The master is not higher than the disciple. The master is simply trying to awaken you. The moment you are awakened there is no master and no disciple. It is just out of gratitude that the disciple remains a disciple -- just out of gratitude. But there is no difference; they have known the same reality. They have become what nature wanted them to become, they have blossomed.
So don't feel depressed that women have not been great masters -- they have been great disciples.
Man finds it difficult to become a disciple. In fact, man should worry about it, because to become a disciple is the real thing -- and the beginning. And to come to the perfection of being a disciple is the end.
A man passes through a very difficult phase. He cannot become a disciple, or can become one only in a wishy-washy way, always ready to quit. And without becoming a disciple, there is no question of becoming a master. Yes, once in a while it happens that a man becomes a master without becoming a disciple. But for that immense patience, a certain stubbornness, is needed.
I don't have any master. In my previous lives I never had any master. I have lived with many masters, I have known many masters, but I could not manage to become a disciple. That is why I am so late; otherwise, Jesus would not have preceded me. But it was simply difficult for me to be a disciple. I remained searching, and searching on my own. Yes, it took many many lives to arrive where I have always been.
I have never been initiated by anyone. I am not a sannyasin. I am really outside of any crowd, and that's the way I have always been. It was a long, arduous journey to find that there is nothing to find.
-Osho, "From the False to the Truth, #7, Q2"