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Women are different to men... They have a different role in society

• Subject: Women are different to men... They have a different role in society
• From: Douglas F
• Date: Fri Jun 09 08:57:57 1995
• Message-Id: id504

Dear Douglas,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate you are not aproaching the issue
emotionally and are prepared to accept a man's body is different to a woman's body
and they therefore have different duties to perform...

In fact a man's brain is also different from a woman's brain [this is completely
scientifically testable.. Women have smaller brains than men... It's a biological
fact.] Men have more ability to think analyticity and women think more
intuitively...

These ideas are VERY unpopular at the moment but what can I say? It is the way it
is. I have included the following article for your information, please consider
the content carefully and tell me what you think. I know it is completely against
the current views of society but are the current views of society heading us in
the right direction. Is the world becoming a nicer place to live in?


                   Women's Liberation Revisited
                   ============================

Recently I was distributing books at Town Hall station and there was a large rally
of feminists and their male supporters campaigning for equality and the right of
women to "control their own reproductive systems," or in other words to have their
pregnancies aborted as they desire. I have since been thinking about how these
ideas fit within the Vedic social system and how todays "independent" women could
be accommodated within the Vedic framework, but it seems to be a very difficult
problem.

The Vedic view is that women should never be independent, they should always be
protected. In their childhood they should be protected by their father, after

marriage by their husband and when the husband leaves home by their sons. A women
therefore always takes the position of being protected by a man. This system is
very nice and it stops prostitution within society as women are not free to
associate with any man they like for sex life. They are restricted in their
dealings with men, similarly, men are also restricted in their dealings with
women. These ideas are not at all palatable to todays men and women as the
tendency is men want to exploit women to the maximum degree to satisfy their
senses without being prepared to take any responsibility for protecting and
providing for the women and children. If the women becomes pregnant it's her
problem and she has to either have the child and bring it up as a single mother
undergoing all the difficulties that entails or she has to kill the child by
having an abortion. This is the result of allowing the women independence, they
will naturally be exploited by men and put into such a difficult position. But
there is no social outcry. The men are happy because they can have sex with as
many women as they like without considering the consequences and the women are
happy because generally they want to be exploited by men in this way. Now all the
women want is complete freedom to kill their children at their own free will
because having children would interfere with their "lifestyle."

There has been a marked change in attitudes in Australia even within my memory. I
can remember a time when within a family the parents put aside their own personal
desires and worked for the good of the family. There were many cases of husband
and wife staying together for the benefit of the children even though they were
having    difficulties in their relationship. There was some sense of
responsibility, that we have become parents of these children and now we have a
responsibility to give them a good upbringing. But this has changed. I'm sure
there are still many caring families out there but I suspect they were not
marching in this feminist rally. This feminist movement is definitely anti-family,
because it attacks the natural relationship between a husband and a wife. It is a
fact that men generally have a domineering mentality and that women generally want
a strong man who can provide for them and protect them (yes I can here you all
screaming now, but what can I say? It is the truth and we can't change it.) So the
system of a women being subservient to her husband and a husband protecting and
providing for his wife and family is not at all unnatural. It is quite a
reasonable model for happy family life. I actually see many, many couples where
the husband has obviously taken the strong role and the wife is serving him. It's
natural. Why turn everything upside-down?

It is not in the woman's interest to become overly strong and domineering if she
is interested in attracting a man. It's a cold, hard fact that generally men don't
want to be dominated by women. It is described in the Vedic literature that the
way a chaste women controls her husband is not by becoming strong and overbearing
but it is by her chastity and service. Any man will be captivated by a wife who is
completely chaste and who serves him very nicely. She will actually control her
husband, not by force but by her attractive womanly qualities.

So what has this all got to do with Krishna consciousness and spiritual life? On
the spiritual platform we understand we are not these material bodies, but we are
spirit souls, eternal servants of Krishna. So on this level we are not men or
women. I am in a man's body at the moment, but next lifetime I may take a women's
body. So I am not male or female, I'm a servant of Krishna. Actually there is no
difference between a man and a women. Our spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada revolutionized the preaching of Krishna
consciousness when he came to America and allowed women to live in the temples and
to preach side-by-side with the men. Srila Prabhupada was criticized by his Indian
godbrothers on one side for allowing this and on the other side, in America, he
was criticized by the feminists because there was still some separation between
the men and the women. So it is a very difficult situation.

Actually the Krishna consciousness movement gives full opportunity to both men and
women to serve Krishna side-by-side, but the nature of the material world requires
that we take some care. The most entangling thing within the material world is the
association of a man and a women. In the Vedas women are called sri or that which
expands, because the association of a man and a women expand the material concept
of life. Therefore for a transcendentalist, association with women has to be
carefully controlled. The system of religious marriage therefore provides a
regulated method for men and women to associate with each other. Everything can be
dovetailed in the service of Krishna, so marriage also can be used in Krishna's
service. If the main business of the husband and wife is to serve Krishna they can
help each other in their spiritual lives and serve Krishna together. They can have

sex life to bring nice God-conscious children into the world and raise them as
pure devotees of Krishna. Such family life is truly auspicious and in such a
family the service of Krishna will be everybodies common goal.

Generally, in todays materialistic society, people are working for their own
personal desires. If their desires can be fulfilled in the association of another
person that's alright, but as soon as there is some interruption in the sense
gratification they will immediately break off the relationship and find someone
else to satisfy their senses. This mentality is now very prominent. In the past
people were concerned with their families welfare, their community, their nation
and sometimes the whole world. These philanthropic ideas are now not so prominent.
People are now generally interested in their own sense gratification only. So the
idea we are presenting, that you should give up all desires for personal sense
gratification and simply surrender to Krishna seems to be a quite radical and
unrealistic proposal to many people, but it is what Krishna has said in the
Bhagavad-gita so we, as servants of Krishna, can't say anything else just to suit
the general public opinion.

Thank you. Hare Krishna!

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