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The book “Did Srila Prabhupada Want Women Diksa Gurus?”

Reviews:

Bir Krishna Goswami (ACBSP): “I suggest the GBC members peruse this book, which is a pretty definitive study with a lot of good insights about the FDG [female diksa-gurus] issue.”

Urmila devi dasi (ACBSP): “What an incredible book. I believe this answers just about everything and considers every angle about women being gurus.”

Akruranatha Das (ACBSP): “Wow, that is quite a thorough refutation of those opposed to women becoming diksa gurus in ISKCON . . . such a carefully researched and cogently expressed presentation . . .  I think that any truly open-minded devotee curious about this subject will conclude that this book has resolved the issue once and for all.”

Ragatmika-devi dasi (ACBSP): “I must say, I was extremely impressed by your conviction to support Srila Prabhupada’s vani and mood and, consequently, to identify so many contrived concoctions born of prejudice and fear. I read the book in almost one sitting.”

Adarsi das (ACBSP): “I have studied it cover to cover . . . For those philosophically inclined, it’s a pleasure to see learned devotees exchanging philosophical views with proper reference to guru, shastra, and sadhu.”

Visakha Priya dasi (GRS, Vrindavana): “I just read . . . your book on women diksa gurus. I was extremely impressed by your masterful presentation. It is not just powerful but humorous as well. I just could not put it down . . . both the innocent readers and those willing to be educated will certainly benefit from your selfless efforts in compiling this elegantly written thesis.”

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“How to Mess Up Varnasrama – By Underestimating Women & Neglecting Gurukula” Free Book

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the remaining fifty percent of his work was to establish varṇāśrama.

There are two sure ways to ruin varṇāśrama: misrepresenting strī-dharma and neglecting gurukula.

Both are widely practiced today.

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Trust the Potential of Girls – Even “Westernized” Ones

Srila Prabhupada gave the example of seeing what people – both men and women – could become, not only seeing what they are.

The youth he met in America might have been hippies, full of bad habits and confused ideas, but Srila Prabhupada saw the spark, saw that they could become dedicated devotees of the Lord. And many of them did.

I just came across this photo:

M.S.Subbulakshmi

A young M.S. Subbulakshmi (right) and Bharatanatyam dancer T Balasaraswati posing with cigarettes in a photo studio in 1937.

Who would have imagined, seeing her in that studio, a 21-year old dressed in a pajama (why?) and with a cigarette in her mouth, that she would become the celebrated Carnatic vocalist, the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor? She also became the first Indian musician to receive, in 1974, the Ramon Magsaysay award, often considered Asia’s Nobel Prize, with the citation reading “Exacting purists acknowledge Srimati M. S. Subbulakshmi as the leading exponent of classical and semi-classical songs in the Carnatic tradition of South India.”

She was also the first Indian to perform at the United Nations General Assembly, in 1966.

M.S.Subbulakshmi

Her singing was so appreciated that the year after her death in 2004, the Government of India honored her with a stamp.

M. S. Subbulakshmi on a 2005 stamp of India

M.S. Subbulakshmi was also known as an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara. Her rendition was crucial in making the Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham and Annamacharya kirtanas universally loved. She sang the Suprabhatham for HMV Records and transferred all the royalties to Lord Venkateswara.

She had started learning the kirtanas at the age of 63 and started recording in a year. She donated the royalties from the recordings Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), royalties that by 2006 had already brought in 15 crores of rupees.

In 2006 the Tirupati Urban Development Authority installed her bronze statue on a prominent city junction (practically, you can’t visit Tirupati and not see her statue).

I had the chance of hearing her live singing at the ISKCON Rathayatra in Chennai, in 1997, the year she stopped giving public performances.

Who would have imagined that that girl in a pajama with a cigarette in her mouth would get so far – both materially and spiritually?

We need to believe in the potential of everyone, boys and girls – even if they appear at present absorbed in material distractions. Everyone is a soul, a part and parcel of Krishna, and pure devotional love is in everyone heart. Of course, not every smoking girl will become a great devotional singer with her statue in Tirupati, but our duty is to remain open to see what everyone can become, and fan the spark, even when hardly visible.

That’s real varnasrama.

“You Have to Establish Varnasrama”

These are the words of the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

He spoke these words in Sridham Mayapur, India, on 5 February 1976 – more than 44 years ago.

I wasn’t around. I would join ISKCON some 4 years later, in Italy.

When I joined ISKCON, I didn’t know I was also joining varnasrama – the system of four stages of life and of four broad divisions of occupation – but I did. I was trained as a brahmachari, a celibate student, who focuses on serving the spiritual master. For the first 6 years I mostly distributed Srila Prabhupada’s books, throughout Italy.

Those were simpler years, in one sense. I would get up in the morning, attend whatever morning program was available (in a temple, rented house or traveling situation), chanted my 16 rounds, and after breakfast I would go out, selling books for the rest of the day.

No sociological concerns. No complications. No family or economic responsibilities (whatever I would collect during the day I would tender in the evening). As a little sprouting plant has nothing else to do but growing, I wasn’t concerned about broader issues of organization, social structure or organized interaction among people of different natures.

We were just selling books, from morning to night (and I feel blessed to have been offered this opportunity and experience).

Without fully realizing it, we were broadcasting information on varnasrama, described and prescribed throughout the books we were selling; in the Bhagavad-gita, for instance: “According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me.” (Bg 3.14)

But also in the Srimad-Bhagavatam: “the highest perfection one can achieve by discharging the duties prescribed for one’s own occupation according to caste divisions and orders of life is to please the Personality of Godhead.” (SB 2.13)

And also in the Sri Caitanya-caritamrita: “The varṇāśrama institution is planned in such a way that one will not commit sinful activities.” (Cc Madhya 22.142).

To make a long story short, the “simple” issue of implementing the instruction of Srila Prabhupada in the title (“You have to establish varnasrama”) revealed itself to be very complex, very challenging for ISKCON as a movement, and also the source of intense debate among Srila Prabhupada’s followers on what it exactly means or how to go about it.

This site, along with its companion videos, aims at creating clarity and delineating a clear path forward.

But you may wonder: “Within all the confusion and emotional turmoil surrounding the issue, how can we believe that you are qualified to show ‘a clear path forward’?”

Because I have great teachers.

Because I have studied the topic in depth.

Because I have analyzed the obstacles, at various levels.

And because, actually, over and above whatever psychological hurdle and institutional hesitation, the solutions are extremely simple – and they were already given by Srila Prabhupada.

Thank you for joining me, and many others, in this exciting journey.

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