How did the concept of FDGs creep into ISKCON after Prabhupāda’s lifetime?
- Pressure tactics by senior Western female disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda to establish gender equality in ISKCON.
- Capitulation to the gender equality concept by Western ISKCON leaders and devotee academics who adopted Western academic views.
- Manipulation of the GBC SAC to win approval supporting FDGs without śāstra-pramāṇas, nor any direct instruction from Prabhupāda to do so.
How the idea of FDGs violates Prabhupāda’s teachings:
- Prabhupāda wrote in his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (SB 4.12.32 purport), “being a woman… Sunīti could not be Dhruva’s dīkṣā-guru.”
- “Women are like children…” (Bhagavad-gītā 16.7 purport) – so making them leaders of society contradicts this outlook.
- “Women cannot properly utilize freedom, and it is better for them to remain dependent.” – The Laws of Manu (TLK verse 5). If a woman cannot properly utilize freedom, how can she be a dīkṣā-guru?
- “Just like our women, Kṛṣṇa conscious… they don’t want equal rights with the men… they are cleansing the temple and cooking…” (SP conversation at Rome, May 1974).
Prabhupāda envisioned women as working in their constitutional position as housewives, not leaders of society or the ISKCON institution.
Considerations of Varṇāśrama and Brāhminical Duties
- Certain occupations are for men, and women’s role is as an assistant.
- “Therefore, according to Vedic system, a boy born in a brāhmaṇa family, he is allowed all the saṁskāras … but the girl is not… because a girl has to follow her husband…” (Śrī Śrī Rukmiṇī Dvārakādiśa Deity installation, July 16, 1969, Los Angeles).
- “In the scriptures it is stated… A qualified brāhmaṇa must be expert in the occupational duties of a brāhmaṇa.” – Purport Caitanya-caritāmṛta (CC Madhya-līlā 4.87; similarly SB 6.7.35).
- “Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, is this school for women also, or just for men? Prabhupāda: For men. Women should automatically learn how to cook, how to cleanse home. Satsvarūpa: So they don’t attend varṇāśrama college? Prabhupāda: No, no. Varṇāśrama college … for the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya… they (women) are śūdra.” (Prabhupāda at Vṛndāvana, March 14, 1974).
- “Vaiṣṇava is not so easy… varṇāśrama-dharma should be established to become a Vaiṣṇava.” – Māyāpura, 1977.
- People must be trained according to the different varṇāśrama occupational duties… people should be trained to become Vaiṣṇavas through the system of varṇa and āśrama. (Purports SB 9.10.50, 5.19.19, 4.14.19 & 1.17.9).
Initiation and Women
- Initiation is for men to become brāhmaṇas, so not for women.
- “So rajas-tama, generally, that is the quality of woman. And man can become to the platform of goodness. Therefore initiation, brahminical symbolic representation, is given to the man, not to the woman. This is the theory.” – SP, Los Angeles, Sept. 22, 1972.
- “Although born in a brāhmaṇa family, one becomes a brāhmaṇa only after initiation and the sacred thread ceremony.” – CC Madhya-līlā 15.108 purport.
- For women marriage is the only saṁskāra – Manu 2.67.
Conclusion: What is to come, if ISKCON adopts FDGs?
- ISKCON will be seen by the Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas as a pariah.
- ISKCON will violate the teachings of Prabhupāda. If Prabhupāda had desired FDGs, he would have taught it. He did not. Prabhupāda’s statement that “according to śāstric injunctions… women cannot be dīkṣā-gurus” will be violated (SB 4.12.32).
- The introduction of FDGs is akin to the ṛtvik initiation concoction.
- Prabhupāda didn’t delineate/outline/teach that a system of FDGs be established in his purports, lectures, conversations, and letters.
- There is no śāstric injunction supporting FDGs. In fact, śāstras prohibit women becoming FDGs, as allowing FDGs violates the principles of varṇāśrama-dharma, where the duty of women is to serve their husbands (SB 6.18.33–34) and act as homemakers, as the Vraja-gopīs were described (SB 10.44.15). Despite being cowherd women engaged in mundane affairs, they are described as Lord Kṛṣṇa’s topmost devotees. They did not violate the established varṇāśrama traditions and principles.
- Violating śāstric injunction makes one a sahajiyā (SP’s conversation, Māyāpura 1977).