In the dock

The middle-aged seeker asked the disciple, 8216;8216;But I too want his darshan. Why am I being prevented?8217;8217; The disciple answered, 8216;8216;Well, you see, our guruji has forsaken women.8217;8217; The seeker said, 8216;8216;That8217;s all very well, but all I want are his blessings.8217;8217; The disciple answered, 8216;8216;No woman is allowed in, he doesn8217;t even look at women.8217;8217; The seeker asked, 8216;8216;But why?8217;8217; The disciple answered, 8216;8216;Nazar phisal sakti hai he could lose his balance.8217;8217; The seeker smiled and left the temple, never to return. She later recalled this conversation and concluded: 8216;8216;Surely, a guru of his stature, in whose name huge temples are built, would have the spiritual strength, the tapas to overcome this!8217;8217;

I walk back six centuries and meet Mirabai 1498-1545. In 1527, when she was 29, she went to Vrindavan, the place where Krishna spent his childhood. Mirabai wanted to meet Jiv Goswami, a Vaishnava philosopher. He refused to meet her 8212; she was a woman. To which Mirabai reminded him that in Vrindavan there is really only one male, Krishna. All the rest are gopis before him. Legend has it that Goswami admitted his mistake and met her. Exactly two years ago, when I went to Vrindavan, I found the two have become good neighbours 8212; their temples are adjacent to one another.

A spiritual man is not expected to experience the sweetness of life. He is not expected to sing unless it8217;s a bhajan, or dance except when it8217;s an expression of asexual morality. In Truth Simply Is, a recent compilation of the works of Osho, he said: 8216;8216;Condemning sex has been one of the most important strategies to dominate man. The moment you condemn sex you have condemned life itself. Life is an expression of sex. If you can find God anywhere, utterly present, it is the moment of sexual orgasm. To condemn sex is a great strategy. You poison his very source of being. And then he feels guilty, a sinner, worthless; and then it is easy to dominate him, it is easy to manipulate him, it is easy to exploit him 8212; and that8217;s what the politicians and the priests have been doing.8217;8217;

How perverse this avoid-women-save-your-soul argument is 8212; it8217;s the man who gets tempted, it8217;s the man who has no control over his passions, whose tapasya is broken. And it8217;s the woman8217;s fault for being who she is.