Is this Vanaprastha or divorce?

September 18, 2003

Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

After that lecture, someone asked about devotees making "mistakes." I was

attempting, with several examples, to define "mistake" and explain the

proper understanding.

Prabhupada defines "mistakes" as doing something sinful. But I pointed out

that Krishna Himself "mistakenly" milked a bull instead of a cow when seeing

Radharani, and Prabhupada said he was going to "New Virginia." So we should

not look for "no mistakes" in that way. Someone in the audience couldn't

understand why Prabhupada's saying "New Virginia" was a "mistake." I asked

if we should teach our gurukula children this as the name of the state

instead of "West Virginia".

I then gave some examples of when Prabhupada would quote from mundane

sources to make a point, when he knew perfectly well that such sources might

well be incorrect. If, in thinking that Prabhupada "makes no mistakes" we

continue to quote those sources after they are shown scientifically wrong

(they were from mundane scientists in the first place) then we are fanatic

fools, blind followers.

I don't dispute that women are less intelligent. What I referred to was

Prabhupada quoting one of his college professors about the size of women's

brains. Sometimes Prabhupada and we, his followers, quote from mundane

sources *whom we know will make mistakes.* Prabhupada did not have much

faith

in modern scientific "truths" so did he think that his professor was

absoultely correct like sastra? No, of course not. He quoted this professor

when preaching to non-devotees who would not accept sastra.

Presently, modern science says that women have about 4 ounces of brain

substance less than men, not 32 ounces. When adjusted for body size, it is 1

ounce less. And, if you wish to determine intelligence purely by brain size,

then the Orientals (Chinese, etc.) have, on average, the largest brains. Of

course, these are averages. When we look at individuals then it is a

different story. And, these "facts" may well be "proved wrong" in the

future.

Therefore, while some devotees will dispute the 32 oz versus 64 oz and call

that Prabhupada's "mistake" my point was that such things are "mistakes"

only superficially. They are *not* mistakes but preaching strategy for

certain people, just as we will quote some government source about the harms

of meat-eating, knowing full well that the statistics we quote may be

"proved" wrong in a year or two. Still, it is not a "mistake" to quote such

people in our preaching. We do not claim their words to be authoritative.

I was trying to explain what is, I suppose, a difficult point about

infallibility and I suppose some truly not so intelligent people either

misunderstood my position about Prabhupada or women or both. What can be

done? People's understanding is based to a large degree upon their own

influence of the modes of nature.

Your servant, Urmila devi dasi

PS I'm sure someone(s) recorded that lecture and you can judge for yourself.

PPS I've written several articles on women's position which can also be

easily accessed.

-

"Damana Krishna (das) JPS" <Damana.Krishna.JPS (AT) pamho (DOT) net>

"Manjari Dasi" <manjari_dd (AT) hotmail (DOT) com>

Cc: "ISKCON India (news & discussion)" <ISKCON.India (AT) pamho (DOT) net>; "Bhaktarupa

(das) ACBSP (Bhubaneswara - IN)" <Bhaktarupa.ACBSP (AT) pamho (DOT) net>; "Urmila (dd)

ACBSP (ISKCON School NC - USA)" <Urmila.ACBSP (AT) pamho (DOT) net>; "Praghosa (das)