Why have there been no women enlightened masters?

Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHY HAVE THERE BEEN NO WOMEN ENLIGHTENED MASTERS? Man suffers from a great inferiority complex because he cannot give birth to children. It is one of the deepest unconscious inferiorities in man. He knows the woman is superior, because in life there can be nothing higher than giving birth to life. Man's function, his participation in giving birth to life, is negligible. It is not more than a syringe injection. It can be done by a syringe -- he can be absolutely relieved of taking part in reproduction. He must have felt it from the very beginning. And the only way to overcome this inferiority complex was to reduce the woman in every possible way to such an inferior position that man can forget his inferiority complex and start believing that he is superior.

Why has there never been a single woman enlightened master?

A woman cannot be a Master -- it is not possible. When a woman arrives she becomes a Mistress, not a Master. The fulfilment of a woman is love. The flowering of a woman is love. Mastery is not the goal of the feminine mind; they don't become Masters, they become Mistresses. To be a Master is basically a male effort. Awareness is the way of man, love is the way Or woman. On the path of awareness it is possible to teach; one can become a Master. On the path of love, how can you teach love? You can flower, you can bloom in love, but how can you teach it? Yes, if somebody wants to learn from you, he will learn it, but you will not be a Master. And such women have existed: Rabiya, Meera, Mallibai, Magdalen, Teresa. Such women have existed: Sahajo, Daya, Lalla. Many women…

Why is it that we hear of fewer enlightened women than men?

So Digamberas are right. Swethamberas go on saying that she was a woman: they are more realistic but not right, more factual but not more right. They relayed just a fact, and sometimes facts are not real. Sometimes facts are very fictitious; and sometimes facts can lie so much that fictions will feel ashamed. This is a fact -- that this Mallibai was a woman -- but this is not reality. Digamberas have the right source. They have forgotten about the fact that she was a woman; they have taken her as man. Her whole being must have been manly. Rarely it happens. In politics, in religion, whenever a woman succeeds she is more manly than feminine. A Lakshmibai or a Joan of Arc, they don't look feminine. Just the body, the outer garb is feminine. Inside is a man. That's why they are not known much, because unless you…

Beloved Osho, whenever I hear or read about meera, the enlightened princess, who gave up her palace to devote her life to the beloved, dancing wildly in the streets, my heart is full of joy. Also, I notice that only very few enlightened women are known to us. Beloved master, would you like to talk about women's enlightenment?

But still Christianity has not given any recognition, any respect, even to Jesus' mother. But Christianity is not at fault -- even Jesus himself was not respectful. One day he was speaking in a marketplace, a small crowd surrounding him, and his mother, who had not seen him for years, came to see him. And somebody shouted to Jesus, "Your mother is standing outside the crowd. She wants to see you." And Jesus misbehaved. He said, "Tell that woman...." Now, it is ugly. He could not even call her "mother." "Tell that woman that I don't have any mother, I don't have any father here on the earth. My father is in heaven." The same is true about other religions. Man has been preventing women from any spiritual growth. It is a miracle that even in spite of all this suppression and slavery a few women became enlightened. They are…

Beloved Osho, I hear you, your loving compassion for me as a woman, behind your words, which sometimes jar me. And I also feel that my very woman-ness is the main barrier to my ever experiencing the bliss of enlightenment, because all of the enlightened beings you ever talk about are men, and because your own experiences are as a male. Please share with me what you can about how enlightenment is for me as a woman.

History is recorded by men, and women are not interested in recording things. They are more interested in experiencing and living them: that is one thing. The second thing is that a woman finds it very easy to become a disciple, very easy to become a disciple, because she is receptive. For a man, it is difficult to become a disciple because he has to surrender, and that is the trouble. He can fight but he cannot surrender. So when it comes to disciplehood, women are perfect. But just the opposite happens when you have to become a Master. A male can easily become a Master. A woman finds it very difficult to become a Master, because to become a Master you have to be really aggressive. You have to go out and destroy others' structures. You have to be almost violent; you have to kill your disciples. You have…