Question 7

QUESTIONER: WAS IT BECAUSE HE WAS OLD?

No, not because he was old. Even when ke was not old he walked that way. This gesture of Gandhi's is symbolic and significant. In this country where woman has always been leaning on man, where she is taken to be the weaker sex, where she is treated as a second-class citizen in society, Gandhi is the first person to go against this long-established tradition.

Gandhi, by leaning on the shoulders of two women, declares that the woman is not the weaker sex, she is as strong as man and man can equally lean on her shoulders. It is a step against an old tradition; it is a protest. It is nothing more than a protest.

However, Gandhi does not look right when he walks leaning on women, nor do the two women feel good about it. They must be feeling awkward, heavy and crushed under Gandhi's weight -- physical and psychological. In fact, it looks unnatural and ugly, because it goes contrary to the nature of both man and woman.

Gandhi does not seem to have a right under standing of their nature and relationship. He is just opposing an old tradition -- but this is a different thing. It also shows how poor is Gandhi's understand ing of male and female minds.

I don't think Gandhi's remedy has done any good for the community of women. He turned any number of women into men, which has done them immense harm. Woman cannot be made into man; she has her own way of being. Leaning comes naturally to her. What is significant when she leans on a man is that not only she feels honored but the man feels equally honored. It is a matter of give and take: by leaning on man she makes man lean on her. He is a very poor and miserable man on whom no woman has ever leaned.

So as far as Mahavira, Buddha and Jesus are concerned, the negation of biology forms part of their spiritual discipline. But Krishna's vision is altogether different. He accepts the whole of life without discrimination; biology or sex is as much acceptable to him as soul or God. Body, mind and soul are equally welcome; one is no less significant than the other; nothing is denied.

In Krishna's eyes he who denies, who says no, is more or less an atheist. In fact, to deny, to say no is atheism. Denial is the way of the atheist; it makes no difference whether he denies matter or God, body or soul, hunger or sex. He who denies sex or the body is as much an atheist as one who denies the soul. Similarly, acceptance, yes-saying is the way of theism.

So in my view, neither Mahavira nor Buddha nor Jesus is as complete a theist as Krishna is; he is really a total yes sayer. There is not an ounce of denial or condemnation of anything in Krishna's life. Total acceptance is his way. Whatever is, has a place in existence. Krishna's trust in existence is indomitable, invincible. And it is rare too.