Prabhupada's House for the Whole World
by Dhanistha dasi
Posted December 20, 2002

Dear Chakra,

Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I am the old Dhanistha dasi, a Prabhupada disciple since 1973 so to many who know me from times past this may be quite an eye-opening letter coming from me, as I unfold some vulnerability in front of Chakra's ever-increasing ever-colorful Vaisnava audience. But this is really long overdue on my part and I apologize to those who could have well used the support and encouragement much sooner of older Vaisnavis and third gendered devotees. I have been honest for many years now personally, but not on such a large and thus vulnerable forum as this one. May our beloved Lord bless us all with bigger and bigger hearts of transcendental compassion and bhakti.

I clicked on to Chakra today having not been here in some time and found an amazing transformation taking place. The climate seems more transcendentally peaceful, the air more sweet with the beginnings of open truths. In speaking on the quality of brahminical broad-mindedness not cripple-minded, I am seeing here the potential at least for a greater wave of realized compassion to come wash over us all and cleanse each heart not only of pain but of wielding pain on others. These hearts, all our hearts, as we know each personal experience in our own way, are scarred with debilitating wounds, undue condemnation, and misunderstanding. My heart and the hearts of thousands of third gendered Vaisnavas/Vaisnavis has withstood a long test of tortured endurance, often times of excruciating loneliness, and unnatural silences. We have both stifled our own potentials to serve and we have been forcibly stifled. So like the potential of the brain to become a little lazy when only using a small percentage of its capacity, we quiet camoflauged third gendered have often not fully tapped into nor even appreciated our own devotional potentials and sometimes we grow a bit lazy from this. So please forgive me that for years in this area, I have been lazy and fearful.

For the most part, as Gaurachandra dasi so gently and intelligently revealed in her letter, many third gendered did not survive the tribulations of our history together. So I express deep gratitude Chakra, for your expansion of spiritual embrace making these efforts to include everyone as a potential occupant for living productively in "Prabhupada's House for the Whole World" as full spiritual beings no matter what particular room we may occupy while here. I also thank you kindly for your accomodating the voices of a vastly populated (we are everywhere) unheard sector of our Vaisnava society so that crimes born out of ignorance but nevertheless hurled against innocent souls may eventually be done way with entirely for the ultimate welfare of everyone.

I don't need to say more myself here for now because as I see it and as it has been my life too, Amara prabhu and Gaurachandra prabhu have eloquently stated points of third gender with carefully chosen humble empowered and truthful words and with profound living examples. I deeply thank them both for their committment to serving the devotees and the Mission of Lord Chaitanya in this most timely and beneficient way.

With much love and prayers,
Dhanistha dasi