Dear beloved Śrīla Prabhupāda,
I offer my prostrated obeisances to your lotus feet again and again. Each time I see your beautiful form and effulgent face I am reminded of how you miraculously, single-handedly saved us, your errant disciples, from many forms of degraded life and illusions.
This year, many devotees were surprised and hurt by a particularly abrupt decision from the GBC with a potentially grave impact on your female disciples. Many quotes were being put forth from both sides, the interpretation of which appeared to support each side’s particular understanding, while often appearing to be conflicting. At the heart of it for most of the ladies in ISKCON was an unhidden attempt to thwart your very instructions and examples. In other words, ladies would be taken as inferior and no longer eligible for a wide range of services, particularly brahminical and administrative services, foremost.
Since our experiences with you as your spiritual daughters were without hindrances from you, it is especially difficult and painful to hear these things. You were very broad-minded and generous in how you approached different situations, and did not give ultimatums that would be sources of division or barriers to our practice of bhakti in female bodies. You avoided black and white situations, although your students were often not so capable of expanding what they would see in narrow dimensions.
From your purport to Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 7.128, you wrote: “Every person must get married. Every woman, especially, must get married.” That became a misunderstood hammer in the lives of unmarried female devotees, with forced marriages as a result. However, your actual approach was anything but heavy. Some examples:
Prabhupāda: If one can remain without marriage, that is the first class [referring to brahmacārīs].
Rūpānuga: Women also?
Prabhupāda: Women also. What is the use of this material husband? Make Kṛṣṇa husband. Kṛṣṇa’s prepared to become everything – love Him as husband, love Him as son, love Him as friend. (Room conversation, 6 July 1976, Washington, DC)
Here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you’re broad-minded and encompassing, not small-minded and narrow. Your idea was that we become Kṛṣṇa conscious, not that we become married, particularly, and throughout your writings and talks, you left room for individuality in how we achieve Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Another example: “If one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, then she doesn’t require husband. She knows that ‘Kṛṣṇa is my protector. Why shall I artificially seek after father or husband?’ And what protection for a few days either the father or the son or the husband may give? Real protection is Kṛṣṇa.” (Conversation, 7 January 1977, Bombay)
You gave Nandalal Dāsī a small silver Kṛṣṇa and told her to make Him her husband, and she did that. There are many practical examples in your movement of women who are not protected by a father, husband, or son: myself, Mukhya, Kaiśorī, Praśānta, Viśākhā Priyā, to name but a few. Each of us not only feels fully protected by you, but we also make significant contributions to ISKCON.
You replied to a concerned Śilāvatī: “The actual system is that the husband is Spiritual Master to his wife, but if the wife can bring her husband into practicing this process, then it is all right that the husband accepts wife as Spiritual Master. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said that anyone who knows the science of Krishna, that person should be accepted as Spiritual Master, regardless of any material so-called qualifications, such as rich or poor, man or woman, or brahmana or sudra.” (Letter to Silavati, 14 June 1969)
In this letter, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you affirm the precedent set by the Nāga-patnīs and the wives of the brāhmaṇas. We’re meant to be personal, to appreciate one another’s qualities, and to avoid prejudging others based on gender stereotypes (which can go both ways).
You pointed out that the brāhmaṇa husbands noted that their wives, having perfected their transcendental attachment for Kṛṣṇa, did not have even a trace of attachment for home, husband, children, and so forth. Therefore, from that day on, the husbands accepted those women as their worshipable spiritual masters and no longer thought of them as their wives. Clearly, the scriptures, like Kṛṣṇa, direct us past bodily designations to the essence of each individual – toward his or her bhakti.
You pointed out the difference between generalizations or guidelines meant to give us informed direction. Generalizations, by definition, are inferred from specific cases but not meant to be applied indiscriminately, whereas universal statements (such as “We are spirit souls”) are true in every circumstance.
A few examples of your magnanimous inclusive nature in engaging your spiritual daughters:
At the cornerstone-laying ceremony in Mayapur, you asked me to speak – in front of your elderly godbrothers and our own budding sannyāsīs.
Śrīmatī Dāsī directly assisted you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, during the Juhu cornerstone ceremony when Ananta Śeṣa was being installed.
Here is a conversation you had with Atreya Ṛṣi Dāsa:
Prabhupāda: Both of them are very intelligent. And Nandarāṇī is more intelligent than her husband. (laughs) I know that.
Atreya Ṛṣi: I find that he is very intelligent, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Ah, Dayānanda.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes.
Prabhupāda: He is intelligent, but Nandarāṇī is still more intelligent. (laughs) I know that. Both of them are intelligent, but this girl appears to be more intelligent. (Room conversation, 16 July 1976, New York)
One of your servants commented that “Aniruddha is intelligent like his father [Pradyumna].” You replied, “No, intelligent like mother. She is more intelligent.”
You showed us that to understand the statement that “women are less intelligent” we need to consider what “intelligence” means in context. In Sanskrit, there are several words translated as “intelligence.” One is buddhi, which refers to the ability to analyze, judge, or discern. Another is medhā. In the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa lists medhā among seven feminine qualities. Medhā means “mental vigor, wisdom, prudence.”
From your purport to Bhagavad-gītā 10.34: “The ability not only to read many books on different subject matters but to understand them and apply them when necessary is intelligence (medhā), another opulence.” [Emphasis added.] Thus, these are broad classifications – buddhi: analytical intelligence; medhā: nourishing, practical intelligence.
However, women and men each have both buddhi and medhā; it’s just a matter of the degree of each. You taught us to avoid jumping to conclusions about a person or a group of persons based on what body they are wearing around their intelligence. One of the beauties of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is that it sees past all bodily and mental differences to a higher, spiritual truth. When we become devotees, we transcend all designations. Thus, Kṛṣṇa consciousness can unite all people, whatever their religion, race, nationality, age, or gender. The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is meant to be at the forefront of implementing equal vision.
Then, there is what many consider a very heavy, incriminating statement: “Never place your faith in a woman or politician.” (Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, whom you quote a number of times) Yamunā Devī Dāsī comments: “I was present on four occasions when Śrīla Prabhupāda repeated the Cāṇakya adage, ‘Never trust a woman or a politician.’ On each occasion, Śrīla Prabhupāda looked me in the eye. On the last occasion, Bombay 1973, he quoted the saying, heartily laughing in front of a small group of men. Then he said: ‘What do you think, Yamunā?’ Immediately I said: ‘Of course it is true, Śrīla Prabhupāda,’ whereupon he became grave, looked at me with great feeling, saying, ‘But you are not a woman; you are a Vaiṣṇava.’”
(Note: Cāṇakya Paṇḍita was a member of the court in his time. In those days, much like these days, there were many court-related political intrigues. So it was that one party might send in a beautiful young woman who had been trained to take poison and seduce a particular foe, and when they’d become engaged in intimate activities, she would kiss him and transfer her poisonous saliva, killing the fellow. So, this statement about never trusting a woman or a politician was never intended to describe all women as untrustworthy.)
Śrīla Prabhupāda’s consistent goal was to help us transcend material designations. He wanted to see each of us advance spiritually. Women, śūdras, and vaiśyas are ordinarily regarded as less intelligent, but if one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness one is the most intelligent. “Although Kuntī had the body of a woman, she was a devotee. Therefore she was not like an ordinary unintelligent woman. Rather, she was the most intelligent, for she recognized Kṛṣṇa to be the Supreme Godhead.” (Teachings of Queen Kuntī, chapter 3)
From Kṛṣṇa’s viewpoint, until we’re elevated to spiritual consciousness, we’re conditioned and fallen. From that viewpoint, those who are spiritually inclined are more intelligent than those who aren’t, and on the spiritual platform, everyone is equal. Kṛṣṇa does not discriminate.
According to the teachings of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as taught by you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, everyone, regardless of his or her material designation, has the potential to attain the highest spiritual position, to become a pure devotee. Pure Vaiṣṇavas are beyond all designations and classifications, and in their purest state, they see everyone else as beyond all designations and classifications as well. The association of such persons is uplifting. You endearingly said about your female disciples: “These women are not ordinary women. They are preachers. They are Vaiṣṇavas. By their association one becomes a Vaiṣṇava.” (Calcutta)
Kṛṣṇa consciousness means facilitating all devotees so they remain enthusiastic and determined to grow to their full potential. Śrīla Prabhupāda, you offered us such facility, and we, your followers, are meant to offer the same Kṛṣṇa conscious facility to others.
Protection in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is ultimately meant to help one advance spiritually. “But the protection of Kṛṣṇa is that you are perpetually being protected. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti. You don’t get any more material body. That is real protection.” (Morning walk, 19 September 1972, Los Angeles)
To serve in the association of Kṛṣṇa’s sincere devotees is a form of protection. In such an environment, women fully use their talents and proclivities in Kṛṣṇa’s devotional service, and that absorption is another form of protection.
You boldly proclaimed: “Women should be always protected. Protection does not mean negligence. Protection means to give her all facilities. That is protection.” (Lecture on Bhāgavatam 3.28.18, 27 October 1975, Nairobi)
As pointed out by Viśākhā Devī Dāsī, your brilliant spiritual daughter in her astute writings, Śrīla Prabhupāda protected his spiritual daughters by
- educating us about our true identities as spirit souls
- engaging us in devotional service, a process by which we can attain liberation from death and rebirth, the ultimate protection
Today I had the good fortune to meet with several godsisters, and each one of us expressed our gratitude to you for saving us from the material world and introducing us to Kṛṣṇa consciousness through your loving guidance and protection. Thus, we remain always joyfully in your debt.
With all of the sincerity that I have in my heart, I gratefully remain your eternal dāsī,
Mālatī Devī Dāsī