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In early 2018, members of Pandava Sena, a dynamic group of devotees in England, asked me to make a presentation on women in Srila Prabhupada’s Hare Krishna movement. To be frank, this is not one of my favorite topics, but in a spirit of cooperation I agreed and began my research. Tension around this topic developed among devotees in the early 1970s. It has been discussed and written about as a subject of great concern since that time, and it remains so today.
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| | Srila Prabhupada left us a powerful, encompassing legacy, and the Vaishnavis in his movement are an integral aspect of that legacy. One may ask, Why is it that although the Hare Krishna movement has been around for more than fifty years, we’re still sorting out this major aspect of our culture? Well, a number of factors contribute to the dissension perpetually swirling around this topic. Among them are:
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| | * Male/female psychological tendencies: men tend to feel superior to women; women tend to defer to men.
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| | * When we came to Srila Prabhupada’s movement we brought with us different cultural, societal, familial, and personal expectations about what men and women can and cannot or should and should not do.
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| | * Our understanding of Srila Prabhupada’s statements, example, and mood related to women vary widely.
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| | * We may mistake some past and present values and customs of traditional India as Vaishnava values taught by Srila Prabhupada.
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| | * The sexual attraction between men and women - we overlook or minimize it at our peril.
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| | With these major complexities it’s no wonder that we haven’t worked this issue out over the past fifty years. Yet for the future of Srila Prabhupada’s movement, it’s vital that we develop a mature understanding of the issue - that we work it out and thereby insure that every person in Srila Prabhupada’s movement thrives. Toward that end, we offer this booklet with the prayer that it’s true to Prabhupada’s mood and teachings.
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