Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 304

For women to want to live independently is a defect

On 13 January, 1976, Srila Prabhupada wrote to Yamuna and Dinatarini, who
wanted to start an ashram only for women:
“You can attract the fair sex community. Most of them are frustrated being
without any home or husband. If you can organize all these girls they will
get a transcendental engagement and may not be allured to the frustration of
life. Your engagement should be chanting and worship of the Deity Jiva
Goswami advises that in the Kali-yuga sankirtana is the principle worship.
Even if one chants many mantras it must be preceded by glorious sankirtana.
Sankirtana is the maha-mantra.
“Yes, you are right, women are generally after sense gratification. That is
the disease. Chant 24 hours a day and don’t dress nicely to attract men. It
is better that you don’t make a large program. Remain a humble program. In
bhakti there is no grotesque program. A humble program is better. We are
doing all these grotesque programs to allure the masses. My Guru Maharaja
used to say that no one hears from a person coming from a humble, simple
life. You remain always very humble.
“So far as giving loans, I think it won’t be possible because in India we
require a huge amount of money for Bombay and Mayapur. We also have to build
nice Temples at Kuruksetra and Jagannatha Puri. The Americans are accused of
being C.I.A., so counteract this. We want to prove how Americans have
constructed very large temples. Certainly it is not for C.I.A. propaganda.
“Sita Devi, Mother Laksmi, wife of Lord Ramacandra, went to live with
Valmiki Muni in a cottage. Although she was a King’s daughter and a King’s
wife, she preferred to live very humbly in the cottage of Valmiki Muni with
two sons in the absence of Ramacandra. That should be the ideal example.
Women when not with husband must live very very humbly and simple life.”
On the same day, Srila Prabhupada wrote another letter to the GBC man that
area:
“Regarding Yamuna and Dinatarine, they want to live independently, that is
the defect. A woman cannot live independent. According the the Vedic culture
a woman is always to be protected by a man. Why they should purchase a
house? We already have Los Angeles. If they want they can have a separate
asrama supported independently of ISKCON. Every woman in America has money,
so why do they want support? No, the BBT cannot give them loan. You may
check that they are chanting and following the rules but do not get involved
with their management. So far your suggestion that they sew clothes for the
sannyasis Deities it is not possible. Sannyasis may have no connection with
women.”

Srila Prabhupada’s Challenge

[B]Where:[/B] Salem, Tamil Nadu, India[BR]
[B]When:[/B] 23 Dec 12[BR]
[B]Scripture:[/B] BG 18.62[BR]
[B]Language:[/B] English
[CUT]

Download Srila Prabhupadas Challenge

Naughty child becomes nice scholar

By force you cannot stop.
Just like a child, you cannot forcibly stop his activities, but if he is
naughty, then you have to train him for being educated, and when he is
educated he comes a very nice scholar.
From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on 3 Feb 1971.

Is it very difficult to be a preacher?

Is it very difficult to be a preacher? You are going to be preacher, going
to Japan? Do you think it is difficult? It is difficult? Simply say like
this:
“God is great. Don’t be puffed up that you are great, you are all-powerful,
you have got… Give up these foolish ideas. God is great. He has created
this world. He is giving you food; He has given you body.”
Just simply try to convince them, these principles, and you become a
preacher. Just try to understand. This is our philosophy, Krsna
consciousness preaching. You don’t require any high type of philosophical
speculation or this or this ism, that ism, that ism — no. Simple truth.
That’s all. Just try to glorify the Supreme Lord, the great. That’s all. And
whatever capacity you have got — not that you have to qualify yourself in
this way.
From Srila Prabhupada’s Lecture, 19 Mar 1969.

Why Srila Prabhupada started Back to Godhead

We started this Back to Godhead so that our students may write in this paper
whatever realization he has got. It doesn’t matter. I have sent therefore
one article written by Virabhadra [a child] for publication here. One must
express his feelings of service. Actually I have started this Back to
Godhead for this purpose. Not that I want to discuss huge, complicated
philosophical thesis. We don’t care for that. One must express how he is
feeling, or being employed, in the service of the Lord, without any doubt.
Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 19 Mar 1969.

Manu-samhita is now being insulted

Devaki was the daughter of a ksatriya and knew how to play the political
game. … As we learn from the history of the Mahabharata, or “Greater
India,” the wives and daughters of the ruling class, the ksatriyas, knew the
political game, but we never find that a woman was given the post of chief
executive. This is in accordance with the injunctions of Manu-samhita, but
unfortunately Manu-samhita is now being insulted, and the Aryans, the
members of Vedic society, cannot do anything. Such is the nature of
Kali-yuga.
From Srila Prabhupada’s purport to SB 10.4.5
(This insulting of Manu-samhita probably refers to Dr. Ambedkar, who wrote
the constitution of India after independence.)

Krishna Consciousness Is Non-sectarian

[B]Where:[/B] Salem, Tamil Nadu, India[BR]
[B]When:[/B] 22 Dec 12[BR]
[B]Language:[/B] English
[CUT]


Download Krishna Consciousness Is Non-sectarian

Child-worship and deity-worship

Letter to: Arundhati
Amsterdam
30 July, 1972
72-07-30
Miami
My dear Arundhati,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July
19, 1972, and I am simply surprised that you want to give up your child to
some other persons, even they are also devotees. For you, child-worship is
more important than deity-worship. If you cannot spend time with him, then
stop the duties of pujari. At least you must take good care of your son
until he is four years old, and if after that time you are unable any more
to take care of him then I shall take care. These children are given to us
by Krishna, they are Vaisnavas and we must be very careful to protect them.
These are not ordinary children, they are Vaikuntha children, and we are
very fortunate we can give them chance to advance further in Krishna
Consciousness. That is very great responsibility, do not neglect it or be
confused. Your duty is very clear.
Hoping this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Feminist Rhetoric on Dandavats

(This was sent to Dandavats.com on 1 Jan, 2013. It was not posted there, thus I am posting it here on my own website.)
Disputes over gender roles are, of course, not unique to ISKCON. For several decades, certain Christian denominations have been racked and rent by gender wars, and sections of Islam and Judaism have also been affected.


What is perhaps unique in ISKCON, however, is a nigh taboo on the term “feminism” — maybe because Srila Prabhupada was so clearly against “women’s liberation,” or maybe because we consider ourselves to be too spiritual to be influenced by such mundane ideologies.


But let’s be clear what the issue is: feminism, the doctrine that human history has been unjustly dominated by men and that now women should get their fair rights, or more. Feminists particularly contend that religious tradition has upheld gender exploitation, and religious feminists seek to reinterpret scripture and tradition in light of feminist ideology.


Within Vaisnavism, feminists have discovered that, because the souls in the bodies of men and women are equal, there should be no social differences between them — even though generations of devotees before them understood that the souls in the bodies of men and women are equal but that indeed there should be social differences between them. It is not simply coincidental that this new perspective has arisen in tandem with secular feminism.


Feminists everywhere are busy and effective in changing every facet of civilization to fit their belief. Intrinsic to their politics is the gross condemnation of anyone who wishes to uphold traditional values. Feminists presume that male traditionalists simply wish to manipulate women, and that female traditionalists are dupes; both are enemies of humanity and deserve to be denigrated in the most graphic terms.


It might have been hoped that such rhetoric would not enter Vaisnava discourse on gender issues. But alas, it is not below the dignity of even the Dandavats website to publish the terms “taliban” and “patriarch” in relation to devotees who argue, with reference to guru, sadhu, and sastra, for traditional gender roles in Vaisnava society. (http://www.dandavats.com/?p=11120#com...


Such pejoratives more reflect Western conditioning than the sastra-caksu through which devotees are meant to see the world. Although to Westerners “Taliban” might seem a natural metaphor for “terrorist,” in certain countries there are many ordinary citizens who feel a comparable abhorrence toward Western governments who have devastated their homeland. Similarly, the scornful use of the term “patriarch” is loaded with the feminist ideology that is inculcated by the Western media.


Admittedly, the values of ISKCON’s traditionalists are extremely different from those of modern Western society. However, to therefore insinuate that such traditionalists are dangerous, nasty extremists (like the Taliban) is to assume a position closer to that of the modern West than to that of Srila Prabhupada, from whom ISKCON’s traditionalists imbibe what others see as their extremism. It is undeniable that Srila Prabhupada’s outlook on almost all social issues is extremely different to that which is widely accepted in Western society.


As Dr. J. Stillson Judah wrote in his 1974 book “Hare Krishna and the Counterculture”:


“‘The position of women in the Society may not appeal to Americans interested in women’s liberation. Swami Bhaktivedanta says that all women other than one’s wife are to be considered as one’s mother, and yet he regards them as prone to degradation, of little intelligence, and untrustworthy. They should not be given as much freedom as men, but should be treated like children; they should be protected all during their lives, by their fathers when young, later by their husbands, and in their old age, by their sons … This view is largely consonant with the traditional one found in the ancient Indian law books. Females may not become presidents of any temple, nor occupy positions of authority. They may do the cooking, help with the devotional services and maintenance of the temple and prepare the flower offerings for Krishna.”‘ (Judah, 1974:86)


How is it that Dr. Judah, who was a friend of Srila Prabhupada’s and of our movement, made such observations if they were not accurate? Moreover, Srila Prabhupada stated that he had read and approved of Judah’s book (see conversation, June 20, 1975). No doubt Srila Prabhupada would have expressed concern if he had felt misrepresented by Dr. Judah.


Srila Prabhupada made literally dozens of non-PC statements. For instance in the following conversation:


Prabhupada: So far gurukula is concerned, that also, I have given program. They have given the name of “girls.” We are not going to do that.


Tamala Krsna: What is that?


Prabhupada: Girls. Boys and girls. That is dangerous. Girls should be completely separated from the very beginning. They are very dangerous.


Tamala Krsna: So we’re… I thought there were girls in Vrndavana now. They said that they’re going to have the girls’ gurukula behind the boys’ gurukula. Gopala was talking about that.


Prabhupada: No, no, no. No girls.


Tamala Krsna: It should be in another city or somewhere else.


Prabhupada: Yes. They should be taught how to sweep, how to stitch, clean, cook, to be faithful to the husband.


Tamala Krsna: They don’t require a big school.


Prabhupada: No, no. That is mistake. They should be taught how to become obedient to the husband.


Tamala Krsna: Yeah, you won’t learn that in school.


Prabhupada: Little education, they can…


Tamala Krsna: Yeah. That they can get at home also.


Prabhupada: They should be stopped, this practice of prostitution. This is a very bad system in Europe and America. The boys and girls, they are educated, coeducation. From the very beginning of their life they become prostitutes. And they encourage. They distribute pills. I have seen the boys and girls dancing together, embracing, in the school film. That ruins the career. Both of them are ruined. That is very regrettable. Then you shall require this sterilization, pills, another big program. They are creating animal civilization, and when the animals are disturbing, they are trying to find out some other means. This is their program. First of all create animals. Then, when the animals behave like animals, then another program. Why do you create animal? Woman brahmacarini, this is artificial.


Tamala Krsna: In our centers, though, there are so many brahmacarinis, and even sometimes they’re encouraged to remain brahmacarini.


Prabhupada: That they cannot. As soon as they will find opportunity, they will become vyabhicarini [sexually deviated]. For woman, protection.


Tamala Krsna: So you don’t advocate this remaining sing…, these women remaining brahmacarinis.


Prabhupada: Therefore polygamy was allowed. Let them be taken care of, one husband, three wives. (April 29, 1977)


Mainstream Western thought would classify such statements of Srila Prabhupada as extremist, sexist, or maybe Talibanist. And it appears that members of ISKCON who acquiesce with mainstream Western thought think similarly about those devotees who maintain faith in such words of Srila Prabhupada.


What should we do with such statements? Expunge them from the Vedabase? Explain them as the eccentricity of an elderly Bengali gentleman? Or that they are merely the material, not spiritual, teachings of Srila Prabhupada and thus invalid? To simply ignore such statements is not an option because there are followers of Srila Prabhupada who take very seriously the principle “guru-mukha-padma-vakya cittete kariya aikya ara na kariha mane asa” and who will not very easily allow Srila Prabhupada’s words to be forgotten or recast in the light of various popular theories.


Undoubtedly, we have to consider carefully how to present and apply Srila Prabhupada’s teachings to a world that is not very open to them. But we are in danger of losing our connection with Srila Prabhupada if members of our own ranks adopt the prevailing dogmas of the misled civilization and employ them to attack those followers of Srila Prabhupada who are trying to uphold his message in its most pristine form.




[1] Where is the concession or compromise from the side of “conservatives” here? “Get educated but only be a mother and sister” – how is that different from the taliban/syrian type “She can own a car but cannot publicly drive it?”


I must be missing something here.


And it is not that many women wouldn’t like to be protected and stay home, but protection is not their responsibility – putting the onus on them is very effeminate from the side of ‘patriarchs’…

Pill users, beware

Sometimes the child is killed by the modern civilization. The most sinful
child does not see the light. It is being killed from one womb to another
womb. Those who are killing this, using these pills, they will be put into
that womb, and they will never see light, and from womb to womb they will be
transferred—horrible life, ghostly life.
From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Sri Isopanisad mantra 11
-
Los Angeles, 1970