By Brahma prabhu – http://www.swami.org/sanga

Question:      I am responding to your recent article on Chakra. I cannot argue with you about the premise of your article that the spiritual master is not governed by the scriptures. However, I am quite stumped by your concluding remarks that the spiritual master might also violate some of the rules laid down by his own acharya. This where I have no reference from Srila Prabhupada or Srila Sridhar Maharaja to support your proposition. You know I accept totally the authority of both. I am nobody. Nothing. A very insignificant fool. I have no qualifications to stand as judge of Tripurari Maharaja who is exalted in my view.However, I am just personally feeling extremely let down that one of my most respected Godbrothers and disciple of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Sridhar Maharaja, one of the few heroes I have, is disappointing me with this talk about giving sannyasa to women. Is he prepared to live under the curse and scorn of many devotees, including other Sannyasis, who do not agree with giving sannyasa to women? Why would he feel the need to act so controversially in the face of a Krishna consciousness movement already in turmoil? I have always respected and revered Tripurari Maharaja as one of the great hopes of the Krishna consciousness movement in the Western world. However, I'm lost on the issue of giving sannyasa to women. That does not mean that I will not respect and revere Tripurari Maharaja if he gives sannyasa to women. It just means that I do not agree with him on the issue. I personally have no plans or desire to ever formally accept sannyasa in the movement.

I have assigned myself the lower position of informal devotion of the lower order. I personally have no taste for any kind of formal position in the Krishna consciousness movement. I just want to live my senior years out in humble bhajan in India. But I am not convinced that any sannyasi disciple of Srila Prabhupada has the right or authority to introduce the practice of giving sannyasa to women. A spitual master might not be governed by the scriptures absolutely, but I am not so sure that same rule applies to direct instructions of Srila Prabhupada to his disciples.

I think women should be given a good ashram to advance spiritually, but I don't think that giving sannyasa to women is required. They can wear white and live like nuns. Taking sannyasa seems almost like something lesbian women would want. Most devotee women like being ladies and would never dream of wearing saffron and carrying a danda. I think that there would be some accompanying curse with breaking the tradition of the Gaudiyas of not giving sannyasa to women. Sounds risky, controversial, DIVISIVE and outrageous.

Answer:      Dear ********, dandavats!

Swami Tripurari currently has no plans to give sannyasa to women. On the previous sanga he was responding to a woman who asked for logic as to why women cannot take sannyasa. Logically there is little reason why women could not take some type of sannyasa adjusted to their nature and our modern world of equality. They already have a renounced order that is accepted and is practiced by thousands of women in Vrndavana and elsewhere. What they don't have is the respect given to the danda and saffron cloth and the opportunity to preach that goes with that respect. Other than that they can be and many are as renounced as any sannyasa. Many are great preachers as well.

In regards to sannyasa in general and women in the movement, Prabhupada did change many of the standards set by Bhaktisiddhanta and Sridhara Maharaja did as well. Prabhupada taught that preaching had dynamic application and showed by example that one should make adjustments in presentation according to time and circumstances.

Of course there would be an outcry over any change in standards set by Prabhupada just as there was an outcry over the Sridhara Maharaja / siksa guru issue twenty years ago. There will always be an outcry over change but in this regard Sridhara Maharaja was fond to quote Hegel and his philosophy of (thesis verses antithesis equals synthesis). So regardless of outcry change must and will come in order to make Krishna conscious teachings more relevant in the modern world. Bhaktivinode-Bhaktisiddhanta-Bhaktivedanta-Sridhara Maharaja, all advocated practice and preaching adjusted to the environment.

The question we must ask ourselves is this: Are Prabhupada’s prohibitions against women, including those about women and sannyasa meant to be considered absolute into eternity regardless of ever-changing culture and times?

The sympathy of modern culture flows in favor of women's struggle of equality. Are we to stand against the current of that struggle and further loose sympathy for our message over an issue as relative and external as that of sannyasa? The sannyasa ashrama is cultural and socio-religious, it is not a fundamental principal of Krishna consciousness. Prabhupada said there are details and principals and that details may be adjusted to deliver the principal. The principal is hearing and chanting about Krishna. Sannyasa is a detail and not an essential principal of Krishna consciousness.

Hare Krishna, Brahma

Here is how Swami replied to the question posed on Chakra:

Women and Sannyasa part 4