By B. V. Tripurari Swami http://www.swami.org/sanga

Question:      I came across a passage in Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita that disturbed me very much. The purport to Bg.1.40 reads, 'As children are prone to be misled women are similarly very prone to degradation.' Later in the purport Prabhupada says, 'According to Canakya Pandita, women are generally not very intelligent and therefore not trustworthy.' The Gita verse itself is acceptable but when it is followed by these other two statements, it starts looking like female bashing from some harsh, male dominated viewpoint.

Answer:     These apparently sexist statements (and there are some others in the Bhagavatam as well) have to be balanced with the way in which Srila Prabhupada engaged women in Krsna's service. He gave them positions of responsibility, and in spite of what he wrote here and there that might be considered sexist today, all of his female students loved him dearly as he did them. The statements themselves arise out of a particular cultural background, that of 19th century Calcutta, and India's ancient Vedic traditions.

Prabhupada's Gita commentary was written over 50 years ago. Had he written his commentary today, it may very well have been different. He would have taken the social and cultural climate of the times into consideration. Prabhupada was in fact very flexible and very liberal minded. Within Gaudiya Vaisnavism he took revolutionary strides to improve the status of women and engage them in spiritual culture. His comments of 50 years ago do seem conservative and somewhat insensitive to today's postmodern worldview. But we have to identify Prabhupada with his spirit of making Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings relevant to today, and do that ourselves with his blessing, and go on from there offering our pranams at his lotus feet again and again.

Here is my rendering of Bg.1.40, the verse under discussion, from my upcoming Gita commentary: "O Krsna, descendent of Vrsni, when irreligion increases women are taken advantage of, and when women are abused this gives rise to inappropriate mixing between men and women from different castes producing unwanted children."

I did not write any commentary on this verse because I felt it was apparent that the text itself refers to times gone by. Although it is certainly true that when irreligion increases women can be taken advantage of, in today's world women can also take advantage of men. Inappropriate mixing between men and women does often produce unwanted children. This section of the Gita extols the virtues of family life, that which is vital to a healthy a society. It should be understood in this way.

Otherwise, the argument raised here by Arjuna is one of many arguments he raises in the Gita based on material considerations in order to justify not doing Krsna's bidding. All of these arguments are refuted by Krsna when he takes the discussion to the level of the soul in the second chapter. The conversation between Arjuna and Krsna begins in chapter two, and the subject is the soul.

From there the discussion moves to the engagement (yoga) that will enable one to realize the soul from selfless action (karma yoga) to knowledge, meditation, and ultimately bhakti. This is followed appropriately by the theology of the Gita in chapters 7-12. Chapters 13-18 further explains the knowledge that is relevant to self realization and God realization discussed in brief in the first six chapters. In chapter 18 the conclusion of the Gita is given, one that reiterates the concluding remarks of chapter nine.

In short, the Gita has nothing to do with whether or not women can be trusted. Trust me. Prabhupada trusted his women disciples, and his male disciples often proved untrustworthy. Canakya Pandita's remarks may have been wise during his time, but they are not spiritual and thus subject to reconsideration.