Question::
How come the ‘male’ and ‘female’ forms are equally necessary for Self-Knowledge?
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How did the qualities of ‘head’ and ‘heart’ develop, in humans?
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Why should the “same soul” MUST go through ‘male’ or ‘female’ incarnations?
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What is the one condition of attaining Realization, w.r.t forms of duality?
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What is the role of “psyche” in determining the ‘sexual-identification’ of a person??
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What is the root-cause of “sexual-attraction”? Why sexual attraction involves ‘possessiveness’?
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Define Sex, from a psychological point of view.
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Why should one gets detached from one’s sexual obsessions? How come such ‘detachment’ helps one’s understanding of opposite sex?
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Can one ever transcend “sexual-duality”? What sort of freedom can one attain by transcending sexual-duality?
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What sort of ‘psychological ability’ the aspirants, who have transcended the limitation of sexual distinctions, ATTAIN?
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How come ‘detachment’, not attachment to other forms– makes one COMPLETE?
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What is the purpose of “male” and “female” incarnations?
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What sort of spiritual progress does the ‘non-identification with the body and its sex’ provide?
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How come ‘non-attachment to the opposite sex’ frees one from sexual entanglement?
Answer:
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust (©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
Though the facilities afforded by each sex vary according to the ‘age’ and ‘place’ in which the incarnation occurs, nevertheless each sex affords special facilities for the development of “experience” along specific lines. The “lessons” readily learned in male incarnations may not be easily attainable through female incarnations, and the lessons readily learned in female incarnations may not be easily attainable in male incarnations.
- As a rule, men excel in qualities of the ‘head’ and ‘will’. They are capable of sound judgment and steadfast purpose.
- As a rule, women excel in qualities of the ‘heart’. They are capable of ‘intense love’ which makes them welcome any ‘sacrifice’ for the loved one.
It is due to this capacity of women for love that in devotional references to the Avatar, the name of a women is often given precedence– as when the Bhaktas (devotees) of Rama or Krishna sing of Sita-Ram or Radha-Krishna.
In ‘qualities of the heart’ women are usually superior to men, and in ‘qualities of the head and will’ men are usually superior to women. The interesting point is that the “same soul” excels in the qualities of the heart or in the qualities of the head and will, according to whether it takes an incarnation in a female or male form.
The alternate development of “specific spiritual qualities” goes on through the alternation between the male and female forms until the development is ALL-SIDED.
Since ‘male’ and ‘female’ incarnations are EQUALLY NECESSARY for Self-knowledge, it is NOT RIGHT to look upon one as being more important than the other. Though there are differences between the nature of the respective facilities afforded by them, they are both indispensable.
The soul MUST go through ‘male incarnations’ as well as ‘female incarnations’ if it is to have that richness of experience which is a CONDITION of attaining the realization that the soul, in itself, is beyond all forms of duality- including the accentuated duality based on sex.
Before the soul is set free from all “sanskaras”, it assumes numerous male forms and numerous female forms. If the soul were to incarnate only in the male forms or only in the female forms, its experience remain one-sided and incomplete.
The ‘duality of experience’ can be overcome only through ‘understanding’, and the “understanding of experience” is only partial as long as it moves within the limits of only one of the two opposites.
Unity of the ‘subject’ and ‘object’ of experience is unattainable as long as there is in the object any ‘aspect’ or ‘element’ which is not fully covered by one’s own experience, and this applies particularly to sex-duality.
The ‘mind’ retains the gathered experience of ‘male’ and ‘female’ incarnations. Since the ‘soul’ identifies itself with the ‘body’, the psychological tendencies which harmonize with the sex of the body find a suitable medium for expression.
The psychological tendencies which are characteristic of the opposite sex are ordinarily suppressed into the unconscious part of the mind because they do not harmonize with the ‘sex of the body’ and find the medium of expression obstructive.
When the soul takes a female body– the male tendencies are, so to speak, held in abeyance and only the female tendencies are released for expression. In the same way, when the soul takes a male body– the female tendencies are held in abeyance and the male tendencies are released for expression.
Identification with the body involves identification with the sex of the body. It, therefore, implies a free play only for that limited part of the mind which is in tune with the sex of the body.
Since the other part of the ‘mind’ is REPRESSED and LATENT in the unconscious, there arises in the conscious part –
- a ‘feeling of incompleteness’ as well as
- a tendency to restore completeness through attachment to persons of the opposite sex.
By getting entangled with the ‘opposite sex’, the BURIED PART of the mind that is not in tune with the body SEEKS some kind of expression through another. From this point of view, sexual-attraction might be said to be a result of the effort the ‘mind’ makes to unite with its own unconscious part.
Sex is a manifestation of the ignorant attempt which the conscious mind makes to compensate for the “psychic fragmentation” entailed by identification with the sex of the body.
This attempt to compensate for fragmentation is doomed to be futile, however, because it is not only based upon ‘identification with the body’, but actually accentuates it by setting into opposition the body of the ‘opposite sex’ and getting entangled with it through ATTACHMENT and POSSESSIVENESS.
When the ‘soul’ is trying to overcome sexual-duality through ‘detachment towards the opposite sex’, it is paving a way for ‘understanding the experience associated with the opposite sex’ from WITHIN. Then
- a man tries to understand a woman, not through the eyes of the male, but through the IMAGINATIVE REACHING OUT towards what the woman FEELS herself to be, in her own personal experience.
- In the same way, a woman tries to understand a man not through the eyes of the female but through the imaginative reaching out towards what a man feels himself to be in his own personal experience.
So, paradoxical though it may seem, the “form” of the opposite sex prevents the true understanding of experience associated with the opposite sex. Detachment from the form of the opposite sex facilitates true understanding of the experience associated with the ‘opposite sex’ because it removes the barrier created by sex-obsessed imagination.
If one is transcending sex-duality and trying to understand the experience associated with the opposite sex, SOMETIMES he actually exhibits the psychological traits usually associated with the opposite sex.
Thus, for example, some aspirants in the male body at one phase or another actually put on the clothes of females, talk like them, feel like them and take on their psychic traits and habits. But this is only a passing phase. When ‘inner understanding’ of the relevant experiences is COMPLETE, they neither experience themselves as male alone nor as female alone, but as being beyond the distinction of sex.
The experiences connected with the ‘male’ and ‘female’ forms are both ACCESSIBLE and INTELLIGIBLE to the aspirant who has transcended sexual distinction. He remains unaffected by the limitations of either because, through understanding, he has freed himself from the limiting obsessions characteristic of sex-ridden imagination.
The “completeness” that the mind seeks is not attainable through attachment to other forms and their accession. It is to be sought WITHIN by recapturing the lost unity of the mind!
Reconciliation of the ‘conscious’ and ‘unconscious’ mind is possible- not through sexual-attraction or through other forms of possessiveness, but through non-identification with the body and its sex.
Non-identification with the body removes the barrier which prevents the amalgamation and integration of the total experiences deposited in the mind. “Completeness within” is to be sought by overcoming sexual duality and distinction which accentuates identification with the body.
To be free from attachment to the opposite sex is to be free from domination of sex of the body in which the soul has incarnated itself, thereby annihilating the majority of those ‘sanskaras’ which COMPEL the ‘soul’ to identify itself with the body.
The transcending of sex-duality does not itself amount to the overcoming of all duality, but it certainly goes a long way towards facilitating the complete transcendence of duality in all its forms.
On the other hand, it is equally true that the problem of sex-duality is a part of the ‘problem of duality’ as such. Its complete solution comes when the wider problem of all duality is solved through Divine Love in which, there is neither ‘I’ nor ‘you’, neither ‘man’ nor ‘woman.
The ‘purpose of male and female incarnations’ is the same as the ‘purpose of evolution’ itself; it is to enable man to arrive at his own undivided and indivisible existence.
– Meher Baba
Source ::
Discourses, Pg:: 323-326
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
