12 Oct 2009 —
Question
Q140: Man-Woman?
Question 140:
“Amma says: There’s a man in every woman, and a woman in every man. How do you understand this?”
Please make your answer clear and brief (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
Question 140:
“Amma says: There’s a man in every woman, and a woman in every man. How do you understand this?”
Please make your answer clear and brief (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
The angels have no gender, no sex 🙂
Inside we ALL are pure and perfect angels, therefore no woman, no man… or a mixture of BOTH!
in deep sleep who are you? a man or a woman? really none.
only when getting up we attribute manliness or womanliness to ourselves. both are just thoughts. in reality its not our Self, not ME. wake up and realise it.
what if, tomorrow, the dictionary changes the meaning of the word man to woman and woman to man. will anything really change? in everything that seems useful there is some uselessness and in every thing that seems useless there is some usefulness.
so accept both. 😀
both are not real. but ‘you’ are!
We must make an attempt to imbibe the strengths of both, the masculine and the feminine. Nobody can express love and caring more fully than a Mother. At the same time courage, valor etc. are predominant manifestations of masculinity. A blend of both defines perfect balance.
I think the concept of man and woman relates to purusha and prakruthi described in Vedanta. Prakruthi (nature) stands for woman which in sanskrit is “sthree”. Sthree is made of three letters sa, tha, ra that stands for satwa guna, tamo guna and rajo guna respectively. Purusha stands for Supreme consciousness. Each is dependent on the other. The harmony lies in that unity.
The photo of “Ardha nareeswaran” – half Goddess Parvathy and half Lord Shiva is the symbolic representation of the same.
“Behind every successful man, there is a woman” – This doesn’t have to mean that there should be a physical woman. It is actually the feminine aspect within the man (Love, compassion). Similarly, it’s the masculine aspect within the woman (determination, will power, strength) that makes the woman successful. Only when there is a healthy mixture of both masculine and feminine aspect within each person can he truly be able to reach the Goal. Else, Like Amma says, it will be like the bird trying to fly with just one wing.
Life is always ‘both sides of a coin’. So, of course we are composed of the energy of Shiva and Shakthi. Rama and Sita. Krishna and Radha. And in the end, we will see all in one!
I am not , but I am .. 🙂
Some qualities are masculine and feminine. When I see a mother being protective towards her child even at the cost of her life, I see courage, and i see a masculine quality in her. And when i See a grown-up man yearning for his mother’s love, I see the soft feminine side in him.
There are certain qualities that symbolizes a man like courage, toughness, bold etc. and for woman generally we think of them as soft, gentle, kindhearted and with motherly affection. My understanding about the above saying is that man’s courage should be there in every woman so that she won’t be suppressed in life by others. If she is too soft she will be an easy target. Likewise, if a man is too tough without any kindness, what is the use for others and also society.
Biologically they are obviously different. Spiritually, as souls, they are exactly the same. But psychologically, society commonly says that they are different. What Amma is saying is that psychologically they are not different and strictly seperate, as there are traits of women nature/qualities/aspirations in men, and traits of men nature/qualities/aspirations in women.
In every human there is love and courage. For example when ur father not in home ur mom will be the incharge of ur home and she will do his work and she will care and love her kids as a loving mom.
So a human has both strong and loving side.
Man and Woman should be there in a human being’s character. Focusing only on the male characteristics (aggressiveness, dispassion, too rational, judgemental, competitive, etc) or just the female characteristics(indiscriminate compassion, blind love, lack of fortitude, fearful) can ruin a human being. That’s why even the “Ishwara” is shown as “Ardha NarIshwara” (Half man Half woman)
Pranams! Agree to the views of Brothers Akshay and Kapila Maharshi.
Amma is a perfect example of Her own statement… Amma is the most beautiful woman on earth. She exhibits the most feminine qualities of beauty, grace, gentleness, compassion, patience, extreme endurance and immense strength, She is the Mother. And yet She is like a man – She is alert, focussed, She is a quick decision maker, She takes on the responsibility of the whole world on Her shoulders, She is brave, She is full of valour, She is the perfect Purusha.
In Amma i see my Mother and Father. She is Devi and She is Lord Krishna. If we just try to closely watch Amma’s life and imbibe Her actions into our daily lives She will automatically bring out the best of the man and woman in us is what i strongly believe. Jai Ma!
As taught by my Divine AMMA I beleive Self is neither a woman nor a man. It acts according to the disguise given. So Atman has both qualities of man and woman.
Equality is out of the question. They are not unequal and neither can they be equal. They are unique. Man is not in a better position than woman. And if men and women both can live these qualities, the day is not far away when we can transform this world into a paradise. That the whole world will be full of feminine qualities then only can wars disappear, then only can we have one world: a loving, a peaceful, a silent and beautiful world. Find our own qualities and develop them, So drop all the conditionings. And if we realizes the living example of this, our beloved divine holy AMMA, there will be more rhythm and more harmony.
The answer has already been given…here are some related quotes from Amma:
“Is God a Man or a Woman?” Amma:”God is neither, God is That. But if you must give God a gender, God is more female than male, for he is contained in She.”
One more: “If women reject their feminine qualities cultivating only masculine qualities, the imbalance in the world will only become greater.”
Spirit and Soul are attributeless and actionless. But when in action they manifest feminine and masculine qualities. If we perform our actions with a feminine heart (compassion, selfless, peaceful) and a masculine mind (discriminative, detached, will-power), these will push us up spiritually, and liberation can be attained faster.
The feminine aspect has been in exile for a long time. A person has been created half from man and half from woman. Just as woman has to hold onto feminity and embrace her hidden masculinity, man has to embrace the feminine qualities within him too. What are they? love and compassion. In short, I feel this isn’t just about gender. We need to balance what qualities are lacking in us. If it’s love, we need to have more love. If it’s compassion we need to have that. If it’s assertiveness, we need to have more of that. In today’s world there’s great poverty of love and compassion, which is why both Men and Women have to awaken their female qualities.
Amma has expressed the Ardhanareeswara concept of Shiva and shakti in simple words. This is basically to remove the misunderstood inequality of gender in society. Both the genders should learn to respect each other.
Yes .I also go for the oppinion of Kapilamaharshi.The pragruthi and Purusha concept.Prakruthy is the maya ie the vittalapower of Purusha.The Pure conciousness is Purusha which is attributless.But Pragruthy has its own Gunas of Satva Rajo and Tamas.Both of them alone is actionless or noncreative.For Eg.Electricity is there but the quipement of Bulb or other things are not there ,it is workless.And viceversa also.Here elelctcity stand for Purusha and the eqiepments stand for Pragruthy.But if there is any deffect in the eqipement it never effect the Purusha.Purusha is Pure and Gunateeta.. So the combination of Stree and Purusha is the cause of creation.Shiva and Sakthy is the most powerfull eg. for this concept (Ardhanareeswara)and the power full Mantra is ShivaSakthyikya roopinai Namaha.
Just as I am in You and You are in Me, Male is in Female and Female is in Male. We are in Amma and She is in us. And yet – there really is no “and” when we know ourselves to be One.
Yes it is right. man and woman is unavoidable. in my opinion we can see in “urdhanariswara “
woman => wo + man ( man inside every woman) and
man => (wo)man, wo is invisible 🙂 (woman in every man)
Nayan’s answer is realy cool!
I feel that men and women supplement and complement each other. As long as we are subject to the physical plane, we see differences- sex, age, etc. And no one is alone on that plane. But when one transcends these, then all merge, and one sees man in woman, and vice-versa. Maybe by saying this, Amma wants us to rise above all petty differences and strive for Unity with the Divine.
I remember once when Amma said – “Amma has taken a female form” and it struck me that Amma transcends all what we take as irreconciliable differences.
The balance of male and female energy in each being.
It is just that we humanbeings have associated certain qualities with women and some with men…well..so if you have any of the qualities that you associate with the women and are a man, you have a bit of woman in you and vice versa 🙂 simple…
the nature of women is compassion and of Men is power.
so a cruel man also have compassion inside him(like Maharsi Valmiki who was a bandit earlier.
and about women, they also have ability to do what a man can…
Since AMMA has both the qualities of Krishna (also called as the Father of the Universe) and Devi (also called the Mother of the Universe), AMMA Herself is an example of man in woman and woman in man.
AMMA says, “Man has mainly heroic qualities and AMMA tell them to develop love and compassion which are natural for women, and women who are inherently compassionate, AMMA wants them to be heroic and face the struggles of life with a smile on the face.”
i truly agree with all of you that AMMA in order to make our life complete took this two divine forms to discover our true nature and it depends how much each of us endeavour to learn..may we keep learning,rakshikane AMME
God has no gender. Men & women are creation of god with different physical & mental qualities. The % of these qualities differ in many & will be combined together in great people like AMMA. We cannot imagine Siva, Rama or Krishna alone. Men & women together is complete & by nature love is between male & female as like poles of magnet attract & is necessary for offspring. Children need father & mother & if we love everyone like AMMA,this world will become heaven.
I believe that I am parts of both, masculine and feminine. My soul is like the angels, without gender. The confines of my body, and social and family customs shaped my false sense of self. I am rediscovering the real me through Amma, the Self without the pink mask. We generalize when we associate women with certain traits and men with others. As humans, we learn to be full of compassion, regardless of our gender, we can be strong and soft simultaneously. Children need to be taught this as well.