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EDITORIAL February 17, 2000 VNN5495 Related VNN Stories The Dangers Of The "Feminist Movement" In ISKCON BY MAHANANDA DASA  EDITORIAL, Feb 17 (VNN) — I would like to offer my humble obeisances to the assenbled devotees..I've been reading some old posts on Hinduism forum that some women have sent that blamed men for all their woes. It's ironic that many of these posts are also sexists, stereotypical, and demeaning to men. To say that "men seem to share a kind of machoism which makes them insensitive and cold." Has no place in the discussions of Krsna consciousness, since an equipoised devotee does not judge people because of their gender and the particular mode they find themselves.
That is seeing the outer body only, and just perpetuates the same old material consciousness to which the woman are saying they have been victims. To use the woman's issue as an excuse to stray from Krsna consciousness and refer to male devotees as insensitive, macho, etc. is not going to wash with those not interested in a woman's agenda and are merely interested in finally ending the whole material consciousness. A saintly woman is secure in her identity as eternal spirit soul, and would not waste time defending her body, or her sex, etc. She would transcendentally understand that in maya there are always dualities and the saintly woman would not struggle against the dualities, but would remain neutral. She would have full knowledge that in the material world there are injustices, but those injustices were not to her, but to her material body that she possessed, and these 'injustices' were perpetuated from another 'body' caught in the three modes of nature, and the living entity within that body was not actually the perpetrator, but like herself, an eternal spirit soul falsely identifying with the actions of their present covering and acting out of ignorance.. Such saintly Vaisnavis would not identify with any material party or in any feminist movement or promote any segment of society based on the identification with any condition of this body. Today I am a man. In a few years a woman. Then a demigod. A dog. A fish. A tree. Then a worm. Then a bat. Then at last a lawyer. So from the vision of a transcendentalist, which of these flickering flashes of changing forms am I going to rally for? Just as I finally achieve success in placing the abused woman on the top of the hill, wham! I am in a man's body at the bottom again. Alas! Krsna Please pick us up from our confused state and place us at the feet of a realized soul. The women of Krsna consciousness should be extra cautious that this focus on feminism does not trick them into again seeing the modes of nature as the reality. The modes of nature may make a man appear macho, but that is not the man. That is just the modes. And that is all that it is. And only a person in conditional consciousness will make judgements about persons based on the modes only instead of the qualities of the soul. That is what our training in Krsna consciousness is for, and anything that is counterproductive to this end shall not bring us to the point of devotional service. All this "reverse-sexism" might lead to a certain segment in society improving their material position, but there is a difference between having an agenda to promote women over men and having a discussion to improve our Krsna consciousness by including the many instructions to and about females with the sole purpose of coming to Krsna consciousness. If men have been wrong in their treatment to women it is because of the strong influence of maya and ignorance. It is due to their lack of Krsna consciousness. They are being compelled by ignorance and are acting on the bodily platform. Identifying with their male bodies, they exploit and mistreat others. But I say that everyone in material consciousness mistreats others, because they do not know the spiritual nature of others. Women too, as much as men, treat others badly, are abusive, etc., when they are covered by materialism. If we just take the side of one faction, and work hard to minimize and blame the other factions or segments of society, then we too are being abusive to others because we are neglecting to give them the real nectar of devotion. We are just filling their ear holes with the descriptions of the temporary activities of the material modes of nature. There is only one cure for the woes of the material world. But foolishly we make attempts at solving our problem by different processes. To scrutinize the faults of men in the hopes of making them change their behavior by "looking" at their maya is another of those methods. Thank God Srila Prabhupada has given us an alternative method of improving ourselves and others. He has given us the transcendental sound vibration that we can, simply by injecting the sound into the ears of hearers, purify such hearers of the ignorance and lack of Krsna consciousness that causes them to act in so many nonsense ways. The world is full of persons acting in ignorance. Abusive men or women are no exception. They are acting against others abusively because they are thinking "I am a man", "this woman is inferior," or "this man is a macho pig who deserves to be punished," because they lack only one thing. That one thing is Krsna consciousness. And to instill that into the hearts of these unfortunate men and women is the greatest welfare work. There is no need to analyze the different discrepancies. It is enough to understand that they are present in every segment of society such as the "macho men," or the "victimized women," etc. It is universal. And there still remains only one real cure. Make them Krsna conscious. Let them hear Bhagavad-Gita, and let them hear the vibrations of the transcendental songs by the pure devotees, and let them hear the glorious pastimes of Krsna. Also,give them prasadam, and invite them to join in all the fun. If we just point out their faults, who will be attracted. Maybe man-haters will be attracted if we hold a meeting to focus on the faults of men, or just macho men will come if we hold a meeting to slander innocent women. But if we do not criticize any segment and make Krsna consciousness open to all and embrace the entire society and welcome everyone, in spite of their faults, then even the greatest abuser can be transformed into a Vaikuntha man in a short time. Let the psychologist do the analyzing. And let the mayavadis and the "not this, not this, not this society" find the faults everywhere. And let the marriage counselors focus on material problems between the sexes. But, let the devotees chant and dance, and serve prasadam, and invite everyone to join, no matter what is going on in their guest's material life due to their past karma. Affectionately Mahananda dasa About the Author  Other Stories by this AuthorRelated VNN Stories Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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