by Pranada devi dasi

Dhanistha Prabhu wrote to the GBC in the 70s about the women’s parties. She never received a response. Saudamani Prabhu and I wrote you in 1988, asking that women be allowed again to give Bhagavatam classes. We never received a response. In 1990 I sent a proposal that women be allowed to give Bhagavatam class. Though women were not being allowed to give class in most temples, I was told that no ruling allowing women to give class was required, as no ruling denied women the right to give classes. For the last three years, the Women’s Ministry has asked for time at the GBC meetings, and that request has been denied each year. Over the years, women around the world have stated their troubles to members of the GBC and to other leaders. That the GBC has not dealt with the issues year after year is troubling.

Our simple request has been that women be protected and allowed to take part in activities Srila Prabhupada allowed. Despite the grief we’ve endured, we maintain a sincere desire to be Srila Prabhupada’s followers and stay faithful to his society. In return, we’ve been scorned and labeled feminists, prostitutes, troublemakers, and women’s libbers.

Over the past ten years, as women have started revealing a piece of ISKCON history all but unknown to many, we’ve heard many stories of Srila Prabhupada’s engaging women in kirtana in front of their Godbrothers, including sannyasis. Srila Prabhupada asked women to give classes even in the presence of qualified, senior men, again including sannyasis, and in even in India. Women offered Srila Prabhupada his guru-puja arati. He asked women to offer dandavats, and sometimes insisted they offer them. He insisted that his leaders give women equal opportunity for Deity darsana and japa in the temple. He engaged women in managerial work, even when men protested. He said that men unwilling or unable to work side by side with their Godsisters should go to the forest. But that was not proper renunciation, he said. He wanted us to work together to preach.

Your Godsisters sitting with you now can give you abundant details of specific events, dates, places, etc. when these activities took place. They had the good fortune, under Srila Prabhupada’s care, to engage in all the services most women in ISKCON are currently denied. Additionally, you can refer to Jyotirmayi Prabhu’s paper, “Women in ISKCON in Prabhupada’s Times,” which was given to you three years ago, and which is still available from the Women’s Ministry.

Prabhupada’s daughters have testified to these events again and again. One response I’ve heard questions whether these examples are still applicable today. Visakha Prabhu addresses this doubt in her paper “Prabhupada’s Ladies and Soul Concerns,” where she points to the harmonious understanding of bhakti and varnasrama.

Another response questions whether these examples are applicable in India. One Indian manager wrote, “The local devotees however feel that some activities are traditionally not acceptable for those in women’s bodies to perform in Mayapur due to the prejudice of the local Gaudiya Maths and brahmanas.  They have researched and cannot find anywhere where women doing public Deity worship in an established temple was allowed by any of the four Vaisnava Sampradayas bona fide branches.  So Mayapur doesn’t want to be criticized for breaking with tradition. . .  So in India there is a public-opinion problem if women do public Deity worship. . . . Mayapur is the world spiritual headquarters and we are compelled to not change things for our local situation unless Mayapur gets some clear evidence in sastra about it.”

From my casual reading I’ve found evidence to the contrary:

In Rasika Mangala, Gopijanavallabha dasa relates the story of how Syamananda dasa appointed  Rasikananda’s wife, Iccha Devi, head priest of the temple in Gopiballabhpur. Pisima Gosvamini is known to have worshiped Murari Gupta’s Gaura Nitai Deities in a temple in Vrindavana. There are amazing stories of how the Deities insisted on her worship. In Orissa, male devotees came from all over to hear Gangamata Gosvamini lecture on the Bhagavatam.

Prasanta dasi knows of a Madhvacarya Math in South India where women have been taking part in the worship of salagram sila at the math’s temple for hundreds of years.

Kusa Prabhu can tell you about Bhagavadiya Shree Goswami Indira Betiji of the Vallabha Sampradaya, who lectures all over the world. Wherever she goes she takes her Thakurji with her. She daily does Thakurji seva. She has her own temple, Giriraj Mandir, in Baroda, where she worships Giriraj. She worships Gopala, Srinathji, in the Pusti Marg headquarters at Nathdwar, Rajastan, with the approval of the Tilikyt (the leader of the Marg).

Malati will tell you that Prabhupada asked her to speak in Mayapur. And, of course, Yamuna can give you more examples.

Srila Prabhupada wanted a women’s singing Gita-gan party to travel all over India.

Harikesa relates a pastime in On Social Issues, page 280: “In 1973 in Mayapur, Srila Prabhupada and one of his Godbrothers were sitting on a vyasasana together. The Godbrother had brought his whole math, and Srila Prabhupada asked one of the ladies, Saradiya-devi dasi, to please give a lecture. Everyone was shocked: ‘A woman giving a lecture?’ In Mayapur, that was unheard of. But she gave a good lecture and Srila Prabhupada was appreciative. . . ”

These examples in Vaisnava sampradayas and in Prabhupada’s preaching show that it is not against tradition for women to worship, speak, and sing in public. Women have performed and continue to perform these activities in India.

As for the argument that ISKCON does not want to disturb the Gaudiya Math or local pandas, I question the logic of wanting to please the Gaudiya Math at the expense of following Srila Prabhupada’s example. Srila Prabhupada is a powerful acarya of the sampradaya. He proved by practical example the basic spiritual premise that Krsna consciousness is not a question of the body.

In some ways, Prabhupada’s preaching broke free of tradition to enable everyone, regardless of birth, to take part in Krsna consciousness. We all gratefully acknowledge this innovation as one of Prabhupada’s most outstanding contributions to the world. If we don’t follow his example, we dim the brilliance of his preaching and change his contribution to the world.

On the opening day of the Krsna-Balaram Temple, when Prabhupada was most keen not to disrupt local pandits, he still had Laksmimoni dasi dress Gaura-Nitai. Why did he do this? He wanted to pacify the pandas up to a point, but that didn’t mean he was going to change the authorized way he was engaging his disciples, men and women. Srila Prabhupada had a woman go on the altar—and it wasn’t due to a lack of men in Vrndavana–even on that significant day.

Why would Prabhupada ignore conventions of our sampradaya if they needed to be upheld? More important, why do we need proof from our sampradaya to support Prabhupada’s own example? Why do we need approval from the Gaudiya Math? Srila Prabhupada himself did not seek approval from the Gaudiya Math in asking Malati or Saradiya or other women to speak in front of the Gaudiya Math visitors in Mayapur.

Srila Prabhupada was proud of his Western devotees. He was happy to see them open and run temples in India and eventually initiate. He did this in the face of opposition and criticism, especially in India and from the Gaudiya Math. His activities were often against public opinion.

ISKCON leadership hasn’t found it necessary to seek proof from sampradayas to support Prabhupada’s engaging Western men born in the families of mlecchas and yavanas in Deity worship or speaking on the Bhagavatam.

It is to Srila Prabhupada’s immense credit that as an acarya he included women in all devotional activities, disregarding social conventions. It will be to our credit if, as his disciples, we boldly support and defend his vision and behavior and by example prove the brilliance of his actions. Rather than hinder preaching, we will attract people from all over who want to see–if only out of curiosity—women preach on Bhagavatam, lead kirtana, and worship the Deity.

I have heard devotees say that women’s issues are just coming from America. This statement aims to minimize the seriousness of the issues, but it is simply not true. The Women’s Ministry regularly receives inquiries from women all over the world—Europe, London, Australia, South America, India, Africa—asking how to deal with the sexism, abuse, hatred, and intolerance they experience daily. Fearing repercussions, they might hesitate to speak openly, but if things don’t improve, they certainly will.

The day Kulaja dasi left ISKCON, she told me that she would instigate the Murphy vs. ISKCON lawsuit to send a message to the men of ISKCON about the treatment of women. I know how much Kulaja painfully struggled with this issue, because I was with her every day during her last year in ISKCON. Since that time, other women have considered lawsuits, but I have dissuaded them. And I have heard of other women convincing Godsisters not to take legal action against ISKCON.

Sitting here today are just a few of your exalted Godsisters. The injustices they’ve endured include being kicked in the stomach by a Godbrother while offering him obeisances, being spit on, being struck with a danda; being raped while on a woman’s party, and more. Each of these women has suffered many abuses. Women all over ISKCON have had similar experiences. The list of abuses is long and ugly.

I can’t even begin to tell you of the psychological damage my Godsisters have suffered. A large number of them are impaired. They are demoralized. They can’t confidently preach to women to join ISKCON, fearing what these new devotees might have to go through. They feel anxiety, or depression, or a lack of self- worth.

Few women remain to tell their story, since so many have left ISKCON because of the abuse. Many hearts have been shattered.

I have generalized based on speaking with hundreds of women from around the world over the past 25 years. I’ve not gone into details, because I don’t want to put all the abuses into writing. If necessary, they could be more fully documented, but I think you can get a clear picture by simply hearing from the women attending the GBC meeting.

The problems are still going on. Sudharma and others can give you examples of how women continue to struggle with sexism and hatred every day.

I am compelled to make a personal comment. Something has disturbed me for a long time. It is most amazing to me that a society that has been predominantly managed by men who witnessed the civil rights movement in the United States could do to their spiritual sisters what was done to African-Americans. I had thought that anyone with any conscience at all would recognize and never again tolerate hate, denigration, discrimination, or abuse toward another human being after being part of that time in history.

This is my simple request: Respecting your Godsisters and daughters, give us the same dignity to live in ISKCON that Srila Prabhupada gave us. We want to fully participate in our spiritual family. To accomplish this will require international policies that allow us to take part. It will also require caring leaders who, after leaving this room, will explain to the devotees where we went wrong and how to properly respect and protect women so that our participation is guaranteed.