 | Not long ago, a traveling preacher came to Alachua and mentioned one purport in what I felt was an imbalanced way. That purport is: “Here is a difference between male and female that exists even in the higher statuses of life—in fact, even between Lord Siva and his wife. Lord Siva could understand Citraketu very nicely, but Parvati could not. Thus even in the higher statuses of life there is a difference between the understanding of a male and that of a female. It may be clearly said that the understanding of a woman is always inferior to the understanding of a man. In the Western countries there is now agitation to the effect that man and woman should be considered equal, but from this verse it appears that woman is always less intelligent than man.” (SB 6.17.34–35)
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| | Let us try to balance this statement with others from the Srimad-Bhagavatam:
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| | “Kindly let me know the whereabouts of that beautiful woman who always saves me when I am drowning in the ocean of danger. By giving me good intelligence at every step, she always saves me.”
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| | “PURPORT
There is no difference between a good wife and good intelligence. One who possesses good intelligence can deliberate properly and save himself from many dangerous conditions... if one gets a chaste wife, accepted through a religious marriage ritual, she can be of great help when one is threatened by the many dangerous situations of life. Actually such a wife can become the source of all good intelligence. With such a good wife, the family’s engagement in the devotional service of the Lord actually makes a home a grhastha-asrama, or household dedicated to spiritual cultivation.”
(SB 4.26.16 verse and purport)
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| | “... A person who does not have a chaste wife accepted by religious principles always has a bewildered intelligence.”
((SB 4.26.17 purport)
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| | “A wife is therefore supposed to be an inspiration and should keep the husband’s intelligence in good order so that they can combinedly prosecute the affairs of family life without impediment.”
((SB 4.27.2 purport)
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| | “Srimati Vindhyavali said: O my Lord, You have created the entire universe for the enjoyment of Your personal pastimes, but foolish, unintelligent men have claimed proprietorship for material enjoyment...”
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| | “PURPORT
Bali Maharaja’s wife, who was most intelligent, supported the arrest of her husband and accused him of having no intelligence because he had claimed proprietorship of the property of the Lord.”
(SB 8.22.20 verse and purport)
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| | And from Srila Prabhupada’s own example: “Alex and his wife came to visit Srila Prabhupada and to inform him of their activities... His Divine Grace encouraged them... ‘This is intelligence-according to time and circumstance, try to push Krishna consciousness. You have to see in which way they will be able to accept. Your wife has understood – very intelligent girl. Dadami buddhi-yogam tam. [Bg 10.10 To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.]’” (TKG’s Diary, July 1977)
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| | “From among themselves they selected Guru dasa to be the temple president, since he and his wife, Yamuna, were the most active preachers. In fact, Yamuna was doing as much or even more than her husband. Though it was normally the function of the president to recommend new devotees for initiation, Prabhupada had so much faith in Yamuna’s opinion that upon her advice alone he was accepting the three new devotee girls from France as his disciples.” (Servant of the Servant, TKG, 9)
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| | Visala das: “I brought my wife to Bombay with me and I said to Srila Prabhupada in front of her, ‘Srila Prabhupada, the brahmacaris for years have kind of criticized the women, saying they’re less intelligent, their brain is smaller, they’re lustier, things like that. Is that true?’ And Srila Prabhupada’s answer was, ‘You are chanting Hare Krishna and your wife is chanting Hare Krishna. Where is the question of being less intelligent?’ I remember reading in Caitanya-caritamrta in Prabhupada’s purport, ‘The women in our movement are preaching. Therefore, they are as good as their brothers.’ Then I said to Srila Prabhupada also, ‘Srila Prabhupada, I understand that the husband is representative of the spiritual master and the wife is representative of her husband. Srila Prabhupada, should she do everything I ask?’ And Srila Prabhupada said, ‘And you should be so arrogant?’” (Following Srila Prabhupada DVD 6 March–April 1974)
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