Feminism, Chauvinism, Body-ism

It was Srila Prabhupada who first exposed the trickery of wicked men to impose upon women that they are free and self-sufficient. We are informed from the Vedic scriptures that NOBODY is free or independent while being strictly controlled in this material world by its stringent laws. The arrogant and impudent assumption that we should declare our independence on all levels of our actions, intellectual, emotional and physical, is a rather bizarre idea.

It was the men’s idea to lure women out of the protective environment of home and family so they can be enjoyed in plenty as much as it was later on the women’s idea to pay the men back for their exploitative ways of dealing with them. Sex is the main theme of the production and reproduction mechanism this world is powered by.

Due to sex impulse, when not regulated, women become more powerful and men become weaker. They all meet each other being dominated by bodily consciousness, becoming the losers of this game for dominance. Just because there are so many stupid men in this world doesn't make women more intelligent.

All this is conducted with one unifying type of stupidity: all participants of this never-ending game believe that we are this body, totally ignoring our spiritual constitutional identity. Where lust dominates, there is no room for rationality.  And so the absolutistically minded preachers of democracy, humanism and socialism in a fascist way march on, making everybody believe it is the body and only the body we should work for.

As the pendulum moves from one side to another, men claim their dominance only to be consequently humiliated by female conquerors in the form of sex life. Men have a plan, and women have a strategy, both becoming losers in their hopeless strive to enjoy this body and its extensions, ultimately facing death. Graveyards are filled with remnants of those, male or female, who lost this game and sacrificed their bodies in service of illusion.

Embarrassingly, even some of those who claim to be followers of Srila Prabhupada pathetically declare their independence and pretend to be liberal friends of anybody who is already victimised by bodily consciousness. Women can do what men cannot do, and men can do what women cannot do. If properly situated and engaged within devotional service according to their propensities, they can create a beautiful and productive harmony, sharing the blessings of the Supreme Lord. This transcendental logic never applies to those who are entrapped by bodily consciousness, and so the pendulum swings from one side to another. Finally, women will always be the losers as the men claim their dominance in the society of today built on technocratic profit-seeking business principles. Being emotionally far more vulnerable, females are prone to being cheated over and over again by cunning men who know the art of seduction.

This cruel game can be stopped only when everybody becomes aware of the futility of enjoying this body and the need to strive towards the final goal: returning back home, back to Godhead. Even living as our original transcendental body, a mystery for materialists, we find male and female design, but it is without the material qualities of envy, competition and desire for name, fame and glory.

All this we saw demonstrated during Srila Prabhupada's presence when everybody was fully absorbed in preaching on behalf of His Divine Grace. My service was occasionally surpassed by a mataji, a highly respected Vaisnavi, who was distributing at certain points Srila Prabhupada's mercy more effectively than I could ever do.

My respect for the service done by these amazing female-bodied servants of His Divine Grace remains intact until today.

Even more so, it is embarrassing when I find men or women of my generation returning to the gross bodily consciousness, finally claiming again their bodily identity. This is a disgrace for anybody who claims to be Srila Prabhupada's follower, like Srila Prabhupada, while clearly defining on sastric grounds women to be "less intelligent", had only the highest praise for those women who sacrificed their lives in the service of the mission of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

It is here, in the field of preaching, we can meet on an equal transcendental platform, putting aside our bodily identities, and it is here we can equally benefit from the blessings bestowed upon us by the guru parampara. Outside of this field we can only witness how in an embarrassing way we become befooled by the illusory energy of the Lord preachers of bodily consciousness manifesting in the form of „in the healthy body there is a healthy soul“ or „women are more qualified than men“. United in stupidity, we become a sad testimony of our mediocrity and ungratefulness towards the wonderful gifts we received from Srila Prabhupada. 

As many women cannot be the masters, men cannot either. With women exhibiting their motherly serving nature and men exhibiting their protective nature, all regulated by the duties and rights the varnasrama dharma culture provides, we can work in a cooperative spirit, protecting and helping each other to progress towards the ultimate goal, to return to our original destination, the place we have fallen from.

One should abstain from association with those who enhance our bodily consciousness and embrace the association of those who are capable of helping us to become aware of and consequently regulate our bodily propensities. It is a question of desire and intelligence which kind of association we embrace. Even the greatest cynic and non-believer follows a greater cynic and non-believer. We have to accept guidance, and we will follow somebody one way or another. The question is whom we choose to follow.

Everything is clearly defined by Srila Prabhupada, and as the deviations of some of his so-called preachers are becoming truly gross and evident, we should avoid their association. Foolishness and stupidity are infectious, and so are impersonalism and populism propagating them. We should abstain from such „fools and rascals“, as Srila Prabhupada used to call them, men with „fertile brains“ seeking distinct status, men who always feel the need to shine in public light while inventing „something new“. There is nothing "new" on the material plane; we will find only the ever-repeated forms of bodily consciousness in the form of eating, sleeping, mating and defending.

The real progressive and innovative life can be found on a spiritual platform, which can be experienced by active engagement in the preaching mission of Srila Prabhupada without any populistic and fashionable ideas.

It is an urgent need to preserve the original heritage Srila Prabhupada left behind.

Lies and divinations come in plenty; truth is only to be found in the form of tapasya, austerity. This is the reason why lies are always popular and truth appeals only to very few.

We didn't come to Krsna Consciousness to be cheated; we came here to find a place free of hypocrisy, pretence and selfishness.