All these “isms” are from the head. Women are interested in being joyful, in small things of life: a beautiful house, a garden, a swimming pool. Life can be a paradise, but it is going to remain a hell unless man is removed from power altogether.

And he can be removed so easily.

I have so many women sannyasins – more than men. And the strangest thing is that once a woman becomes a sannyasin, she remains a sannyasin. Once she starts meditating, it becomes her devotion, a part of her heart – it is not so with the man; it remains only an intellectual search. There are exceptions, but as a rule….

I have seen men betraying me but not women. And the reason is that the man is intellectually convinced. He is with me…but I am still alive, I am not dead. So tomorrow, I may say something with which his mind does not agree. And just a small disagreement in his mind, and his path separates from mine. He is with me only to the extent that his intellect is nourished by what I am saying. The moment he feels something I am saying is not rational, he is no more with me. All connections have dropped. And my problem is, that my work is not to feed your intellect. If I talk intellectually, that is simply to persuade you towards something that goes beyond intellect, that goes beyond reason.

For the woman the problem is not the same. She is with me not because she is intellectually convinced by me; she is with me because she is nourished on a deeper level than intellect. Her heart sings with me, beats with me, dances with me. Her connection is not superficial: it is that of trust, not of intellectual conviction. Hence, in the whole of history you will find a Judas around every great mystic and great teacher, but you will not find a single woman who has been a Judas. It is strange, in a long history….

Mahavira has his own Judas; his own son-in-law remained with him just with that male ego, hoping that he would be the successor of Mahavira because he was his son-in-law. Mahavira had only one daughter, and the daughter and the son-in-law both had become sannyasins. For twenty years, they remained with him, but the son-in-law was insisting again and again: “You are getting old. Before anything unfortunate happens, you should make it known to your millions of disciples who is going to be your successor.”

Mahavira said, “Whoever is capable will succeed me. I don’t have to declare his name. Who am I? I am not a king; my treasure is not of this world. Whoever is enlightened will be recognized by the people as my successor, you need not worry about it.” Frustrated, he went against Mahavira and took away with him five hundred followers. And he made many attempts on Mahavira’s life. Gautam Buddha had his own Judas, and the same story is repeated again and again.