Allowing the Feminine to Flower
For a long time, humanity has given too much significance to the masculine because survival has been the dominant factor. When survival is the dominant factor, naturally, masculine will be dominant force. Only when societies have handled their survival well and reached a certain level of stabilized culture and civilization, the feminine can come to its proper place. Today, societies are coming to that phase, but economics has become the main force in the world.
When economics is the dominant factor, once again we will bring down everything to the level of survival. Maybe at a different level, but still it is all about survival. It is the laws of the jungle again—the survival of the fittest. Once again the masculine will dominate.
Only in a certain situation of relaxation can the feminine flower; and if feminine does not flower, you will have everything in your life and you will have nothing in your life. So consciously nurturing the feminine in a society is essential, because without that, you will have full grown trees which will never flower.
So allowing the feminine to find its place in any society is very important. I am not talking about male and female; I am talking about feminine and masculine. The feminine can be as alive in a man as it is in a woman. It is not about being physically male or female; the feminine is a certain quality. The masculine also is a certain quality. Only when these two qualities happen in balance within a human being, can a human being live a life of fulfillment.
Today, there is a danger that the female is giving up the feminine, because survival has once again become a very dominant factor, and survival has been pushed up to a very demanding scale like never before. Earlier, survival meant just gathering the day’s food. Today, survival means a Mercedes or a BMW; that is very challenging. So there will be no room for the feminine to find any place in society. So this needs to be nurtured right from the school level. Children should go into music, art, philosophy, literature as much as they go into science and technology. This must happen. If this does not happen, there is no room for the feminine in the world. Female you may be, but masculine you will become. So celebrating the feminine is very essential. This is not about woman, this is about the feminine.
If you want to use analogies, if you call the root the masculine, the flower and the fruit is feminine. The very purpose of the root is to bring the flower and the fruit. If that does not happen, the root will go waste. So survival by itself does not take care of everything; after survival is taken care of, the finer things in life have to happen to you. If the feminine does not become alive in you, whether you are a man or a woman, the finer things in life will never happen to you. All your life you will only think survival, endlessly survival. You will only make survival more and more difficult. Just getting food and clothing is not survival now. Survival is like, if you do not have that, that and that, which is almost impossible to get for most people, survival is not there. So every society is trying to put up its survival bar higher and higher.
The very nature of this is masculine. The masculine is always about conquering something. The feminine is not about conquest. The feminine is about flowering, about relaxing, about living, not about getting. So that has to shift; if that shift does not happen, we will exhaust the planet too fast. If the feminine ruled this planet, there would be no ecological problems, because it would not be one mindless, endless conquest, it would be about living.
| Named one of India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru speaks before millions annually around the globe, including to prominent leadership forums such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, TED, and the World Peace Congress. From ground-breaking yoga programs to projects for rural communities and the environment, Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation (www.IshaFoundation.org) serves as a thriving model for human empowerment, which is reflected in the Foundation’s special consultative status with the UN. |
It is not about being physically male or female; the feminine is a certain quality. The masculine also is a certain quality. Only when these two qualities happen in balance within a human being, can a human being live a life of fulfillment.
Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.
