Get tough policy...dress code

[Guest guest]

> One devotee wife in the ISKCON Bangalore congregation told me that her

> uptown "friends" rebuke her if she comes to a party even in Punjabi dress,

> what to speak if she wears a sari. She said that they tell her, "Why are

> dressed like that? You look like a servant girl!"

 

She can reply "Yes, I am a servant girl. Jivera svarupa haya nityera

Krsna dasa (i)."

>

> The clincher is that they consider it posh to wear a T-shirt and jeans.

 

And as Srila Prabhupada said:

 

"A woman who has no husband declares herself independent, which means that

she becomes a prostitute. A prostitute generally dresses herself in various

fashions intended to attract a man's attention to the lower part of her

body. Today it has become a much advertised fashion for a woman to go almost

naked, covering the lower part of her body only slightly, in order to draw

the attention of a man to her private parts for sexual enjoyment. The

intelligence engaged to attract a man to the lower part of the body is the

intelligence of a professional prostitute."

SB 6.5.14 purport

 

Better to be a respectable servant girl than a prostitute.

 

Your humble servant,

Hari-sauri dasa

[Guest guest]

[This message was in HTML format]

 

Hari-sauri prabh, what a quote!!! As always, Prabhupada always hammers the

nail right on the head!

 

I didn't realize that my comments on my brother's experience would open such an

exchange of ideas (brainstorming) about this issue of dress-code in ISKCON. I

think we are all getting more "enlightened' about it. Despite some devotees'

opinions, my view is still that our leaders (local and international) need to

set a dress-code policy for women of all ages, and -- as Mother Malati pointed

out -- for men too.

 

Your servant, YKD (Gainesville, FL)

 

 

 

"Hari Sauri (das) ACBSP" <Hari.Sauri.ACBSP (AT) pamho (DOT) net>

ykd108 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com, "India (Continental Committee) Open (Forum)"

<India.Open (AT) pamho (DOT) net>

CC: "Tattvavit (das) ACBSP (BBT)" <Tattvavit.ACBSP (AT) pamho (DOT) net>

Re: Get tough policy...dress code

Wed, 7 Dec 2005 13:39 -0500

> One devotee wife in the ISKCON Bangalore congregation told me that her

> uptown "friends" rebuke her if she comes to a party even in Punjabi dress,

> what to speak if she wears a sari. She said that they tell her, "Why are

> dressed like that? You look like a servant girl!"

 

She can reply "Yes, I am a servant girl. Jivera svarupa haya nityera

Krsna dasa (i)."

>

> The clincher is that they consider it posh to wear a T-shirt and jeans.

 

And as Srila Prabhupada said:

 

"A woman who has no husband declares herself independent, which means that

she becomes a prostitute. A prostitute generally dresses herself in various

fashions intended to attract a man's attention to the lower part of her

body. Today it has become a much advertised fashion for a woman to go almost

naked, covering the lower part of her body only slightly, in order to draw

the attention of a man to her private parts for sexual enjoyment. The

intelligence engaged to attract a man to the lower part of the body is the

intelligence of a professional prostitute."

SB 6.5.14 purport

 

Better to be a respectable servant girl than a prostitute.

 

Your humble servant,

Hari-sauri dasa

[Guest guest]

PAMHO AGTSP

 

On Dec 5, 2005, at 10:04 PM, Malati (dd) ACBSP (GBC) (New Vrindavan/

Columbus - USA) wrote:

 

> In addition, it seems that a lot of the men

> are "loosing their caste" by dressing as muslims (wearing

> lunghis). After

> seeing a few westerners begin to favor that style of dress, Srila

> Prabhupada

> directly denounced the practice by stating that only sannyasis or

> Muslims wear lunghis

 

Actually strictly speaking a lunghi is not just any piece of short

cloth. It has particular checked pattern worn by muslims and laborers

(like the pattern on gumchas from Mayapur). A short (2 meters) length

lower cloth of plain white color that cannot be worn with a back

pleat is know as a vesti (at least in South India). In South this is

the regular orthodox dress for men. However strictly speaking

according to sastra it is correctly worn like this ONLY by

brahmacharins. Sannyasins of course wear the same length but saffron

colored cloth whereas the brahmacharins wear white. Grhasthas are

meant to wear panca kaccha or five pleated (5 folds, one on each side

of the waist to hold the dhoti in place, one in back and two in

front, for instructions on the exact method of tying please see

http://www.ahobhilam.com) dhoti style.

 

IMHO though wearing vesti is second best to panca kaccha (dhoti) for

grhastas it is still better than pants even so called yogi pants.

 

By the way since the sastric apparel for men is dhoti for grhasthas

and vesti for brahmacharins they (and the sannyasins also) have to

also wear utthariya or anga vastram which is an upper cloth as one

should wear two cloths. The sewn shirt (or any sewn item) is also

unsastric as is the sewn blouse and slip. Orthodox women in South

wear 9 meter saris (twice the length you will be used to) without any

slip, blouse or choli. It is wrapped in such a way that the lower

half is like a dhoti inside and then wrapped around, the upper part

completely covers the upper body so there is no need for any blouse.

This is the only apparel accepted by sastra for going and doing puja

or visiting temples (because any type of sewn cloth is ritually

impure). Of course nowadays many do not follow these things but at

least in South you will still see some orthodox people wearing like

this. My point in mentioning all this is simply to show that we think

sometimes that what we are doing is so-called "Vedic" when in fact it

may only be semi-Vedic.

 

On the Hindu island of Bali tourists may visit Hindu temples but must

wear appropriate attire. They usually wear sarongs (wrapped like the

vesti) and if they do not have a sarong they can rent one from the

temple office. This way no one enters Balinese temples wearing shorts

or short skirts etc. Such a policy might be considered by ISKCON

temples. However since ISKCON wants to have everyone come to our

preaching programs this would make it somewhat difficult to

accommodate large numbers of pant wearing individuals. At least the

devotees should be encouraged to wear traditional attire or to change

into it when reaching the temple. If guests wear unusually short

pants or skirts or unusually revealing clothing then their should be

some alternative like the rented sarong for them to wear. This would

go along way towards fixing this problem.

 

> You may not appreciate their style of apparel, but at

> least one could appreciate that they have come to the temple rather

> then any

> other number of places available for sense gratification.

 

I agree, point well taken.

 

ys

 

GKD

[Guest guest]

PAMHO AGTSP

 

On Dec 6, 2005, at 3:28 PM, Giri-nayaka (das) BVS (Ljubljana - SLO)

wrote:

 

> Where I live, besides half naked torso, and constantly uncovered head,

> matajis have also adopted canstant facial make-up and the whole

> science of

> hair styling, and besides short hair, of course also the hair style of

> parting on the side.

 

In any auspicious ceremony, such as a marriage ceremony, sacrificial

ceremony or püjä ceremony, it is auspicious for married women to

decorate themselves very nicely with ornaments, fine clothing and

cosmetics. These are auspicious signs. Many heavenly women assembled

with their husbands, the devarñis, demigods and räjarñis, in that

great sacrifice named båhaspati-sava. It is specifically mentioned in

this verse that they approached with their husbands, for when a woman

is decorated nicely, her husband becomes more cheerful. The nice

decorations, ornaments and dress of the wives of the demigods and

sages and the cheerfulness of the demigods and sages themselves were

all auspicious signs for the ceremony. SB 4.3.4 purport

 

> Prabhupada: To part. This parting, this parting is also... There is

> some

> meaning. When the parting is here, in the middle, then that girl

> has her

> husband and she is coming from respectable family. And if the, I

> mean to

> say, partition is here, then she is a prostitute. You see? A

> prostitute

> cannot... There was king's ruling that a prostitute cannot (laughs)

> part

> here.

 

Although above is a quote from HDG Srila Prabhupada one should be

careful when applying it to Vaisnavis. By giving the above statement

and then this quote you are indicating that these Vaisnavis are equal

to prostitutes. One should not speak like that. Are you equally

critical of male Vaisnavas who do not have shaven heads?

 

ys

 

GKD