Most people have experience observing the ways that masculinity and femininity influence and organize our experiences in the world and shape our personalities and the social roles we’re expected to play. What fewer people understand well, however, are the ways that the masculine and feminine, in terms of spirituality, influence and shape the very nature of life itself. We may be familiar with notions that the masculine, often represented by the sun, relates to reason, active pursuits, and even aggression, and by contrast, the feminine, represented by the moon, is associated with creativity, sensitivity, and nurturance. But why do these ideas matter? How might a better understanding of the masculine and feminine, and a more deliberate embrace of the feminine in particular, positively shape our spiritual practices? Sadhguru explores these questions and more.
Sadhguru: ‘There was a king in Ujjain, his name was Bhartrihari. He’s the one who wrote the Shringara Shatakam, and later on wrote the Vairagya Shatakam. Shringara Shatakam is a composition of poems which are all about passion and erotica. Vairagya Shatakam is complete dispassion and renunciation. This is a king who was steeped in physical pleasure, and he’s really living his life out. One day he went hunting, and he shot an antler, and killed it; when the antler fell dead, the doe – the female deer which was with it – refused to leave the spot; risking its own life, it just stood there. This surprised the king; instead of running for its life, it is just standing there to be shot. And in the process when this was happening, one of the soldiers who were hunting with him was bitten by a snake, and he also died. When he died, his wife came, and when they set him to flames, it was with great difficulty that they held her off the flames, because she wanted to jump into the flames. So, this just intrigued him. For him, his life was all about himself, his pleasures, his likes, and whatever else. When he saw this doe, and also this woman wanting to jump into the fire, somehow, this confused him.”
“So, he had a wife whose name was Pingala. He was talking to her and said, “You know, today these two things that I witnessed, somehow have set my whole mind into a confusion.” Then Pingala said, “If two hearts are fused into one, then this is how it will be. This is a natural reality – there’s nothing amazing about it, there’s nothing intriguing about it, if two hearts have really become one in their experience, this is how it will be.” Very matter of factly, she said this. So, this further intrigued him – his wife also saying this. He has 500 women, he cannot understand this. So, on a next hunt when he went, he wanted to check this out. What he did was, he blooded his clothes with animal blood, and sent it back to the palace, and it was announced to Pingala that the king died; he was killed by a tiger. So, when she got this bloodied clothes, she put it in a heap, she bowed down to it, then she did go and lie down on it, and she simply breathed her last – she died. When he came to know about this, it completely disturbed him so much that him, whimsically trying to test her like this, and she actually gave up her life. And then he dropped his kingdom and he became a sage, and that’s when he produced the Vairagya Shatakam, a great work of poetry.”
Sadhguru continues: “So, this is the nature of the feminine, that it is capable of going beyond itself. Only that which is capable of going beyond itself is eligible for a spiritual process; that which wants to protect itself is not eligible for a spiritual process. The Shambhavi is something which can inflame the feminine in you, because if you don’t keep yourself aside, it cannot happen. It’s not something that you do – it is something that you allow. That’s the most beautiful aspect of Shambhavi is, you cannot really do it; only if you allow it, it’s like a flood. If you try to do it properly, technically, nothing will happen, because the practice itself doesn’t do anything. If you allow it, then the innermost core, which is the basis of creation, finds full expression.”
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