Re: A.C. Bhakitvendenta Swami prabhupada is misogynistic
Originally Posted by
Fenrisbane
Yayvan, I was about to translate from my Swedish copy of the Gita, but fortunately Google led me to an English version on the Internet.
Source:
http://www.asitis.com/1/40.html
My boldface.
While I agree that adultery is morally wrong, I disagree with the general tone of the purport and the message Prabhupada conveys between the lines here. So women are unintelligent and untrustworthy creatures, are they? Surely, in this day and age, we have realized that women are fully capable of taking care of themselves and have mental faculties on par with those of men? The response might be that people irrespective of gender behave irresponsibly without any moral foundation, and that might be true. However, that does not justify the way women are singled out by Prabhupada. While he mentions irresponsible men, the way that is presented is more in the form of a footnote than the brisk warning for "unintelligent" women.
The second boldface is what I find to be the worst though. The way he stresses that women be engaged in traditional religious activities and be prohibited from freely mixing with men feels like a codified manual for domestic abuse.
Om shanti.
Hello there, it is quite amazing that in this age and world people write things like this. This is nothing but male chauvinism. We can find its roots in all religions and conveniently exploited by the male population.
Though there are many stories in the purANas( and the one in B.Upanishad) that apparently teach such a doctrine, their true purport is very different. purANas are not meant to be read like story books at bedtime.
In all shAstras, a male personality refers to the yogi(ni)/sAdhaka. His consort symbolically refers to either the process of yoga, siddhi or certain positive/negative tendencies of the mind/body.
It is only with this meaning that the male domination is emphasised, as the Yogi always needs to be in control his Yoga or siddhis. So the shAstras say that if your wife does not obey you then you can beat her. It means when your mastery over your practice slips away use force and will power to regain the mastery.
But these stories and other smritis have been frequently used to support a whole range of ungodly ideas such as chauvinism and racism. People all over the world made the same mistake. There are still people who look into their scriptural books to know if abusing the wife is allowed or not! If the scripture allows them they do not think twice!!
Guard your Dharma, Burn the Myth, Promote the Truth, Crush the superstition.
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