Yogi Bhajan Lecture Archive
Lecture by :
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji
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Lecture on: 06/29/1977
Category: Class Lectures
Location: Unknown
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What is a Woman?

Today I am going to talk to you about certain things with which you may agree or disagree. It does not matter. From time immemorial, thousands and hundreds of thousands of people have lived their lives just experimenting with one thing: What is a woman? Do not be surprised. You can meet people who can tell you what is a God, but I would like to know the name of one person who has told you what a woman is. The situation is that because man is born out of the woman, he has never cared to learn what a woman is. His is a very fascinating personality. He is born of woman, he deals with woman, he marries woman, he has children out of woman, he dates woman, he is messed up with a woman, he wants to mess up woman a whole lot. Every action which you'll find man doing has a woman either under it, in back of it, in front of it, to the left of it, to the right of it, or above it. All dimensions are covered with a woman as they are covered with God. There is no difference. In Chalitra Shastra, there is one very beautiful line which I always remember. This sage says, "That if you want to understand what maya is, understand it through a woman." There is another line which is very positive: "If you want to see God, see It through a woman." Now all those statements are not understood by men of common caliber.
When you are told that you see the light through the woman that does not mean anything but one thing: that you see the transparent personality of the woman. When you deal with a woman, you deal with this flesh, these bones, these tantrums, these demands, these charms, these smiles, whatever it is. To be very honest with you, that is not what a woman is. Let me give you a very simple example. Suppose you walk on this road to Espanola, go to a restaurant there, sit down and happily meet a girl or woman; feel attracted to her, talk to her. She becomes friendly with you. You say, "Hi, where are you from?" "From Espanola." You say, "Oh, I am from Espanola, too. You are pretty." She says, "Thank you, you are handsome." You say, "Thank you." All that jazz. You think that that girl is from Espanola, I mean that that is a kid from Espanola and you ask her, "Oh, have you ever been outside of Espanola?" She says, "No." "Do you know anybody other than anybody?" She says, "Oh well, all I know is my father and my two brothers and one sister, then somebody in the town, and that's it." "Do you visit anywhere?" She says, "Well, I visit the grocery store." "Have you ever gone to the movies?" She says, "What is that?" You talk to her about all these things and you find her a very simple dumb little thing. If that makes you happy, you are heading for unhappiness. Now, what happens? You think that little thing, that little woman, is great; you can handle her, she is simple, she is nice, she is a country woman. The only mistake you have to make is to give her this little pinkie (your little finger). The moment she holds it, she is going to talk about New York, and her European tour. That girl who used to live only in two dresses and never knew a third is going to say, "What fashion is happening in Paris this year, or the year '82?" All that is a woman. The greatest blunder men do is that they just see nothing.
This is a hand towel, right? If you look at this hand towel, you say, "Oh, of course, it is a hand towel. I can wash my face with this face towel. Oh good." They just see nothing. This hand towel has all the cotton grown by the farmers and all the factories where it was made behind it. It has all the twisting and twining and coloring and marketing and jobbing, financing, banking, salesmen, corporations, organizations, taxes, government and what not. This is all hidden behind this little hand towel. Is that true or not? Have you ever looked at this hand towel like that? No? Why not? This hand towel is God. I am not kidding you. It is exactly God. It has a dimension, it has a structure, it has an essence, it has a usefulness. It can be anything, it can project anything. It has all the meaning and it has no meaning.
Whosoever you are, you are God. The past is gone, the future is not sure, but now you are God. You are a creature, part of the Creator. You want to beautify yourself. That is where the wrong comes in. You want to protect yourself, I agree with that. That is required. You need clothes, you need food, you need certain exercises. You need good things and this thing and that thing. Good things and bad things do not make any difference. The first principle required for a woman to understand herself is that she must accept very firmly that she is a woman and she is now. This is called parkirtee sodhan (pRikrqI soDn). Parkirtee means the creativeness of God. Sodhan means to discipline, to clean out. You should clean out your consciousness in order to know you are a woman. Agreed? Understand? The second thing you must understand is you are a woman. When you write that, you should write like this: I AM A WOMAN. Do you know what that means? You are one of its kind. So, when you are one of its kind, remember that in the kingdom of the creativity of the Creator, there is no second thing ever created in the past, present or future like you. As a woman, when you want to become like another woman you are a mess. No woman by the capacity of the will of the Creator can be like another woman. Your moon cycle, your menstrual period, your emotions, your situation, your explorations, your mental capacity, your whole being is as you are. In other words, what I'm trying to say to you is that there is no assembly line system in the Kingdom of God. Look, God has been messing along with a lot of things but so far one thing has not happened. He cannot produce two human beings alike. There can be a possibility of similarity among men, but it is impossible ever for Almighty God to produce two women alike because the creativity of the structural base has to be original. That is what divine is about.
Q. What happens with identical twins?
A. Identical twins can be born on the same day, but with totally different metabolism, different identities, and different destinies to cover. Their interlock is the electromagnetic field. That affects them but does not mean that the personalities are alike. The only identical situation of two identical twins will be that they will be at the same frequency of the electromagnetic field.
This is a science I am going to teach you; it has never been taught before. The most important thing in your life is your electromagnetic field and its frequency. For that you cannot look to anybody. When you are menstruating, baby, you are menstruating. Nobody else is menstruating. Now you cover your menstruation. Do not expose yourself. You understand? When you are menstruating then your period is on; do not make someone else's period go off. You can be itchy, you can be tired. You may not be able to handle your position one hundred percent during the menstruation period, one week before, one week after, and the five days in-between; how many days does that come to? Actually your menstruation remains for three peak days. Seven plus seven plus five equals nineteen plus three equals twenty-two. Within those five days are the three heaviest days which are called the gross period time, top time, or we call it the “inward you.” The inward-you-period is such a difficult period of your life that you must use a pad not just for the flow. That is one thing which has messed up all of you Americans. You only cover the flow and not the wind. The uterus must not have wind (take in air) at the time of heavy flow. Therefore, extra padding is required. You do not believe me. Let us not deal that way. You go one month the way you want to go and one month the way I'm telling you to go. It will cost you fifteen or twenty cents more for those few pads, but if in that peak period you can save yourself from the invent of the wind, you can save a lot of situations in your life. The second thing is that in those three days which is the gross period, your thighs from the knees to the navel point should be carefully warm. In those three days under no circumstance should you lift any weight.
Those three days are top flow. Is that understandable? All right. Now comes the total five days. The limit of the period of the menstruation is five days. In five days remember not to have any quarrel, any fighting, any discussion which can cause you mental irritation. You know what the best formula for that is? If somebody is really getting on your back, just add five days to it and say I will talk to you after a week. He will understand it firmly. Do not let anybody exploit your handicap. Why? It is not a handicap that you should look silly to the world, that is not true. Those are five days where the system is going through changes within; you are too much within and not too much out. The balance is in and out. Those five days you are too much in. Those are the days to meditate, to do the japa, to do good things and read from the holy books. Read the scriptures, read stories and put your mind in the positive terminologies. Whatever you will do for five days for the uplift of the soul, that is all the game. Understood? Now seven days before and seven days after, all women fall in a category: one is category A, one is category B. Some get upset seven days before; those who do not, get upset seven days after. You know why? Sometimes the metabolism break upsets your system. Sometimes the metabolism regain upsets your system. You have to understand the very mechanics of your body before you understand whether you are a Jew or a Christian, or a Sikh or a Muslim or a Buddhist. Before you understand anything about yourself, try to understand what the machine is.
Q. What do you mean by break and regain?
A. It is a change in the metabolism, estrogen and the whole thing. Either it, affects you in the first week or it affects you in the last week.
Q. Is that usually always the same? If it affects you before, will it always be before?
A. Either you fall in the first week category or the last week category. You cannot be in the last week category if you are in the first week category. It cannot happen. What I am saying is five days every month are meant to be very carefully watched by you. Seven days are for you to watch your behavior.
This is another thing I am telling you which is a very guarded secret. Whenever you are going to talk to a man, never extend out. Do you understand what I am saying? No. I know you do not; I know that. Let the man give you a call. It is called the call of the bull. Do not try to impress a man.
When you try to extend yourself to impress a man that is where you lose the root, then you are weakest at your foundation. Once a woman in creativity is weaker at her foundation, she has no ground. I am explaining, I am explaining, don't worry. Mr. A is your husband. He walks in and says, "Hi Rosie, how are you? Wow. I am back home. What are you doing? Oh, darling, you are not ready." She says, "You did not phone me. Is there something we have to do?" "Oh yeah, I forgot. Oh, my God. You know, I talked to Rosalina and her husband and we are going to go to a party, and we are going to do many things. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. Let's go, let's go, let's go." You know what that means? Tell me what that means. He is not in a position to confront you. He is not in a position to confront you for conscious or subconscious reasons. How should you act? It is simple. "Ok, ok, ok., dear, hold on. I will be ready. Do you want me to get ready specially, or whatever I can do?" He says, "Hurry up. Do not worry, special, not special. Hurry up, let's go." Go with him. Let him order the food. Let him make you eat. Let him talk whatever he talks. Just take keen, direct, honest interest. Give him the chance to balance out. He has not come to you at that moment as a husband; he has come at that moment to just soak himself in your spirit. Your flesh is no good to him, your meat is no good to him, your head is no good to him. The only thing he needs at that time is the flow of your spirit. It can be your father, it can be your husband, it can be your brother, it can be your neighbor, it can be your friend, it can be anybody. The most important role of a woman is when the male needs the female energy. It will always happen without explanation. It will always happen suddenly. It will always be a shock for you. "Aaaah, I was searching for you." "What happened? I was in the house." "No, no, no, I was going to go out. Oh, I forgot; come on, let's go, let's go, let's go." Have you seen those scenes? Out of the blue he jumps up out of the chair, "Heeey, I want a party for you." You say the guy is crazy. It happens once in a while in life, not all the time, but it happens to every male.
Your flow of metabolism only changes around the menstruation period; men's metabolism changes all the time. They are the most freaky creatures on the planet earth. Oh, I meant human beings. I remember as a Yogi now, and I remember as a human being now, and I understand the difference when I was going through all these changes. I have totally studied it, and what the scriptures say is absolutely right. This is how the man goes, (indicates with his arms large curves up and down) and this is how woman goes, (indicates very small curves, almost a straight line with one large curve per month ). Have you seen how the Chinese walk? Just like that. That is how the woman goes. In the morning the man will paint a beautiful garden of roses; in the evening when he comes home he is as a dead soldier. When you deal with a man, you deal with a most unpredictable character. Now, with the entire unpredictability of the human being as a male, to give him a ground of life and happiness, woman has to be constant, continuous, and dependable; these things a man wants. No male, whether a king or a beggar can continue with an uncontinous woman.
I would like to explain to you this problem because to begin with every male is uncontinuous. Now, an uncontinuous needs a continuous. When an uncontinuous gets in stride with another uncontinuous there is a clash. If your male is outgoing, you should be outgoing and not feel tired. If you go out having fun and come back at eleven thirty, if he feels dead tired and wants a cup of tea, then he expects you to make it for him. You will ask why? Because he is highly insensitive. You know subconsciously what he feels? He feels you are the only energy; how can you be tired? No male ever feels that his beloved can ever get tired. When you tell him, "I am tired," he is dead before that. "Oh my God, you are tired. Honey, what happened to you?" I have seen some even freak out. They go into a fit. I am telling you certain things which scriptures and sages have written over five thousand years before us. All the study has been already done. We are not going to discover something new, but simply I am going to tell you what it is so that you may know what it is and understand what it is. Perhaps you have forgotten; we have all forgotten.
When a male and a female deal in a relationship, he thinks you are the spirit. This is the only thing you forget. I will give you an example. Once a male-husband... you know today there are female-husbands, so I am using a very particular word; I am an old timer, that is alright. Once a male-husband wanted to go out and take his wife along. The wife took a stand that she is not going, and he should not go, but if he wants to insist, then he can go and she will not. They have a big fight and finally he says, "Hell, I am going!" She says, "Thank you, I have already packed for you and here is fifty dollars extra." "What do you mean by extra?" She says, "Well, if you would have taken me, you would have spent all that money; you are going to spend about three hundred, and we are going to shop three hundred. Going with you, I would have been six hundred short; as it is, I am saving five hundred fifty." The same male after six months, one day lying down on the sofa, said, "You are great, So-and-so." She said, "Why?" He said, "I wish I had not gone. You know, I am very proud of you. You took a stand, you did your best, and now I remember I did a false thing. It was wrong on my part." Men do not love a dumb woman. Neither do men love a depressed woman. You can lean on a man but not with a depressed mood. When you lean on a man, he feels the energy and he feels the fulfillment that once in a human life he is doing something. Men are very dedicated. In one of the scriptures, when the sage is advising the woman, he says, "Look, my charming beauty of the God" quote, unquote, "Look, my charming beauty of the God, you are living with a man where your body is transparently radiant and his radiance has a sheet under it which is rice paper." Now you know how delicate rice paper is? Behind the ego of the male there is a layer of rice paper. It is opaque and kind of rough.
Therefore, basically, it is in the habit of the male to lean on the woman. When you make him feel great and you lean on him, that does not mean he accepts you as dumb, weak, and frustrated. He accepts you as a capacity in which he can do something. When you make him do something, he feels very loving, very grateful, very cozy towards you.
Your problem is you think that if you fall apart on the road and he has to carry you on a stretcher, that is your achievement. Do you know what I am saying? Sometimes you pretend you are tired and sometimes you are actually tired. Do you understand? You pretend so many times, that when you are actually tired, no man believes it. You do not explain yourself. It is required of the woman to deal with a man in direct, straight communication. It takes about three months of this habit to take to the style. Such as, "Honey, we are bored, both of us, it is boring, this is a boring evening, what should we do?" You just say, "Get bored more." "What do you mean, get bored more? Nonsense, should we not go to a movie?" "Darling, six dollars, three dollars on the gas, that is nine dollars, going and wasting four hours does not mean a thing to me. The budget does not permit it. We are happily bored." This is all it takes to make him laugh, and he will come and kiss you, "Oh, you are sweet. You are really always counting pennies." "But, dear, they are your pennies."
No claim, no blame--that is the art of a woman. The science of the woman is: always keep the spirit going. The art of a woman is: never claim anything and you will never get blamed for anything. If you want to live rich and be taken care of do not claim anything. It is in the nature of the man that if he relates to a woman he cannot see her as ugly, because
nobody can feel the flow of bad things. Would you like your garden not to be tip-top? Would you like that your living room not be ok? It is the nature of the male that if he is allowed to play the game, he will be your caretaker. The only mess in the situation is when you demand it. When you demand it, he gets confused. You know why? He is not intelligent enough to know what to give. He only knows intelligently what to take. Do you understand? He was born out of you, he sucked your blood out of you into milk and lived on it, he used you to make you nurse him. Then affectionately he wants to grow and he demands that you should teach him every trick of the trade of life. He wants you to make him spiritual, decent, affectionate, intelligent, what-not. All he knows is take, take, take, take, take, take, take. The moment you ask him to give he says, "What?" Then when you want to go to a movie, why do you yell and scream at that idiot and tell him, "You never take me out! I do not know what you are doing. When I dated with you, you would take me everywhere. Now that we are married, we have gotten sloppy." Just get up, dress up and say, "Darling let me take you to a good movie tonight," because all he knows is how to take. He is going to pay for it. You are not going to get hurt. Just go along with the stream, the flow; it is the flow to give. Give him a bad time, he will take it, but give him a good bad time. Bibiji has started coming to the lectures. I do not know if she attended all these lectures what would happen to me, but the last season she did not show up, so it is ok. (Bibiii: “I was in India. I was not here.”) So the problem is -- I am just explaining to you the trend of the natural flow. The trend of his natural flow is take, take, take, take, take, and your flow is give, give, give. So use every taking and blend it to the form of giving. Give him a bad time, give him a good time, give him good food, give him good advice, give him a good joke, whatever you want to give him; just put it in such a way that it looks giving, not taking. You understand this trick?
Question: Someone once told me that several men got together to decide what to do when a woman has her period. They decided that the thing to do was to tell her to go rest in the room and tell them what to bring her.
Answer: Oh, yeah. That person must have been beaten up in the last week by his wife. You know, once I told a husband to stop doing this something. He said, "Do I have to?" I said, "You are so beaten up there is not a single hair on your head. What more do you want?" These two persons are such a combination that you can study any combination of any lock, but not these two. When he is very cheerful, she pretends she does not know what happiness is. When he is sad, she dresses up so marvelous. Whenever I visit the ashram, when I see her absolutely spotless, flawless, dressed up, I immediately know I have to console the husband. First thing I say, "Hey boy, you seem to be great this evening.” He says, "Yes, sir," and I know.
That is how the coverage is. This is called coverage; this is the second chapter. Coverage. Cover your man. It is not covering the man when you align with him for wrong things. Covering the man is to cover the man for every right thing and to cover him so that he does not do anything wrong. He will always be grateful to you. This is the total sum.
What is a woman? Woman is the flowing river of spirit. On its bank dwells a male, a man. Do you understand this? If the flow of that river, that spirit, that woman is clean, healthy, constant, the dweller shall not leave the dwelling. That dwelling will turn itself into a city, a town, a capitol, and what not. Have you understood? Alright. Now you can ask me any question you like and I would like to answer.
Question: Why is it that when my husband is in a bad or depressed mood I feel wonderful, and as soon as I pull him up I am depressed and in a bad mood, and we go back and forth in a day or by the week?
Answer: Yeah. That is sometimes. There was a man. He saw a very thirsty man and that man was dying. The dying man was by the side of a well. So this man came fast and put the bucket in and let the thing go, go, go. Finally it got to the water and he pulled, pulled it, pulled it. By the time he got the water out of the bucket and put it on this dying man, who opened his mouth, had a couple cups of water and got back his strength, the guy was so tired because of all the pulling, that he fell on him and killed him. When you pull him out, you feel you have done a job and then you want a reward. When you want a reward it is just taking. When he knows you are taking, he goes berserk. It is called inter-exchange. In this position of behavior, you are the only one who has to give in. He cannot. He does not have the capacity. I am sorry; men do not have the capacity to give in. When he is depressed, you pull him out, right?
What is your husband? You sleep with him. Whenever you sleep with a man which is a husband or you have a sexual relationship with a man, do not mother him. There is a distinct difference between these two institutions, wife and mother. A mother is never a wife, and a wife is never a mother.
A wife is a mother of your born. She cannot be your mother. When you start mothering the husband, you pollute the relationship. Do you know what mothering a man is? This is when the flow of the river spreads out and spaces out of its bank and floods the city, and puts the mud in every living room. If the river does it every third day, how many people live on the bank of that river? Mother the whole world, but for one man which is called your husband. He married you to get rid of his mother! Do you understand? When he married you, he thought he was through with the mom and then he thinks he has married another mom. You know how depressed he can be? Do you realize that?
Question: During those seven days before and after our period, is there a technology for us to deal with our emotions and our moods?
Answer: Yeah. It is very simple. Just know your emotions and mood. That is all a woman has to do. A woman can never be a woman if she does not know her flow of spirit and her mood, and how it is affecting her. She must understand that her body and mind are very, very near. Woman as an instrument is very sensitive.
Question: You said that when a woman is having her period she should not expose herself. On one level, do you mean not to tell anyone, in a way?
Answer: No, no, no, not telling anybody. When you are in the menstruating period, your metabolism is going through changes. Right? There is no harm just explaining that to somebody. Do not say, "I am sick." There is no use saying that. Just say, "This work I will do after a week." It is that simple. Everybody will understand it.
Question: How do you handle it when you are at a point where you are feeling very vulnerable, and your husband always picks that time to give you a hard time?
Answer: Oh yes, I know that. I have gone through it for twenty-four years. When you are very vulnerable and he picks that time and is coming right on, just let him pass by. Do not react. If you do it three times to him, the fourth time he will dare not. It only means three successful attempts; then he knows. Man has a very fluctuating ego. He knows that the first time he failed, the second time he failed, the third time he failed, and if he grants himself a fourth time, he will fail, so he will never do that. Three sensitive controls of time can take you out of the problem. If something makes me angry, I always do one thing; I put that thing which makes me angry to a stop. I always walk out of the situation. I have seen and I have tested. As a yogi I can control myself and go up and down through anything. I also studied through my controls, human fluctuation of behavior. In sensitivity it is highly important that you as individuals, when you know that somebody is trying to pick a fight with you and you have no ground to get out of it, just tell him, "Will you please do me a favor?" He will say, "What?" "Can we not fight day after tomorrow after twelve-thirty?" What is he going to say? "No, I want to fight now." Say, "I am not ready." You will not lose a thing.
Question: What is the best way to deal with a man's depression or his negativity.
Answer: The best way to deal with man's depression is hot milk. Yeah, that is practical. You must know what his favorite drink is other than booze and all that jazz. Some people love milk, some people love these teas, some love some juice, some like this. There is a dish in the life of every man which he likes the most. If you do not find that dish, you do not know what to do in depression. Just shut up, go and make that dish and put it on the table. The very smell of it! Whenever Nirinjan Kaur gets depressed because of overwork, or frustration, the very smell of spaghetti brings her out of it. You know Premka Kaur? Anytime she has a good salad with a good dressing, she is perfect. Sat Simran Kaur is sitting right here? If she can smell a good food I think that is all it takes. I have seen all my people around me and I just understand; why can you all not understand! It is a very simple thing. Every person has one food, one dish. The very aroma, that does it. I know one of my persons; if I can make onion soup, I can make her go through a steel wall. There is no way. Food is not what you eat and put in. The aura of certain vegetables, the energy and the electromagnetic field have some coincidence, some relationship with you. Even if you have a brother, he has a dish too. As a sister, you can keep that dish for him when he comes in tired and dead and says "Aww." You say, "Wait a minute, John, I have something for you," and bring out a hot plate. Look what happens to that "aww" business. He says, "Wow". That "aww" turns into "wow." Food is nothing but adding spirit to yourself. It is a continuance.
I will not say it to do my public sale; otherwise, this depression, loitering and all that, is what that book is all about. You verbalize nine to eleven pages and that is for those people who cannot communicate. What is a depression? It is the frustrated end of communication. Remember this: the frustrated end of communication is depression. In that book, The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, nine to eleven pages are exactly meant to continue the communication within your thought wave. That is all. That is why you have to come out of depression. The second powerful thing to bring you out of depression is the aroma of the smell of the food of the dish which one likes the most.
If a person is also physically very depressed, (if you have an extension or two phones in the house), then go into another room and give a telephone call. If he is in a room with a telephone, and you want to see the electromagnetic field effectiveness, go in another room and call your husband. When he picks up the phone, say, "Hi, Sat Nam, how are you doing?" He will say, "Oh, it is you?" "Oh, yeah." This is a total difference of communication than sitting in the same room talking to him. Try it sometime. When you are talking through the electric current you will be totally dealing with a different frequency of electromagnetic field: actually you will be communicating and talking direct. Telephone communication is a very charming therapy for a lot of people. It makes you feel special. The telephone call is nothing but an idea in your subconscious mind that somebody is calling you from the unknown. You are very conscious of distance. If there is a long distance call and you have a local call, you will hang up: "Wait I am on long distance." The person on long distance may be there to give the worst time, but long distance is very important for you. What is going to happen, folks, is in the coming times the world will be too small, and the unknown will be far away. A lot of things are now so much known, that unknown has gone far away. You understand? The moon used to be a mystery to you. Now you have mastery over the moon, you have mastery over that. You have done so much wrong to yourself by having all this mastery, that the mystery has gone far away. Do you understand that? The moon is no longer beautiful to you because you sat on it last year. You understand what I mean? You know the flame of the sun goes up and goes down. You have known around you so much that the unknown has gone far away. Therefore, now to live on this earth happily, one has to live totally disciplined. Each woman has to train herself to know who she is, what she is, and where she is. The beauty of a woman is in her own knowledge of how much a woman she is. You can quote this sometime. The beauty of a woman is in her own knowledge of how much a woman she is. If you are a woman and you know that you are a hundred percent woman, then you are a hundred percent beautiful; if you are a woman and you know you are sixty percent woman, then you are sixty percent beautiful. By your hairdo, by your neat clothes, you can show yourself. Men eat, you eat, men wear, you wear, men dress up, you dress up, men do this, you do that. No woman can make-up for the percentage of the shortage in her of how much woman she is. If you do not have one hundred percent of yourself as a woman, then any make-up will not cover that.
Question: You mentioned that the thighs from the knees up have to be covered during the menstrual cycle. What about other times like showering or any other times?
Answer: To be very frank with you, I will advise you until you have to be naked in that area one should avoid it.
Question: Even during showering?
Answer: I'm just making one general statement which should hold true to all times. Normally from the knee to the navel point is the area of a woman which must hold its own air bag. The air bag of this area is the most desirable insulation which you can do.
Question: Would you suggest then that if you're supposed to keep that area covered, during your menstrual period, that at nighttime when you go to bed you should wear kacheras (Sikh style cotton underwear) to cover that area?
Answer: I will not only suggest, I will recommend it. I will like to make you understand your total strength. The only thing which can freak you out is the calcium imbalance, and this is the area where you must have a protective air roll around it so that you can insulate it from the changing temperature of the outside world. Kacheras are not meant just to give you undercover protection; a loin cloth could have worked that way, small underwear could have done that, bikinis are fine. Kacheras do not fall into that category. Kacheras are just an insulated air bag around that particular area. That is why there is a lot of cloth around it. One day do not wear the kacheras and go for a race, do a certain job, do a certain activity. The second day after twenty-four hours, you wear the kacheras and go for the same job. You will understand the difference between the two. Why ask me?
Question: Are you saying the calcium imbalance is because of the change in temperature?
Answer: This thigh bone controls it, and its temperature is very important. It is as simple as that. Your pelvic bone is very important, and your thigh bone is very important to you as a woman.
Question: We still do not understand whether you have recommended that a person should always wear shorts in the shower. Is it alright for a woman to be naked in the shower, or should she definitely wear some kind of shorts in the shower?
Answer: We always recommend it in any capacity that the area between the thighs and the navel point be covered. It does not matter if you are a woman or a male, because unfortunately the male and female organ are not at different areas. If the male organ would have been in his chest, I would recommend something different for those guys. If yours would have been in your calves, I would recommend something different. Unfortunately, the frame structure is such that you both have the same problem. The male should understand that if a man can run at the time when both his testicles are loose, or he undertakes any heavy activity, he can injure himself permanently. It is not very difficult to get harmed permanently. It is not a big deal.
Question: What about when you go swimming?
Answer: What about that?
Question: What happens to your calcium imbalance?
Answer: When you go swimming, or you go running, or you go naked in a cold breeze, you need that insulation because you do not have a hide on you. You have only a very sensitive skin. That is why all human beings are supposed to wear clothes. Even in the most ancient areas, you will be surprised to see that people were very naked but still that had the banana leaf. (Someone says "Fig leaf".) No, the fig is just symbolic because the fig is a holy fruit, so putting a fig leaf there is to make that area look holy. That is why they stuck the fig leaf on themselves. Otherwise the fig leaf is no more special than any other leaf. The fig tree is very, very holy to Jews and Christians. Putting a fig leaf on that area is to treat this area specially very tenderly, very lovingly and very carefully.
Comment: I guess we are going to have a new style of bathing suit.
Reply: I am not worried about style; you can have a bathing suit with every hole in it. You know I am not teaching you what the fashion of the West is, what the custom of the West is, what the fashion of the East is, what the custom of the East is. I am sharing with you knowledge for which the saints and sages have sacrificed their thousands of lives, one after the other, and they have come to a certain basic conclusion of what is best for the human being, male and female. I am sharing with you the chapter which is on us and this is the start: What is a woman? We will meet tomorrow again. I think by tomorrow you will have a lot of strength in you.
Comment: You were going to show us how to run today.
Reply: Yeah. I am trying to tell you a little bit about how to run and how to walk. If you run on your heels, or you run putting a weight on the inside of your foot which is the arch side, it is the wrong way to live. You must run on the front part. Normally any beautiful woman should not touch her heel (put heavy weight on it). Do you understand the high heel? They put a nail under the heel to keep it high, otherwise how are you supposed to keep a high heel without that whole thing. The high heel is not the fashion of today. In the past a woman was not eligible for marriage or for any relationship if she walked on her heels. Now they wanted to make things go easy, so they put four inches of wood under their heels to keep their high heels. Actually when you walk or when you move, see that you do not put weight on the heel. It will save your back for the times to come. That does not mean that you should put any padding under the heel. Wearing a high heel is very, very dangerous.
Question: I do not understand why a woman walks on the balls of her foot when a man does not have to?
Answer: She is a woman. She has a pelvic bone. That damn pelvic bone can open one foot and the male does not have that capacity. The fundamental thing is that there is no comparison between a man and a woman. Males and females belong to totally different worlds. No comparison can be drawn as to why males do this and females cannot do that. Walking on the balls of the feet is natural for a woman. To understand this, one day do not touch upon the front (balls) of the feet, walk on the heels only. It will take thirty days to go insane. The pressure on the heel to a woman is tantamount to walking on the heel. You do not walk on the arch at all, either you put all the weight on the front of the foot or on the back of the foot. What I am trying to say is woman should not put any weight on the heel. Light heel walking is what is required. Even in running. Even in racing. Even in anything. That is why there is a very thick padding in the front of the foot. Heels normally do not have that kind of padding. So nature has made a heel just to give you support so you can stand on it. Some people I see who actually walk on their heels. When you take the impression of their foot, their heel goes down much deeper than the front of the foot.
Question: Last year when we were marching here we did all our marching on our heels. What about that?
Answer: That was done because you could not keep the timing. That is the easiest way to train a soldier. When we do not want you to use your head we make you walk on the heels. Perfect. On the heel you can catch the timing faster. On a forward foot it would take a long time. Time to prepare for a marching show was short, and that is why the heel was used. I knew it. When you leave this class today, try to practice consciously, not that you can keep your heel lifted all the time, just do not put much weight on the heel. If you put all the weight or heavy weight on the heel, then you are damaging your lower back. A male can escape because his pelvic bone has a very
little opening, but in the case of a female, it is a tragedy.
Question: If you are used to wearing high heels, or have worn shoes with heels and you switched, is there anything else you can do to correct this?
Answer: I am not going to be a salesman for Shakti Shoes. But I do not think high heels or lifted heels is the answer to woman's happiness at all. I do not care what fashion is and who does it. Even today if Shakti Shoe Corporation brings out a high heel shoe, I will be the first person to put it down.
Question: What I am saying is, is there anything you can do to counteract the fact that you have already worn high heels?
Answer: Yeah. Do you think we brought out that shoe just for making a sale of it? The idea was that people cannot live without shoes so provide them a shoe which does not have the capacity of a high heel at all. There is a strength on the arch so that if the arch has been totally damaged one way or the other, it can correct it right there. That was the basic idea behind it.
The second thing which we would like all the instructors to understand is that each woman should be trained in timing. Rhythm. You must have a mastery over rhythm. I saw your timing today. You took a long time to form into lines and also you took a long time to fall into a rhythm. Tomorrow I will come. You come prepared. Do you understand why I made you wear sweat suits? The reason is when you take those exercises you are in a sweat, then when you sit down you will feel cold normally. If you have a kind of sweat suit you will totally be balanced within a reasonable time and you will enjoy it. As long as I am going to teach you, I am going to give you a very hard exercise class before. That is included in my time table. Others may not do it, but I am going to do it. Is that fair? (Sat Nam answered by women.) So we will definitely have classes like having exercises on the spot, and going on a long walk; we may end up going to the Summer Solstice site someday. It is not far away. It is only eight miles. What is eight miles for you?
Question: When you run, how do you breathe?
Answer: Normally, if you have good practice inbreathing, you should breathe through the nose.
Question: Inhaling and exhaling?
Answer: Yeah. Sometimes you start opening up your mouth and in that case, which is not very healthy, you should just do the seetly pranayam, [the breath is inhaled through the curled (rolled) tongue and exhaled through the nose]. Try to do that; it will give you a long approach, and cool you off. That is a yogic technique.
Thank you very much. May the long time sun always shine on you and your spirit be very holy to guide you and I hope the love will be around you, not of gross physical, but very, very etheric and mental. Remember you are very fortunate that God, out of some goodness, has provided you a time that you can sit and think and be a woman, woman alone. First you have to be a woman, then you can be a wife, you can be a mother, you can be a girlfriend, you can be this, you can be a secretary, you can be anything, but your basic base is a woman. A woman who is not a woman, and a man who is not a man are handicapped individuals. God be with you. Thank you.

© YB Teachings, LLC 1977
Above Article Copyright © Yogi Bhajan 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.



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