Times have changed. Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami was born and grew up in an age in Bengal which could almost have been a different planet than today's modern India. When I was first in India 30 years ago, to see an Indian girl in western dress was unusual. Unmarried girls wore salwar kurta, and married women wore saris, unless they were Muslims or were from the northern states. The ladies of Prabhupada's era wore the Bengali style of sari, which is very modest.

I remember that in Vrindavan 30 years ago brahmin women would wrap a white shawl over their saris if they went out -- even in summer. Today in the big cities the sari is dying, and unmarried girls parade in jeans and shirts. To see the old ways vanishing in the name of modernism and women's rights is perhaps sad for some, but it is the way of ongoing kali-yuga. It is an interesting irony that nowadays in India only the Muslims seem to follow the old ways of female modesty and gender segregation that had been a part of Indian culture.

An old friend of mine, a working woman from Delhi, was talking to me about the sad demise of the sari. If you are working, commuting and earning a living in today's fast-track India, a flowing, modest sari, beautiful though it may be, is just too difficult to do anything in. Female modesty has more or less disappeared from India; was it ever there in ISKCON? Well, it is not easy for western females to gain a modest mindset when they have grown up in a world that teaches that modesty in body or mind is a weakness. Of corse, we must appeal to all Vaishnava women never to confuse modesty with weakness.

Undoubtedly, women in india have been oppressed for millennia; this is undeniable. In the name of Vedic or Hindu culture, women have been exploited; this is not even debatable. One who has spent a lifetime in India, as I have done, will know the truth, but perhaps we should not, in the name of freedom and human rights, throw out the baby with the bath water. We must also accept a new reality.

Do we want to go back to 19th century Bengal? While women "knew their place," they were slaves, for sure, and no Hindu, whether Vaishnava or Shaivate, would even touch a Westerner unless there were water for purification. Hindus and Muslims were slaughtering each other; if you were "negro," you were not even considered human; and if you were "lower caste," you were actually untouchable -- so things have changed.

It is depressing that the real problems facing us and the world are never discussed. I think we should be more concerned about saving our planet and stopping an evil, bloody war in iraq (where some Vaishnavas are actually serving) than getting worked up about non-issues such as so-called "evil gays and feminists" taking over the world. There will always be women, and there wil always be people who are sexually attracted to the same gender (from birth, by the way). Rather than demonising differences, we should accept new realities and compromise to live together despite differences.



No Consequences for Misogynists?
by Name withheld
Posted June 1, 2008

It has now been nearly two weeks (or a month if one counts Dandavats' publication of the minutes of the Mayapura meetings and comments on Resolution 311) since the matter of his disciple's repugnant "Hare Krishna Diary" was brought to Bhakti Vikasa Swami's attention. Plenty of time, one would think, for a contemplative assessment of the incredible damage this blog has done in ways too numerous to even count. But has the worldwide Society of devotees heard one single word of contrition from Maharaja, what to speak of any sort of apology? No. Not a single word. And the "Hare Krishna Diary" goes on and on, taking Srila Prabhupada's statements out of context as an excuse to vilify and oppress women and to insult and alienate numerous other Vaisnavas who strive to serve the sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya.

And now added to the sexist propaganda is this statement from Hare Krishna Diary reader Shivananda dasa (Joshua Minshew) which could even be construed as a thinly-veiled threat: "I have to say that I more than 1000% agree with your position and I have a growing vendetta against these feminists at Chakra.org. I am very angry that those feminists forced you to take down your blog and I am very seriously considering creating a new blog with your old material as well as with material that I have been gathering myself." "Vendetta"? One definition of that word is, "a feud in which members of the opposing parties murder each other."

Therefore, in light of all this, one is left with no other choice than to conclude that Bhakti Vikasa Swami approves of women being referred to as "whores," "prostitutes" and "animals," that he approves of threatening language used against them, and that he approves of how his extremist "teachings" have been assimilated by his faithful disciple and are now being propagated to a worldwide audience via the Internet.

And therefore, one is left with no other choice than to ask, "What is going on with ISKCON?" We as a Society have barely even begun to recover from the same distortions imposed, contrary to the example personally set by Srila Prabhupada himself, by philosophically unsound men in the 1970's.....and again in the 1990's with the infamous and distasteful GHQ debacle. Now, in 2008, we've got ISKCON-authorized "initiating gurus," such as Bhakti Vikasa Swami, who has repeatedly crossed the GBC's radar for similar misconduct, training up a whole new generation of young men with the same distorted and poisonous misogynistic attitudes? And the GBC is allowing it? We have a serious problem here.

Recently on various online devotee news sites, some anti-women comments made by a current ISKCON leader (calling women "toilets") have been highlighted. This brings to light the very recent controversy caused by HG Caitanya Prabhu about the anti-women comments he made on his blog. The question I am going to ask is this: How much longer will blatant sexism and anti-womanism be allowed to continue in ISKCON?

I remember seeing a GBC public statement against Caitanya Prabhu's blog, but what did that really accomplish? What if, in 20 years, Caitanya Prabhu pops up as a guru, long after everyone has forgotten this controversy?

The dangers of anti-womanism are very serious. People who have an anti-woman attitude need to be seriously punished by the leaders of ISKCON. The people who make offensive anti-woman comments should be banned from ISKCON, or at the very least, be banned from holding any leadership or management positions in ISKCON (or giving classes in any ISKCON temples).

What will it take for us to start acting against the dangers of anti-womanism? Perhaps if the women who were abused in the past start filing lawsuits against ISKCON for the abuse they have suffered at the hands of various ISKCON leaders and members, the GBC and leaders of ISKCON will begin to listen to us, and start acting to rid ISKCON of anti-womanism once and for all.

I, for one, am not going to simply sit quietly and be an idle-onlooker while this injustice against women continues to go on. I likewise invite my sisters (and brothers) in ISKCON to speak up and protest against this widespread abuse of women before it's too late.

Otherwise, who knows- you might be the next one who gets abused by these anti-womanists, and then it will be too late. Better to act now so that we can protect ourselves from future abuses.

Let's join together and stop these women-haters before it's too late!



From the Sidelines
by Theist
Posted June 5, 2008

Just a quick thought from the sidelines on this continuing contentious subject that becomes prominent in devotee circles every couple of years or so. I have always thought it strange that today's devotee men have the audacity to demand that devotee women be made to live according to some vedic ideal of what a woman should be, when they themselves are usually anything but the shining example of vedic manhood.

Brothers, have you ever considered that you are not worthy of the respect and devotion that you demand from your mates? Perhaps if you all concentrated more on becoming a true devotee man, giving all protection to your wives and children while guiding and supporting them in their development of Krishna consciousness, then you would gain their respect naturally.

Men are supposed to be the leaders in society by example. So before we ask the question, "Where are all the vedic women?", we must ask "Where are all the vedic men?".

Until then please stop disturbing your sisters as they try to develop their Krishna consciousness.



A Textbook Example of Misogyny
by Radhikacandra devi dasi
Posted May 30, 2008

I recently saw and read some of the Hare Krishna Diary website, sankirtandiary.blogspot.com and was very disturbed by what I read. The author was angrily criticizing so many things. What especially struck me was his blatant misogyny. He was angrily demanding that women should conform to old-fashioned ideas of being like a slave. What if I don't want to just cook and clean for some man, becoming his slave? What if I don't want to be used as a baby-producing machine by some man? This was repulsive to me.

It is very disturbing that there are still people like this in ISKCON. Times have changed, people are not the same as they used to be in the past. If we go around angrily shouting that everyone else should conform to our standards, our preaching will be destroyed. People nowadays are not willing to give up everything and instantly change. We should be tolerant and forgiving, always seeing the good in them, rather than offending them.

If this kind of angry woman-hating, the kind found on the Hare Krishna Diary website, continues to go on, it will very much make it difficult to preach effectively in the modern age. It's people like this who are trying to turn the clocks back and send us all back to the stone age. We've made so much progress, why should we let some angry man demand that we become primitive again?

To attract the modern men and women to our movement, we need to be willing to adjust. Isn't that what Prabhupada meant by time, place, circumstance? If we just ram our philosophy down people's throats, no one will join our temples.

I also noticed that the author of the Hare Krishna Diary made many offensive statements against gays and lesbians. Only such insecure people would say such things against things that they cannot accept in themselves. If the author of that website went to a good psychoanalyst, he could make a lot of progress in giving up his hateful attitudes.