May 13, 2023
Alina (0:00:11):
No worries!
Sraddhalu (0:00:12):
So we are live now. We are live, you can start.
Alina (0:00:18):
[laughing] Namaste. Happy to be back.
Evening with Sraddhalu today on the masculine and the feminine, Part IV, we will take some questions that are pending from our viewers on the topic of the masculine and the feminine which we already covered in the last three sessions. As usual you may post your questions in the chat box or you may send an email beforehand at our email: id integralstudies.in[at]gmail.com, and we invite Sraddhalu. Namaste!
Sraddhalu (0:00:58):
Namaste! I am sorry, we have started almost 34 minutes late. Actually what happened was we started the webcast and the button had not been clicked and I had been talking half an hour, so I will just repeat what we went through already, but my apologies for this uh, inconvenience. The first question, I think, we can take.
Alina (0:01:24):
Vyjayanthi is addressing this question: On one of the controversial topics is that women are not advised to observe religious rituals during certain periods, so why is that? Can you please discuss the genuine facts and maybe the superstitions revolving around this topic? What are Mothers views on what care one should take regarding this issue?
Sraddhalu (0:01:54):
Mmhhmm. Yes! First of all, understanding why certain temples do not allow women during the period of their menstruation, why certain rituals are forbidden to women during periods of menstruation, etc. We must understand first, this is not true everywhere at all times, it is true in certain lineages, certain religious traditions and specific temples. And there is a reason for that.
And the reason is that in such temples, the deity which is inhabiting is of a grade very close to the physical. And I have mentioned before how in the state of, in the subtle body, all of our senses are enormously amplified, at least a thousand times in intensity, so the perception of smell also is that much more intense. And for these deities which are very close to the material plane, there is a strong response to human vibration and sometimes physical states, even thoughts and emotions, which are experienced by them as a state of intense smell. So the more refined deities which are of a higher grade, they cannot stand smells which correspond to lower grades of consciousness. Equally the lesser deities of a lower grade uh, are attracted by those bad smells, and so it's extremely important from an occult point of view to have a certain degree of cleanliness and purity of smells, because beings get attracted according to these states of consciousness as well as smells.
So this is the rationale behind this, and so those temples at least do not allow women to come who are in the menstrual phase. Understand that, this is only applicable to beings which are very close to the physical, the lower vital and physical. Anything which is higher above, even the higher vital, mental beings, it doesn't matter. And the beings who are essentially spiritual beings, or there is a spiritual presence, it makes no difference at all. Because for the spiritual consciousness, the Self is everywhere, in all things, it is the very substance of your body, there is nothing which is to it repulsive.
So, we can use this reference of some of these rituals or restrictions as a way of recognising what grade of beings are involved or what grade of energies are held in those spaces. So you will see in the Matrimandir, near, in the Ashram at the Samadhi or practically all other temples which have a strong spiritual foundation, no such restrictions exist. You go to the Ramakrishna Mission, you will not have any such restrictions.
(0:05:00):
So understand what it means, that's the rationale behind it, beyond that spiritually it's not important at all. When you are doing your prayer, even a ritual at home, since you are invoking the Divine Presence, it does not matter, you may be in any condition, it does not matter. Of course you would want to take a shower, clean yourself, be smelling good, because it makes you feel good and allows you then to attune better. That's a different story. But for the presence which is invoked, if it is a spiritual presence, it does not matter.
Now regarding Vyjayanthi's question of Mother's views on the question of menstruation, I would like to read what Mother had to say about this. The, she was put 10 questions for this purpose, which is published in her Volume 12 On Education, around page number 289, I think, it's titled “To Women About Their Body”, and the text begins with two very powerful statements:
Mother says: “1. For God’s sake can’t you forget that you are a girl or a boy and try to become a human being?” Very strong!
Second observation: She says: “2. Each idea (or system of ideas) is true in its own time and place. But if it tries to be exclusive or to persist even when its time is over, then it ceases to be true.”
Then she takes up the 10 questions. Before answering the 10 questions, she makes a general statement from which I want to read quite a few things, because these apply to both men and women equally, and, I think, it will be helpful for all of us.
So she says: “Before answering your questions I wish to tell you something which you know no doubt, but which you must never forget if you wish to learn how to lead a wise life.”
What does she say? “…you must never forget”. “It is true that we are, in our inner being, a spirit, a living soul that holds within it the Divine and aspires to become it, to manifest it perfectly; it is equally true, for the moment at least, that in our most material external being, in our body, we are still an animal, a mammalian, of a higher order no doubt, but made like animals and subject to the laws of animal Nature.”
“You have been taught surely that one peculiarity of the mammal is that the female conceives the child, carries it and builds it up within herself until the moment when the young one, fully formed, comes out of the body of its mother and lives independently.” And then she explains in the view of this function, nature has provided a woman with additional blood which has to be, which is discarded when it gets congested, and so on. I skip that portion.
I am coming to the portion which is common for all. She says: “Therefore a normal woman, one who is not ridiculously sensitive, should merely take the necessary precautions of cleanliness, never think of it any more and lead her daily life as usual without any change in her programme. This is the best way to be in good health.”… “Besides, even while recognising that in our body we still belong dreadfully to animality, we must not therefore conclude that this animal part, as it is the most concrete and the most real for us, is one to which we are obliged to be subjected and which we must allow to rule over us. Unfortunately this is what happens most often in life and men are certainly much more slaves than masters of their physical being. Yet it is the contrary that should be, for the truth of individual life is quite another thing.”
And here comes the part which she means you should “never forget”. What is this? “We have in us an intelligent will more or less enlightened which is the first instrument of our psychic being.” The buddhi! “It is this intelligent will that we must use in order to learn to live not like an animal man, but as a human being, candidate for Divinity.” Not animal, but human being who is “candidate for Divinity”, this [gesturing mind]!
“And the first step towards this realisation is to become master of this body instead of remaining an impotent slave.”
I will ask you to review: How much of us are we “impotent” slaves to our body? And, how much of we at least begun steps towards mastery? Think about it!
(0:09:58):
Then she continues! “One most effective help towards this goal is physical culture.” What is this? She says: “For about a century there has been a renewal of a knowledge greatly favoured in ancient times, partially forgotten since then. Now it is reawakening, and with the progress of modern science, it is acquiring quite a new amplitude and importance. This knowledge deals with the physical body and the extraordinary mastery that can be obtained over it with the help of enlightened and systematised physical education.” So, she says, “For about a century” there is a “renewal” of this knowledge.
So, why it has happened? And she is explaining now: “This renewal has been the result of the action of a new power and light that have spread upon the earth in order to prepare it for the great transformations that must take place in the near future.”–“near future” in evolutionary terms, it can happen in a 100 years, 200 years, it doesn’t matter, but that’s very quick. As for us we are concerned, conscious aspirants, it’s happening right now, you don’t wait for a 100 years. And the “light” and “power” have been “spread” to prepare for this transformation, these transformations.
So, she continues, the thing never to forget: “We must not hesitate to give a primary importance to this physical education whose very purpose is to make our body capable of receiving and expressing the new force which seeks to manifest upon earth.” “This force seeks to manifest. Our body must be put through a physical education, and this must be primary importance for us, the physical education.”…“… to make our body capable of receiving and expressing the new force which seeks to manifest upon earth.” You see, “the new force” can act through the mind, it can act through the vital, through these it can act through the body, which is what happens to us.
Let's say, you are a wonderful poet who receives streaming intuitions, you write beautiful poetry. What's your body doing? It's only writing. Does it receive the intuition? Probably not. So this has not fulfilled the objective she has spoken of. For the body to receive directly the action of this higher light and higher power, for that you need to do the physical education, to make the body conscious, supple, and so on. We'll see what the scope of that education is. And so this is where she is saying, “never forget” this, you are primarily a soul, although you have this body, this body is intended to become this vehicle, and this is why do not hesitate to give a primary importance to this physical education.
Now there are many questions, they start with this: What should, should a girl participate in her normal physical education programmes during her periods? And Mother says, if you are “accustomed” to exercise, you should not stop because of that, and if you lead a normal life, you will find it will, the body will get strong, and this problem will not come in the way. And various answers which are specific to that, I would advise you to read those on your own.
But some portions which are common for men and women equally, I want to read from. So question is asked: Should there be different types of exercises for boys and girls?: “In all cases,”, Mother says, “as well for boys as for girls, the exercises must be graded according to the strength and the capacity of each one. If a weak student tries at once to do hard and heavy exercises, he may suffer for his foolishness. But with a wise and progressive training, girls as well as boys can participate in all kinds of sports, and thus increase their strength and health.
“To become strong and healthy can never bring harm to a body, even if it is a woman's body.” So this is the reason why you will see the Mother had boys and girls equally doing all programmes and all activities all through until they complete their formal education except the last four years, I think, and there the reason for separating the boys and girls is because the performance differences are so great that it, it’s rather a separation of performance than separation of girls and boys.
Next question is asked: “Will a girl’s appearance change and become muscular … and make her look ugly if she practises … exercise?” Mother’s response: “Weakness and fragility may look attractive in the view of a perverted mind, but it is not the truth of Nature nor the truth of the Spirit. “If you have ever looked at the photos of the women gymnasts you will know what perfectly beautiful bodies they have; and nobody can deny that they are muscular!”
(0:15:22):
And then again, the question about will it affect childbirth, and Mother says, in fact if your body is healthy, then childbirth itself becomes such a natural process. She gives the example of an African woman who was pregnant, travelling with a load on her head. She is walking, and suddenly it's time to give birth. She stops, gives birth to her child, rests a little, adds the child to her load and continues walking. And it can become so smooth as a natural process if your body is healthy. And that's her point, make your body healthy. And she says, doctors are normally interested more in abnormal cases and they exaggerate that, but this is normality.
So again next question: “What should be the ideal of physical education for a girl from the point of view of her sex?”. Mother’s response: Revolutionary at that time, 1960 September! Mother says: “I do not see why there should be any special ideal of physical education for girls other than for boys. “Physical education has for its aim …” Now listen carefully, this we have to put into practice: “Physical education has for its aim to develop all the possibilities of a human body, possibilities of harmony, strength, plasticity, cleverness, agility, endurance, and to increase the control over the functioning of the limbs and the organs, to make … the body a perfect instrument at the disposal of a conscious will.” -Not yet Divine uh, it’s “conscious will”! Your own will should be able to have this! “This programme is excellent for all human beings equally, and there is no point in wanting to adopt another one for girls.” Now you see the scope of the programme. It applies to all of us. Not just irrespective of boys and girls, but irrespective of age. As long as you follow the guideline that you temper the content of the exercises to your capacity and then build the capacity gradually in a graded way.
Next question: “What roles should man and woman play in our new way of life? What shall be the relation between them?” Mother: “Why make at all a distinction between them? They are all equally human beings, trying to become fit instruments for the Divine Work, above sex, caste, creed and nationality, all children of the same Infinite Mother and aspirants to the one Eternal Godhead.” -Very simple! In one go, she breaks all these formations of limitations!
Now we have to be very clear, Mother is very conscious of the distinctions of limitations, incapacities, capacities, strengths and advantages of variations of body types. She is deliberately breaking all those moulds so that we start thinking in a different way. Irrespective of what our limitations or strengths are, we have to grow into this. And this should be our ideal: “… to become fit instruments for the Divine Work, … all children of the same Infinite Mother and aspirants to the one Eternal Godhead.”
And then the last question: “What should be the ideal of a woman’s physical beauty?” So Mother acknowledges this, but you will see the way she articulates it will apply to everybody: “A perfect harmony in the proportions, suppleness and strength, grace and force, plasticity and endurance, and above all, an excellent health, unvarying and unchanging, which is the result of a pure soul, a happy trust in life and an unshakable faith in the Divine Grace.”
Review this as an ideal, this should be the ideal for all of us, not just for women, men equally, everybody. Isn’t it? And then she completes with this very interesting observation, she says: “One word to finish: I have told you these things, because you needed to hear them, but do not make of them absolute dogmas, for that would take away their truth.” This is September 1960. Again in saying this she is acknowledging that of course there are variations, there are specific exceptional conditions, individuals, whatever. But if you follow these broad guidelines, then you will find yourself much better aligned to what is the deeper spiritual truth of things and the truth of your soul's aspiration. I think we can go to the next question.
Alina (0:20:09):
Dr. Druval: “Based on retina photos artificial intelligence can detect whether it's male retina or female retina, I guess you already mentioned earlier, females can identify colours better.”
Sraddhalu (0:20:28):
Yes. So this was already an observation made as he has pointed out, but I want to comment on this a little bit. If you look carefully, you will find biological distinctions even between the female retina and the male retina as many other senses, and we have discussed this earlier. For most women, most of the senses are much more refined and developed. But that's only a starting point. If you start paying attention, if you infuse awareness, and this is now in continuation of what we have read before for physical education, if you pay attention and, and treat this as part of your physical training of the body consciousness to amplify its range, you will actually grow the necessary changes in your cells, in your nerves, and so on.
So I'm going to take this as an example: If you look carefully, you start observing fine differences between colours, nuances of colours, start registering them, recognising them, being able to name them when needed, automatically with that there is a consciousness that flows into the eyeballs, into the sight centres of the brain and begins to make cellular changes there and increases the richness and sensitivities of the entire biological machinery and therefore providing your consciousness with much richer flow of information, literally something happens.
It may sound strange when I say it like this, but this is true in the subtle body, so you understand how it works in the biology. When you look carefully, let's say you try to look at something at a distance or some detail carefully, you put more awareness into your sight, there's literally as if a light that flows in the subtle body, shines out through your eyes, lighting up the place that you're watching, in the subtle world that happens.
But in your biology, there is the flow of life-force, prana, which goes through the brain centres of sight, through the optic cord, into the retina, through the eyeballs. Life-force flows. And as you make an effort to push the boundary, it amplifies the working of the cells, nerves, and so on, makes them grow in capacity, in sensitivity. So this we must keep in mind as part of our physical education. It's not just the development of the bodyform and all that but the body perceptions, sensations, skills and capacities of all senses. And these when developed in this way methodically can be pushed without limit. And it's not an exaggeration, without limit, although you may hit biological limits, by the time you reach biological limits, your subtle consciousness will fill and lift and push beyond the limits of the biology.
Now if you recall our discussion on developing of intuition, the fourth method of developing intuition you will recall, Sri Aurobindo says, you push the boundaries of your mind, literally all the mental faculties, until they exceed their own limitations and join with the intuitive, and the intuition fills from the other side. Now this is true not only for the higher ranges of the mind, it is also true for the mind as it turns to the vital and physical consciousness, particularly the range of mind that turns to what we call the ‘physical mind’, and from there down into the physical body and the mental-physical, including the nerves. The intuitive consciousness can flow, enter these, lift them and push their boundaries beyond their own biological limitations.
And so you see this in certain cultures especially the ‘less modernised’, we will say, more primitive in certain ways, rather those who live close to nature, you'll find sometimes they can see at a very great distance with precision of the sight of an eagle which biologically you should not be able to see with your, your physical body. But they can see, they can recognise, and this is possible for all of us by such a discipline. Mother recalls how she was taken to a circus in Paris and she saw a Red Indian who put his ear to the ground and he could listen to the sounds, make out from what distance somebody was coming and sometimes even make out who the person was and from what direction. This is obviously not possible purely from just the physical hearing. It's as if through the ears and intuitivisation of the sound perception has taken place but the boundary of the biological perception of sound has also been pushed.
So all this is to, I wanted to take Druval’s comment to show this in continuation of our previous discussion of the biological development and goals of physical education to make this a fit instrument for the Divine includes all this.
We can go to the next question.
Alina (0:25:30):
Tutun: “What's your opinion of women working in armed forces, especially combat role, men and women working at very close quarters in warships, difficult terrains during war times, with men and women working together especially with its core male professions like the armed forces?”
Sraddhalu (0:25:56):
Mhm, yes. We have to understand the historical basis for women not being in armed forces. If you go back sufficiently into the past, equally in Europe, equally in India, you find princesses were taught to fight and warfare was a natural part of the training, and where necessary, they would also come onto the battlefield. At least in India this was quite a common thing.
And we have even cases, examples all the way going back to the last 300 years where women were on the battlefield, of course the elite princesses, not the, not the common women of the city who would have to be protected, but the elite princesses would go out and there is this example of the princess who goes, I think it is Rani of Jhansi, uh, Jhansi who goes with her child on her back and she is fighting the battle.
But it was also a requirement almost from an evolutionary survival point of view that you don't allow women to go into battle where they could be killed because you had to protect the future of society. So almost everywhere in the world, the first thing necessary in times of battle was to separate the women and children to put them in the space of maximum protection or even send them away from the zone of the battle. And only those who were trained for and ready for the battle might or might not engage with that part of the battle or in the extreme they would fight.
This being the case in the past, we do see that women equally could fight, at least where the culture accepted that. But in between, especially in the last 1000 years, there was a certain decline, and a degree of barbarism which we see pretty much everywhere in the world where we did not want women to be on the front lines because if they were taken as prisoners, what was done to them was too horrible, too horrible to speak. Even today in the history books of India, they don't speak about it, they don't speak about what was actually done to them, and so we have this very glossy picture.
The fact is in the frontline states of frontier as well as Rajasthan in India, if the men died on the battlefield during the Mughal invasions, then the women would walk into fire and commit, it was not considered suicide, it was considered a sacred act of protecting their purity, because to be captured in the battle with that was so horrible that it was worse than death, and so there was this passage fortunately that passage is largely gone all over the world. And because of the push of evolution of Mother Nature who says, now it's time for everyone to push to their maximum potential, we have a reasonably stable, let's say human civilisation, not very highly civilised but reasonably stable with reasonable refinement that we don't allow that kind of cruelty or we recognise that as barbarism.
And so it is possible today, and not only it feels normal that women take, come into the military but also it seems almost anachronistic to think of women not being in the military. So it of course starts with the First and Second World Wars in Europe where it was from pure necessity, but today it's not that, it's almost as if, even women say, ‘We would like to participate’, and they demonstrate the capabilities. So, yes, I would say, why not, and it should even be encouraged with two riders: First that you should know where to draw limits and extend limits gradually, because in any highly settled system and structured system, if you bring in too many changes suddenly, it tends to destabilise, and war is a machinery. You do not win wars by innovating on the spot and refusing orders.
(0:30:09):
So, the whole thing is so tightly, I would say, programmed to act as a single entity that any new force that you bring in, well you have to allow time for things to settle, and that is being done as far as I understand, that’s being done in a graded way which should be done, and then again, where you draw limits as far as the frontline is concerned. So in certain extreme situations in war for example, you are left with weapons finished, you have not had the supply coming and you are, you end up in hand-to-hand combat because there is no other option left, at that point women would have a massive disadvantage because of muscular strength. So would you allow women to ever come to that point of limit?
So these are questions which can be discussed, but broadly on the level of the principle, we find in India at least, women flying helicopters and doing all kinds of other tasks as good as, as well as men and with no problem at all, neither for men nor for the women. So these are things which I think are positive directions. But as with any change, you allow graded change to allow people to adapt and adjust as you go along to get the best outcome.
War, remember, is not a space for political correctness. It is a space where you have to win or you die, and there's no in-between. So, unfortunately, currently you will find especially I think it is mostly in the United States a lot of ‘politically-correct noises’ being made where even there is so much exaggeration to bring, sex-change surgeries into the military and allow transgenders, and the whole discussion is moved away from efficacy of the war-machine to these social and politically-correct noises.
My thinking on that line would be very simple: Do not compromise the objectives of the military. What you do internally is irrelevant. Do not compromise the objectives. Make the military efficient for the purpose for which it is intended, which is to win a war when a war is inevitable. And in peacetime, I asked somebody, I asked some, one of these generals, we were students in the Ashram School, he said, ‘What does the military do in peacetime?’, they said, ‘Prepare for war’. Very interesting! And I have understood this much later, the wisdom of it, because when we have a strong military, it prevents the war. When the military is weak, it invites invasions, warfare, etc., because especially today, even today, current international relations are still largely ego-driven and nation-ego-driven, and therefore the necessity for a military. One could conceive of a time in the future when that is not required but evolution would have to go much more by that time.
I think we can go to the next question.
Alina (0:33:09):
Vani: “How to get, how to stop getting attracted to people, not in a vital way, but general preference or, like, to certain people? Is it a vital attraction if one is attracted to a specific age group? For example, if one has affinity in connecting to elderly or very young child group, is it something we have in common or we have some purpose together?”
Sraddhalu (0:33:40):
Mmhhm. I don't know what you mean by ‘attraction’ there, but if you just feel drawn to be with them more, to work with them, interact with them, uh, it could be, there could be many reasons, one would be simply that you get from them something which you lack. So I often see this with very aged people, grandparents, generally is the instinct, where they love to be with children or they love to watch children at a distance, it's almost as if they are missing that youth in the biology, but also internally in the psychology because the biological crust has become somewhat hardened and separated, the inner being is more loose, more free and it almost feels itself like a childlike, sometimes even a strong psychic influence begins to grow in some of them, if they have not hardened too much, and so they look at the children and they feel this very close affinity and resonance, ‘Ha-yes, I can feel that childlike purity and innocence within me and it's nourishing’. And on some other level, they are also preparing for shedding this body to take form, to take birth with that kind of a new body again.
So there could be many reasons of this kind, if you can observe carefully you will be able to make out what it is. Generally, it means, there is something either you need which you are getting from that contact or there is something that uh, you learn from, through that contact.
I think we can go to the next set of questions which are a whole group, three, three questions we can take them all together.
Alina (0:35:16):
Vighneshwar: “I am somewhat disturbed and trying to understand how eunuchs are created from the spiritual point of view. Can I guess that they are basically form representing sexual power which is misdirected?”
Renke, she is writing: “On the topic transgender and non-binary gender, the incidence of both is increasing. I find, it’s delicate and complex phenomenon to understand. To me, there seems to be a spectrum of several manifestations. On one hand, there are the rare cases of young children who from a very young age feel their subjective sex gender doesn't match their biological sex. In these cases, it looks like the gender dysphoria comes within. On the other hand, there is the relatively recent culture of transgenders and non-binary genders that seems to be contagious among certain age groups. In these cases, the idea of gender dysphoria seems to come from outside, external sources. However, I can be totally wrong about this. Could you please shine a light on this matter and perhaps explain it from the soul’s point of view? Is there a distinction to be between transgender and non-binary in this understanding? Sometimes these phenomena are explained by the theory that the soul incarnates in a body of the opposite sex, for example, for the first time or is to identify still with the sex of the previous birth or births. As you mentioned, Sri Aurobindo states, they are certain lines the reincarnation follows and one usually follows a single line. Could these rare cases perhaps be explained by this idea or should we discard this theory?”
Amicus: “I was hoping you include in your discussion on gender, the concept of the third gender and sometimes even a fourth or in the fifth, as it appears in many cultures across the planet and throughout history. This concept is complex and means different things to different cultures and is often co-opted by western academics for their political agendas. But recognising more than two genders seems universal enough that perhaps you could discuss its relevance to evolution and its legitimate place in society, past, present and future. It would be also interesting, in the light of this theme, to discuss the curious passage in the Agenda from February 15, 1963, when Mother is discussing (“blissfully worshipping all this confusion”), in parentheses, and talks about how she met Sri Aurobindo in the subtle-physical where he's wearing one of her saris and says: ‘Why shouldn't I wear a sari?’…”
Sraddhalu (0:39:07):
Okay. I will first set aside this portion which Amicus has referred to from the Agenda where Mother describes how for a long time, more than a thousand years, she had this very strong reaction against accepting things for what they are, because, it should not be so, and there was a strong push. And there was a point where reading from one of Sri Aurobindo, from, well, from Savitri, she found this passage where Sri Aurobindo describes how the Lord actually admires the whole play of Shakti and enjoys this whole chaos, it goes like this, and she, she quotes:
“As one too great for him he worships her;
He adores her as his regent of desire,
He yields to her as the mover of his will,” etc.
And then:
“… all is their play:
This whole wide world is only he and she.”
So Mother is commenting on these lines, and she says, how for a long time she resisted this aspect of the Divine enjoying the play in spite of all the mess that is currently on.
(0:40:20)
But it was when Sri Aurobindo's insistence that finally she accepted that, and when she finally entered that uh, I am reading from the Mother now: “… at first I was shocked when Sri Aurobindo told me that; previously, in this life, it hadn't even crossed my mind. In that sense Theon's explanation had been much more … useful to me from the standpoint of action: the origin of disorder being the separation of the primal Powers – but that's not it! HE is there, blissfully worshipping all this confusion! “
Mother says, and when Mother was translating these lines in Savitri, it all came back, and: “Then I told myself, "Haven't you got beyond that!" And I let myself flow into the thing. Then I had a series of nights with Sri Aurobindo … so marvelous! … I see him constantly and I go into that subtle physical world where he has his abode; the contact is almost permanent … but still, after this translation of Savitri he seemed to be smiling at me and telling me, "At last you have understood!" (Mother laughs) I said, "It isn't that I didn't understand, it's that I didn't want it!" ”
So, and then she says, how he had put on a sari: “The night before last, he had put on a sari of mine.” And “He told me (laughing), "Why not? Don't you find it suits me!" I answered, "It suits you beautifully!" ”. And Mother describes the sari.
Now this you must understand, in the subtle-physical world, forms are not rigid and they are often spontaneous expressions of the state of consciousness. And so it actually is not about cross-dressing and that which is a very specific issue in the physical world. This is actually a, an expression of the consciousness where he takes on this aspect which then represents itself in the form of the dress. And in the Indian dresses you will see between dhoti and sari there is hardly any difference. The only part of the cloth which goes around and that's the sari, otherwise it's the dhoti. So there is not much difference, it just shows as if he takes on that aspect of the Divine Shakti upon him and enjoying her and even putting himself in relation to uh, participating or supporting or identifying with her play. And so that was represented in this image.
She describes his hair and the nape of his neck and all that, which is very true. She describes how his hair was never white, uh, it was, it had an auburn shimmer, almost golden, very fine. And I have seen, seen his beard which was golden coloured, it is amazing. “And he said to me, "Why shouldn't I wear a sari!" So, this “opened up a whole new horizon”, and she says. So, this we must understand in the context.
And having said that, uh, I want to go back to the three questions, all three really relate to the same issue, but from slightly different perspectives. So, I am going to address them all in one general discussion. First, recognising that necessarily such a discussion has certain controversial aspects and I have to be a little careful of how it is said because uh, some of this is highly politicised today. So what I will describe will be purely from a spiritual point of view within my understanding. So, if someone has an issue of differences of perspective, we will just take it at that.
First, we recognise three very different things which are being blurred under a single word. When they say ‘gender’, what do you mean by that? There is a biology which is based on chromosomes, XX and the XY. There are only two. There is no third, there is no fourth, there is no fifth. There is no 60th, by the way, that's one of the New York Times articles which says there are 60 genders. Okay. On the biological level, there are only two. And these are expressed with certain biological structures. You can change the biological structures, cut them out, do any kind of plastic surgery, it does not change the fact of the XX and XY chromosome structure. As a result of which your brain wiring is different, your senses are different, all the things we've been discussing last time which are very specific to the male and the female.
None of those change. In fact, having done those surgeries, you suffer so much, the distress is so great, because the entire biology is trying to undo the distortion that comes with the surgeries. So this is very specific at the level of biology, there are only two genders. The second thing for which the same word ‘gender’ is used is psychology, and at the level of psychology there is a complete difference. And let me tell you what is the third thing, is sexual orientation. So, biology, psychology and sexual orientation, they are completely different things, actually unconnected, and yet we are using the same or rather they are using the same word ‘gender’ for all three, and therefore all the confusion that comes.
(0:45:15):
If you separate the three things, all the confusion goes away. So let me now dwell upon the psychology aspect. The psychology aspect is largely what we have been covering over the last three sessions as what I called “masculine and feminine qualities of consciousness”. And we saw there is a large overlap, it is large rather an emphasis this way or that way of certain characteristics or qualities of consciousness emerging from a single original consciousness which is indivisible but which takes two poises. And in the act of taking two poises, certain qualities, certain characteristics, get as if exaggerated or even placed in a complementary poise.
These then are represented by Nature in her attempt to create vehicles with these characteristics, Nature builds these biases. We saw also by changing hormones those biases can change. Isn’t it? So all this is at a level of psychology and their biases. And because psychology is essentially much more fluid, there is no hard and rigid 2, or 3, or 4, or any number. There is only a spectrum of qualities of consciousness, powers of consciousness. And the same powers of consciousness can lean this way or that with various biases of characteristics or qualities, sometimes dependent on the vehicle which is the biology as I have said before, or sometimes because of certain choices of the soul or the characteristics of maturity and evolution of the soul personality, the psychic personality which is infused into it.
So there may be for example an intelligence which is highly artistic and an intelligence that is highly analytical, but which may be part of the soul personality that is infused. Or it may be biased this way or that way because of the biological basis of the container into which this consciousness is infused. So here we cannot even use the word ‘genders’, which is why I have avoided that word so far when discussing the masculine and feminine psychological qualities. So on a psychological level you have a full spectrum of capacities, qualities, it's a multi-dimensional reality of experience, you can grow this way, that way with all kinds of nuances. And because this word ‘gender’ is being applied in that domain, you have a lot of the confusion comparing it with the biology.
Third though, which is another factor of bringing a huge confusion is sexual orientation. When they say so-and-so is this gender or that gender or they will use the word ‘homosexual’ or ‘heterosexual’ or ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’, and so on, what they mean is you are being attracted to this or that gender. The sexual attraction is not a gender type, it is a sexual attraction only. But by naming gender for all three things, you have actually conflated three completely independent things and then all the confusion starts and all the conflicts of viewpoints. The problem with this conflict of viewpoints is because they are inherently self-contradictory. The positions taken are inherently self-contradictory that you can never win an argument. Because implied in the very way of thinking are two contradictory ideas. And so one person leans on that, another person leans on that, and you can never find resolution because you start with the wrong supposition.
I'm going to point to one of these. So one of these being that uh, if you go back to the basis of western psychology, we are a product of the biology, isn't it? Our thoughts are a product of biology. Everything is ingrained in the biology. We can't choose, we can't change what we are. So this idea is caught in the LGBT dialogue: you can't change, you are so and so from birth, and we can't assign to you your gender because it's your biological outcome.
On the other hand, you're told, ‘Ah–yes, but you can be gender fluid, you can change your gender every now and then’. Now that is inherently a contradictory stance. But if you say, ‘But biology does not’, so in the same dialogue they will say, ‘Biology does not define your gender, it's your psychology and social, gender is a social construct’, they say. So if you say, ‘Gender is a social construct, then it is fluid and it can be changed, then you can have gender-corrective training programmes and help you change your sexual orientation or your gender’, but then they say, ‘No, that is pre-born’. Now you see in the very same statement, in the very same breath, you have said ‘It’s fixed on biology’ and then ‘No, it is a social construct’, and the two are completely contradictory positions and you end up with a huge confusion.
(0:49:56):
There is a very interesting documentary which I would highly recommend for those who want to study this confusion to look at, it's called ‘What is a Woman?’.
And this was originally, the title comes because somebody who was being given a certain role, I don't remember exactly the role in the US Congress, she was being interviewed, and she was about to take charge in the health department, I think, she was asked: ‘Can you define what is a woman?’. And she said, ‘I'm not a biologist’, the woman says, ‘I'm not a biologist, so I can't define what is a woman’. So, the whole thing is lifted to ridiculous extremes. And then this man in the whole documentary goes around, goes to professors in universities and asks, ‘Can you define a woman?’ And they cannot, they keep going around and around, because the problem is this: You have mixed three different things, biology, psychology and sexual orientation, and they are completely independent and call them all ‘gender’, and so you end up with self-contradictory statements.
And what happens generally with this kind of thing where there is a internal contradiction in the logic, the mind shuts down. So, you will see, the moment you enter this space of dialogue, you are not allowed to use logic, you are required to take a stance that says, ‘Okay, each one can choose what they want and there will be no discussion, no questioning, and no rationality to it’. And then of course, you enter in the total subjective space. And the degree of subjectivity is so extreme that you end up with utter chaos, and that chaos has consequences.
Now, this is the point I want to come to. If you are not clear about what you are discussing, if you, and if you actually start making biological and medical interventions on the body based on a momentary whim or period of confusion, you end up severely damaging, and I am pointing the spiritual potential. This is my primary objective. I am not looking at this socially or politically but primarily from a spiritual point of view. So let me quickly go through a few key-points before I come to this part of the discussion.
If you look at uh, quoting from Wikipedia, according to Black's Medical Dictionary, gender dysphoria, that is, where you feel ‘I am not the correct gender’, gender dysphoria occurs one in 30,000 male births, and one in 100,000 female births. That's a general statistic. Studies in European countries in the early 2000s found that one in 12,000 natal male adults and one in 30,000 natal female adults seek out sex reassignment surgery. Now this being the case, the actual percentage of people with real gender dysphoria is very-very small, and these genuine cases, we would say, would be because the soul has incarnated in a body which is not quite its evolved and individualised character. I will avoid the word ‘gender’, because for the soul there's no gender really, but the character, the line of its development that it has evolved in its personality is not matching the way the biology is. Or, in rare cases, the soul wanted to take birth in a specific gender, and for certain biological reasons which are hormonal and environmental stimuli, the gender does not form the way it wanted, and now it finds itself and could choose to leave. But it says, ‘Okay, having got here let me see, it might be an interesting experience, and I'll still try to do what I have to do’. In such cases, such a gender dysphoria would exist.
Now we know for a fact in the Ashram, there were two cases that I know of personally, for which the Mother specifically said, so and so was a female soul in a male body and another case where it was a male soul in a female body. And we could see the characteristics. And Mother gave them uh, a lot of support, gave them a lot of encouragement in developing what they could within the framework of their body, very interesting, and to push the boundaries of their capacity always irrespective of what that was.
So, yes, there is this aspect of the soul which might find the body. And then, if the soul is individualised, it will feel this gender dysphoria. If it is not individualised, it won't matter, because it's not anyway formed, it's not taken a distinctive side in its evolutionary journey. So there is an early stage, we have discussed this before, Sri Aurobindo explains that the soul might actually switch between the two genders, trying to find out what is it that suits it best for the line of experience and the development that it wants to express. And once it finds itself more or less aligned to one of them, it generally stays on that or occasionally switches when needed for a specific experience or for a development of certain capacities. Sri Aurobindo in the evening talks quotes from the Mahabharata where Shikhandi takes birth as a woman in order to complete a certain mission, uh, but being still a male-being in the female body, and so on.
(0:55:15):
So certainly this real gender dysphoria will nowhere be near anywhere above this very low percentage, if you look at the percentage, it will be 0.001 or so, nowhere near 4%, or 10%, or 20%. In certain states in the United States, they say, 20% of the uh, children or adolescents identify as non-gender and various other terms that they use, ‘binary’, and so on.
What does happen and this happens to all children: it is part of the biological process, at a time when the hormones kick-in and the body growth begins to develop the sexual organs, there is a period of about 6 months to 1 year typically, when suddenly you find you are no more what you were biologically, you are no more what you are going to become biologically, you are somewhere in between, and there is a hesitation, there is a period of confusion. If you catch that point, you can pretty much convince the child you are whatever it is you want them to be convinced of.
If you wait for that passage to be completed, they come into their own and they feel themselves distinctly male or female. It doesn't mean they have sexual desires, again, this is not, that doesn't make you a gender, you are male or female, that's it. So sexual desire, sexual attraction is not a gender, it's a thing in itself, and we will comment on that. So, but if you catch them in this, between, during the confusion, then you will find many confusions can be infused, instilled. And if there has been a very strong false subjectivism, remember we have entered the subjective age and it's almost fashionable now to accept any subjectivity as a great truth, and so if you are, you have been slipped into the false subjectivism by the media and the society and even the educational system, it's very easy to slip into a false identification and say, ‘Ah, I choose to identify this or that’.
You cannot biologically switch gender as you would a flavour of ice cream overnight. It does not work like that. Psychologically, as we saw, you, the word ‘gender’ does not really apply strictly speaking because, it's not even a spectrum between two extremes, it's a spectrum between 20 different distinctive characteristics, it's a 20-sided vector, if you would put mathematical terms, it's not two, so you cannot even use the word ‘gender’, you can use qualities which are closer to a certain gender more often, but again, that's not so rigid. So I have, I've spoken about this last time, so I don't elaborate on it.
Like wisdom, they will say, wisdom is feminine. No, it's not. Wisdom is wisdom, it has neither feminine nor masculine, it can take a feminine aspect or masculine aspect by the vehicle through which it expresses, but the wisdom itself is none of these. Nor strength. Strength is strength, it's universal. A woman may express strength in a feminine way, male may express strength in a masculine way, but that's the way the vessel shapes it, it's not in itself a gender thing.
So we understand that there is some degree of confusion which is coming from the exaggeration of estrogen mimics and hormones in our water and food unfortunately, and this does have an effect of prolonging perhaps the passage of confusion, or, but in itself, if you wait long enough, eventually the thing settles. Unfortunately, there is as if currently a strong trend which comes from very powerful influences which are asuric to try to create and exaggerate the confusion. And you will understand how this works, uh, children are tempted to choose gender or switch gender because it's fashionable or because they get benefits.
I saw recently a video which was released by Project Veritas, where they did a sting operation on a college where they were openly saying that ‘If you are transgender then you would get lower prices for rooming, you would get promoted, you would get, you would jump the queue over others, and you would be given more attention and celebrated’. So any child who sees all these advantages will declare themselves whatever suits the benefit of that advantage. Then there is peer pressure which says, ‘Oh we are all different, what about you? Oh you are just like this’ okay, so you are under pressure to switch, conforming to a current fad, and so on. But all of this is coming, primarily it's being created from outside as Renke points out through the media and others.
And then there is something extremely insidious, which comes from the medical mafia, which has, is profiteering. In the United States, there are entire hospitals which advertise gender conversion surgery for children, puberty blockers for children, and they advertise this openly, and somehow uh, because it costs a lot, and then after that there's a whole chain of problems which follow through for the rest of your life which then you have to keep following up, and so for them it's medical profiteering in a way.
(1:00:40):
And finally, there is a pressure from the top in the machinery of governance in certain states in the United States where the states have passed a law that if a child switches gender, the parents shall not be informed by the teachers and the school will assign, put the child into gender reassignment surgery, hormones, blockers, etc., without informing parents. If the parents raise an issue and oppose this, then the child services of the government can come and take away the child from the parents or even jail parents. Now these are actually laws that have been passed, and all this is happening somehow in the last 5 or less than 10 years, 5 years typically. And you have to wonder why the haste, why the hurry, why this agenda is pushing, being pushed so hard.
There is, teachers who come into the school and tell children, ‘My name is so and so, and I am such and such sexual orientation’, ‘I am gay’, or ‘I am a lesbian’, or ‘I am bisexual’ or whatever it is. Why do you tell children your sexual orientation? What's the point? Is that your identity? Why not say ‘I specialise in this knowledge which I am going to share with you’? That's what school is about. So what you see in, inside, behind this agenda, is an attempt to sexualise children prematurely.
I touched upon this last time when I said, at the age of nine they were distributing condoms to children in schools. Well, it's straightaway invitation to experimentation. But now you have what they call ‘drag shows’, so somebody comes, who's a biological male dressed as a female, and they will say, ‘I am a’, they were a drag queen, reading stories of gender switching to kindergarten children. So children who do not even understand what this means, it becomes a fun thing, ‘Oh-yes I will be a girl, I will be a boy’. And we have Hollywood stars who say, my child at the age of three said ‘I am not a boy’, so she said, ‘Now you are a girl’, so she starts dressing him as a girl. So you know, there is a lot of confusion which comes from mixing of these three things.
But at the same time, there is this whole machinery of the merchandising of children's clothes with explicit sexual statements on the t-shirts for little children, or Disney's characters on children's cartoons making sexually explicit statements about their gender and their sexual attractions. Now you do not speak of sexual attraction to little children who do not know what it means. This is sexualising children, there is a term for it which is ‘grooming of children’, and premature sexualisation is extremely harmful to the evolution of the psychic being and to the spiritual evolution eventually. But into that when you throw these other things such as gender reassignment surgery and all that, it leads to chaos and enormous damage.
There's a very interesting article which I came across where this woman who was actually part of that whole system, she suddenly realised what was actually happening as a result. It's an article written by Jamie Reed, and you will see it on a website called The Free Press, where she says, “I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids”, she herself was a queer woman and now she says, ‘Now I’m blowing the whistle’ describing medically the damage that was done to these children, and the bulk of them subsequently, once they cross the age of 24 or 25 and the biology is sufficiently individualised, they all begin to regret and want to change, but it is too late.
And many of them become suicidal subsequently, they have other problems which follow psychological, psychiatric problems, and so on. So one has to be very careful about following a fashion which can have consequences so damaging to the spiritual evolution and the psychic emergence of these, the consciousness. I wanted to comment on this, this I have seen also cartoons which are being put out for children which promote transgenderism as fun and temporary with no side effects, so ‘You can take puberty blockers and they are temporary, one day if you decide you can stop taking the blockers and you will be fine’. No, it's not. There are massive medical implications.
And finally, this is the part which is the most disturbing, this is in March this year, 2023 March: the United Nations has come out with a paper of the International Commission of Jurists, and the paper says that they have consulted with 60 eminent judges and lawyers from all regions of the world, and the paper basically says, children should have the right, free choice to have sex with adults and if adults are caught having child pornography or sex with children they should not be given the extreme punishments which are being given now.
And this is extremely disturbing because it means some of the most elite institutions of humanity, the United Nations, which we consider to be like the umbrella that would unite nations, is taking positions which promote child grooming and early sexualisation.
(1:06:00):
From a spiritual point of view again, this is damaging, because always that vibration of coarseness, crudeness and imitation of sexual excesses of adults by children immediately blocks and makes a psychic being withdraw. There was an example recently, I think two years ago in New York city, where a child, 11-years old, was performing a strip show in a famous bar where men were throwing lewd comments, videos of this went viral, there was not a squeak from the media, there was not a squeak from the politicians, and nobody came to criticise this. And to me, this shows something more insidious, and I've mentioned this, I won't repeat this and may get too controversial.
But you find recently in the last 5 years, equally, senior members of Disney have been arrested for pedophilia, senior members of some of the elite mainstream media have been arrested for pedophilia, politicians, Hollywood, church priests at the level of cardinals have been arrested for pedophilia, and so you see a certain elite which is pervert, which wants to impose its values and destroy a nascent childhood with values which are their perversions. Behind it is an Asuric agenda. So I am going to leave it at that.
Set aside all these things which are perversions and come to the essential thing. The psychic being emergent is not male, female. It may choose the biological encasement, it may grow through that in whatever way it chooses. If for any reason there is a gender dysphoria, let the person complete their full emergence into adulthood and then whatever is required can be done. But again gender dysphoria is not changed by surgery, is not changed by puberty blockers. Just because you create a surgical change in the biology does not mean you feel yourself different.
So rather the correction would be a psychological change in which you feel what you are irrespective of the biological vehicle and begin to grow and fill the qualities which you lack to become a complete human being. The attempt to sexualise prematurely or mix these confusions, exaggerates gender dysphoria, damages the psychological development, stunts the biological development and delays the spiritual awakening.
So the best would be: Do not sexualise children! Allow them to grow in their freedom, in their innocence as they are, whatever is their inmost truth, let it flower out freely! Once they come into adulthood, let them find their way, including their sexual orientations, whatever it be, whatever is naturally their turn of choice or not!
Sri Aurobindo makes a comment on the sexual orientation also and I think it's worthwhile sharing this here. He makes this comment, he says regarding the sex force, he says: The force exists for itself. It's not even about procreation. It exists for its own satisfaction. So he says, if you took a group of men and put them on an isolated island, eventually all of them would become gay. Well, because that's the only outlet for the sexual energy at that point, unless you've done something else to redirect your energies and rise above or purify that complex. But the point being, the orientation itself can flow along various grooves or change grooves because it's an impulse in itself.
So the sexual orientation should not be confused with gender, psychological states should not be confused with gender, the biology is obviously very simple and those who, the question about third gender, etc., it's not really a change in gender, it's again it's orientation of the sexual attraction or not. So if you separate these things, there is no confusion. If you blend these things, the confusion can become toxic, extremely dangerous.
(1:10:11):
Now having said all this, why is this coming up suddenly and in such a dramatic way? Yes, I said, there is an insidious agenda by a group, even setting that aside, uh, there is a basis for this, in that, something we touched upon before, Nature wants to free us from limitations and biases. This is the deeper spiritual truth of it: that you live, you grow to become as completely a human being as you can, transcending what were earlier in the past at least, gender-based biases, free yourself completely. This is the deepest spiritual truth and the evolutionary truth. The asuric force looks at this and co-opts it and warps it.
That's all. If you can avoid that warping, we can take Mother's general guideline we started with right at the beginning when she said, try to be a human being first, and Sri Aurobindo's observation which is from The Life Divine, where he says, as an individual, formed individual, we must learn to become plastic to the touch of the infinite. And if we take this as our criteria, all these artificial distinctions, and dysphorias, and confusions can simply be cleared away, grow as a soul in evolution. That's all that will matter. And to our children equally, this should be our reference. Let them feel whatever themselves, they feel themselves to be truly, not fashionably, for which we must tell them, ‘There is a deep truth within you, find the deepest influence of your inmost soul, as much as deep as you can, live by it, do not compromise on it, and you will be fine’.
The completion of this part of the discussion we have three more questions we will finish those.
Alina! Ok, yeah, Nikhil's question!
Alina (1:12:21)
Nikhil: “Do masculine and feminine culminate into Ardhanarishvara? ‘If I pronounce correctly!’ Is Ardhanarishvara the transcendent consciousness which gave birth to masculine and feminine?
Sraddhalu (1:12:36):
So the term in Sanskrit is ‘Ardha’-‘Nari’-‘Ishvara’. ‘Ardha’ means half, ‘Nari’ is feminine, ‘Ishvara’ is masculine or Lord. So it is that particular form in which we know Shiva, or in the statue form, it is described half is Shiva and half is Shakti, half is masculine, half is feminine, and this is the confusion that is made unfortunately by the human mind, they say, ‘Ha, this is the third gender!’. No. There is no such thing. This is the truth of oneness of the Divine Lord and his Shakti.
That's all. To the extent you translate that artificially into the male-female gender framework, you can say: well, the soul includes both or is neither. To that extent it is a symbolic representation of a deep truth. But it is not as if masculine and feminine have to merge into something like this. No. That is a wrong understanding. Rather you can say, the so-called masculine and feminine characteristics are only biases of one truth which, and so this is a way of representing that one truth.
We can go to the next question.
Alina (1:13:48)
Akhilesh is writing: “Is Lakshmi Narashimha mantra japa help to balance this both masculine and feminine qualities?”
Sraddhalu (1:14:03):
Yes. So the implied idea in Akhilesh's question is, you need to balance your masculine and feminine. Again, a lot of this comes from the new-age vocabulary, where: ‘Okay, you have masculine, you have feminine, what do you do? You can't say this is superior or that is superior, so balance it out.’ What does it mean to balance?
You balance two things when they are in opposition to each other, but when they are not in opposition, they are a continuum, then there is no question of balancing, right? So, you can say: ‘Left brain and right brain faculties, one is analytic, one is synthetic, so they are opposite in a way, so you need to balance these out or integrate them’. Yes, that makes sense. Your left hand and your right hand, because they are pointing in opposite directions, you need to maintain the balance, so that you don't topple over one side. That makes sense.
But if you look at the psychological characteristics of what we have called ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’, there is not a question of balance. If you go to the spiritual principle from which these duality derives, which is the Soul and Nature, there is no question of balance, they are always together, they are two poises of the same consciousness. You cannot say, ‘more of this, less of that’, so there is no question of balance, you need both simultaneously to have any effective manifestation.
(1:15:25):
So if you want to follow that idea and replicate top-down, you say, you need to unify and complete yourself as a being, not balance, become complete; if you go bottom-up and say, these are two distinctive lines or characteristics, you'll see there's a huge overlap. So again, balance is not it. Completion is it. So the correction I will make: Find the completeness of your potential, don't try to balance artificially things which do not need to be balanced because they were never divided.
And then as it far as it comes to the question of using a mantra: A mantra is not going to change your consciousness fundamentally. It will at best invoke an external power or activate it in your environment. It will not change you. In order to change you, you have to become aware, and the easiest way to change would be to open to that which is complete, which is the Divine, or turn to your soul within. I'll amplify on this with the last question which we can take.
Alina (1:16:35):
Raheel: “How to develop more feminine energy in order to pour amplified divinity in creative films like screenwriting, filmmaking, dance?”
Sraddhalu (1:16:50):
Okay, so again I'll make a similar comment: Why do you associate feminine energy with divinity in creative fields like screenwriting, filmmaking, or dance, or any of the arts? Why this idea? And I believe a lot of this is coming from some of the new-age artificial distinctions. I would simply say, this is creativity, and creativity has, can have two poises: there is a masculine aspect of creativity, there is a feminine aspect of creativity, but it is creativity, isn't it?
Or, equally if you go back to our discussion, the very first of this series of which this is the fourth, I had said, you can have energy, you can have power, it can be static or it can be dynamic, but it is still energy, it is still power, isn't it?
So rather than thinking of it in terms of feminine or masculine, think of it as creative energy, and you, as a vehicle, as a vessel, are the means through which it will flow in you and you want to amplify this flow. You may choose to become as a vessel capable of manifesting a feminine kind of expression. So let's say, you're writing a novel or you are making a movie, and you find, you are too masculine in your thinking and way of being and your movies tend to acquire that character and you want in your movie the characteristic which is more feminine. That I will understand.
But it doesn't mean creativity is feminine, it means your creativity is too one-sided or has, is too limited in the qualities it expresses, you want a broader or a more complete expression of qualities. Yes, that you could do. And so I'll come to this now, how do you do that? You want to bring more of the associated feminine qualities or the more of the associated masculine qualities into your nature, into your life, into your creativity, into your writing, into your work, whatever, into your programming into your dance.
Interesting, you will see, when you are taught dancing, at least in Indian dance, the skilled dancer, whether man or woman, is able to freely and equally express the full femininity and the full masculinity of the male and female bodies, and to such a degree that you cannot make out, ‘Ah, it's the same person!’. Which shows that actually we have that potential-flexibility to be able to express all these qualities and the full spectrum of infinite potential, right?
So how would you do that in your screenwriting or filmmaking or dance or any other activity for that matter? Turn to the source. We touched upon this last time. Your soul is what is manifesting. It is manifesting itself, its potential, its drawing out, but it's not yet fully evolved, it's still developing. So the potential which is not yet fully developed is held in the origin, in the Self, in the Divine consciousness.
So, these are your two aids: the soul which will give the overall sense of direction, purpose and the support; and the the Divine inspiration, intuition, revelation which will flow through and manifest freely. If you want, for example, to express in dance, one of the first things that they make you do, or even in playing a musical instrument, make yourself as plastic as possible.
(1:20:25):
If all of your training has been only in masculine roles, male roles, there's a certain rigidity, a certain awkwardness. When you train for the feminine roles, female roles, you'll find you have to develop that kind of a fluidity, and when you're able to do that and the full spectrum of human experience and you're able to be plastic enough to the full spectrum, then as this flows through you, it will use, wield, your vehicle to manifest whatever is required. If again you take this question in the screenwriting, your style of writing is too rigid, too biased one way or other, it could be the other way for a woman that it's much more too much aligned to the feminine style and the feminine way of thinking, you want to develop that other side, it doesn't matter.
First train yourself, and that will be done by multiple ways, by exercises, pushing the boundaries, literally taking up those positions, those, first you will read, you will study those types of literature, and then replicate, imitate, just to push the boundary and get a feel of what it's like, and when you have done that sufficiently, you'll find, you're able to fluidly flow in the full range of your capacity, then you open and then allow that to flow through.
So two things for this purpose of allowing that to flow through:
First, step back from the machinery (video glitch from 1:21:54 to 1:22:20)… to whatever extent you can, but open these, hold this as the centre, the one who receives, and turn to the source above and invoke.
What is amazing that can happen, which is what happens even with intuition as it flows through the mind, is things you were not capable of, knowledge that you did not have access to, will simply flow through you and form the knowledge, form the skill, awaken the capacity and make do with this instrumentation, whatever is required, well beyond your current capacity, even where the plasticity is not fully developed, you will find the plasticity awakening as if and then subsiding once that afflatus has passed. And you will say, ‘Wow, I should be able to do that when I want to also’, but you have been given an experience as if.
So this itself becomes uh, part of your sadhana if you can take your work in this spirit. Even if you are an artist, you are a painter, you are a writer, you are a coder and a computer programmer, you are a businessman, it does not matter what, depending on what is required for the scope, if you begin to consciously bring it into the scope of your sadhana in this way, with this purpose, that the work you do is a vehicle, you yourself are a vehicle, and the work you do is a vehicle for the Divine manifestation, for the Divine potential, for the Divine knowledge, power, beauty, love, to flow and to manifest, then you will be helped and your capacities enormously opened out, the whole awakening, and opening of the petals of the flower that you are, will be enormously accelerated and open smoothly, harmoniously, beautifully, effortlessly, rapidly.
And in a way that you'll say, in a few years you'll look back and say, ‘That person, that's not me, I've grown so much in five years, I don't recognise that person anymore’. And this is possible for all of us, irrespective of our age, irrespective of our current capacity or readiness, if we take these small steps. And this is the most rapid way, the most complete way, the most fulfilling and joyous also. These four words I have spoken of: knowledge, power, love, beauty are the four vehicles:
Mind to become a vehicle for the Divine knowledge.
Lifeforce, vitality, to become a vehicle for the Divine power.
The body to become a vehicle of Divine beauty.
And the psychic being, a vehicle of the Divine love.
And so that completes the base of your instrumentation, isn't it? And the centre of that, being in the psychic, of course, that's where you have to link the other layers around this. And the more you're able to do this, and from here open up, the more you will find the easy, free flow, smoothly taking charge, filling, shaping and transforming.
So I think, with that I have completed what I wanted to say. Hha, there was a glitch in the video, Vachaspati says, can I repeat the two things needed? There was a glitch in the video.
(1:25:55):
[First] The centreing in the psychic where you align all of the instruments, your thoughts, emotions, lifeforce, body, align generally to this by separating from them first, ‘I am not these, but these are the vehicles and I put them in relation to the psychic influence’.
And then second, you open to the intuitional source, and through the intuition to the infinite potential of the Divine. And opening, you receive, and let it flow through you as deeply within and from there flowing out in-to-out into the vehicles, and that's how the whole movement happens to flow most smoothly, most purely without distortion.
Distortions initially will be there, don't worry, it's part of the process of learning, purifying all the apparatus, but this would be the most rapid, the most direct way of becoming complete, masculine, feminine, whatever terms you may want to use for the characteristics, energies, qualities, ‘genders’, you can use the terms, it doesn't matter.
Infinite potential, plastic to the touch of the infinite, and the soul becoming complete in its maturity and its powers of expression: that should be our goal. I think, we can take a moment to concentrate in this aspiration, and I hope, the theme itself will be completed, next time we will take up something else.
Namaste.