reply to Mother Hare Krsna dd

[Guest guest]

> The sacred thread is

> the "symbolic representation" given to the man, but not to the woman.

> Granted, SP did give Gayatri mantra to women, but he stated that he could

> not give the thread. Why not? Because it is the SIGN of the *dvija*. And

> please don't bother to tell us that it is "merely a formality".

 

I still don't have to folio, but if you have, look up a passage from Srila

Prabhupada's letters that goes approximately as follows (it is a letter to

a temple president, could be Sudama dasa):

 

"I am hereby sending the Gayatri threads for your wife Manmohini dasi and

Satyahit das brahmacari... Please convey my blessings to them and give them

the gayatri mantra."

 

I did not do the research. I do not know how many more such references can

be found in the Siksamrta. This one, I don't remember the date but I don't

think it was 66 or 67, it was later than that.

 

Sure, one bird makes no spring. Obviously, Srila Prabhupada gave up the

practice of giving brahmana threads to women some time after the above

letter was written.

 

I am bringing up this reference because it shows that just like so many

other sacred Vedic standards, the one of not giving brahmana thread to women

was not seen by Srila Prabhupada as absolute. He experimented with it. An

interesting approach ...

 

Your servant,

Dhyana-kunda dasi

 

PS. By the way, HG Krsna-ksetra Prabhu has a custom of telling his lady

disciples, when they get second-initiated, to suggest to their husbands to

add three strands to their thread - for the wife. So the woman does actually

get the sacred thread -- not that she is a dvija simply by virtue of her

husband being a dvija, in which case there would be no point in adding any

strands. Just that the woman does not wear the thread. The husband does it

for her.

 

I do not know the basis in which HG Krsna-ksetra Prabhu does this. If anyone

is interested, ask him.