Pro-FDG devotees, who belong to the “gender equality gang” including a Swamiji from Russia, state that “vaishnavis” – female/women devotees of Lord Krishna are “better” then “ordinary women”. Thus they should not be referred to as “women” or “females”, and doing so is some sort of offense.
If that is true, then Srila Abhaychararavinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is “the first offender”!
How is that? Well, he wrote (and/or spoke):
a. “Within this world, Caitanya Mahāprabhu had three and a half very confidential devotees. The three were Svarūpa Gosāñi, Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Śikhi Māhiti, and Śikhi Māhiti’s sister, Mādhavīdevī, being a woman, was considered the half.”
[From Prabhupada’s purport to CC Adi 10.137]
b. Here is a difference between male and female that exists even in the higher statuses of life — in fact, even between Lord Śiva and his wife. Lord Śiva could understand Citraketu very nicely, but Pārvatī could not. Thus even in the higher statuses of life there is a difference between the understanding of a male and that of a female. It may be clearly said that the understanding of a woman is always inferior to the understanding of a man. In the Western countries there is now agitation to the effect that man and woman should be considered equal, but from this verse it appears that woman is always less intelligent than man.
[From: Srila Prabhupada’s purport to SB 6.17.34-35]
c. Yogeśvara: So here’s a problem: The women today want the same rights as men. How can they be satisfied?
Prabhupāda: Everything will be satisfied. Just like our women, Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are working. They don’t want equal rights with the men. It is due to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are cleansing the temple, they are cooking very nicely. They are satisfied. They never said that “I have to go to Japan for preaching like Prabhupāda.” They never say. This is artificial. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means work in his constitutional position. The women, men, when they remain in their constitutional position, there will be no artificial . . . (indistinct) . . . (loud traffic noises)
[Srila Prabhupada’s Morning Walk @ Rome, Italy, on May 27, 1974]
d. “Kardama Muni followed the Vedic injunction that no one in sannyāsa life can have any kind of relationship with women. But what is the position of a woman who is left by her husband? She is entrusted to the son, and the son promises that he will deliver his mother from entanglement.”
[From Prabhupada’s purport to SB 3.24.40] – Kardama Muni’s wife was Devahuti, one of the exalted women in the Bhagavatam.
Why is it that Prabhupada referred to even the most exalted women in vedic literature are “female” and “women/woman”, and NOT “vaishnavi”?
Post view 376 times
Leave a Reply