What is the significance of women in spiritual teachings?

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…

Why have your teachings attracted so many followers, and why are women, particularly, attracted to your teaching?

Truth has a magnetic force in it. It always attracts, particularly those who are young and fresh, particularly those who are not burdened with old rubbish and garbage and junk; who are receptive, capable of seeing, understanding. That's why so many people, without any special effort on my part to attract them, have come close to me. I started the journey alone, and then people started coming and the caravan became bigger and bigger. Now it is surrounding the whole earth. You are asking why more women are attracted. All the religions have condemned women. I am the first man who is trying to compensate for all the harm and the wounds that have been done by the past and its so-called religious people. My respect for women is equal to my respect for men. This has not been the case in the past. Gautam Buddha, a man I respect,…

Beloved Osho, I love hearing the stories of the old masters and their disciples. It is so beautiful to feel the essence of those small oases of consciousness -- which centuries of religion have since covered in the dust of dogma and deceit. But still, as I look at us sitting here, feeling the joy, the silence, the tears, the laughter, I suspect there is something present that no master may ever have evoked before. Is it, perhaps, a sense of loving tenderness, a juiciness in those around you -- something that could only have emerged had feminine energy been an intrinsic part of those caravanser

I want my people to be naturally, biologically, physiologically, psychologically -- on every level -- healthy. Only then, in these healthy steps, can they move to a healthy spirituality. And their spirituality will not be against anything; their spirituality will absorb everything that is below it. Hence it will be far richer. To me a spirituality that makes you poorer in every dimension of your life is a slow suicide. It is not spiritual. It is not a coincidence that all old spiritual traditions are against me, because what I am trying to do is to uproot them from their very base. If I am successful then ten thousands of spiritual pasts prove to be wrong. So my experiment is very crucial, very definitive, very decisive, and my feeling is that you can get over jealousy only where there is possibility of jealousy; you can get over sex only when…

Osho, the scriptures say woman is the gateway to hell. What do you say?

Shobhana, let me tell a little story. Dhabbuji’s wife, Dhanno, was saying sadly to her friend Gulabo, “Sister, I’m fed up with my husband. He keeps tormenting me by reciting this couplet from the Ramayana: ‘Drum, boor, Shudra, beast, and woman—these all deserve a beating.’ I’m tired of hearing it again and again.” Gulabo said, “Arre, what’s there to be so upset about! Just a few days ago I composed a new couplet—sing this one: ‘Drum, boor, man, and horse—the more you beat them, the less it is.’ What’s there to worry about! Women should make their own couplets. Create your own scriptures. Who has a monopoly on scriptures? Who’s got the contract? Did the art of writing couplets end with Baba Tulsidas? Memorize this couplet: ‘Drum, boor, man, and horse—the more you beat them, the less it is.’ That’s all for today.”

So even egolessness has two forms. One is: burning the ego—this is the egolessness of Buddha, Mahavira—the male egolessness. The other is: bowing the ego—then arises the egolessness of Sahajo, Daya, Meera. And note: the man’s egolessness is empty; the woman’s egolessness is full. The man’s pitcher is empty when he is egoless; the woman’s is full, because she has not destroyed anything—not even the ego—she has used it; she has bent it, not burnt it—made even that a means. Woman is skilled in bowing; thus women have been supreme devotees, supreme disciples; the final height of discipleship has been attained by women. But the final height of Mastership is not possible for them. So understand—Mahavira had forty thousand sannyasins, thirty thousand were women. And this ratio has always been. Among those who come to me—if four come, three are women, one man. Always it is thus.