Sahjobai

Osho, after your discourse yesterday I asked many sannyasinis to frame a question about Sahjobai, but they all just smiled. They didn’t even say yes. Why are women not eager to know or inquire even about a liberated woman?

The curiosity to know and to ask belongs to man. The longing to be, to live, belongs to woman. Even with little children... you can see the difference. If girls are playing, their way is creative; they will make something. Boys’ way of play is destructive; they will break something. If you give a boy a toy car, he will soon break it open to see what’s inside. Curiosity—what’s within? If he gets hold of a watch, he will open it up. You say, “He spoiled everything,” but the poor fellow is simply being scientifically curious. He is looking to see how it works. An ant is walking—he will crush it with his thumb. He is not being violent; he has no purpose in violence yet, the ant has done him no harm; he is just seeing what is inside that makes it move. Man’s curiosity is to know. He…

Osho, you explain so much, yet nothing seems to get through to my wife. She’s still wasting time at the hidebound, orthodox sages’ satsangs. What should I do?

Rajaram! Raja-bhaiya, it’s your good fortune she’s attending the sadhus’ satsangs—otherwise you wouldn’t be able to come here at all. Let her go. At least it gives you the chance to come here. Don’t obstruct her. And don’t try to explain things to her. Otherwise even that convenience won’t remain—if she starts doing your satsang. Let her go wherever she wants. The moment you hear some sadhu has come, immediately tell her, “Bai, go.” Chandulal was telling his friend Dhabboo-ji, “These days in town there’s Swami Muktananda’s satsang—simply magnificent, amazing, extraordinary! My heart felt bagh-bagh—meaning garden-garden! Last night I felt such bliss as never before in my life.” Dhabboo-ji said, “I’m surprised—I never thought you were such a connoisseur of saints and spirituality! Forgive me, friend; truth is, I took you for just a Marwari businessman and didn’t recognize your spiritual heart. But one thing I don’t get: last night…

Someone has asked: Buddha, Mahavira, Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed, Lao Tzu, Rajneesh—meaning, all men! Then why has no woman ever carried the news of Buddhahood to the world? Is becoming a bodhisattva harder from a woman’s point of view?

Many things have to be understood in this regard. First, woman and man are fundamentally different. Different does not mean higher or lower; they are equal, but opposite. Neither is above, neither below. Equal—but polar opposites. And their polarity is essential; from the union of these two opposites, birth happens and the current of life flows. Because they are opposite there is attraction; because they are opposite there is also love and there is conflict. Love, because there is attraction; conflict, because they are opposite. Between woman and man there can never be a final reconciliation—nor can there be. Their polarity creates a pull, and the same polarity creates attraction. Man is incomplete without woman; woman is incomplete without man. Man wants to be whole with woman; woman wants to be whole with man. To be whole alone is very difficult—until the inner journey begins, one goes on seeking outer…

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…