Transcending the man-woman divide

If this exploitation of the woman has to stop anywhere in the world, the work is not with the society. The work is within the woman itself. In many ways, except for a small segment of population who are educated and have their own ways of being, many women have just been looked down upon. One main reason is, somewhere in man’s mind, a woman is seen as cheap. Somewhere deep inside the man’s psyche, it is there if you just buy the wife a gift, everything will be okay. You naturally look down upon any human being you see aspiring for trinkets. Unfortunately, right now, a whole section of women have either willingly or been culturally guided to seek only such things. The culture, religion and the social situations have been molding women to seek only for trinkets, not for anything higher than that.sun

If a woman doesn’t break away from that mold of thinking, if she does not start seeking the highest possibilities of life, the fight will not bring respect. By fighting, you will not gain respect. It is only by evolving yourself that one will gain respect. And if respect is not there, freedom will be an unnatural situation. It will not happen.

In India, in the ancient past, especially in the spiritual aspects of life, man and woman lived as absolute equals. If one gets a spiritual urge, he or she could dissolve the family and go because the understanding was that once a person starts seeking the highest, they must be given all freedom.

Only if a woman is like this, that she is also seeking the highest, the question of fighting for freedom doesn’t arise. There is no need for any fighting for freedom. Socially, yes, some fight is needed. Something needs to be done because established factors are there which needs to be changed. But as a woman, within yourself, there is no need to identify yourself as a woman.

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.