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EDITORIAL  Sannyas For Women? BY TARA DASI EDITORIAL, Feb 7 (VNN) — Dear Vaishnavas and Vaishnavis, Dandavat-pranams. Shri Shri Radha Govindajiu ki jai! Recently I read some articles on the internet by various devotees about women taking sannyas and I felt compelled to write some thoughts about this. I am not an accomplished writer, but I simply want to say what is in my heart. Frankly speaking, I am shocked that anyone could consider such an idea that women are fit for accepting sannyas. If a man feels that women are fit to take the renounced order of life then it appears to me that such a man knows very little or possibly nothing about the real nature of women. Possibly he may also not know about the qualifications and difficulties in living the life of a sannyasi. If a woman thinks that she is fit for sannyas, or that other women are fit for sannyas, then honestly speaking from the perspective of a woman, I myself think that she is lying to herself. According to shastra, acharyas and Vaishnava tradition since the Vedic times when people were much more qualified than they are today, women never took the renounced order of life. Particularly in our modern times, when Prabhupad Shri Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarawati Thakur introduced tridandi sannyas into the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya, we see no trend for women to enter the sannyas ashram and he had many qualified women disciples (my thakur-ma amongst them). Some persons may argue that women are equal to men and if a woman is renounced enough and intelligent enough she is a fit candidate to take sannyas. My opinion on this is that men and women are not equal ö they are distinctly different in their qualifications, in their character, in their thinking and in their necessities. According to shastra a woman has two exalted qualities ö shyness and chastity. A woman who has intelligence as well as shyness and chastity is respected by all classes of people throughout the world. Such a woman would never wish to take sannyas but would remain satisfied in her natural position. But if a woman has intelligence but lacks these two important qualities of shyness and chastity, then she is never satisfied in her natural position and always wants to occupy the position of others. This is the negative side of the nature of women, (matsarja). Such women cannot make spiritual advancement. What I find disturbing about the issue of women and sannyas is that according to the law of averages, if three men and three women of western dissent were to discuss this matter of women's fitness for sannyas, it would be doubtful if any of the six had ever lived a strictly moral life before or even after having become an initiated Vaishnava or Vaishnavi. This is a well-known fact from the rate of divorce, open promiscuity and even child-abuse prevalent in western societies. In my humble opinion, the western Vaishnava devotees should first try to live up to the normal standard of morality before they attempt to restructure the whole Vaishnava culture. We humbly suggest to our western devotee brothers and sisters that they should take heed of our Vaishnava culture in Bengal and not try to thrust their Americanized version of Vaishnavism and women's liberation upon the rest of the world. Humbly Tara Devi Contact VNN about this story  Send this story to a friend
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