Liberation in the Feminine Form

We will speak of liberation in the feminine form, what it means for women to journey upon the spiritual path and to realize God. The Self is one. The divinity is one and indivisible. It is neither male nor female, although many times you will hear Purusha referred to in the masculine form and Prakrti in the feminine form. Prakrti creates form. Prakrti is the operative principle that creates form. Purusha is that clay, that substance, that consciousness that Prakrti manifests into form. But partly this is a limitation of language. For consciousness is neither male nor female. It is the base of all existence. Brahma is composed of consciousness, Purusha, and operative principle, Prakrti. Brahma is neither male nor female and who can ascribe such attributes of limitation to the sublime consciousness or Purusha? Who can say Purusha is limited by a male quality? It cannot be said.

So divinity, that unitary consciousness, that omnipresent Self is neither male nor female and to realize the Self within is to come to know that which is not bound by any descriptives, by any particular subcategory of humanity. It is not black or white. It is not brown. It is not Indian. It is not American. It is not male and it is not female. The Self is one, pure, pristine, omnipresent, and indivisible. The soul, the atman, is neither male nor female. Neither is the atman nor paramatman, the supreme entity, the supreme soul, male or female. So these distinctions of male and female come only within the created universe. They are products of operative principle. The principle of duality causes this polarization, this contrast. Once the wholeness of Brahma is distinguished into two, then there appears to be the semblance of male and female because the One has been divided into the creative principle and the consciousness. The one becomes two. In the universe there are certain patterns and they are repeated again and again in different strata. The one becomes two, the two become three and then there are the three gunas from which, in varying combinations, the created universe is formulated by the Lady Prakrti. But in the duality, in the split of one into two, it is to some extent what could be called male and female. There are two forces: one of consciousness, one of operation but beneath these there is only one. The Self is one.

In the evolution of consciousness from crudity to subtlety, the differentiation of male and female is found only in the first three koshas of the unit mind. Beyond that sphere, there is no distinction at all. It is found in the physical body, it is found in the conscious mind, and it is found in the subconscious mind where all the reactive momenta or samskara are stored in potentiality. But in the causal mind, this distinction of male and female is not relevant. So in doing your Brahma sadhana, the distinction of male and female only takes relevance in certain outer strata of mind. Once the consciousness has moved past these outer strata of the mind and delved into the deeper strata of the mind, into the causal mind, then these distinctions of male and female become entirely irrelevant.

But in the external world, in the cultures and societies of human beings, these distinctions have been very relevant throughout history. It was not so terribly long ago that in many eastern societies, in Buddhist traditions and in yogic traditions of this human order it was said by many very advanced spiritual teachers that women could not attain liberation. Have you heard this? It was said and believed and became a part of the teachings of many, many schools of many renowned yogis of the last 500 years though it may not be publicized much these days because it is not so popular now. Yet it was said, and if you look into certain teachings, you will find it. And it is even said today in certain Buddhist and yogic traditions, quietly said because it is not so popular any more. But it was quite popular twenty, thirty, forty years ago. It was commonly said. But they didn’t like to say it too much in front of western women who protested a little too much. So it was said politely, to the men, “The real truth of it is that women cannot attain liberation like we can.” They said this and they believed it. Even very advanced yogis said these things.

But why would they say such a thing? From where did it come? Was this just prejudice? From where did this opinion come? It has been very prominent for hundreds of years. In western tradition, in Christianity, it was not said that women cannot attain liberation and there were indeed many saintly women. But in India there were also saintly women. Yet although they were saintly, the men still thought, “Yes, they are saintly all right, so next life they will become a man! Then they can attain liberation like us.” This opinion was held quite widely and even in the western culture, the domination of the male in religious circles became very, very extreme. Women’s spirituality became terribly persecuted with witch-hunts and the torture and murder of thousands and thousands and thousands of women and everyone living with fear in their hearts. So the persecution of women became extreme under patriarchy for hundreds and hundreds of years. And it became generally thought both in eastern and western culture that women were spiritually incapable. The equivalent of this statement was found in western culture also. They made so many statements that women did not have the same spiritual capacity, spiritual depth, or spiritual sincerity as the men.

Now why did this type of thinking come about? From what basis was this derived? It was certainly believed for a very long time by some very developed and sincere spiritualists, both men and women. What line of deduction brought them to such a conclusion? One can look to the society and say, “Ah, it was the domination of the patriarchal approach.” Yes, but why this thought? What reasoning was at the base of this idea? From where did its fathers take it?

Was it not because it was seen very plainly that women bear the children, that women have a tendency to be very practical minded? They worry about the welfare of their children and their relatives, they like to talk, and they have a great deal of attachment to the welfare of other people around them. So for these fathers of the spiritual traditions this meant, “Yes, the women are too busy with worldly life. It is all that fills their minds! So they are worldly and not only are they worldly, they are the temptresses, attempting to bring us down from the lofty ideation upon God to the ordinary and the mundane. They engage us in their desire for children and family and home and house and this and that. They always want more and more and more material!” Then they thought, “But we are holy men. We have the capacity. If we don’t allow ourselves to become engaged with these women, to be holy, we can divorce ourselves from all of these worldly desires and live in the divine ideology and presence of the Great. We can formulate spiritual ideologies in our minds. We can contemplate the ephemeral and the Absolute. We needn’t concern ourselves with these worldly attachments as long as we don’t become involved. The women hook us in and next thing we know we have children to feed, houses to support, women, everything! This is the downfall of a spiritual man.” So the thinking went and what was the downfall? It was the women. They were worldly.

From this, naturally the conclusion came in the minds of those men of that time, “These women cannot attain liberation. They are too attached to children, and family, and the world. They don’t have the capacity.” They thought about it and eventually they developed the idea that women are only able to attain mukti. They can attain liberation, but only to a certain degree. They can realize that the divinity is everywhere, yes, but they cannot attain final liberation, moksha, because in the feminine form they are bound in association with Prakrti. So it was thought by those men. They saw women as being like the Lady Prakrti who is the operative principle, who dances the dance of creation in this expressed universe. They thought, “The women are the same. They want to create babies. They want to have so many attachments in the world. It is impossible for them to attain Purusha.” In this way, the idea came about that to attain merger with the cosmic self, one would have to attain male form because female form is associated with Prakrti and all of her qualities and characteristics. So they divided humanity.

These men made a very serious error. It was not simply a prejudice but in time it became a prejudice. There were some deep thinking yogis who came to these conclusions and did so because they made a significant error in their thinking. They identified men with Purusha and women with Prakrti and they thought that the sadhaka is dominated by the physical body. The fatal error in their thinking was that they did not realize that only the lower three koshas of the mind are influenced by these factors and that in the causal sphere there is no male and no female. Therefore, this theory becomes totally irrelevant. This was the origin of an approach that became very popular in both East and West that assumed a spiritual inferiority in women. From this so many other kinds of oppression of women came about.

But today is a new day, a new dawn, a new beginning. The position of women in society is changing quickly and dramatically. Women have advanced significantly and they will advance more and more. The rise of women in the society today is essential to the survival of the human society. For the loving kindness and the care for life that is the essence of women’s values and their approach to life are crucial factors if the society is to move forward at this stage. It is bound to be that the influence of women will grow and grow in magnitude at this time. It is already occurring to great degree and it will so continue. And these theories, these patriarchal theories about the fundamental difference between men and women that made women fundamentally inferior, spiritually unable to attain liberation have been and are being discarded.

However, it is important that when discarding these erroneous conclusions, that the vitality of the spiritual knowledge is not lost or discarded along with these irrelevancies, with these misunderstandings. The covering of inaccurate knowledge and conclusion must be stripped away but the truth of the spiritual tradition; the beauty of spiritual life must be maintained. To substitute one dogma for another is no solution at all. There are women who propagate certain dogmas regarding the superiority of feminine qualities to masculine qualities and this does not help the situation. Rather it should be seen that each has their place and each has their strengths as well as their difficulties, spiritually.

So although it is not true that the women, because they inhabit a female form, are so controlled by Prakrti that they cannot attain liberation; it is true that they emulate Prakrti in the physical sphere where they are able to create from their own bodies. The development of this capacity to have children, to create life from one’s own body, is a very dominant factor in female psychology. This has a tremendous impact on the minds of many women for they discover that having children is an extremely fulfilling experience. In raising children their hearts swell. They can think of nothing but the welfare of their little ones. The devotion of a mother to her child is unparalleled. The monks and nuns and holy people in the orders should have such devotion to God as the mother who is completely in love with her little ones. She spends all her day night caring for them, puts her own needs completely aside to care for them. Such devotion is the great strength of women. It is their great strength. They have the capacity for such devotion, the capacity to love life, the capacity to love and to sacrifice for love. And when the child is born, this comes instinctually. It is in the physical structure. There is an inborn tendency, a biological instinct to protect the little one at all costs and to put that above one’s own welfare. This is the great and noble strength of women, this capacity of devotion and self-sacrifice. A secondary inborn strength of women is their capacity to nurture for they are the ones who give the milk. There is nothing sweeter than mother’s milk. And in the psychological sphere, in the mental sphere, there is that basic desire that human life should be protected, that the children and family should be protected, should be safe, cared for, and should do well. So the very psychology of women is, in general, life supporting. It is designed to bring life into the world and to let it blossom, grow and develop. Very, very often women dedicate themselves to these and similar principles. It comes naturally from the body, and from the mind, the conscious mind in association with the body. This influences the psychology and the approach of the women and it is a very, very great strength.

However, it is also a potential source of difficulty. For while the capacity for devotion, self-sacrifice, and nurturance can be very powerful in a woman; so can the tendency towards excessive attachment or difficulty to withdraw the mind from the attachments in the world in order to focus it upon the innermost Self. Those yogis of the ancient past saw this difficulty of women and because they had not seen a woman who could attain realization, they misunderstood. Though that tendency to become attached to the children, the family, the world, and the people is there; the tendency to devotion and self-sacrifice makes the mind great, makes the heart noble. And when in addition the intelligence is used to discriminate, then a woman has the best of both worlds. She can take her discriminating mind and her intelligence and see beyond the inclinations of the body to the deeper strata of the mind. She can make the time to do Brahma sadhana, and she can learn and understand that all life is holy, that all beings are but appearances of the One Infinite Self. If in the depths of her sadhana she can realize this deeply, fully, then even in her children, even in the fulfilment of the yearning of her body for creation, even in her passion and attachment to her children, in all of these she will see only the one Self; she will see only the divine beloved. “Oh Lord, I have been so graced. You have come as the babe in my arms. You have come in my own womb. You have come out of me. You are the babe in my own arms and now I can devote my life to you.” Seeing things in this way, seeing the child, seeing the Lord in the child, seeing the Lord in the husband, seeing the Lord in all people; she becomes the blissful mother, the divine mother. In the devotion of the heart there lies the potential of expanding this mundane love into devotion to the divine beloved, to see only the one Self, the divine beloved in all those to whom she is attached. Through this, she can break free of all bondages of attachment to form.

There are various approaches yogis have used regarding attachment and detachment. In certain schools of yoga, you may hear it said that the yogi must be detached and that in order to realize the divinity, the one Self all attachment to any worldly form whatsoever must be removed, must be let go. They say that when there is attachment, there is grasping. When there is grasping, there is the need to attain happiness. When there is the need to attain happiness, there is naturally the suffering that pursues one when the object of happiness is lost. Then, since in this world of time and change, all objects pass away, suffering is inevitable when one grasps. As long as one continues the way of grasping and attachment to forms, one plants the seeds of suffering. Sometimes the yogis, realizing this, have come to the conclusion that the only way to avoid this dilemma is to become removed, detached, uninvolved with life, to renounce the world, to remove one’s potential passion and love for a spouse, a child, other people, movements or the welfare of society. “Let it go on. Let it go on. Remain ever in the Self.” So say many yogis but this psychology has produced some very faulty thinking. It has had a very negative impact in some eastern countries where thousands upon thousands of people might be starving and the yogis sit in their caves and do nothing, saying, “It is just their karma. I am detached,” and in this way those who could do something to help the human society, many times the most capable ones, did nothing due to this defective psychology.

So what to do? It is true. This is truth that the Buddha has revealed. Grasping and attachment result in suffering. The need to grasp and the resultant suffering are both are based in the assumption of individuality. However, when the yogis have exercised detachment in this manner, it has produced some serious social difficulties. This type of detachment is not aligned with the psychology of women. This idea comes from patriarchy. Because for most women, this detachment is very hard to achieve when they have children. They have an infant at the breast and the yogis come and say, “Oh, to be a holy person you must be entirely detached, care for no one, nothing. You must have no attachment,” and the mother says, “What to do? If I am not attached, the baby will die!” So this approach is not friendly to the psychology of women. And naturally from it came this sense of superiority of the men, isn’t it? “Look she can’t do it! There she is with the little one. She can’t do it! In fact, they’d all die if she did, so let’s not teach her anyway.”

The truth is the truth: Suffering comes from attachment to form because form changes and no one can stop the change. We cannot freeze time and say, “I will keep things as they are right now.” All forms change. So what to do? What to do? Rather there is a different approach. There are two key factors of this approach. One is discrimination, to understand the real and the unreal, to see that which is real and that which is passing and changing and to be able to distinguish between the two. This is a key factor. The other factor is detachment. However, if one attempts to have detachment before one has developed discrimination, there are difficulties. Discrimination is viveka. If one’s discrimination becomes very much developed, then one begins to understand at all times what is the real and what is the passing and fading. The mother looks at the child and she says, “Yes, the form will grow. It will change. It will move on. But that which I love so passionately is the real. That which I adore in my child will always be.” To distinguish between form and substance is the key. The way is not to shut the heart and become dry and papery like a leaf in the fall. The leaf becomes brittle and dry and falls to the ground dead. So becomes the heart of the yogi who will not love. But for the yogi whose love is so strong, so great, that all distinctions of form fade from the mind. Ah, that one is vital, alive, and vibrant. When love becomes so great, it is not confined to form. When the passion of the heart is so intense, the devotion is so strong, and the discrimination of the mind is clear, then the real is clear, it is clear what is of substance and what is of illusion or overlay, the ever-changing overlay.

The mother, the body that is inhabited, has a longing for the creation of children. The mother holds the babe in her arms, the mother suckles the babe, the mother raises the child; but what is happening? The mother loves with her whole heart. Let her love with a clear mind! Let her heart be absolutely passionate! Let her know that the Lord of Lords is with her in every breath she takes, in the fullness of her body, in the babe in her arms, in her friends, in her husband, in the ones that she loves. In all the things of the world to which she is attached, let her realize that she is attached to the Lord alone. She is attached to the one Self alone. Let her realize that the love she feels, the depths of love with another is the touch of the soul, the touch of Parama Purusha. It is his very existence revealed to her. Do you think he is present only in sadhana with eyes closed? He exists everywhere all around you. But due to the dullness of the mind, he becomes invisible.

When the heart is truly opened, when you look into the eyes of another and you are lost in love, when you feel overcome with love in your heart, what is it you touch but this divinity? When you look into those eyes and you are lost in love, is it not the supreme Self that you have touched? Is it not the grace of his love being bestowed upon you? Lord has come in this form before you and is reaching through the veil of your individuality, dissolving it and touching you, just touching you, reaching through the painful veil of separation, but he is doing it through this identification with individuality. So it is, both in the depths of sadhana and in the touch with other human beings and other living creatures, plants and animals, even the rocks. In that touch, the veil of duality be­comes parted and the unity of the Self is one. Only when the mind remains in ignorance it assumes, “Oh, it is Sally. It is John,” and, “I’m only happy when John is there.” No! You are only happy when the self is not. You are only happy when the beloved parts the veil of separation and you experience the wholeness of your existence and the beloved comes in endless forms to part the veil of separation, to allow you to be close to him. He is your child. He is your husband. He is your friend. He is the stranger upon the street who looks at you and smiles. He is the person who hands you the ticket into the bus or the train or the plane. He is the One who brought you here. He is the One who takes care of you in endless ways, who brings you food. So great is his love for you, he comes around you endlessly.

It is the failure of patriarchal religions to recognize him in all his forms. Do not be afraid to be attached to him. But maintain your discrimination and make your love so great, so extreme, and so passionate that all duality gets dissolved. Use the strength that your body has given you for devotion, love and self-sacrifice. Combine it with the discrimination between the unreal and the real to find the most beloved all around you and within you. For so gracious is that Lord of Lords, he doesn’t leave you alone at all! He is with you day and night, caring for you, loving you, speaking to you in so many voices, in all the people you see, in all the people you know and love. He is touching you with his kindness and care and he is listening. He brings you good food to eat. He comes as your child and greets you with a smile that melts your heart. He is your little kitty cat, purring and loving you, jumping on your lap to be with you. Endless are his forms. Endless the ways he comes to touch you, to whisper softly, “Come my love. Forget this sense of illusion that is separation. You are not alone. Come to me.” So he comes to you with form and without form, in the depths of your sadhana, in all the people you have ever known, in all that you have ever loved. For he is the beloved. He is the Self. He is the One.

The path of liberation for many women is to see him in form as well as in the formless, to know and to love with a full heart, the divinity which is all around. Never shut the heart down. Never close the heart. Let it open and blossom. Let it be like a full lotus flower shining to the sun. Let it open to the warmth of love. Let it be full to the maximum with love. Be vital, be alive, and be in love. Let the sun shine upon your face, and drink its warmth and beauty and feel the warmth of the touch of your Lord, your most beloved, upon your face. Let the rain fall and touch your head and feel him in every drop. Let your child smile at you, and enjoying a moment together, an activity anew, enjoy him coming to you, the most beloved, in the dance of love. For he is dancing with each and every one of you in an endless dance of love and you are each so fortunate to be dancing this dance with the most beloved Self of your self. Do not run away from him and hide in a lonely corner. Do not fear to love but know who it is that love and let your love be shining! Let it be full and rapt. Let it be for every breath of life and for all that is. For indeed he is everywhere and if you allow it, he will remove the veil of ignorance and free you from the suffering of this sense of individuality that is the very source of pain. For when I and my beloved are separate there is bound to be pain, but when the two become one, when lover and beloved are united beyond the confines of time and space and form, then there is wholeness, there is the completion of love, there is the fullness of the Self. Then you will not be able to do anything, to see anyone but the one beloved.

So women have this great strength of love. Let it be used to find the true beloved not apart and outside of your life but in your life, in the people you love, in all that is, in all the forms he comes to dance with you. Dance with him and know who it is that you are dancing with.

Without Brahma Sadhana it becomes very hard to maintain such ideation and discrimination of mind. So it is very important to do one’s sadhana, though when the children are very young, many women have a difficult time. However, if they maintain their devotion and they do as much practice as they can and they maintain ideation, yes, pressure can be great, but madhuvidya must be based on sadhana. Guru mantra and Brahma sadhana, the full complement of spiritual practice is essential because the mind is a monkey mind. If one just thinks an idea, it is insufficient. It must be felt completely in the heart. It must be known in the body. It must be entirely experienced. It is not simply an idea.

Q. Baba, say that you’re a mother and you’re raising your little child and you really love your little child, but then your little child gets older and does things that make you angry and you’re trying to see God in your child, but then they make you angry. Is that where discrimination comes in?

Was not Krishna very naughty, He stole the butter, yes? It is part of the dance to be light. Just because Lord is there doesn’t mean the forms will always be pleasing or the experience will be pleasing. It is through the play of light and shadow that the distinction of form comes about. So it is in the play of pleasure and pain that the distinction comes about.

Q. So what happens to me sometimes? My anger, is that attachment? Is it my attachment to the positive experiences and trying to avoid the painful ones? Is that where you lose discrimination?

This comes because the true nature is not seen. If the true nature of both the pain and the pleasure is seen, then one sees only Brahma. So it is indeed madhuvidya, but madhuvidya is more than a mere idea. When the heart is really open, when the heart is completely given, then the person can become like a small child, innocent. Everyone is God, everyone is Parama Brahma. The person sees only that they are surrounded by the Lord. And sometimes the Lord brings them joy. And many times for one such a one they see only all the nice things that the people do, they see Lord doing these things. Life is full of happiness for these people. And when in one form Lord leaves this life, he comes again in another form, isn’t it? So when the oneness becomes the more the dominant perception in the mind and the distinction of differentiation becomes secondary, then the differentiation between pleasure and pain becomes irrelevant and one ceases to live in the sphere of duality. This is real freedom. Until such a time as the perception of the One becomes more dominant than the perception of the duality, this pain and grasping for pleasure are bound to be there. These cease only when the knowledge of the Self becomes the most dominant thought in the mind and one sees only the one Self and not the differences.

It is a matter of degree and perception. One may gain for a moment the perception of all as the one Self. But then, a few moments later, it is lost when one is busy doing this and that and forgets it entirely. And then again one remembers, then one forgets, then one remembers. It goes like this. Slowly, when the groove of remembrance is already established in the mind, and more importantly, when the heart opens and the barriers, the constrictions, the samskaras dissipate, then the unity of the Self becomes completely visceral and the differentiations become like a transparent veneer upon the deeper substantive nature. They become the transparency, and the substantive nature becomes the solidity. While one is caught in maya, the forms seem to be the solidity and the substantive nature appears as the transparency. But this changes with a reversal that occurs through Brahma sadhana, through madhuvidya, through following the tenets of yama and niyama to refine the mind, and through one’s deep sincerity. It takes very deep sincerity to be able to do this and it takes firm determination and love. Do not be afraid to love. But know the beloved always.

You are each and every one great. You are each and every one the child of the divine. You are each and every one the embodiment of divinity. So look around you! Each one of you is surrounded by divine beings in so many different forms! Remove the veil of dullness from the heart and from the eyes and then you will see how very fortunate you are, how very loved you are and that you are never alone. For the Lord is with you in the forms and in your own heart, within you and with­out you. For the divine entity, for the supreme Brahma there is no internal and external, the entire universe is within. It is within the mind of Brahma, within the omnipresent consciousness, the awareness of Purusha. All of you continue to remember the divinity which is within you and within all beings and see your Lord of Lords everywhere all around you.