Getting a Double Promotion

Getting a Double Promotion

We are reaching the end of Dakshinayana, or the southern run of the sun in relation to the planet. Dakshinayana, which starts in the month of June and runs to December, is the southern run, and in yoga we consider this the ‘sadhana pada’ or the period of sadhana. What is coming after the 22^nd of December is Uttarayana, the northern run of the sun. This is the period of receptivity, of grace and enlightenment, of attainment of the ultimate. Particularly, the first half of Uttarayana until the equinox in March is a period where the maximum amount of grace is available; the human system is more receptive to grace at that time than any other. The spiritual history clearly indicates that the maximum number of people have attained in this phase of the sun in the Northern Hemisphere.

From the coming year, at the beginning of this Uttarayana, we will set up a certain opportunity for people to become more consciously receptive to grace. There will be 21 days of sadhana for ladies, which will start at the beginning of January up until what is called ‘Dhanya Pournami’ or ‘Thaipusam’ in Tamil Nadu. This sadhana will be given out to people wherever they may be. We will also be giving a 42-day sadhana for men which will begin on Thaipusam and last until Mahashivarathri. During this time, men will also go through a certain sadhana. Immediately, ladies will ask ‘Why are they getting two times what we are getting?’ This is because they have a little thicker skin. In terms of doing something, a man is better equipped; in terms of receiving something, always the feminine is better equipped. A little advantage, but this doesn’t mean all women are more receptive than men. The feminine is definitely more receptive than the masculine because the masculine is geared for survival. If there were no men on this planet – this may be very insulting – but even if there was a way to just reproduce women, survival would have been tough. Most probably, they would not have made it. If they did, it would be in small pockets.

The human population would not have spread like this – it is mainly because of the attitude of conquest in a masculine mind and the power of conquest in a masculine body. But a woman is better equipped for receptivity. So the sadhana that one does in Uttarayana, or the northern run which is for grace and for receptivity, fifty percent of the sadhana is enough for a woman compared to a man. But when it comes to sadhana in the southern run, which is for working to build yourself up, I would advise the women to do a little more.

You need to understand this, with all due respect, if there was no technology on this planet, all the things that one has to do to live on this planet would have to be done by hand. If we go by that, a man will conduct the survival process much more efficiently than a woman. Only because technology has come can you today equate man and woman in the level of activity. This is not a question of intelligence; this is a question of physical capability. If you take away technology, you will see, a male would be far better equipped than a female to handle survival. Only because societies are organized there is a structure. Within this structure, the feminine will blossom.

If there is no structure, if everything is leveled to the ground, then the masculine will naturally dominate. It is from that era that the masculine is still dominating. Now that technological leveling has come, societies are structured. It is definitely time to level it, but to lose our sense about the physiological capabilities and psychological realities will be foolish because they are different. When we make our differences into a discriminatory process, it becomes ugly, otherwise being different is not wrong. Being different is not less or more, it is just different. Unfortunately, human societies have this history of making every difference into a discriminatory process.

So the women will be doing 21 days and men 42 days. This is not a discriminatory process; this is identifying the difference, recognizing the difference. These days, it is not there but back when we were studying, some children would get ‘double promotion’. There are some areas of life where a man will naturally get a ‘double promotion’. There are certain other areas of life where a woman will get a ‘double promotion’. So the northern run, or Uttarayana, is more favorable to the feminine because it demands receptivity, not work. The southern run demands work so the masculine will dominate. So this possibility for sadhana is being opened for everyone, meditators and non-meditators,  and we will roll it out on the 21^st and 22^nd of this month.