Can spiritual practice happen without a woman?

Everyone in nature is feminine; everything that is born or created is feminine. The masculine represents the Supreme Being. So, the spiritual union of man and woman is essentially the union of the individual soul with the Divine. The love between man and woman symbolizes the love between the soul and the Supreme. From this perspective, all men in this world are also, in a sense, women—because they are part of creation.

However, outwardly, in the physical world, there are two distinct sexes—male and female—each with different appearances, movements, and physical structures. One cannot function without the other; man is incomplete without woman and woman without man. Hence, a wife is referred to as the "ardhangini" or "half of the husband," meaning together they form completeness.

But that’s in the worldly sense, not in the realm of spiritual practice. In the domain of devotion and spiritual discipline, no one depends on anyone else. Each person's spiritual path is their own. Here, one may assist the other, but cannot undertake the spiritual journey on their behalf. A woman's practice is hers alone, just as a man's is his alone.

In both spiritual and bodily disciplines, men and women are created with the full ingredients necessary for spiritual practice. The compassionate Creator has given both equally what they need. A woman doesn’t need a man to connect with the Divine, and a man doesn’t need a woman. The Divine resides equally in both.

Although men and women have different physical organs, their inner faculties are identical. The mind of a woman is the same as that of a man. The soul in a woman is the same as in a man. The same spirit (rūḥ) exists in both.

The mind and the soul are neither male nor female. It is due to karma that a soul takes on either a male or female body. When the soul is in a female body, the mind becomes more feminine; when in a male body, the mind tends toward masculinity. That’s why men and women often have different psychological traits—but these are related to the body, not the soul.

Spiritual practice is soul-centric. The soul uses the body as a vessel to connect with the Divine. It doesn't matter whether that body is male or female.

Meditation, or muraqaba and mushahida (deep contemplative states), must be done alone, in solitude. In such practices, no one says that both male and female are needed. Awakening the third eye does not require joint practice between man and woman. To love God, one does not need both genders together.