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EDITORIAL March 8, 2000 VNN5638 Related VNN Stories Open Letter To Raghunatha BY PAPAHARINI DEVI DASI EDITORIAL, Mar 8 (VNN) — OPEN LETTER TO RAGHUNATHA (ACPSP) Dear Raghu-ji: I don't have folio to make a decent fair reply, because I would have to just quote Srila Prabhupada where he writes and speaks that women should not be in charge or in management, and it seems these types of instructions are not palatable to the women. If someone has folio then it could be found. The 7th and 8th cantos go into this in purports. Especially those of the 7th canto part 2, Ideal family life, behavior of a perfect person etc.
I'm not a feminist or women's libber; this would be too embarrassing for someone in already a karmicly compromised position. I have, by my own karma and previous attachment for the form of woman or by offenses toward woman while having been a man, taken this lower karmic birth. I have foul, unfortunate karma. My own life, by necessary self reflection, will attest to the fact that women are not independent by nature, and Srila Prabhupada writes that only for 28 days can they be independent, then there may be pregnancy. This is nature's arrangement. This testimony is not to say I have "low self-esteem" as popular mechanics would label. I really appreciate Mahananda prabhu's latest two articles on the "Dangers of the Feminist movement for ISCKON", dated 2/18 and 19 on vnn. These editorials say it without malice toward women as a gender or class. I invite you to read both. The only information I have seen where Srila Prabhupada says women can also be guru (Isn't this what they are really asking for, to become guru, ultimately?), where he says that girls can take the Bhaktisastri (and beyond) and "make disciples". (appearing in Siksamrita volumes, chapters on "higher education", academics) Also, purports where he states that women such as Ma Jahnava were guru and had disciples; but this is even a bigger transcendental issue and didn't happen by appointment- self luminous persons such as Jahnava Devi are appearing as part of an eternal entourage and are not to be compared. I admit, I may be out of the loop on this women's "stuff", because I don't find it helpful. The LARGER issue of yesterday and today for women's protection, concerns surrendering to SP's appointed management in the form of GBC (as women). Survival as a devotee means it is necessary to have studied SP's teachings as a disciple and have used one's discretion as to whether or not they (the GBC) SHOULD be followed (or cooperated with). In regards to their own criminal behaviors and their various deviations from SP's instructions for the future, after his demise, this is the issue that starts at the top and trickles, nay, tumults down on the heads of the rest of the world community- men, women and children devotees. All other problems extend from this. Srila Prabhupada DID NOT APPOINT BHAVANANDA AS A DIKSA GURU I have purposefully stayed out of the women's issues and conferences because unless one comes to terms with their conviction that Srila Prabhupada did not appoint such persons as Bhavananda as a full-fleged Diksa guru, when Srila Prabhupada KNEW of Bhavananda's homosexual deviations and had not made him a GBC, one is making a grave offense to Srila Prabhupada by thinking that he would appoint such persons as Bhavananda, Ramesvara, Bhagavan, Harikesha and so on as anything other than His ritvik representatives. "After my departure" and "henceforward". Henceforward does not denote a temporary stopgap measure until some other time. This system was started by HDG long before his departure, by the use of having TP's and sannyasis chant on beads and perform the fire sacrifice on His behalf. Those senior men such as Pradhyumna and Yasodanandan prabhus who attempted to call those men on the body of evidence left by HDG, began the discussion back in November of 1977. They were stomped on and the ritvik truth was muted and hidden from gurukulis and adults alike for twenty plus years. This supreme deviation of the GBC has them and communities in the institutional spiritual mess currently devastating ISKCON like a flesh-eating virus. My humble understanding is that Srila Prabhupada did not want women in charge, not even in charge of her family. IF there is no husband in charge, no grown son or living father, then surrendering to SP's instructions and cooperating with an ISCKON community is the highest goal. (Unfortunately, I cannot connect with the criminal behaviors and thus become implicated in their offenses, thus I remain only "independent" from them). I could be wrong. I also believe exactly the way this Mahananda prabhu has recently written, and have written editorials of my own that reflect similar- that Srila Prabhupada is an "equal opportunity employer" on the distribution of his mercy. He did so many things differently than previous acaryas including initiation of first and Brahmin second for women; he performed marriages, he accepted the service of women- like their cooking, cleaning, sewing. He treated women as spirit soul and offered his love and compassion, inspite of our American/western cultural dis-qualifications. Don't get me wrong. Of the many women crying "victim", I have also suffered gravely as a youth and in marriage, domestic violence, as have other immediate members, so first hand experience. And, have deviated for periods of time trying to cover pain by alcohol and drugs, but have made decisions to understand and deal with the experiences in a way perhaps different than some. I prefer to think in terms of "I'm not a victim but a volunteer", in the sense that due to karma, I now suffer reactions to previous actions. Not to minimize the hurt and devastation of others, but I have had to believe for my own survival, that if acting "like a woman" with all the negative connotations that can stir is harmful to my progress in KC, then I model the behavior of successful transcendental men and women and aspire to grow or expand my awareness to include those characteristics that would help me along. Those 'characteristics' include but are not limited to- seeing through the eyes of sastra, and a general evidence of detachment from the bodily trappings of family affection. Like the nooses or distractions that women provide to keep the man from going deeply into direct service to his spiritual master, for which family life is a dispensation from. Which, is ultimately where the true pleasure of a Krsna conscious woman is found- in finding inspiration, love and true transcendental shelter in the personage of her husband as a representative of her spiritual master. Thus transcendentally benefiting herself and children by her devotion and cooperation with such a husband. Family life is a distraction from the grave responsibility we took when receiving initiation into the Brahma Madhva Gaudiya sampradaya. There is no time, from what Srila Prabhupada writes and speaks, for the gender issues outside of family matters and roles played in varna-asrama, because he gave women, from the very beginning of his mission in America, the opportunity to live single as bramacarini, just like the bramacari asrama, in the temple asrama, and serve him directly without a husband. Yet another dispensation different than previous acaryas. Again, to save space here- Mahananda has written well and I "ditto" on his account of SP's teachings to us. With aloha, papaharini devi 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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