always
be there so as not to get drowned in
maleness and lose one's femininity.
If
any one behaves like someone of the opposite
sex with the idea or notion that one belongs
to that gender, then a transformation is
possible. This is a psychological and thus a
scientific fact. The transformation will, of
course, be in the psyche and in some cases,
the changes can even be physical. Documents
and magazines have presented such cases.
There is even a famous documentary film, “Elisa
ou il voulait être une femme.” The
mind is the principal driving force and if
the notion of being something is constantly
repeated, then a transformation will start
occurring, though in most cases this may
take lives.
Our
brain has two parts called hemispheres and
these are linked by a network of nerves or
fibres. Each hemisphere of the brain
controls a part of the body. The right
hemisphere, as it is called, governs the
left half while the left hemisphere controls
the right half. This is no coincidence. In
the Hindu religion, the wife stands on the
left of the husband. In a temple, women are
expected to sit on the left of the deity and
men on its right. This has a deep scientific
and spiritual significance that demands a
full-fledged elaboration for clear
understanding.
The
gist of all these is to understand that both
man and woman form a harmonious being, but
they are incomplete without each other. The
partner can be of great help to awaken the
Divine Being seated within each of us, which
is neither male nor female. Masculinity or
femininity is a state of our being and
should be used at a certain stage of
evolution to proceed further, after which
there remains only divinity. However, the
masculine or feminine tendency will continue
to manifest in accordance with the body one
possesses.
Intuition,
love, poetry, endurance, motherliness,
forgiveness, patience, shyness, softness and
many other qualities are feminine virtues.
They are found both in man and woman, but
they manifest more naturally in women. On
the other hand, reason, adventure,
aggressiveness, physical power, ambition and
many others are equally present in both
genders, but they are male qualities. A
complete, harmonious and successful life is
not possible without both these male and
female qualities. Marriage represents an
agreement for the union of these powers for
the evolution of both genders on both the
spiritual and material levels. However,
mutuality should be at the base of such an
agreement. Things will certainly go wrong
without knowledge of all this.
“Man and woman, do not consider each other as
your enemy, otherwise you may gain nothing
but failure. Be ready not to conquer each
other, but to merge your forces for your own
goodness. Your marriage should be in body,
mind, heart and soul, while bearing in mind
your freedom.”
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