Other dimensions of a feminine consciousness: faith, acceptance and surrender

Question 1:

Bhagwan Sri: All dimensions of Existence can be divided into male and female dimensions.

The division of man and woman is not on the basis of sex alone. According to Lao Tzu it is a necessary part of the dialectical evolution of Existence. Not only on the body-level, even on the mental-level man and woman are different. Wherever Existence manifests itself, there is always a difference of male and female. What is to be kept in mind however, according to the Lao-Tzu thought is, that the male form is always the temporal form of Existence whereas the female is always the eternal form of Existence. When a wave rises in the ocean, it is momentary. The ocean is present whether the wave arises or not. Femininity is the ocean of Existence.

Therefore the story of the development of mankind as written by the Jews, is completely false, from the point of view of Lao Tzu. The Jews believe that God made man first. Then from the ribs of man, He created woman. Lao Tzu thinks just the opposite. Lao Tzu believes that the feminine existence is the initial existence. Man is born out of this and he loses himself also into this. There looks to be a depth in Lao Tzu's statement.

SURRENDER First and foremost, "A woman can exist without man. Her restlessness for a man is not so extensive.

Therefore, if she wishes, she can stay single all her life. Maidenhood will not prove hard on her. But to keep a man celibate is next to impossible, it is a very difficult task.

I have been astonished to find that whenever Sadhus talk to me their intrinsic trouble is always sex.

When Sadhavis talk to me, I find they have no difficulty and trouble from sex. Actually, a man's sex is so active, so momentary and recurring that it troubles him all the time and fills him with distress but a woman's sexual desire is not momentary. It is very calm, stable and steady.

You will be surprised to know that the sex-urge in animals, is periodical. For a very-few months of the year animals are troubled by the sex desire. For the rest of the year they forget all about it - as if it did not exist. Man is the only animal that is troubled continuously by the sex urge. He has no period for sex. But even in human beings, the sexual urge of a woman is periodical. There are a few moments when she is filled with sex-desire but for the rest of the time, she is not obsessed by it.

And even in that moment of sex, if the man does not awaken her sex-desire, a woman can live comfortably without it. Her existence is more stable. A man's existence is restive. Therefore we find that men invariably keep going round women no matter how much they try to show otherwise.

It is always the man, who goes around woman; in childhood he is always around his mother and in youth around his beloved. His wanderings are always around women. A man is incomplete without a woman, whereas in the woman, there is a kind of completeness.

This I am saying as an example in order that the feminine Existence be understood.

The feminine Existence is very perfect and symmetrical. The circle is complete. Lao Tzu says, "The greater the perfection, the more stable it is." The greater the imperfection, the more unstable it is. "Therefore," says Lao Tzu, "We give the supreme mystery of existence, the name of Feminine Mystery."

As there is a fundamental difference in the body of man and woman, so also there is a fundamental difference in their mental make-up. A man's way of thinking is reasoning, logic. This should be well understood, for this is the basis of the Lao-Tzu concept. A man's method of thinking is logic. A woman's way of thinking is not through logic. It is illogical, we call this intuition. Whatever name we may give, a woman's way of thinking can never be termed logical. Therefore, wherever a man thinks there is always calculation, logic and law. Wherever a woman thinks, there are none of these. there is a straight and direct conclusion.

Therefore there is no dialogue between a man and a woman. All men find it difficult to talk to women for they find them illogical. When he puts forth an argument, she gives a straight conclusion. He has hardly put forth his point and she has reached a conclusion! There can never be communication between man and woman. Every man feels it is useless to talk to his wife for she always has the last word! Then no matter what arguments he puts forth, it makes no difference; for the woman does not listen to logic at all! This angers the husband but it is not the wife's fault. That is not the method of thinking for her.

Things can be thought of in two ways in this world. Either we can think step by step progressively and then reach the solution through a method; or we can take a straight jump and reach the solution.

There are no steps in between. The way of intuition, is a direct jump.

SURRENDER We all experience this intuition at times. You see a man, at once you draw the conclusion that it is better to keep away from him. You have no argument to support this. You have not been acquainted with this man but at the very first sight of him, this thought crosses your mind. This decision is sudden and comes as a flash - like the flash of lightning and if you see properly, ninety-nine times out of 100, this conclusion always turns out to be correct. Those scientists who are working on intuition say that if the intuition is pure, it is always right. Reasoning can be wrong but intuition, never.

This adds to the man's distress. He sees that what he says is correct, his logic is right and yet the conclusion drawn by the woman is invariably correct! This increases his anger. All those who have studied the female mind have a great grouse against it, that it offers no logic, does not think methodically and yet jumps to the right conclusion. All her inferences are invariably correct for they are intuitive and come straight from her entire being.

A man's inference arises out of his intellect and not from his whole being. A man thinks before he speaks and that which is spoken after much thought, can be wrong also. If you understand intuition a little, this will become clear.

There is a common sparrow in Japan. When an earthquake is to occur, this sparrow leaves the town 24 hours in advance. The most modern machines devised to foretell an earthquake can give a warning only six minutes in advance and this is of no use. This common sparrow of Japan, however, knows of the coming earthquake twenty-four hours in advance. Since thousands of years, the flights of these sparrows are watched by the Japanese for impending earthquakes. As soon as these sparrows are not seen (and they are in plenty in Japan) the people begin to move out. Now how does this sparrow know about the earthquake?

This bird has no method, no calculations. There is no place where it learns this. Yet, it definitely feels something and it behaves according to this feeling.

Animals all over the world are intuitive. They do many things that are entirely intuitive, there is no logic involved; but they all carry out their various functions correctly. What is this intuition? To be joined to Existence, gives rise to intuition. If this sparrow is one with the atmosphere around it, she will notice the slightest tremble in the atmosphere. This Feeling is not intellectual. Her whole being experiences these subtle vibrations in the air around her.

When a man loves a woman his love also, is mental. It is a matter for thought for him. His love is also calculative. When a woman falls in love, her love is absolutely blind. She never weighs her pros and cons. Therefore there is a marked difference between the love of a woman and the love of a man.

A man's love can be today and gone tomorrow. A woman's love does not fade easily. Therefore no rhythm or harmony can be established between a man and a woman. To the mind of a man, a woman is worth loving today and not worth loving tomorrow. The reason for loving her today may not remain the same tomorrow. In fact, reasons change everyday. The woman who looks beautiful today in his eyes and was therefore lovable, may not appear that charming on constant association, for any kind of acquaintance lessens the element of love. The unknown, the unacquainted, is always appealing and attractive. But a woman's love remains the same for there was never any reason connected with her love. That was the call of her whole existence. Therefore, it never worries a woman whether her man is handsome or not. This also is the reason why a man does not care much about his looks.

SURRENDER We all think that a woman's infatuation for clothes, jewellery, make-up, is due to her feminine mind.

It is not so. The reason is very different - it is through these that she hopes to gain the masculine eye The focus of attraction for a man is not at all existential, therefore the woman has to make constant arrangements to adorn herself. A man wears the same kind of clothes all his life. He is not bothered, for a woman does not love him because of his clothes. A woman does not care whether a man wears ornaments or whether he is good-looking. She loves him - that means everything to her. If she does not love, nothing else of the man matters to her.

But for a man, it is the other things that matter. The truth is, if a woman sheds all her adornments before the man she loves, ninety per cent of the woman shall fade away in the eyes of the man.

Therefore, it is so difficult to love a wife day in and day out for the wife is seen minus her adornments.

ninety per cent of the make-up of the woman is gone in the house.

But a woman makes no demands from a man. It is enough for her that he is a man. A woman's love is her only reason to love. Her love is intuitive and has nothing to do with her intellect.

Another thing: her love, together with being intuitive, is complete. Complete in the sense, that her love is born from her whole body. A man's love is not born from his whole body, it is mostly genital.

This is why, as soon as he begins to love, he demands sex. A woman can love for years without any sex-desire. The truth is, when a woman loves deeply, the man's demand for sex, actually shocks her. She cannot imagine sex intruding in the moments of deep love.

I am acquainted with the innermost distress of the hearts of women. Without a single exception, their complaint is the man's constant demand for sex. Each woman is in this torment: where love is her attraction, sex is her husband's. Also, as soon as his sex is satisfied, he forgets the woman.

This gives the woman a feeling that she is merely being used. There was some stimulation within him that he wanted to throw out. He used the woman merely as a means to get rid of his passion after which she seems useless. But a woman's love is deep, it arises from every pore of her body. It is not genital, it is total.

Anything to be total has to be non-intellectual, for the intellect is but a part of the human personality.

This is why a woman does not experience love with her husband as totally and deeply as with her son. The Rishis of old have made a very shocking statement. The Rishi of the Upanishad has thus blest a new bride: "Love your husband so deeply, so profoundly and may you have ten sons and may the eleventh be your husband. The Rishis of the Upanishads say that a woman's love is perfect only when she experiences her husband as her son. Actually, a woman can wholly love her son alone.

No intelligence is needed there. She can lavish her love on his whole body and there is no choosing of any part. She sees no form of sex whatsoever in her child and therefore her love is immaculate pure. As long as a husband does not feel to her like her son a woman is never totally fulfilled.

But it is just the opposite with a man. When he begins to feel the mother in his wife, he promptly begins the search for another wife. He desires a wife and not a mother. To be more explicit, he desires a beloved not even a wife, for a wife also becomes a permanent fixture whereas a beloved is not permanent and she can be changed anytime.

The feminine mind is integrated. I am not talking about the mind of all women, mind you. When I use the word woman, or feminine, I am talking of the feminine-Existence - that which Lao Tzu refers SURRENDER to as the Feminine Mystery. I do not mean that all women are like this. It is only when women are like this that they are really women and only when a man also becomes like this, does he establish his relationship with the depths of existence.

No revelation of the Supreme Wisdom has ever been born out of the intellect. They have all been born out of intuition, then be it Archimedes solving his mathematical problem! He was relaxing in his bath-tub and suddenly, the solution of the problem, which all along was defying all his efforts came to him. He jumped out of the tub and ran out naked on the streets shouting "Eurika! Eurika!" And naked he ran towards the king's palace, for it was the king who had commissioned him to solve the problem.

Archimedes did not solve the problem intellectually. The solution - as if - arose from within him. He had employed no method, no logic. It came to him directly from Existence. The statement made by all scientists about their discoveries since the last 2,000 year, bears one fact in common. They all have observed that the solution they were seeking always came before them in their moment of relaxation - they do not know how.

You also experience this at times. You forget a name. You try very hard to remember it. Then you give up. You sit quiet, smoking perhaps or listening to the radio or reading a paper or digging in the garden. Then suddenly, this name, you were frantically trying to remember, comes up from within you. This is not the work of your intellect.

There was a man in America by the name of Cayce. He used to diagnose a person's illness in his trance. This man was not a medical man and had no knowledge of medical science. Also, when he was conscious he could make no diagnosis or suggest remedies. This man had made a correct diagnosis of 40,000 patients. When a patient came to him, he sat before him with his eyes closed and in deep meditation. Then he would begin to speak and diagnose his illness and suggest a cure.

He would prescribe medicines of which he had no knowledge in his consciousness. His diagnosis and cure were always correct.

When he came back to consciousness, he himself would say he was not sure whether the medicine would cure the patient for he had never heard of it.

Many a time it happened, that the medicine he prescribed would be available nowhere. Then after a year or so, it would come in the market. That means when he predicted the medicine it was yet being discovered! This medicine was still being evolved and not yet named when Cayce suggested it, giving it its proper name. A year after his diagnosis, the patient gets the medicine and is cured.

Once just such a medicine was searched all over the world and was not found. Then the patient's family gave an advertisement in a number of newspapers that if anyone knew anything about this medicine, should please let them know immediately, for a person's life depended entirely on it. A man from Sweden replied saying that there was no medicine as such, but his father had patented just such a medicine 26 years ago, which never came into the market. He had the formula which he was sending and they may get the medicine prepared. The medicine was prepared and the patient recovered.

What Cayce experienced, was intuitive and this is a quality of the female-mind - no thinking or pondering but a direct manifestation of an answer. All processes of meditation, lead towards this.

SURRENDER Lao Tzu says, "If you think, you will go astray." Do not think and the answer will come. Stop thinking and await - the answer will come. You have only to wait: the question is within you and you wait.

The answer is bound to come. Do not think for what will you attain by thinking? How capable are you? How much can a wave think about an ocean? It is better if it leaves everything to the ocean and awaits for an answer from the ocean.

What Lao Tzu means to convey by the feminine-mind is: "Leave everything. Let Existence answer."

Do not bring yourself in, for whatever you bring in, will be wrong. What Existence gives, can never be wrong.

There is a similar story about Lukman. As it is said about Cayce, Lukman used to stand before a plant and go into a trance. Then he would ask the plant in what illness it would be useful. Lukman has given one lac herbal cures in this fashion.

There was no research centre where he could carry out his research. Even when Ayurveda came into being, there were no research centres. But their results hold good even today. These results were arrived at intuitively by persons in meditation.

Sarpagandha is an old herb of Ayurveda. The sadhaka of Ayurveda has been using this herb since the last 5,000 years. It is a sleep-inducer. It has now been proved in the Western Laboratories, that no tranquillizer is as effective as Sarpagandha to induce sleep. It is known in the West as Serpentina, which is an essence of Sarpagandha. Now we have many accurate means for carrying out research which were not available to the people of ancient times. This proves that the method of research in those days must have been different. That method of research was the method of the feminine mind.

The way research is carried on in our times, is the way of the male-mind. Lao Tzu has said that the science of the female-mind is different from the science of the male mind.

The science developed in the West today is the discovery of the male-mind. Logic, dissection, analysis - these are its methods. Break things, tear them to pieces, reason, argue, ponder over it and calculate the result. But these results need to be changed as days go by. If a scientific formula holds good for six months, it has lasted long enough! In six months' time new means and machines are invented which bring in fresh logic and subtler calculations so that the old calculations prove false. The scientists of the West say that it is becoming nearly impossible to write an extensive book on any subject for before you finish, the theories you go by, are proved false! Now only small books are written on science and by and by, these too will stop. Now there are merely periodicals and magazines on science in which the scientist gives his report before they are proved false!

The results arrived at, the conclusions drawn by intuition require no change even in thousands of years. The truths as stated by the Upanishads, hold good even today; and there does not seem to be any possibility of their changing in the future also. What is there in these truths that make them so authentic?

What Lao Tzu says will hold good even in the farthest future. There will be no change required in his statements. Tao - the method of Lao Tzu's attainment must have been something very different.

What we attain, is nullified the next day. As all discoveries of man are based on logic, they are SURRENDER not actual experiences. They are merely mental conjectures. Therefore they need to be changed everyday, for conjectures are never true. This is why a scientist always says that what he says is 'approximately true.'

When you go through the Upanishads, you find yourself in a different world altogether. Read Lao Tzu - he gives no explanation, no reasoning. He says, "The Valley Spirit dies not, ever the same."

This is a mere statement without any reasoning. He does not go on to explain why the spirit of the Valley never dies. He makes a plain and direct statement - the Spirit of the Valley never dies, it is forever the same. There is no why and wherefore to his statements for Lao Tzu says that only he who has not experienced himself, needs witnesses and reasoning to prove his statement.

It is said that Mulla Nasruddin was once found in a court of law. He complained to the judge that his wife had attacked him with a pair of scissors and cut up his face as if it were a piece of cloth! The judge was puzzled, "But Mullah," he told Nasruddin, "There is not a single sign on your face to prove your complaint! When did it happen?" "It happened last night," said the Mulla. "But how can it be?

There are no marks on your face," said the judge.

"Where is the need for that?" Asked Nasruddin. "I can produce a dozen witnesses to bear me out."

In fact, we only look for witnesses when we have no faith in ourselves. When we have full confidence in ourselves, there is no need for witnesses or any proof.

The Rishis of the Upanishads say, "Brahma is." They give no proof in support of their statement.

They do not explain how they have reached this conclusion. They do not even say that those who disagree are wrong. It is a direct statement. If you ask them for proof, they will say: "There is no proof. Our word is enough. If you wish to know, we can show you the way; but we shall not give any reason for our statement." Lao Tzu too says the same. He also says, "The Spirit of the Valley is ever - abiding and you too can experience it. I can show you the way to penetrate into the Feminine Mystery but I shall offer no proof of its existence for I know for certain that it is."

Those who have offered proofs in favour of the existence of God, have no idea at all of His existence.

Such people have only strengthened the atheist's hand - for an inference can always. be debated and there is no inference which cannot be falsified.

Nasruddin advised his son who was to enter the University, "Make it a point to learn logic," he told him. "It will prove very useful in the art of dishonesty. If you want to be dishonest you must be an expert logician. Honesty requires no logic."

"Please explain further," his son requested, "For I have no knowledge of logic." So Nasruddin began to explain: "Supposing, two men come out from the chimney of a cottage. One man's clothes are sparkling white whereas the others' are black with the chimney soot. Which one of them will take a bath first?"

"The one who is dirty, naturally," his son replied. "Wrong," said Nasruddin. "And this is why I say, you must have a knowledge of logic. The man who is dirty cannot see the dirt. He can only see the white clothes of his friend. And he thinks: 'If his clothes are clean mine, too, must be clean.'"

"Enough!" said his son, "I understand clearly. The man in the white clothes will bathe first for he will SURRENDER see the soot on his friend's clothes. He too will think that since they both have come out of the same chimney and his friend's clothes were dirty, he too must be dirty!"

"Wrong!" said Nasruddin. "Preposterous!" Exclaimed his son, "Then what is the answer?" Nasruddin replied. "It is wrong because he who knows logic will say 'If both came out of the same chimney, how can one be clean and the other dirty?'" He further told his son, "If you want to prove everyone wrong in this world, you must know logic."

You can never prove anything to be correct by logic but logic can prove anything to be false. In order to prove the authenticity of a thing, experience is imperative. And if we cannot prove the authenticity of a thing by logic, the inauthenticity of the thing is also not very clear through logic for we do not know what is authentic. Then it becomes just a play to prove one's point.

The entire knowledge of the West is based on logic. Aristotle is the father of this knowledge. Where there is logic, there is always analysis: breaking of things into fragments. So the method of science in the West is analytical. Thus they reached the atom - by breaking and breaking matter.

The female consciousness is synthetical. It does not break things, rather it joins them. It says, "Keep adding, keep adding, and when nothing remains to be added, then what comes in hand is the Truth."

Therefore, the conclusions drawn by a female-consciousness are all pertaining to the vast expanse and not to the atom. It is this consciousness that has declared: "The whole universe is Brahma alone." The scientist declares the universe to be a conglomeration of atoms; and each atom is an entity by itself. The atoms are not joined; they cannot be. Between each of them is an abyss. They are like particles of sand held together. Is this so? Or is it their method of deduction that brings them to this conclusion - that the universe is a mass of atoms?

He who works according to the method of the feminine consciousness says however: "The universe is One." There is no question of many; there are not even two. The universe is one vast expanse.

He keeps adding and when there is nothing more to add all the universe gets accumulated in one.

A woman always thinks in terms of accumulation. A man always thinks in terms of breaking, segregating. This is the male-mind. The female mind is accumulating and where this is 50, the conclusions reached are different from the conclusions reached by analysis.

Remember, where there is analysis, there is aggression. This is why the Western scientists talk in terms of conquering nature. But in the East, people like Lao Tzu say: "We are the children of nature.

How can we conquer nature? It would be an act of outrageous oppression on our mother!"

Lao Tzu says: "To talk of conquering nature is foolishness. It is enough that we co-operate with nature and obtain her grace. If we receive her benevolence, that is more than sufficient."

The West has started to re-think on the lines of Lao Tzu. A wonderful book has been written of late in the West; and it is the first of its kind: "THE TAO OF SCIENCE." Now there is a heated debate going on in the West in favour of getting rid of the Aristotlean science and constructing a new science based on the theories of Lao Tzu. Why?

Because this language of victory and defeat is the language of violence, and nature cannot be conquered. It is as foolish and impossible an effort as if my small finger were to set out to conquer SURRENDER my whole body. It can never win. It can torment itself to no end: and man has thus tormented himself in a vain bid to conquer nature. When man thinks about nature in terms of aggression, is it a wonder then that a man thinks about another man in the same way? Fighting and aggrandisement become their way of thinking.

According to Lao Tzu, wars cannot end in this world unless and until, female consciousness becomes powerful. This appears somewhat true. Women are never keen on war. They never have been. If man has somehow cajoled her into accepting war .and even made her apply the mark of victory on his forehead when he sets out to war, she has never done this whole-heartedly. There have been nothing but tears behind her smile for whoever wins or loses, the woman has always lost.

Either she has lost a son or a husband or her beloved. Someone or the other of hers, always dies and so she never stands to gain by war.

No matter what excitement war brings to a man, in the woman's life it strikes a fatal blow.

Women have always been against war; but women have no voice in society, the female- consciousness holds no power. So as long as the male consciousness holds sway in the world, wars cannot be eradicated. A man's mental make-up is such that even if he wants to start a movement against wars, his way of going about it will be war-like. When he starts a movement for establishing peace, his fists are clenched and he carries a stick! His methods will all be that of a fighter.

There was yet another case against Mulla Nasruddin. Two men came to blows. They threw chairs at each other and broke their heads. Nasruddin was present. He was called as a witness in the case.

The judge asked him, "Mulla, you were present when this happened. Is it not a matter of shame that you did nothing? After all, they were your friends!" Nasruddin replied, "Your honour, there were only two chairs and these two grabbed them first. All I could do was stand and watch. Had there been a third chair, I would have participated whole heartedly."

He, who is out to save, needs must have a rifle in his hands too. Man cannot think except in terms of a gun. You will be shocked to know what the scientists say. They say that all the weapons developed by man are mostly the evolvement of his genitals! Whether it is a sword or a gun or a knife, they are all contrivances to pierce! They are all phallic - the man-made weapons!

Woman developed no weapons. The very idea of fighting is nauseating to her. Wars are meaningless. The very talk of conquering is ineffective. The female mind, actually, never thinks in terms of conquering but in terms of surrender. Understand this well: the centre of the female consciousness, is Surrender. A man's centre of consciousness is Resolve, Strife, Victory and the like. Even when a man sets out to attain God, he goes about like an aggressor. "I shall only rest when I attain Him!" This is his attitude. He sets out in search of Truth as if he has set out to find an enemy. There is no attitude of prayer but the attitude of conquest.

As we begin to understand Lao Tzu, we shall understand what he says that... "He who surrenders, he who lets himself go, he alone makes a place within himself to attain the Vast Truth. Logic, struggle and strife are the male characteristics. Surrender, the state of non-logic or you may say, faith are the characteristics of the female-mind. Intuition is born only in the midst of faith - in faith and trust. If a man tries to have faith, it does not come naturally to him. If he inculcates faith in order to attain God, that faith is of no value. Doubt always lurks within such a man. Deep within, there is doubt, distrust and outwardly there is trust and faith.

SURRENDER Nasruddin was educating his son in the ways of life. He shows him a ladder and says, "Go right on top!" The son asks, "Why? Where is the need?" "Do not ask," says Nasruddin, "do as you are told."

The son obeys grudgingly. When he reached the top, the Mulla stretched his arms and said, "Now jump! Have faith, I am your father. See my hands? Now jump!" Just as the boy jumped, the Mulla stepped aside. The boy fell with a thud and broke his leg. He began to cry.

Nasruddin said, "This is your first lesson in life: Trust no one, not even your own father! If you want to succeed in life, trust no one. The moment you trust, you will lose."

All training of man is such. The world he creates all around himself is a world of non-trust. In this world, there is only strife, enmity and competition. Trust is so natural to a female-mind. But the female of our times is educated by the man. She is made to learn the sutras of male education.

Therefore, the women have no idea of the female consciousness. This is why a woman thus educated, becomes more distrusting and doubting than a man. Just as a new convert to Islam goes oftener to the Masjid, so a woman trained in the ways of a man becomes more doubting.

Else, doubt is not the nature of a woman. Simple surrender is her nature. She has not to bring this about, it is in her very nature. To live in trust, is her way of living: it is her manner of existence, her very way of life. Trust is ingrained in every pore of her being. This factor is to be remembered when considering the female mystery.

Lao Tzu's hints are all towards the realm of faith. It is the realm of peaceful co-ordination and co-operation with nature. It is a realm where you flow with nature and not go against it. It is not swimming in the river but rather floating in it. A man jumps in the river with full faith. He makes no effort to swim, he floats. He has no desire to reach anywhere; wherever the river leads him, that is his goal. With such faith, he floats along in the river. Lao Tzu says, "As long as I searched, I did not find Truth. As soon as I stopped all search and just floated, I found that Truth was forever by my side. My search was the impediment and therefore I could not see it."

Lao Tzu used to say, "I become like a dry leaf. I went where the winds took me. From that day, my ego had no place to stand; and from that day I have known what the supreme Truth is. Now there was no unrest, no restlessness. All restlessness was the restlessness of the search of reaching somewhere. All restlessness is the outcome of trying to be something. The man of faith is happy with what he is, where he is, the way he is.

It is not that he does not travel. He too travels; but his journey is together along with the journey of the whole existence and not in opposition to it. A wisp of straw that flows with the river, reaches the ocean some day. It is not necessary to ride a boat in order to reach the ocean. The floating wisp of straw also reaches the ocean and it is the river that takes it, it does not go itself. It saves itself the trouble and trails of reaching itself.

Lao Tzu says, "If we can let-go of ourselves as a woman lets herself go completely in love; if we give ourselves away to Tao, to the universe, to Existence, to God as a woman in the arms of her lover, then we easily reach up to the Truth of Existence."

There are one or two things more:

SURRENDER There is a difference between the male mind and the female mind. In the same way, there is a marked difference in their way of living also. The male dimensions of living, is time. Man lives in time. Existence has two dimensions, one is time and the other is Space. Man lives in time. He keeps an account of the past and an account of the future. He lives like the hand of the clock. As the Western science began to hold ground, clocks became popular. Clocks were never invented in the East and the :reason was simple. The East never thought with the male mind. The East never kept an account of time.

We do not know the date of Rama's birth or of his death. We do not know when Krishna was born, when he died. We also do not know when Lao Tzu was born and when he died. We do not even know who was born first and who after. We kept no chronicle. Actually, time-consciousness was never a factor in the Eastern way of living. Why? Because a male mind is required for time- consciousness. The consciousness of time, increases with tension. As tension rises, time increases.

As anxiety rises, time-consciousness increases.

Time-consciousness has reached such a peak in the West that they keep account of even one second. This leads to a great deal of foolishness at times. A man goes running to catch a plane for he wishes to save one hour of his time. He saves one hour but: he never thinks what he is going to do with this hour. He will use this time he has saved to save another hour and then that hour to save another hour. Thus saving his hours, he ultimately dies and is never able to make use of the time he saved! For making use of the hour, he should be without any tensions. There is tension in time - sharp tension, where tomorrow is more significant than today.

For the women, today is of great significance - here and now. Therefore, it is an interesting fact, that women take interest in things here and now. You will be surprised to know that women never have any long drawn-out worries. She never worries what the world is going to be in 2,000 A.D. She never worries whether there will be a third world war; or what will happen in Vietnam or in Bengal.

There is no place for time in a woman's thoughts. She is least worried what is happening in Peking or Washington!

But for a woman, what is happening in the neighbour's house, is a matter of great importance, whereas what is happening in Washington has no significance at all. She will put her ear to the wall to know of all the goings on next door. She has an Immediate consciousness. She is not concerned with the distance and time. Her whole interest is in here and now, no matter how trivial the happening; perhaps a quarrel between husband and wife or a son being reproved by his mother - whatever it is, it is nearby.

The most trifling thing is precious to a woman if it is here and now. For a man the most precious thing is of little value if it is in the present. The farther a thing, the greater the opportunity for his mind to extend. The greater the distance, the better the scope to ponder, to plan, to argue. When a happening takes place near you, where is the need to think over it? So man is very much interested in far-off affairs whereas woman is interested in here and now.

To be interested in the proximate is much more important in the search for Truth than interest in the distant. I am not advising you not to keep interested in your neighbour's affairs. Interest in things near and around you, is very precious for life is so very close to you! The nearer you feel the feeling of Existence, the more fresh and alive it will be. With time and distance, it gets stale and old. Then only the ashes remain or the dreams of future.

SURRENDER Man lives in time, woman in space. Perhaps you are not aware of the fact that a home is a woman's creation. Left to man, he would never settle down in a house. A house keeps a man tied to the proximate and distant journeys become feeble. Man by nature is a vagabond, a gypsy. He loves to wander - as far off as he can. Hence the wanderlust in man.

Now, a woman cannot understand why mao is so eager to go to the moon. What will we do there?

There are no shopping centres etc.! And after all what is all this for? Astronauts are the most celebrated people in America but you will be surprised to know that the race of divorce among them is twice that of ordinary citizens, for those whose interest lies in the distant lands cannot possibly find interest in their wives!

A woman is troubled even when you read a paper in her presence - you have gone far away from her. Therefore wives hate books and they also dislike your playing games. She is troubled - there she is before you and you walk off to the play field? And even when he comes back from the moon, his interest in his wife is hardly worth the name. He has developed such a keen interest in distant things that he is no longer interested in things near to him.

A man is always on the move. The house is made by the woman and therefore she is known as the lady of the house though it is your money she spends. She is owner of the house. She fixes the nail and you feel tied to it. I was reading an autobiography of a person. He says, "I was in a dilemma.

I could not decide whether I should marry or I should not. If I married, I would become tied to one place. I shall not be able to move from there. If I did not marry, I cannot go about wherever I pleased but then there is no place where I could rest!" If man had his way, he would keep wandering, like the wandering nomad tribes.

Have you ever observed the women-folk of these nomads? For instance the Baluchi women. They are almost like men. They have to wander with their men-folk and the inevitable effects of wandering result in them also. It is not in a woman's nature to wander. If she does, she will have to develop the mature of man. Therefore, the Baluchi woman is more of a man than the Baluchi man. She can fix a dagger in your chest with the greatest of ease. If she catches hold of your hand, it is difficult to shake it off.

Now if the Baluchi woman becomes like a man, our men become almost like women - remember this! He has to live tied to his house and his woman. Therefore a man is always irritated by his wife for she appears to be the cause of his captivity. When we send wedding invitations and we say our son is being bound in the bond of affection to the daughter of so-and-so, it is correct. Marriage is a bond for the man. He gets tied, he strikes roots in captivity and thus his personality gets stunted.

Early in the morning one day, Mulla Nasruddin met the doctor. "And how is your wife, Mulla? Did she sleep well?" The doctor asked him. "What a wonderful medicine you gave her doctor! She sleeps well and she feels well too," replied Nasruddin. "Have you anything to ask?" The doctor inquired.

"Only this," said Nasruddin, "When will she get up? It is five days now that she is asleep and Oh, the peace and freedom, now that she is asleep!" "What?" The doctor exclaimed, "Five days? Why did you not inform me, you foolish man? I hope you did not give her an over dose?" "That I did not doctor," Nasruddin replied, "you had said to give her the powder as much as can be placed on a four- anna piece. There was no four-anna piece, so I took four, one-anna pieces, placed the medicine on them and gave her. So much peace in the house, I tell you. Go where I like, come when I like, there is not a sound in the house I; I had never known such peace in all my married life."

SURRENDER A man feels bound. If he runs away from home, there is trouble, if he does not, he feels a captive.

Man's whole-hearted desire is in the distant. It is not also that once he reaches there he will be satisfied. We have hardly stepped on the moon when the scientists are busy planning journeys to Mars. The moon has already been dripped - as if the chapter is closed. Now it is imperative to land on Mars. Why? No one questions.

The people of the Upanishads, people like Lao Tzu, the people of India and the East have never been bound by time-consciousness. There was no concept of time, no concept of the distant. Lao Tzu used to say, "I have heard from the elders the my village that there was a village across the bank of the river. Sometime in the silence of the night we heard their dogs barking. At times when the skies were clear, we saw the smoke rising from their chimneys. But never was anyone ever keen to find out who they were."

I was reading the life-story of a Catholic priest. There is an order of Trappist monks. It is perhaps the most difficult order of monks in the world. Once a man enters a Trappist monastery and becomes initiated in its Order, he never goes out again. He goes out only if the Guru throws him out or if he dies.

A new Sannyasin was initiated into the Trappist Order. The Guru told him, "The outside world is closed to you forever." He was given a cell to stay and taught the rules of Sadhana. One of the rules was, that the sadhaka could speak only once in every seven years.

After seven years, the sadhaka went to his Guru. He told the Guru, "I have no complaint except that my window-pane is broken. When it rains, the whole cell gets wet. Besides, mosquitoes and insects come through the window? I have not slept even once in peace. As I have to speak only once in seven years, I request you to get the glass fixed." The Guru said, "Alright, it shall be done." The glass was fixed accordingly.

After another seven years (that is fourteen years hence) he again stood before the Guru. "Everything is alright. The glass has been replaced but the mat I sleep upon has become hard due to seven years of rain. Kindly have it changed. I haven't slept a wink all these seven years." The Guru said, "Alright, it shall be replaced."

After yet another seven years (that is in all twenty one years), the Sadhka came again. "Everything is alright but the men who came to replace the mat, broke the window-pane as they carried the old mat away. I have not slept at all for the last seven years.

"Get out of the gate!" The Guru shouted. "In all the twenty-one years you have done nothing but complain. Get out! We do not give sannyas to people like you who do nothing else but complain!"

These are people belonging to a different world altogether. We cannot endure the slightest discomfort even for twenty-one minutes. Twenty one years is a long period. In seven long years, he brings one complaint and yet the Guru says it is too much! time-consciousness is not allowed at all or else seven minutes would be difficult to pass.

Time-consciousness increases with the male mind. Women have no concept of time. Therefore we find quarrels every day in households. The struggle is between the male and female mind. The SURRENDER husband sits in his car harking away and the wife is engrossed in her make-up. They have missed a train or the theatre and the husband is in a rage. "Where was the need to take so long to dress?"

He shouts at her. Actually, a woman has no concept of time. It is not her fault. She replies, "So what if we are half an hour late? What is the hurry?"

A woman's car stopped in the middle of the road. It would not start. The driver of the car behind her kept on sounding the horn. She got out of her car and went up to him and said, "Gentleman, my car will not start. Will you please start it for me. Meanwhile I shall sound your horn for you."

There is no haste in the disposition of a woman.

Lao Tzu says, "The secret of the female consciousness - non-haste, patience, lack of time- consciousness - these are helpful steps in the direction of Truth." One thing you must always remember. When I talk about female-consciousness, I mean. female-consciousness only. It has nothing to do with women A man can also possess a female-consciousness. A person like Buddha has a female-consciousness, he has no concept of time.

It was 40 years that he had attained knowledge when Buddha died. As he lay dying, one of his disciples addressed him thus, "Your grace was unabounding. Your compassion infinite! You had no need to live after attaining knowledge. You could have faded away like the flame of a lamp.

You could have attained Nirvana; but out of compassion for us, you lived 40 years." "Forty years?"

asked Buddha of Ananda who was sitting by his side, "Has really so much time passed?" He had no concept of time.

Woman lives in space. Her mind dwells in space. Space is spread here and now. Time spreads out in the past and future. Space is spread in the present - here and now. Woman has a good knowledge of space and whatever little work has been done by women, has all been done in space.

If she makes a house or designs furniture or decorates a room or wears a dress or ornaments it is 'spacious'. Their shape and form is all in space. She is not established in time.

Man is not interested in these matters. He considers them too trivial. His interest is all in time.

He ponders over how Communism can be brought about. Karl Marx spends 40 years of his life in a British Museum Library thinking of ways and means of bringing about Communism. Now Marx never lived to see his dream fulfilled. There was no way of fulfilling his dream in his life-time. Yet he plans and plans - let someone else bring it about or let it not come at all he is not concerned with that but Marx works himself to bones in this project.

Marx would leave the library when he fell unconscious due to sheer exhaustion of reading and writing. Almost every day he was taken home in this condition. His wife would plead with him, argue with him; no one was ever prepared to print his book. There seemed to be no use in the work he had undertaken. When ultimately his book was sold he got just enough to cover the expenses of his cigar - and the way he toiled, the insults he bore! He would be thrown out of the library for he did not budge even at closing time. And for what - all this?

His was a dream of the future - Someday Communism will come. There is no knowledge of space in here. No woman would ever do this for she is joined to here and now. There is no knowledge, no experience of time within her.

SURRENDER Lao Tzu believes that if the knowledge of time is lost, you can attain the female consciousness.

Therefore Sadhakas all over the world have declared that meditation is attained when time is extinct.

Someone asked Jesus what was the special thing about his heaven and Jesus replied, "There shall be time no longer."

There shall be no time. All anxieties come with time. All desires come with time. All passions are born out of time. All expectations of results are born out of time. With time the kingdom of our happiness arises - somewhere in the future, not here and now.

Therefore, if we keep in mind the qualities of a female consciousness, it will be easier to understand the following sutras.

Enough for today, the rest tomorrow.