Temples with no brahmacarini asram, bona fide or not?

[Guest guest]

> I wanted to know if it's bona fide to do so or not. r…la Prabhup€da

> specifically made this possible for ladies to stay in arams as

> brahmacariŠis. Yet I have heard of some ISKCON temples in India, where

> they don't have this facility and encourage matajis to stay rather under

> the protection of father/husband/son.

 

 

We can get the complete picture when we study in totality Srila Prabhupada's

quotes on this subject:

 

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Srila Prabhupada in a letter to Satsvarupa Montreal,8 August, 1968

 

"That the Brahmacarini ashram is a good success is very good news. But the

best thing will be if the grown-up Brahmacarinis get married. According to

Vedic culture, woman is never to remain independent. I shall be glad if the

Brahmacarinis can have nice husbands, and live as Grhasthas. But if they

cannot find out good husbands, it is better to remain a Brahmacarini all the

life, even though it is little difficult."

 

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Prabhupada: Actually, there is no... Brahmacarini is not allowed in the

sastra. Where is the question of brahmacarini? Because according to Vedic

system, as soon as a girl is fourteen years old or sixteen years old, she is

at once married. According to Vedic system, no girl should be allowed

remaining unmarried. So there is no question of brahmacarini. Every girl is

supposed to be married. That is the Vedic system. A father's duty is that as

soon as the girl is grown up, she must be married. She must be given in

charge of a suitable boy. That is Vedic system.

 

Striyah sudras tatha vaisyah. A woman is meant for being protected. So long

she is not young, she is under the protection of the father. And as soon as

she is young, she is given in charge, in charity. Kanya-dana. Dana means

charity. He should find out some suitable boys and give in charity: "My dear

boy, take charge of this girl. So long she was under my charge. Now it is

under your charge." So where is the brahmacarini? There is no question of

brahmacarini.

 

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So in our association we welcome this sort of marriage between trained

brahmacari and brahmacarini so that we can welcome nice children for future

Krsna conscious generation. That is our viewpoint.

 

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Fire is a woman, and man is just like butterpot. It is said. Therefore they

should not keep together. (laughs) Just like there are some labels in

medicine and some..., "Keep away from fire." Huh? (chuckles) "Keep away from

fire." So brahmacarini and brahmacari is not a very good combination. But

married couple and some brahmacaris, that is nice.

 

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There was a convent school in Calcutta, and it was detected that the head

minister was supplying women outside for business. Now one brahmacarini

asrama is started. This means that the authority of this asrama, they supply

young women to rich, richer class, and they pay money. Business is going on.

 

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Woman brahmacarini, this is artificial.

 

Tamala Krsna: In our centers, though, there are so many brahmacarinis, and

even sometimes they're encouraged to remain brahmacarini.

 

Prabhupada: That they cannot. As soon as they will find opportunity, they

will become vyabhicarini.

 

Tamala Krsna: They'll become what?

 

Prabhupada: Vyabhicarini. For woman, protection.

 

Tamala Krsna: So you don't advocate this remaining sing..., these women

remaining brahmacarinis.

 

Prabhupada: Therefore polygamy was allowed. Let them be taken care of, one

husband, three wives. Therefore the ksatriyas were taking hundreds of women.

They had money.

 

---

 

But if you can organize such nice Brahmacarini asrama it will be a great

success of our society. There is a great need for this. And I wish sincerely

that except for husband and wife, everyone should live separately, man

separate from woman, and woman separate from man.

 

---

 

So I shall be glad to hear from you which Brahmacarini you may suggest

suitable for Hayagriva. In fact, unless our Brahmacaris are very adamant

remaining as Brahmacari, I shall recommend everyone to marry. Because these

girls generally come to our society to find out a suitable husband, so there

is no harm to live as husband and wife, as Mukunda, Gurudasa, and

Syamasundara., they are living very nicely.

 

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So one hand Prabhupada says that brahmacarini is not allowed in the sastra

and that it is artificial. But he appreciated when Satsvarupa Maharaja

opened the brahmacarini ashram. So we can understand that the brahmacarini

ashram was introduced by Satsvarupa Maharaja because Prabhupada wanted the

brahmacaries to stay separate from the brahmcarinis and not freely mix with

each other. But still Srila Prabhupada thought that the best thing for the

brahmcarinis was to get married with nice husbands and live as grhastas (as

in the first letter).

 

Also Prabhupada wrote to Giriraja Maharaj that expert manager means that he

makes arrangements so that the brahmacaries can remain brahmacaries and all

the matajis get married. This was for ISKCON Juhu, Bombay, India. So if some

ISKCON Indian temples are encouraging matajis to stay under the protection

of father/husband/son, this seems to be in accordance with the instructions

of Srila Prabhupada (as given above) & the sastras and it seems to be the

right thing to do especially in the Indian circumstances.

 

Your servant,

Nayana-ranjana dasa