Women became fierce like goddesses to protect themselves from long mistreatment; give real equality so they don’t need that armor.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, up to the fourth body there remains an electrical difference between woman and man. Therefore, does the effect of shaktipat on a female seeker and on a male seeker differ when the conductor is a woman or a man who has reached the fourth body? And why?
In a spiritual land, a predominance of feminine personality When the history of the world is written spiritually—and when we cease to take only material events as history, and take events in consciousness as true history—we shall understand that whenever a country becomes spiritual, it becomes feminine; and whenever it becomes feminine, civilizations far cruder than itself will defeat it. It is a striking fact that those who defeated India were far behind India—practically wild and barbaric. Be they Turks, Mughals, or Mongols—any of them; they had no civilization to speak of. But in one sense they were men—wild men—and we had become receptive. We could only assimilate them; there was no way to fight. Thus, the female body assimilates, needs a medium; the male body can give and can also receive grace directly. For this reason, someone like Mahavira even had to say that for the ultimate attainment a…
A friend has asked, Osho, the Gita says that whatever desire a person holds at the time of death, that is the birth he attains next. So if a person has spent his whole life in sin, and at the moment of death desires to become like Mahavira or Buddha in the next life, can that man become like Mahavira and Buddha in the next birth?
No one really wants to do religion; therefore we postpone it. We say, we’ll do it in old age—what’s the hurry now? There is great hurry to sin! That must be done now, it can only be done in youth. We’ll do religion in old age. And if some young person becomes religious or eager, the so‑called wise advise him, “It is not your age yet. For now, do irreligion.” Their meaning is: now is the age for sin. As long as strength is there, sin away; when strength is gone, then do religion. But is strength necessary for sin and not for religion? Is life necessary for sin, power necessary for sin—do you take religion to be some eunuch’s task that needs no strength! Remember, the very energy with which you sin becomes virtue. And when that energy is no longer in your hands, you can neither sin nor…
Osho, the scholars of scripture say that for women the recitation of the Vedas, listening to the Gayatri Mantra, and uttering the word Om are forbidden. Master, Om slips out of my mouth spontaneously; especially during Nadabrahma meditation one has to chant it. So a kind of fear arises in the mind—why has this been said? Should women not pronounce Om? Kindly have mercy and explain.
Mallibai must truly have been an extraordinary, dignified woman! She must have had a powerful presence—radiant, luminous! So luminous that while she was alive even the Jains had to accept her as a tirthankara. But after her death, the crafty cannot help their craftiness—they simply changed the name. As a child when I read the list of tirthankaras, it never occurred to me that Mallinath was not Mallinath but Mallibai. And one thing is certain: in those days there were no operations as there can be now—turning a woman into a man or a man into a woman. There is no mention anywhere of such operations. There is one possibility: occasionally, by accident, some women become men and some men become women, due to a disturbance in hormones. The difference in hormones between male and female is a matter of degree; a little more or less and a woman can…
A friend has asked: Osho, do all the enlightened have their consciousness become feminine?
It will, inevitably. But by “feminine” it doesn’t mean they become women. By “feminine” I mean their consciousness shifts from aggression to receptivity, from being aggressive to being receptive. Only when this receptivity arises can one open the inner doors to the divine.
If you understand Buddha’s life, you will find in it the kind of femininity that sometimes becomes available in the very finest women—the same delicate feeling. Call it compassion, but if you look deeply you will see: that compassion is the shadow, the accompaniment, of a new woman being born within Buddha. In Mahavira you will find it as nonviolence. Whenever a man becomes liberated you will suddenly find a profound feminine sweetness entering his life. All the qualities Farid praised—patience, modesty—these are feminine qualities. Modesty is feminine, very delicate. And patience—endurance—is a feminine gift. Men have no patience. Man is restless, always in a hurry. If men had to raise children the world would soon be childless—there isn’t enough patience. If men had to carry pregnancy, the world would be full only of abortions—no man would agree to sustain a pregnancy—who can wait nine months?