The original word to describe the feminine was ‘re.’ The word ‘re’ who was referred to as the basic, or the Mother Goddess of the existence, is the basis of the more recent word ‘stree.’ Stree literally means a woman. The word ‘re’ means movement, possibility, or energy.
It is also from this word, the word ‘arya’ evolved. Arya means a civilization, a culture, or symbolically expressing that – when the masculine is on, it is a conquest, only when the feminine is on, there is a civilization. This is a culture which has greatly celebrated the feminine. At the same time, this is also a culture which has been a terrible exploitation of the feminine. The basis of this culture is in celebration of the feminine, but slowly the culture evolved into an exploitation of the feminine.
In terms of creation, how the feminine happened first of all? The story goes like this, that – forces which were detrimental to the existence rose, and started threatening the very existence, which was still in an infant state. So, the 3 main gods met, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh – who signified 3 different qualities. In terms of modern physical sciences, we can describe them as proton, neutron, and electron – Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, in that order.
Today, according to modern physical sciences, it is clearly understood that these 3 forces, which are the basic building blocks for the existence, – proton, neutron, and electron – they are in place the way they are, and they are in movement. The dynamism in them is only because of an electrical charge, which is outside of these 3 forces. So, without that electrical charge, or electro-magnetic charge, these 3 cannot be in any state of dynamism. Without this dynamic movement of these 3, there is no such thing as creation.
It is this aspect of science that this story is trying to propound in a very dialectical way – that these 3 gods met, and forces of destruction had risen, and they did not know how to handle it. They had 3 stellar qualities within them, but they found these 3 qualities are not enough. They understood, a combination of these 3 qualities were needed. So, all of them hugely exhaled, letting out the best of what they are, and these 3 forces merged, or this exhalation from these 3 forces merged and became the feminine, or the Devi.
So, the stories that we will talk, which forms the basis of this culture, are physical science expressed in a very beautiful, dialectical, personified stories, for the same fundamental forces which make creation happen.
This force which we refer to as ‘De-vi’ – the word Devi comes from the word ‘div.’ Div means the space. So, Devi is not a particle, she is the space which holds the 3 fundamental forces in the existence. That energy which makes the atom work, is the same energy which makes the cosmos work. It is the same energy which makes everything happen in the existence, and this energy is always identified as feminine. I want you to understand, this is in celebration of the feminine, not the female. Because in ‘fe’ there is a male, you know? This is about the feminine, not about being female. Being female is a very bodily thing. Being feminine is not of the body, it’s much more than that.
When survival is the main issue, naturally masculine will rule the world. Only when survival is well taken care of, feminine comes to play. Only when societies have crossed the survival part well, only then feminine comes to play. But unfortunately, a great disaster is happening in the world, that is – though, at least for the 50% of the population on the planet survival is pretty well taken care of, they are just pushing their survival goals further and further.
At one time, survival meant just 2 meals a day, then it meant a hut, then it meant a house, then it meant a palace. Now it means a Bentley, or a Mercedes, or whatever – survival goals are being pushed further, and further, and further. People are making their survival more and more difficult. A lot of people do not experience all the add-ons to their lives as add-ons. They see it as survival – another level of survival. Yes? Isn’t it so? A different level of survival, a social survival, which is on a completely different level.
As long as you keep the survival as the most important part of your life, naturally masculine will rule. It is because of this, today in the world economics has become the most important aspect. Economics is all about survival. As long as economics is most important, then masculine will be significant, feminine will not be significant. Women may come up, but in the process of coming up, they’re becoming more masculine than feminine. That’s a great tragedy to the world.
If the feminine was suppressed, there was a possibility that tomorrow it’ll come up. But if the feminine transforms itself into masculine, that is a big tragedy, because to reverse that is going to take a very long time. To liberate the feminine will take much less time than to reverse the masculine into feminine – that is going to take a very long time. We are heading that way right now in the world, because economics is the ruling factor.
As technology and economics become more and more dominant – do you see these are the 2 most dominant factors? Then you will see, there is no room for the feminine, it’s all about masculine. Only if love, music, art, this, that – all these things – the finer aspects of life are dominant, as much equally important in the world, as technology and economics are, only then there is scope for the feminine to play an equal role. Otherwise, women will start behaving like men, which is beginning to happen in a big way. Because somewhere, it is believed that only by being like a man you can be successful, which is a completely wrong idea. It is a completely disastrous idea which has gone into people’s minds today, that only if you are like a man you can be successful.
So, if we have to explore this dimension of the feminine in you, or if we have to explore the dimension of feminine in the existence, we need to be in a certain way, otherwise feminine will be missed. Most cultures on this planet have missed the feminine completely. They may have women – not much feminine. Here and there, flashes of feminine may happen, but no genuine feminine happening, no feminine happening as a big celebration, no feminine happening in full force, because most cultures evolved out of conquest. Life was always seen as a conquest, as an achievement, never as an inclusion.
Only in a culture, only in a place, only within a human being who sees life as inclusion, in that person feminine happens in full flow. One who sees life as an achievement, one who sees life as a conquest, he or she will not know the feminine.
