Hare Krishna,
Pls forgive me for the below question. I ask this question not out of Ego but purely to clarify my doubts
Certain texts in the books of Srila Prabhupada indicate women to be low born as compared to men. Why so, please explain.
Example in Bhagvad Gita
TEXT 32
TRANSLATION
O son of Prtha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth--women, vaisyas [merchants], as well as sudras [workers]--can approach the supreme destination.
The books also specify that attraction to women is the biggest distraction for a devotee. why is it not specified generically as attraction to the opposite gender which then becomes applicable to both men and women.
Pls forgive me incase this question has offended anyone. Request the devotees to not misunderstand my query. I truly appreciate Srila Prabhupadas books and sincerely read them. However, I always had these questions on my mind. Hence, seek clarifications from advanced devotees.
Regards,
Karishma
Replies
I think Srila Prabhupada is implying that men over-intellectualize everything, whereas women more naturally are in touch with their feelings. Because ultimately Krishna Consciousness is all about pure love, he is saying that women have an easier time of this, where sometimes for men their biggest obstacle is to truly get in touch with their feelings. Hare Krishna!
Hare krishna Mihir Prabhuji
Just to add more substance to the quote you mentioned from Krishna book..
I hope you have read the story of Brahmana's wives. The so called most intelligent Rishis failed to recognize Supreme Lord though Lord himself has sent his friends to ask for some food. However supposed to be less intelligent (womans) then those Brahman rishis immediately recognize Krishna as the supreme Lord and eagerly rushed to meet him with lots of Food as an offering.
On spiritual level the intelligence of soul is same whether the soul is in female clothes or male clothes. Off course materially women are less intelligent as described in scriptures.
So it seems if women take to KC seriously, no power can stop them from love for Godhead.
SB 10.23.20-21
"Although the ingredients of sacrificial performance — the place, time, particular paraphernalia, mantras, rituals, priests, fires, demigods, performer, offering and the as yet unseen beneficial results — are all simply aspects of His opulences, the brāhmaṇas saw Lord Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary human because of their perverted intelligence. They failed to recognize that He is the Supreme Absolute Truth, the directly manifest Personality of Godhead, whom the material senses cannot ordinarily perceive. Thus bewildered by their false identification with the mortal body, they did not show Him proper respect."
PURPORT
The ritualistic brāhmaṇas could not understand why the sacrificial food should be offered to Lord Kṛṣṇa, whom they considered an ordinary human being. Just as a person with rose-colored glasses sees the entire world as rose-colored, a conditioned soul with mundane vision sees even God Himself as mundane and thus loses the opportunity to go back home, back to Godhead.
SB 10.23.3: [Lord Kṛṣṇa said:] Please go to the sacrificial arena where a group of brāhmaṇas, learned in the Vedic injunctions, are now performing the Āńgirasa sacrifice to gain promotion to heaven.
SB 10.23.4: When you go there, My dear cowherd boys, simply request some food. Declare to them the name of My elder brother, the Supreme Lord Balarāma, and also My name, and explain that you have been sent by Us.
SB 10.23.5: Thus instructed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cowherd boys went there and submitted their request. They stood before the brāhmaṇas with palms joined in supplication and then fell flat on the ground to offer respect.
SB 10.23.6: [The cowherd boys said:] O earthly gods, please hear us. We cowherd boys are executing the orders of Kṛṣṇa, and we have been sent here by Balarāma. We wish all good for you. Please acknowledge our arrival.
SB 10.23.7: Lord Rāma and Lord Acyuta are tending Their cows not far from here. They are hungry and want you to give Them some of your food. Therefore, O brāhmaṇas, O best of the knowers of religion, if you have faith please give some food to Them.
SB 10.23.8: Except during the interval between the initiation of the performer of a sacrifice and the actual sacrifice of the animal, O most pure brāhmaṇas, it is not contaminating for even the initiated to partake of food, at least in sacrifices other than the Sautrāmaṇi.
SB 10.23.9: The brāhmaṇas heard this supplication from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, yet they refused to pay heed. Indeed, they were full of petty desires and entangled in elaborate rituals. Though presuming themselves advanced in Vedic learning, they were actually inexperienced fools.
SB 10.23.10-11: Although the ingredients of sacrificial performance — the place, time, particular paraphernalia, mantras, rituals, priests, fires, demigods, performer, offering and the as yet unseen beneficial results — are all simply aspects of His opulences, the brāhmaṇas saw Lord Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary human because of their perverted intelligence. They failed to recognize that He is the Supreme Absolute Truth, the directly manifest Personality of Godhead, whom the material senses cannot ordinarily perceive. Thus bewildered by their false identification with the mortal body, they did not show Him proper respect.
SB 10.23.12: When the brāhmaṇas failed to reply even with a simple yes or no, O chastiser of the enemy [Parīkṣit], the cowherd boys returned disappointed to Kṛṣṇa and Rāma and reported this to Them.
SB 10.23.13: Hearing what had happened, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord of the universe, simply laughed. Then He again addressed the cowherd boys, showing them the way men act in this world.
SB 10.23.14: [Lord Kṛṣṇa said:] Tell the wives of the brāhmaṇas that I have come here with Lord Sańkarṣaṇa. They will certainly give you all the food you want, for they are most affectionate toward Me and, indeed, with their intelligence reside in Me alone.
SB 10.23.15: The cowherd boys then went to the house where the brāhmaṇas' wives were staying. There the boys saw those chaste ladies sitting, nicely decorated with fine ornaments. Bowing down to the brāhmaṇa ladies, the boys addressed them in all humility.
SB 10.23.16: [The cowherd boys said:] Obeisances unto you, O wives of the learned brāhmaṇas. Kindly hear our words. We have been sent here by Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is passing by not far from here.
SB 10.23.17: He has come a long way with the cowherd boys and Lord Balarāma, tending the cows. Now He is hungry, so some food should be given for Him and His companions.
SB 10.23.18: The wives of the brāhmaṇas were always eager to see Kṛṣṇa, for their minds had been enchanted by descriptions of Him. Thus as soon as they heard that He had come, they became very excited.
SB 10.23.19: Taking along in large vessels the four kinds of foods, full of fine tastes and aromas, all the ladies went forth to meet their beloved, just as rivers flow toward the sea.
SB 10.23.20-21: Although their husbands, brothers, sons and other relatives tried to forbid them from going, their hope of seeing Kṛṣṇa, cultivated by extensive hearing of His transcendental qualities, won out. Along the river Yamunā, within a garden decorated with buds of aśoka trees, they caught sight of Him strolling along in the company of the cowherd boys and His elder brother, Balarāma.
HARE KRISHNA MATA JI!
HARI BOL
JAI SRILA PRABHUPADA, ACHARYAS, VAISHNAVAS AND LORD!
NITYANANDA GAURANGA
There are four categories of people who live as per scriptures:
Jnana: Mostly men are jnanis or discuss on impersonal vedanta. Some woman also are known but still as per jnana, male body is more fit.
Ashtanga yoga: Many yogis are male bodied. It again shows that control of breath and mind is more easy in male bodied souls.
Karma: Sinful and pious
If women engage in sinful activities, they will create more havoc than men. Because they bring progeny in this world. When women are polluted, whole clan or dynasty is polluted. Therefore, it is said that they are 8 times lusty.
If women engage in pious activities and perform her duties, then they are more pious than men. Because whole dynasty's purity and chastity depend on her. Therefore, if a woman is controlled by a husband in mode of goodness, both will progress and especially woman.
Bhakti: It has very less to do with material bodies. A non-devotee is always condemned. But devotee is always glorious.
First of all, a devotee is very humble. She/he never compete with others.
Secondly, Women bodied souls prove to be better devotees as they are more engaged in chanting, taking care of Vaishnava children, deity worship, cooperating with devotee male bodied husband. She purifies the whole atmosphere.
http://www.vaniquotes.org/wiki/Men_and_women_%28BG_and_SB%29
Both men and women are responsible for bondage or liberation. In SB Canto 1, Srila Prabhupada says we can just help our relatives. But each individual has to advance personally just like Draupadi.
From karmi point of view, yes women are more sinful, more easily seduced but from Bhakti point, they easily follow spiritual master and rules.
I am neither in support of so-called women's liberaration, nor in support of male domination in godless environment.
Both men and women advance, if they are devotees. Both are entangled, if they are materialists.
So, degree of progress or degradation may very due to different body and mind and intelligence.
HARI BOL
I live in the USA, where women for the most part have equal rights and opportunities as men. I was raised to always highly respect women, and all through my childhood, my teenage years, and my adult life, have had deep, platonic friendships with women. In Kali Yuga, people no longer have the roles that we read about in the scriptures. I think this is why Srila Prabhupada was so accepting of women in ways that previous acharyas could not be.
Society in my country is now even more vastly different than when Srila Prabhupada was here, which requires that much more leniency and freedom to be given to woman devotees in this culture. We can strive to apply varnashram ideals to our society as much as possible, but everyone must realize that this IS Kali Yuga, and things will be drastically different no matter how much we apply Vedic culture.
Forgive me for speaking bluntly here, but I feel that I must say this. I have become a very balanced and understanding person from having close friendships with women my whole life. Sex does not ever even cross my mind when talking to any woman, even my wife. I have always been blessed since a young age with very little sex drive to begin with, but now as I grow older ( I'm 37) I have barely any sex drive at all. My wife and I even have separate bedrooms.
The hardest regulative principle for me to follow has always been intoxication anyway, not sex. And because I spent so many years abusing drugs, my karma has caught up with me health-wise. My body is much older than it should be for someone my age. I have terrible heart problems, arthritis in my neck, and chronic back pain. I suffer very much physically because I wasted all of my youth abusing drugs.
And from a lifetime of observation, I have to say that in my experience, men and women are equally lusty, they just have different ways of expressing it. As devotees, we must always remember that we are not these bodies! Male, female, it makes no difference. Both have equally hard obstacles to overcome on the path of devotional service. To say that a man or a woman has it easier or harder than the other is simply not realistic. Everybody faces a unique set of challenges in life, it matters not what kind of body we have.
I apologize if anyone found this offensive. This is just how I view things from my perspective. Hare Krishna!
Very nice, Please pray for me that I can also overcome lust as You did
Are men superior in your movement?... Are men regarded as superior to women?
Expressions researched:
"Are men regarded as superior to women" |"Are men superior in your movement"
Contents
[hide]Conversations and Morning Walks
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Female Reporter: Swami, I saw a television program about your movement once, and they said that the men make the decisions and the women follow. Is that true?
Prabhupāda: I do not follow.
Śrutakīrti: She hears that the men make the decisions and that the women follow these decisions.
Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. We follow the decision of Kṛṣṇa, men and women both. We follow the decision of Kṛṣṇa. That is applicable both men and women.
Reporter: Are men superior in your movement, though?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Reporter: Are men regarded as superior to women?
Prabhupāda: Yes, naturally. Naturally, woman requires protection by the man. In the childhood she is protected by the father, and youth time she is protected by the husband, and old age she is protected by elderly sons. That is natural.
Female Reporter: That goes against the thinking of a lot of people in America now. Do you know that?
Prabhupāda: No... America, maybe, but this is the natural position. Women require protection.
Female Reporter: Who decides who's natural? And what's natural?
Prabhupāda: Natural means just like in psychology it is said that woman, the highest brain substance of woman is thirty-six ounce, whereas the highest brain substance of man is sixty-four ounce. So there is difference by nature, of the brain.
Female Reporter: Well (laughter), to get to something else, what do you do for fun when you're in New York?
Prabhupāda: Huh? What is that? I...
Śrutakīrti: You have defeated her.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Female Reporter: (laughs) But I'm not going to pursue your line of logic. And what do you do for fun?
Prabhupāda: No, that is natural defeat. You cannot avoid it. (laughter)
Female Reporter: I can't what?
Devotee: You cannot avoid it.
Female Reporter: Again, what do you do to have a good time in New York?
Prabhupāda: A sixteen-years-old boy can travel all over the world, and it is very difficult for a sixteen-years-old girl to travel all over the world. (pause)
Reporter: Thank you, Swamiji.
Prabhupāda: Thank you. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Devotees: Haribol! (break)
YES ITS TRUE THAT WOMAN CANNOT BE RESPECTED AND CONTROLLED AS IT IS STATED IN SCRIPTURES. BUT ALTHOUGH THIS IS KALIYUGA, WE ARE IN GOLDEN AGE OF HARINAMA SANKIRTAN. SO, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN SHOULD TRY TO SPREAD LORD CHAITANYA'S MISSION AND SRILA PRABHUPADA'S WISH. BUT AS FAR AS MATERIAL LEVEL IS CONCERNED, THERE ARE CERTAINLY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE BODY AND FEMALE BODY.
I REQUEST EVERYONE TO VISIT THIS SITE:
http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Category:Questions_On..._Gender
JAI SRILA PRABHUPADA
HARI BOL
MATA JIS AND PRABHU JIS!
I THINK I SHOULD HAVE EXPLAINED MY STATEMENT.
WOMEN OTHER THAN ONE'S WIFE ARE SAID TO BE RESPECTED AS MOTHERS AND SISTERS.
THERE ARE MANY QUOTES IN SCRIPTURES ABOUT THIS. INDIA HAS DEGRADED TOO MUCH. I HAVE SEEN IN SEX SITES THAT MANY PEOPLE RAPED THEIR OWN SISTER-IN-LAWS, AND MANY ARE MORE DEGRADED(I DO NOT WANT TO MENTION) BECAUSE I HAVE SUFFERED FROM LUST BADLY FOR 3 YEARS.
WHO CONSIDERS OTHER WOMEN AS MOTHERS AND SISTERS?
THATS THE MEANING OF THE FIRST WORD- RESPECT. THEY ARE NOT RESPECTED LIKE THAT IN KALIYUGA.
SECONDLY, CONTROLLED MEANS PROTECTED AND ALSO MINIMIZING MODE OF PASSION AND IGNORANCE. BUT WHICH WOMAN WANT TO BE CONTROLLED NOW BY HUSBAND OR FATHER?
VERY FEW. THATS THE MEANING.
ALKA MATA JI! WITH MY DUE RESPECT I MUST SAY THAT THIS SITE IS TO INCREASE KRSNA CONSCIOUSNESS, NOT TO BOOST FALSE EGO BY SHOWING ONESELF SUPERIOR.
BUT ANSWER IS THAT ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURES, WOMEN ARE CONTROLLED BY PASSIONS, WHILE MEN BY LOGIC. BUT THIS NEED NOT BE TRUE IN KALIYUGA AS THIS AGE POLLUTES AND CONTAMINATES THE QUALITIES FOUND IN EVERY SPECIES.
ALSO, COW IS IN MODE OF GOODNESS. SO SHE IS ALREADY PURE. WOMEN LIKE GURU'S WIFE AND CHASTE WIVES COMMAND RESPECT AND I GIVE THEM THAT FROM HERE.
WOMEN ALTHOUGH MIGHT ARE DOING SAME WORK AS MEN NOW BUT MANY THINGS HAVE NOT CHANGED. HER BODILY FEATURES ARE SAME. HER INTELLIGENCE MIGHT HAVE INCREASED FOR WORKING OUTSIDE HOUSE BUT SHE IS NEGLECTING CARING OF HER CHILDREN. EVERYONE HAS A DUTY TO FULFILL. IF IT IS DONE TO SATISFY SUPREME LORD CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU, THEN ALL ARE AS GOOD AS A TRANSCENDENTALIST. I HAVE MY MOTHER WHO ALWAYS PRESENT NEW EXCUSES TO CONTINUE MEAT EATING. I HAVE A SISTER WHO FEELS BORED WITH TEACHINGS OF GOD.
ALL WOMEN ARE NOT SAME, NOR ALL MEN. BUT THOSE ARE IN MATERIAL MODE OF GOODNESS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR GETTING RESPECT. ACTUALLY, LORD KRISHNA SAYS PRIDELESSNESS IS FOUND IN MODE OF GOODNESS. SO, THAT MAN OR WOMAN WILL NEVER ARGUE FOR SUPERIORITY WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SERVICE OF LORD KRISHNA OR EVEN SELF-REALIZATION.
PLEASE DON'T FEEL HURT. HARE KRISHNA NITYANANDA GAURANGA
JAI VAISHNAVAJAN
JAI ACHARYAS, HOLY NAMES, BHAKTI DEVI AND LORD WITH HIS ENERGIES
Hare Krishna Subham prabhuji
Thank you for your explanation.
Prabhuji , I already accepted that men are born in higher species then women. The question here is not about superiority. It was about respect. On spiritual level even Sudras/animals should be respected since the same Lord whom you worship is present personally in their heart as well.
Since you generalized the statement without any explanation, I wanted an explanation.
Thank you for your clarification.
Jai shree Krishna
May Krishna bless you.
Thank you for explaining yourself. This is a much more clear statement. Thank you, prabhu!
Ah Shubham! Once again you have the perfect quote for the occasion! You are doing a good service here by providing the right information at the right times. Keep it up and may Lord Gauranga-Krishna bless you in all that you do! Hare Krishna!
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