The mood of this conference

[Guest guest]

What a contrast we can see between Srila Prabhupada's loving preaching mood,

his great concern to engage everyone in Krsna consciousness according to

their own desires and propensities, and the 'smarta type' mood which lays

great emphasis on the superiority of some over others, and wants to force a

particular type(s) of service on the weaker sections of society, reserving

privileges for some (always selectively quoting scriptures in support).

 

Ramunajacarya, Lord Caitanya - every one in the Vaisnava disciplic

successions took great pains to show that they did not accept smarta type

discrimination based on misuse of Vedic prescriptions. Lord Rama accepted

fruit tasted by a tribal woman. In fact, in India the favourite stories

about Vaisnava acaryas are those where they puncture the puffed up smartas

who quote the Vedic tradition to support their claims of superiority.

 

Many quotations have been posted on this conference showing that Srila

Prabhupada wanted HIS followers NOT to discriminate between devotees based

on gender or anything else.

 

Just as a devotee may identify himself as belonging to 'Krsna varna', so

should all devotees identify themselves as feminine, and Krsna as the only

purusa - as Srila Prabhupada repeatedly said.

 

Even here in the middle of the Islamic world, they have realised that women

are being mistreated unnecessarily under the name of protection, and things

are changing rapidly. Native women work here in as large numbers as men. And

no one would dare to claim they are less intelligent than men. The school

and university results clearly prove otherwise. Even my young son

understands that many girls in his class study better than the boys and

occupy the top ranks!