Question 4

QUESTIONER: PLEASE EXPLAIN FULLY KRISHNA'S REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT OF SEX. WHAT WAS THE SECRET OF HIS TREMENDOUS SEX APPEAL FOR WOMEN THAT THOUSANDS OF THEM WERE MAD AFTER HIM AND FELT SATIATED AND FULFILLED BY HIM? BESIDES, YOU SAID THAT FULLNESS OF LOVE LEADS TO CESSATION OF SEX. IF SO, HOW IS IT THEN POSSIBLE FOR ONE TO ENTER INTO SEX AFTER ACHIEVING FULLNESS OF LOVE AND THE HIGHEST STATE OF SAMADHI OR ECSTASY?

We have already gone into the matter at length, and so I will answer this question only briefly.

Krishna's attraction for thousands of women can be compared to a stream of water that leaves the mountains and rushes to the plains and settles in some lake. You never ask why water from the mountains rushes down to the lake. If you ask, the answer will be: because a lake is a lake and it is the way of water to collect in a lake. Water leaves the high mountains and collects in lowly lakes because mountains cannot hold it -- the lake can. It is in the nature of water to seek hollows and lakes where it can reside restfully.

Similarly it is in woman's nature to seek man; she can feel at home only by being with man. And it is in man's nature to seek woman; he can feel at home only by being with woman. It is his or her nature, as everything else in life has its own nature. As fire burns, water flows downward, so man seeks woman and woman seeks man.

In fact, they don't seek the other, they seek their own completion, their own fulfillment. To put it rightly, man is the one who seeks himself in woman and woman is the one who seeks herself in man. In themselves man and woman are incomplete and discontented. And unless they meet and merge into each other, they can never be complete and content. For this reason they constantly seek each other, and they feel frustrated when this search is frustrated; they have to go through untold pain and suffering. When this search is thwarted for any reason, it amounts to a violation of nature. And it causes both man and woman severe anxiety, misery and anguish.

The fundamental reason for Krishna's tremendous appeal for woman is that he is a complete man, a total man. The more complete a man, the greater his appeal for woman. In the same way the more complete a woman, the greater her attraction for man. Completion of manhood has found its full expression in Krishna.

As a complete man Mahavira is not less than Krishna; he is as complete as Krishna. But Mahavira's whole discipline consists in going beyond the law of physical nature, transcending the world of yin and yang. It is strange that in spite of this, there are thirty thousand nuns and only ten thousand monks among his disciples -- three women for one man. It simply means Mahavira has great attraction for women. The ratio of women and men among his renunciates is three to one.

It is significant that one whose whole discipline aims at transcendence of sex, who negates his own male nature and refuses to accept the femininity of woman, who treats the whole matter of sex as mundane, as unspiritual, who puts the spiritual quest far beyond these worldly pursuits should continue to attract women in such a big way. The irony is that women are prohibited from touching Mahavira or even sitting in his close proximity, and yet they are so mad after him.

By the way, I should say this aspect of Mahavira's life and teaching has never been looked at in this way. It should be. Let alone his thirty thousand female disciples, if we probe deep into the psyche of his ten thousand male disciples, we will find an element of femininity in their nature. It cannot be other, wise. It is not necessary that every man has a male mind and every woman a female mind.

The mind is not always in harmony with the body, or it is in much less harmony than we think. It has often been seen that while one has a male body, his mind has a feminine inclination. If ever it is possible to investigate the minds of Mahavira's monks, then we will know they were predominantly feminine in nature. It is bound to be so. Mahavira -- or anyone for that matter -- who is the epitome of masculinity, cannot attract you unless there is a strong woman inside you. Attraction is like two-way traffic. Mahavira's attraction does only half the job, the other half comes from the one who is attracted.

In this respect Krishna's position is uncommon and rare. Krishna has not renounced the world or anything; he accepts life in its totality. It is not that women can be near him only as nuns and ascetics or can only watch him from a distance. No, they can freely dance and sing with Krishna; they can make maharaas, a prodigious dance with him in the center. So it is not at all surprising that thousands of women have gathered round him. It is so natural, so simple.

So is Buddha a complete man. There is an extraordinary story associated with his life. When after his enlightenment he turns the wheel of Dhamma, he declares that he will not initiate women into his commune, his sangha. He does so because the danger inherent in admitting women is obvious. The danger is that around a luminous man like Buddha, women can flock like moths and they can overwhelm the sangha merely with the weight of their numbers.

It is not necessary that women will come to him just for spiritual growth. Buddha's charisma, his masculine attraction will have a big hand in drawing them to him. it is not that the large number of gopis, cowmaids, who surround Krishna are there for God realization; Krishna is enough of an attraction for them. To be with such a complete man is a bliss in itself. For them he is nothing less than God. And because Krishna is choiceless, he is not in the least concerned why they come to him; he accepts them unconditionally. But Buddha is not that choiceless; he has his constraints and conditions for admitting anyone into his fold.

So Buddha stubbornly refuses women admission in his commune, and he resists every pressure brought to bear upon him on behalf of women who strongly protest his decision. It is only after intense pleadings and pressure from the women that Buddha yields to their demand to be initiated into his fold. It is understandable why Buddha long remains unyielding to their numerous entreaties for being initiated. He knows that ninety-nine women out of a hundred will come to him not for Buddhahood but for Buddha himself. It is so obvious, that Buddha goes on resisting till a woman comes and finally disarms him. This woman is rare, as rare as Buddha, and the story is beautiful.

One morning a woman named Krisha Gautami comes to Buddha and says to him, "Why are we women being deprived of Buddhahood? You are not coming to this world once again to redeem us. What is our crime? Is it a crime to be born as women? And remember, all the guilt, all the responsibility for depriving women of this gift of Buddhahood will lie singly at your door." This Krisha Gautami is the hundredth woman -- the one who comes for Buddhahood, not for Buddha. And so Buddha has to yield to Krisha Gautami. She leaves Buddha defenseless.

She says to him in very clear words, "I come to you, not for you, but for the rarest gift of Buddhahood that you bring to this earth. It happens once in millennia. Why should it be the sole preservation of men alone? Why should women be deprived of this blessing just because they are women? This is the most unkind and harshest of punishments that you can inflict on them; in a way you are punishing womanhood. And it seems you too are partial, you too pick and choose; it seems not even a Buddha is choiceless."

Buddha yields to Krisha Gautami; he initiates her as his first woman disciple. And then the gate is thrown wide open for women. And the story of Mahavira repeats itself: women disciples come to predominate over men disciples in the same ratio of three to one.

Even today more women visit temples and buddha-viharas and gurudwaras than men do. Unless statues of women Buddhas and incarnations and tirthankaras adorn these temples, men will continue to keep away from them, because ninety-nine always go for natural reasons; only the hundredth goes there for the trans-natural reason.

With Krishna the matter of men and women is as simple as two and two make four. Krishna has no difficulty whatsoever with women; he accepts them as naturally as anything. Krishna takes life and everything about life playfully and in its totality. He accepts a woman being a woman just as he accepts himself being a man. The truth is that Krishna has never said a word of disrespect for woman, even inadvertently.

Jesus can be found guilty of being disrespectful to women; so can Mahavira and Buddha, because they are trying to eliminate their male nature and go beyond it. They have nothing to do with women. Mahavira, Buddha, and Jesus want to wipe out the sexual part, the biological part of their beings, and so they are aware if they allow women to be around them the women will come in their way. Surrounded by women, their male nature will begin to assert itself, because women provide nourishment to manhood.

Curiously enough, women gather round Mahavira, Buddha and Jesus, who are not favorably inclined to them. Jesus is withdrawn and sad and is said to have never laughed. But those who take down his dead body from the cross are all women, not men. The most beautiful woman of her times, Mary Magdalene, is one of them. All his male disciples have escaped. Only three women are there to take care of his dead body. And Jesus never said a word of respect for women.