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Women as a Subhuman Species?
By Nandarani devi dasi

Women have a different role than men, but they are equally valuable. In our movement we seem to be taught that women are a subhuman species, less than complete, because more of their strengths are interior and of the nature of sacrifice.

Exalted spiritual states involve complete sacrifice, which is not even taken as such - so women have good practice as do those men who by nature take a similar approach to life.

It is OK that men teach and preach - women also teach, in their way. But you have to have a great deal of humility to see in what way they teach, and appreciate the input.

No man who is on a high platform distinguishes within his heart between men and women. We have the inborn right to be fully who we are without feeling that we must force ourselves into a box of what is less. By which I mean: subhuman, not fully human.

It should not be dangerous to join ISKCON for a female, and I shouldn't have to feel sorry for the young girls pictured in Hare Krishna World, fearing for their future and painfully aware of their naivete.

Things will get better, though, I know.

We females seem to be an "inward" sort of orientation. But it's just as challenging, complex and full as yours. Some cultures call the sun female and the moon male, but the moon reflecting light seems quite accurate to me.

Spirituality would seem to come to the individual from strength exerted in the face of obstacles outside and in. This strength, positive force, carries from life to life. The more serious one gets, the stronger the force. And the greater the bliss. If I am any example, my bliss gets greater as time goes along. I feel freer and more and more of the barriers go down to my own fulfillment spiritually. Although they would be nice this has not required a man or children right with me.

Barriers imposed from levels of thinking and categorizing tend to build fences where none are useful in the quest for spiritual enlightenment.

Enlightenment and true spirituality involve an enormous amount of humility. I don't claim to have it, but on some level I like sacrificing whatever reputation I (don't) have and not caring about what other people think.

The more I do that, the stronger I get. I recommend.

Being relegated to the back of the temples is discouraging in a way some men may not fully appreciate. Put yourselves in our position without shame - women are merely representatives. We are in training for unconditional love - and the fact that we are very intelligent just makes the situation more exquisite, or acute.

In the beginning of the movement, Srila Prabhupada was available to both his men and women disciples and you can see pictures of women walking right beside him. But much more common are the later photographs taken after men had closed in and, in the words of one male devotee, "suffocated" Srila Prabhupada.

Reality comprises the left-brain man type thinking and the synthetic female type - even science has found that women have a larger connection between right and left hemispheres than men do, in general.

So, we cannot hurt others with impunity or minimize the enormity of what we, unwittingly, are doing when we remove the heart from our supposedly personalist movement.

I know it is a challenge when you are learned. It sounds like a cliché but when will we make an effort to see things through another's eyes?

Many people are afraid of what is different and foreign. We need, with all humility, to develop an appreciation for the wonder and variety of creation and types of human beings.

I truly believe that each different type of human being has a special exalted gift and it was a desire of an individual to give that particular gift which caused incarnation into say, a black body. I've read all the stuff Srila Prabhupada said, and I used to try to justify it. But in my actual dealings with black people I find them very wise in a very special way. So finally I have to go with depth.

I believe in people being fully who they are, without fear or shame - because only in such a state can they discover and give gifts.

If I were black, my hair would be natural, and I would possibly be an activist. If you were black, would you feel ashamed? Does all this seem irrelevant to you?

Your servant,
Nandarani devi dasi
(Nandarani Evans)
Honolulu, Hawaii

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