Nari Aur Kranti #4

An astonishing mistake has happened. The whole civilization of man, his culture, stands upon that mistake. And that is why, after thousands of years of labor, neither have we been able to create a society founded at the center on joy and peace, nor have we been able to give birth to a human being who can taste the blessedness and the ecstasy of life. What has been born is a deeply sad, defeated, miserable human being. And a society has arisen that from moment to moment passes through wars, conflicts, and destruction. In a history of about three thousand years, man has fought fifteen thousand wars. Three thousand years — fifteen thousand wars! On an average, five wars per year. If you total the whole of human history, then in fifteen years, one year has been of peace and fourteen of war.

It is worth pondering: why has man gone through so many wars? Surely there has been some fundamental error in the very making of man. Why has he had to pass continually through so much violence? The last two world wars are before us; their memory has not even faded yet. In the First World War, fifty million people were killed; in the Second World War, one hundred million were killed. The destruction was so vast that after the Second World War people thought there would never again be a war. But once again the preparations for a third war have begun. And what would happen in a third — it is very difficult to say.

Before he died, someone asked Einstein, “What will happen in the Third World War?” Einstein said, “It is hard to say; about the third, it is difficult to predict anything. But concerning the fourth, I can say something.” The questioner must have been amazed — if nothing can be said about the third, what can be said about the fourth? He asked, “Strange! What can you say about the fourth?”

Einstein said, “One thing is certain: the Fourth World War will never be. Because after the third, there is no possibility of any human being remaining alive.”

A third world war will mean the annihilation of the whole human race. Even if it were only the annihilation of the human race — somehow one could still say, ‘so be it’ — but along with it will come the annihilation of all animals, all plants. Life itself will be wiped out, if there is a third world war. Man has progressed so much in the technology of war, we have gathered such material and means in relation to death. But in relation to life we are very helpless, pitiable, and poor. Such organization for death — and no art has evolved for living.

I would like to give you a small glimpse of what might be if there is a third world war.

In the Second World War — you have heard the names Hiroshima and Nagasaki — the atom bomb was dropped there. With one atomic bomb, in Hiroshima, in just a few minutes one hundred thousand people were killed. Among them were boys and girls like you who were going to school. Among them were teachers like yours who were dedicating their lives to the shaping of children. A little girl, carrying her satchel, was going up to the second floor of her house to do her homework. On the stairs, satchel in one hand and a lantern in the other, she was climbing up. At that very moment the atom fell. That child dried up there itself, stuck to the wall along with her satchel. A friend sent me her photograph. The homework remained unfinished. That little girl could not have imagined — no one could have imagined — that within a few minutes, whoever was there would be dried up and finished. One bomb killed a hundred thousand.

In twenty years that bomb has become a child’s toy. Now such immense bombs have been developed that a city like Hiroshima is too small. For a great city like Bombay, like New York, one bomb will be enough — to murder four million, five million, ten million people.

We all know: in our homes we heat water; at a hundred degrees it begins to turn into steam. If, in that boiling water, a girl among you were to be put — what would happen to her life? If you were put into a hundred degrees of boiling water — what would happen? But perhaps you do not know that a hundred degrees is not a very great heat. At fifteen hundred degrees iron melts and becomes like water. If you were dropped into that molten iron — what would happen? But even fifteen hundred is not so great a heat; at twenty-five hundred degrees iron itself begins to vaporize and fly away. As water flies off as steam at a hundred degrees, so iron flies off as steam at twenty-five hundred. If you were put into that, what would happen? But even twenty-five hundred degrees is not a great heat. The heat produced by the explosion of a hydrogen bomb is one hundred million degrees! When a hydrogen bomb falls upon a city, one hundred million degrees of heat is created! If at twenty-five hundred degrees iron becomes vapor, what will happen at one hundred million? That heat will be the same as on the sun.

How far is the sun from us? About ninety million miles. When that sun, ninety million miles away, comes just a little closer — as now it has come near Bhavnagar — we are tormented by heat. If that sun were to come right into your home, what would happen? When a hydrogen bomb falls, precisely this happens: the sun enters your home. In your house one hundred million degrees will blaze. In such heat, the possibility of any form of life remaining alive does not exist. Not even by accident can anyone be saved.

And this heat will not be created in some small corner. From one hydrogen bomb the area of heat will be forty thousand square miles. Forty thousand square miles will become a furnace of one hundred million degrees. Plants, birds, human beings, the tiniest microbes — all will burn to ash. Such hydrogen bombs — fifty thousand — man has already prepared and stored. Fifty thousand hydrogen bombs are too many. This earth is small; they are enough to destroy seven such earths. Or you may understand it this way: the number of human beings as yet is less. Perhaps that is why the politicians are waiting a little for war — until the number is made complete. Arrangements have been made to kill two point one billion people. Right now the number is only three billion. Or you may think like this: if we must kill each person seven times over, we are ready for that too. Although a person dies only once, there is no need to kill seven times. But the politicians think, if by mistake someone remains alive, it would not be good. If someone escapes death once, we can kill him again, kill him a third time — seven times we can kill him.

Such destruction, such hatred, such violence — in a civilization where these arise, there must be some error.

Let me try to explain with a little story what kind of illness-filled, deranged civilization we have created.

It is certain that civilization is created by education. If there is any difference between a civilized and an uncivilized man, it is the difference of education. If civilization is sick and diseased, then education will be sick and diseased. If man has become so distorted, then the education being given must be fundamentally flawed — because it is through that education that such a man is being produced.

It is strange! The uneducated man was not so dangerous. So much so that a very great Western thinker, D. H. Lawrence, suggested that if, for a hundred years, all the schools of the whole world were closed, only then could man be saved; otherwise, he cannot be saved.

Let me tell the story; then I will try to explain where in education a fundamental mistake has happened.

After the Second World War, Paramatma became very worried. Deeply worried that man has developed such instruments of destruction that now there is no way for life to survive on earth. Panicking, he called to himself the three great representatives of the world — Russia, America, and Britain — and prayed to them: What do you want? For what are you preparing war? What is your intention? What do you desire? Whatever you want, I will grant as a boon, it shall be fulfilled. Ask of me; I will fulfill your longing. But do not wage war. Do not destroy. Let man live.

The representative of America said, “If you grant a boon, war will never happen. Give us a small boon. Then we will never fight. And that small boon is this: let the earth remain, but upon it we do not want any trace of Russia. Let Russia be erased — our longing is fulfilled.”

God would not have imagined that such a boon would be asked. He looked, terrified, toward Russia. The Russian representative said, “Great Sir, first let us tell you — perhaps news has not reached you — that our country has decided there is no God anywhere; you are not. If you appear to me, I think either I have drunk too much, or I am seeing a dream. Still, we will begin to worship you again in our country; in our temples, in our churches, we will install your idols again, light lamps, offer flowers — if one wish of ours is fulfilled: on the map of the world we do not want to see any color or line for America. Let America not remain — then there will be no need for war. And let me warn you: even if you do not give the boon, do not be alarmed. We have decided; even without a boon we will erase America. And we have decided on this condition too — even if we ourselves are erased while erasing them, we will not step back.”

God, greatly alarmed, looked toward Britain. And what the British representative said — keep it safely in your heart.

The British representative placed his head at the feet of Paramatma and said, “O Lord, we have no desire of our own. Fulfill both their desires together — our desire will be fulfilled. We ask nothing separately; whatever these two have asked, please grant. Our wish will be fulfilled by itself.”

The story is imagined, but it is also the condition of our minds. It is the condition of the mind of the whole human race. We have become eager for one another’s destruction. If someone asks: why this eagerness? Eagerness should be for living life. Eagerness should be for how to create a more blissful life. But the eagerness is for how to destroy someone — even on the condition that we ourselves may be destroyed. What mistake has happened in this whole race?

The first mistake, the fundamental mistake that is eating away all education and all civilization, is this: up to now the entire construction of life has happened around man, not around woman. All civilization, all culture, all education up to now has been created by man, in man’s manner; not in woman’s manner.

Whatever qualities belong to man, civilization has taken them to be all in all. The possibilities that belong to woman, the seeds hidden in the heart of woman and how they can be developed — no attention has been given there. Man is utterly incomplete; without woman, very incomplete. And if man alone creates civilization, then that civilization will be incomplete; not only incomplete, it will be dangerous.

It will be dangerous because the intense longing in man’s mind is ambition. In man’s mind, love does not sit very deep — ambition does. And where there is ambition, there will be jealousy; where there is ambition, there will be violence; where there is ambition, there will be hatred; where there is ambition, there will be war. Man’s whole consciousness is filled with ambition. In woman’s consciousness there is no ambition; rather, there is love. And our entire civilization is utterly empty of love — void of love — there is no place in it for love. Man fashioned the whole thing in his own way. Even his entire education he constructed in his own way. The structure he has given to life is in his own manner. In it, war is central; struggle is central; the sword is central.

So much so that if a woman also stands with a sword, man gives her great respect. Joan of Arc, the Rani of Jhansi — man respects them. Not because they were precious women, but because they were women like men. He erects their statues at crossroads. He sings, “She fought like a man; she was the queen of Jhansi.” He says she was man-like; that is why he respects her. But if a man is womanly, he dishonors him; he does not respect him. If a woman is manly, he respects her. If a woman takes up the sword, becomes a soldier — in man’s heart there is reverence. In man’s heart, apart from violence and ambition, there is no reverence for anything.

This man who is incomplete — all education too has been fashioned for this man. For thousands of years woman was given no education. One great mistake — that woman remained uneducated. Then, for some years now, woman is being educated. And now a second mistake is being made — that woman is being given the same education as men. This will produce a woman more dangerous than the uneducated woman. The uneducated woman was at least a woman. The educated woman comes closer to man; she remains less of a woman. Because the education through which she passes was basically designed for man. A kind of woman is being created across the world who — if for a hundred or two hundred years this education continues — will lose her entire feminine-dharma. Whatever is significant in her life, whatever is precious in her talent, whatever is true in her nature — all that will be destroyed.

In the West, the symptoms of that disintegration have begun to appear clearly. Women have almost begun to wear men’s clothes. This is not accidental. It is a part of the race to imitate man. She is doing men’s drill, entering men’s military, studying men’s subjects — mathematics, economics, commerce, physics, chemistry. She is being trained to become a number two man. In offices, shops, markets, she can be made a substitute for man; she can be man’s complement. All efforts are being made to make her exactly like man. And this is being done by so-called good people — social reformers, social workers — those who think woman will be uplifted in this way.

For a small distance the statement is true: women should be educated. But not in the manner of man. For woman, a truly womanly education needs to be developed. This has not entered our awareness, and even among thinkers of humanity it is not very clear, that the education of woman will be entirely different from that of man.

Woman is different. For thousands of years it was believed that woman is not equal to man — she is lower. There were countries — almost all — where woman was insulted as much as she could be. In our own country, woman was never considered more precious than wealth; we have called her stri-dhan — a woman’s wealth — as if she were wealth.

In China, until just a hundred years ago, if a husband killed his wife, no case could be brought against him in court. The wife was his property — if he wished, he could keep her, if he wished, he could destroy her. Until a hundred years ago, even Atman was not accepted in a woman — that she had a soul. She too was like furniture — one more item of the household goods.

India did not behave very well either. We burned millions of women in the name of sati. In man’s mind there is such intense possessiveness, such proprietary obsession, that even in his lifetime he cannot imagine his woman looking with love at another. But even after his death, lest she become loving toward someone — he made arrangements that she should burn on the pyre with his death. The excuses given were that the woman has so much love for her husband that she wants to die with him.

But it is a great wonder that neither those who wrote the shastras, nor those who followed them, in thousands of years saw even one man with so much love that he would burn with his wife. Yet they kept telling women they should burn with the husband. Thousands upon thousands of women were forced onto pyres. Perhaps you do not even know, because slowly the memory of it has faded, what arrangements men made to force women upon the pyre. And since the shastras were written by men, naturally they did not write that a man should die with his wife. They wrote only that the wife should die with her husband.

Someone’s husband dies — she is in such grief that the thought of dying naturally arises in her. At that very time, the entire village would gather and ask her whether she wanted to become sati with her husband. If she refused, waves of insult and infamy would spread through the village. Then her life would become unbearable. Inevitably, she had to say yes.

But to lift a living person and put her on the pyre is not easy. So huge drums and bands were played around the pyre so that the voice of the burning woman would not be heard outside. And priests stood around with large torches. Because a living person will run away from fire, try to get out — a half-burned woman would rush out, and with torches they would push and throw her back into the pyre. And so no one could see this, so much ghee was poured into the fire, so much smoke created, that nothing would be visible.

Thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of women were burned. History did not give woman any status equal to man. This was an extremely sinful act. But the strange thing is that when man escapes one mistake, he begins another. To escape that mistake, a movement ran across the world — that woman is equal to man. This was right. Woman should get the same rights as man — this too was right. Woman should receive the same respect as man — this too was right. But from this movement a new wind arose — that there is no difference at all between woman and man, they are identical. Equality was taken to mean similarity. They are equal — came to mean they have no difference. They should get the same education, the same clothes, the same jobs.

I want to tell you: woman and man are worthy of equal respect, but they are not the same — not at all; they are utterly dissimilar. Woman is woman; man is man. And between them there is the distance of earth and sky. If this difference is not kept in view, any education will be suicidal for woman — destructive.

Woman and man are fundamentally different. And this fundamental difference, this polarity — as the North and South poles differ, as the negative and positive poles of electricity differ — it is because of this polarity, this great difference, that there is such attraction between them. Because of this they can become one another’s companions, cooperators, friends. The less this dissimilarity remains, the less this difference, the less this distance — the more dangerous it is for humanity.

In my vision, an education that tries to make women like men is being poured into every child across the world. Man has already given birth to a deranged civilization. There is one hope — that woman may become the herald of a new civilization. But even that hope will end if woman too is initiated in the manner of man.

What we study and learn constructs our personality. The life-behavior of a mathematician is different than that of a poet. One who studies poetry for years — his way of life, his vision of life — becomes something else, unlike the man who studies mathematics all his life.

I remember a mathematician. Herodotus was a great thinker and mathematician. He discovered, first of all, the principle of averages.

All you girls know what averages are. We say that in India the average income per person is so much. We add all the incomes and divide by the number of people — the average income emerges. Here we sit in such and such number. If we add all our ages and divide by our number, our average age will come out.

Herodotus discovered this principle first. He became so absorbed in his principle that one morning he went for a picnic across a stream, with his wife and five children. A small river it was. Five children, and his wife. His wife said, “Hold the children’s hands and take them across the river.”

Herodotus said, “Do not worry! You do not know that I have discovered the principle of averages. I will measure the average depth of the river and the average height of the children. If the children are taller than the average depth, then all of them will cross — there is no need to hold anyone’s hand.”

The husband was such a great mathematician; the wife could say nothing. Quickly he went, measured the little stream’s depth; measured the height of his children. The average child was taller. The stream was shallower here, deeper there. One child was small, one was big. But they had no grasp of mathematics. The children were taller than the average depth. Herodotus went ahead; the children in the middle; the wife behind. Two little ones began to drown. The wife cried, “The children are drowning!”

Know this: what first came to Herodotus’ mind on hearing that the children were drowning was not that the child would die. What came was, “Have I made some error in my mathematics?” He ran to the bank — not to save the children — but to check the calculations he had done in the sand, whether some mistake had been made!

That is the mathematician’s mind. He thinks in arithmetic. For him, the heart has no arithmetic. We are giving all women the education of mathematics, of arithmetic. The heavier mathematics becomes within them, the more the possibility of heartfulness will diminish.

In my vision, for woman, the education of music and poetry is useful, not mathematics. There is no need to make her an engineer. Engineers are already more than needed; men are enough to be engineers. Woman needs to become something else. For life does not become rich through engineers alone and mathematicians alone. They have their utility; they are needed. But they are not sufficient for life. Life’s happiness depends on other things. The greatest engineer, the greatest mathematician, cannot add as much joy to life as a simple flute player in a village can. Those who increase the happiness of mankind, who bring flowers of delight to human life — they are not those who spend their lives in laboratories; even more they are those who sing the songs of life and embody life’s poetry.

For what does man live? For work? To run factories? To build roads? Man builds roads, runs factories, manages shops — so that through these a structure may arise in which he can find joy, peace, and love. He always lives for love and joy. But many times it happens that, in our concern with means, we become so engrossed that we forget the end.

In my view, all the education of man is education of means. Woman’s entire education should be of ends, not of means — so that she can complete man’s incompleteness, so that she can be a complement to man, so that she can fill the lack in man’s life. Man will erect factories — who will plant gardens? Man will raise great houses — but who will make songs resound within those houses? Man will create a world of machines — but amid those machines who will make space for flowers? And the education we are giving to women as well is education to make machines, to build houses, to lay roads. How to grow the flowers of life — there is no education of that with them.

And why are we doing this?

Because we have created in woman a fever — that she must stand in competition with man.

I want to tell you: if woman is to attain her swadharma, she must drop all competition with man. In that competition man will lose nothing, woman will lose everything. Because to compete there she will have to become a man; she will have to stand on the man’s turf to fight. Woman should declare that our ground is different. Woman must feel that she has another, greater mission of life, another greater message — a greater capacity to give life its joy.

In the West a very great thinker, C. E. M. Joad, wrote recently: when I was born, when I was a child, there were homes in the West. Now, when I am old, there are only houses; homes are no more, only houses remain.

How does a house become a mere house rather than a home? How does a house become a home? Only through the presence of a woman — nothing else. A building is just a building if only men live in it; it can never become a home. The arrival of a woman, and the building is transformed. The entire alchemy changes; the very air of that house changes. It takes a totally new shape, a new form. Now it becomes a home — a temple of love. It is no longer merely a specimen of engineering; it becomes an ideal of love and poetry too.

But such a woman will disappear. The education we are giving is slowly dissolving her. Now, throughout the world, there is an effort to give women military and martial training too. They are drilled in NCC and other cadet corps. They are clothed as soldiers; guns are put into their hands. What are we doing? And those who do it think they are doing a great favor.

They are destroying woman. They are annihilating her. The entire physiology of woman, her whole body, is different. In a person who drills, chemical changes occur. The women who labor like men — you will be surprised to know — even beards and moustaches begin to grow on them. Their bodily chemistry changes. A hardness like a man’s begins to come into their personality. An aggressive tone begins to arise. And once the feeling of aggression arises in a woman’s mind, then she can never be made a wife.

That is why the Western home is breaking. One woman, in a single life, gives twenty divorces. In America, forty out of a hundred women change their husbands again and again — forty percent! I have heard of an incident: an American actress changed twenty-two husbands, and when she married the twenty-second, fifteen days later she discovered that this man had already once been her husband!

So many mistakes happen when one changes husbands so often. In a month, in fifteen days, if you change, mistakes can happen. Twenty years later the man again becomes a husband, and fifteen days later it is discovered that he had already once been the husband. Where will this condition lead humanity? Where has it already led?

In my vision, the psychology of woman is fundamentally different from that of man. There is a difference so essential that any effort to erase it can never be fully successful — and if it were to succeed, it could never be fruitful. What is that difference? Around what centers does the personality of woman move?

In the personality of woman there is a center of love, but no center of ambition. She can pour everything for love; man can pour everything for ambition — even love. Millions of men remain unmarried because a wife will become an obstacle in their ambition. They remain unmarried solely because their ambition will not be fulfilled.

Hitler did not marry. Two hours before he died, he married. All his life he postponed marriage. Whenever a woman fell in love with him, he said, “I have no time for love; I have bigger works at hand. When I finish all my work, then I will think whether there is any place for love or not.” The day Germany lost, bombs began to fall in the streets of Berlin, bullets of the enemies rattled outside Hitler’s house, and when there was no longer any possibility of victory, when bullets struck the glass of his window, he said to his beloved, “If you want to marry, do it now. But know this, an hour later I will commit suicide, I have failed; if you want to die with me, then marry.”

Think a little — the woman agreed. She married Hitler an hour before. Berlin was losing. In the cellar a priest married Hitler an hour before his death. And after an hour both took poison and died. That woman had waited fifteen years — waiting for the moment when Hitler would say so. Knowing that the man would die an hour later and that she too would have to die with him, she was ready even at the moment of death. But Hitler refused all his life — ambition was the greater thing; for it, love could be sacrificed.

We need an education for woman that deepens the center of love in her personality. An education that leads her toward a more creative love. In love, necessarily, two and two are not always four; sometimes two and two become five, sometimes they remain three. In the world of ambition two and two are always four. The mathematics there is straight and clear. The pathways of the heart are very tangled. The pathways of the heart are like the meanings of poetry, like the notes of music. The roads of ambition are like the straight reckonings of arithmetic, like the clear moves of chess. I am against molding the personality of woman into the moves of chess. Her personality needs to be taken into the depths and the ungraspable heights of poetry. Why?

Because in that way woman too will experience bliss; and such a deep woman will become a possibility for man — to restrain his ambition and his aggression. If the love of woman fills man’s life so much that there is a rain of water upon the fire of ambition, if the love of woman covers man’s aggressive thorns so that they are hidden among flowers, then a world can come into being where there is no violence, no war.

But man does not even appreciate those qualities — motherliness, love, compassion. Nietzsche — who, in this century, was the greatest supporter of man’s civilization — called Buddha, Jesus, Mahavira ‘effeminate,’ that they were womanly, not men. Because the qualities they spoke of were the qualities of women.

Nietzsche called love, compassion, and ahimsa womanly. So far, no woman has raised a voice against Nietzsche that the qualities being called womanly are indeed womanly, and for being womanly they are not insulting — rather they are as worthy of reverence as any quality of man. In my vision, womanly qualities are creative qualities. Because woman must become a mother, nature and Paramatma have kept violence, hatred, and hardness aside from her life. As soon as woman is initiated into the qualities of man, she begins to refuse motherhood.

Millions of Western women have refused to become mothers. And as soon as the education of man is completed, you too will refuse to become mothers — because then motherhood will seem a burden, a nuisance, a worry. Yet it is a great wonder — no woman, without becoming a mother, can ever attain fulfillment or contentment. Her moksha depends on her becoming utterly a mother. The greater the mother she becomes, the deeper, the closer she comes to liberation and to Paramatma.

But even the religions that developed were developed by men. Therefore in those religions man is central. Those religions are also aggressive. They do not teach so much to place one’s head at the feet of Paramatma as they teach to attack even the world of Paramatma. They think and speak in the language of conquering God. Religion, education, culture — all are aggressive and ambitious.

The number of women has always been more than that of men. Even today it is more. More than half the world is women. And the strength of one woman is equal at least to the strength of five men. In a house where there is one woman and five men, the five men are on the circumference, the woman is at the center. The man is the outer wall of the home; he is not the inner living room. He is the surrounding wall; at the center is woman. When she becomes a mother she nurtures the child and the child grows. When she becomes a wife the husband is able to live.

If once the education of woman can be set right, and can be such as to develop her swadharma fully, then it would be no wonder if we can pour a few drops of love into the life of man. It would be no wonder if we can bring man back from the paths of violence and hatred. It would be no wonder if man becomes free of the madness of war and engages himself in creating a peaceful and joyous world.

Man has great powers. But if those powers are oriented toward love, a beautiful world can arise. Till now they could not be oriented toward love. And now an even greater fear arises — because woman is being distorted in such a way that there seems no possibility of adding love to man’s life. Women themselves are joining the aggressive world of man.

This I would like to say to your educational institution, to the teachers, to the students — that it is necessary to contemplate in this direction: how can woman be preserved intact in this world? How can woman be kept a woman? What will be the paths, what the methods, what education and which subjects that can bring forth the hidden being within woman and save her from becoming a man?

In my view, a little primary education in science is useful, but beyond that science has little value for women. Exceptions can be there — a few women may be. But exceptions do not make a rule. In place of science, art and religion are more precious. In place of mathematics, music is more valuable. In place of drill, dance is more meaningful. It is fine that men do drill — left-right. But that women also go into the fields to do drill — this is very unseemly. In the personality of woman there is a place for dance. Dance will refine her personality, deepen it, make it more gentle, more loveable, more blissful. Drill — drill will destroy her.

We do not know that small things construct the entire personality. If a man wears tight clothes, one kind of man is created. If a man wears loose clothes, another kind. A soldier can never be made to wear loose clothes. And a sannyasin can in no condition be persuaded to wear tight clothes. This is not accidental. Tight clothes give a certain intensity for fighting. If a man in tight clothes climbs stairs, he will leap two at a time. In loose clothes, he will climb with a certain grace, a dignity, one step at a time. Those tight clothes give a kind of speed. That is why we dress soldiers in tight clothes — so they can fight intensely.

Across the world women are taking to tight clothes — a strange thing, pure madness. Tight clothes are fine for soldiers; they are to be sent to war. They are to be made victims for a foolish enterprise where those tight clothes will help them. But for those who want to live in peace and love, tight clothes are meaningless. For woman, tight clothes are utterly meaningless; they place her in a ludicrous condition. Loose clothes give her personality a dignity.

It is astonishing that even such trivial things construct our inner consciousness, our mind. What we wear, how we get up, how we sit — all this is continuously related to, and constructs, our inner mind. What we watch…

As soon as Hitler came to power, he sent orders to all the factories in the country that made toys — the dolls and playthings should be stopped.

The toy manufacturers asked him, “What do you mean?”

He said, “I want to see only swords, guns, cannons, tanks as toys. The child will be born in the hospital on the first day — and above his cradle, I will not hang a rattle; I will hang a tank. From the first day he should see the tank — because sooner or later he will have to grapple with tanks on the battlefield.”

He was clever; he was shrewd. He understood that even such a small thing has an impact on the mind — whether one sees a tank or a rattle.

Small incidents create the whole personality. What you wear, what you study, how you get up, how you sit — your whole life will be made of these small things.

You have heard the name Napoleon. Napoleon was so brave that if a lion came before him he would not show his back. But Napoleon was afraid of cats. When he was six months old, a wild cat climbed onto his chest. It did him no harm; a servant removed the cat. But in the six-month-old Napoleon’s mind, a terrifying image of the cat was formed. He did not even remember it — what memory does anyone have of six months? But in the unconscious, the cat remained. Napoleon became a great soldier — but if someone brought a cat before him, his hands and feet trembled. In the war in which Napoleon was defeated — perhaps you do not know — his enemy, Nelson, tied seventy cats at the front of his army. As soon as Napoleon saw the cats, his hands and feet shook, and he said to the soldier beside him, “Today, victory is difficult.” And it was his first defeat; before that, he had never lost.

Such a small thing can bring such a result! If the cat had not climbed on Napoleon’s chest, today the whole history of the world would be different. If Napoleon had defeated Nelson, the world would have been different. A little cat changed the whole history of the world. If for two minutes the cat had not climbed onto Napoleon’s chest, today the history of the world would be other — because if Napoleon had won, everything would have changed; he lost, and everything changed.

What you wear, what you study, how you move, whether you drill or you dance — these little things construct your whole personality and influence you for life. Today the woman returning “educated” does not present a very graceful sight. It is not her fault. The fault lies in the process through which we are taking her.

These few things I have said — in them the fundamental point is only one: there are basic differences between man and woman. These basic differences must be made the foundation stone of education. Women should be educated as much as men are — but in a totally different way. They must have their own dimension and direction. Yes, some women may feel that men’s education suits their temperament — they can go that way. Some men may feel that women’s education suits their temperament — they can go toward women’s education. But that will be an exception, not the rule.

Right now we have made it the rule. Like sheep and goats we are trying to cast all into one mold.

The deepest ill-effect of this is that as woman has come closer to man, become similar, she has become less attractive to man. Naturally, attraction will diminish. And if woman becomes less attractive to man, if the wife becomes less attractive, then the whole society will fall into adultery — and we do not even imagine it. If the wife is less attractive, the prostitute is born. If the wife is less attractive, the man’s eyes begin to wander toward the neighbor’s women.

This increase in adultery across the world has no other cause. No single woman is able to satisfy a single man. No single woman is able to bring a man’s whole being to fulfillment. Naturally man runs here and there, seeks back doors, is filled with the longing to relate to countless women.

Films are being made that are obscene and filthy. Books are being written that are naked, vulgar. And men read them with relish. We think the film producers are mischievous, we think the writers are dirty.

Neither are the writers dirty, nor the filmmakers mischievous. Woman — a woman, a wife — is becoming unable to give peace to man. Therefore all of life fills with wrong paths. And the more women’s education becomes like men’s, the more she will become unable. There is a possibility that within a hundred years, when women everywhere are educated exactly like men, the whole earth will become a vast brothel. There is no improbability in it. The whole earth becoming one huge brothel — it would not be surprising.

And you will be surprised to know — you may have heard that women became prostitutes — you may not know that in modern developed countries male prostitutes too have become available. Because when man will go astray, and woman says, ‘I want equal rights in everything,’ then in England a new phenomenon has occurred: male prostitutes. They should be called veshya, but we use that word for someone else; it may irritate — so I am saying ‘male prostitutes.’

Male prostitutes! Men are available too; women go to them and can establish relations of love for a few rupees.

Such a thing had never happened on earth. But now it has, in developed countries — England, America, Switzerland. And in Norway and Belgium, just as female prostitutes are given licenses, the government has given licenses to male prostitutes as well.

Within a hundred years, the whole earth will become a vast brothel. And the cause — astonishingly — will be those people who, out of a desire for reform and social service, are giving women an education like men’s. They do not bring auspiciousness; they bring inauspiciousness.

But this does not mean that I am against educating women. I am entirely in favor. Even more than men, women should be educated. But their education will be on totally different paths. Today it is not possible to discuss in detail what those paths should be; but let me give two small sutras to keep in mind.

Woman’s education will be less of the head, more of the heart. Less of mathematics, more of poetry. Less of ambition, more of love. Her education will not be designed by thinking to make the whole world; rather, with a vision to make the center of a small family, a small couple, a small home. How can a woman make a very small home beautiful, loving, blissful — in that direction.

And it is wrong to think that those who work to make the whole world are doing the great work. This is extremely foolish. Those who give the tiny the capacity of the vast — they are the ones who truly know the art of living. The world and life are a sum of small things. If one by one the homes are destroyed, the whole earth cannot be good. And one by one the homes are being destroyed.

There are socialists — they say, the whole society must be changed! There are leaders — they say, the whole nation must be made! There are thinkers — they say, the mind of the whole world must be transformed!

I say to you: there is not much meaning in these big statements. The meaning lies in a very small truth — that those small homes, those small families, must be made beautiful and true. There is no real connection with the big world, nor with big nations. The nation is a false unit. ‘Humanity’ is a mere word. The solid unit is the human family. And how can that solid unit be made beautiful? Without taking woman in beautiful, true, musical directions, there is no way to make it beautiful.

These few things I have said — not so that you accept them. It may be that all that I have said is wrong. It may be that what I am saying is not right at all. I have said these things so that you think about them. My only prayer is: think on this — is there any fundamental difference between woman and man? Is their mind, their body, their personality different? Are they fit to pass through the same education? Or is it necessary and right to educate them in separate, unique directions? Think on this — this is my final prayer.

And if you think, then I can say: whoever thinks on this can never conclude that woman and man are the same. The whole experience of the human race is that woman and man are utterly unique and different. So different that neither has any man, till today, been able to understand a woman wholly, nor has any woman, till today, been able to understand a man wholly. And there is very little possibility that this understanding will ever be complete. They are so unique and different. Think, contemplate on this.

To the teachers, to your institution, to the students — I have only one request: think. And at least in this country create a climate. In the West woman is almost transformed; here she is yet to be transformed. We are passing through the process of transformation. If some awareness can arise, some understanding — if we educate woman, but in a new education — then perhaps this country need not pass through the mistake and remorse through which the West is passing.

You have listened to my words with such love and silence — for that I am deeply grateful. And in the end, I bow down to the Paramatma dwelling within all. Please accept my pranam.