Practically the whole of North America is misled.
This gender equality concoction promoted by the United Nations is artificial and simply polluting everyone’s mind, including many of our rank and file devotees, and, unfortunately, many of our ISKCON leaders.
It is a very simple thing, very simple thing.
Śrīla Prabhupāda never appointed mātājīs in positions of leadership, never.
Śrīla Prabhupāda always stressed that women need to be protected, that women are meant to be dependent, not independent, that women should be married.
During Śrīla Prabhupāda’s time there were no female GBC members. As recalled by His Holiness Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, Śrīla Prabhupāda stated that if Yamunā Devī Dāsī (one of the most senior female disciples at the time) were not in a female body, he would have appointed her as a GBC. He did not.
During Śrīla Prabhupāda’s time there were no female Temple Presidents. When Yamunā mātājī became separated from her husband Guru dāsa because he had taken sannyāsa he allowed her to look after an āśrama or Center with only women. He did not appoint her as a regular Temple President.
During Śrīla Prabhupāda’s time there were no female Property Trustees appointed by Śrīla Prabhupāda.
In the last year of his manifest pastime when, due to his poor health, Śrīla Prabhupāda selected senior devotees to act as ṛtvik, and who later after his disappearance would become regular gurus, he did not select any mātājīs.
This false gender equality that is rampant in the western world is not supported in Vedic culture. It is a major deviation.
Śrīla Prabhupāda did not give sannyāsa initiation to any of his female disciples. He clearly stated that women cannot take sannyāsa.
In the Vedic culture traditionally a sannyāsī is one who becomes a guru. Forbidding women to become sannyāsīs should be understood as forbidding women to become gurus.
Had Śrīla Prabhupāda felt that men and women are equal, why did he maintain all these distinctions.
In the Vedic system of daiva varṇāśrama dharma that Śrīla Prabhupāda very much wanted to establish, only qualified brāhmaṇas can take sannyāsa. A qualified brāhmaṇa means one who has received the sacred thread or upanayana and afterwards has taken education and training in gurukula.
Śrīla Prabhupāda forbade women to take sannyāsa. This means women are not technically brāhmaṇas as they are not awarded the sacred thread and thus are not qualified to give the sacred thread to anyone as they themselves never received it. They cannot give dīkṣā. śikṣā they can give, but not dīkṣā.
His Holiness Śivarāma Mahārāja and others who oppose this appointment of female dīkṣā gurus are correct in wanting to uphold the sanctity of the Vedic culture.
There are no female dīkṣā gurus within the Śrī Vaiṣṇava sampradāya.
There are no female dīkṣā gurus within the Śrī Madhva sampradāya.
There are no female dīkṣā gurus within the mainstream Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sampradāya.
We are putting the cart before the horse. We have yet to understand the basics of daiva varṇāśrama dharma.
Until and unless the leaders of ISKCON thoroughly discuss the many pertinent and foundational instructions given by our Founder Ācārya Śrīla Prabhupāda, and supported by śāstra, relating to daiva varṇāśrama dharma, they should refrain from venturing into uncharted territory and thus risk to totally dismantle Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission which is already on a major mission drift.