Why was the order of nuns neglected in Mahavira's sangha despite his championing of equality?

Osho, in this connection someone has asked: Mahavira was a champion of equality, yet why was the order of nuns neglected in his sangha?

The entire mind of woman is poetic—of dreams, of imagination. It is passive: it cannot do, it can only imagine. There are reasons for this too. In truth, a poet means a passive mind. He can sit and imagine; he cannot do anything. He can build palaces—but only in imagination! Palaces that can be built sitting—those he can build. The ones that require standing up, breaking stones, collecting bricks—that is not his capacity. He can build palaces of words, because that can be done sitting. More interesting still: in science one has to do—one discovers; the masculine mind discovers, uncovers what is covered. The poet does not discover; he simply sits silently. In fact, when a great poem descends into him, he is utterly passive, totally feminine. Something descends into him. Rabindranath says, “What did I sing? When I am not, O God, you sing through me. When I am…

Osho, how could the iconoclast Mahavira accept himself as the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of the most ancient Jina tradition? Please explain!

Within this revolutionary tradition, Mahavira is the most glorious, the most brilliant. Therefore his words are worth understanding and contemplating. He must have been uniquely revolutionary; for the Jainas have two sects—Digambara and Shvetambara. The Digambaras hold that not a single word of Mahavira remains, no scripture remains. That too is part of the revolution. They say, no scripture is Mahavira’s word. The words we have are from the Shvetambara compilations. The Digambaras have no compilations. It is astonishing that the Digambaras did not preserve! But that too belongs to their deep revolt: if you preserve words, today or tomorrow they become scripture; preserve them, and soon they become Veda. Hence the Digambaras did not preserve Mahavira’s words. It is an extraordinary rebellion against scripture. They revere Mahavira, but preserved no texts—only what was passed personally from master to disciple; they did not write it down. Therefore, for the Digambaras,…

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…

Osho, the Buddha wanted to avoid giving sannyas to women. Shankara too was not in favor of giving sannyas to women. What incompatibility is there between the life of sannyas and women? Is there no harmony between them, or only a little? Do women need sannyas less than men?

Man and woman have essentially different paths. The man’s path is meditation; the woman’s path is love. The man’s path is knowledge; the woman’s path is devotion. Their inner climates are very different, even opposite. To man, love seems a bondage; to woman, love seems a liberation. So even when a man loves, he does it while running, fearful that he may get bound. And when a woman loves, she wants to be bound wholly, because in bondage she has known freedom. Therefore the man’s language is: How to get free? How to be liberated from the world? And the woman’s search is: How to drown totally so that nothing remains behind? So sannyas is fundamentally masculine. That is why even Buddha hesitated. Women were moved—women are moved easily, for their hearts are more sensitive—and they began to ask: Give us sannyas too. Buddha was afraid. Mahavira even told them…

Beloved oasho, what do you think about the attitude of the messiahs, avataras, tirthankaras, paigambaras towards women?

You will be surprised -- there are Catholic monasteries where women have not entered for one thousand years. What to say about a woman, a six-month-old baby girl is not allowed to enter with her father or brother into the monastery. A six-month-old baby! Inside the monastery what do you think -- monks are living or monsters are living, who are afraid of a six-month-old girl? What kind of people are living inside? So sexually perverted.... All sexual perversion has come through your religions. Ninety percent of mental diseases have come through your religions, because of sexual perversion. You ask me what my attitude is about these messiahs, apostles, tirthankaras, avataras, paigambaras. What to say to you? I say: simply disgusting, nauseating. They have done so much harm to humanity that when humanity becomes aware, they are going to destroy all these synagogues and temples and mosques and gurudwaras and…