Do women get a varna on their own?

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> Sraddha Dasi wrote:

> Anantarupa Dasa wrote:

> > However, if we take varna to mean "vocation" then a woman usually adopts

> > the varna of her husband after marriage, at least in vedic culture. When

> > Devayani, a Brahmani by descent, married Yayati, she became queen and

> > thus a kshatriya. In Vedic culture, the wife always assists the husband

> > in his occupational duties and in that sense she generally adopts the

> > varna of the husband.

> >

> >This is an example of a person acting in the mode of goodness adopting

> >the activities in the mode of passion. This is not a problem for me,

> >because usually those who are capable of doing more qualified things

> >easily can do

> also >the things that one needs a less qualification for. What I really

> wonder about >is if a woman by nature was performing activities in the

> mode of ignorance and >then she gets married to a man who is acting in the

> mode of goodness, how is it >that automatically she starts to act in the

> mode of goodness? She might be >assistant, but she would still be very

> much under the influence of the mode of >ignorance, although by assisting

> her husband she would elevate herself to a >some degree.

>

> I don't claim to understand very well at all, but I think this point of

> yours is the essence: "by assisting her husband she would elevate

> herself..." You've said "to some degree," but then the active principle of

> spiritual life is faith and service. So it's not inconceivable that such

> wives can elevate themselves by service to a more advanced husband. Aside

> from wives, aren't low-born men also elevating themselves by rendering

> service to more advanced Vaisnavas? It's a scientific spiritual

> phenomenon, isn't it?--a real miracle.

>

> "Prabhupada: ...So if the man is first-class, the woman is first-class. If

> the man is second-class, the woman is second-class. If the man is

> third-class, the woman is third -class....Because woman is meant for

> assisting man, so the woman becomes suitable according to the man, her

> husband." (Chicago, July 9, 1975)

>

> >That's why those kind of marriages are not very desired, because it will

> >cause a disturbance in a relationship. If a man wants to have everything

> >in time, clean, get up early etc. and a woman doesn't like to keep clean,

> likes to >sleep long and is lousy in performing her duties, that's going

> to be a problem.

>

> The key ingredient for such a woman to uplift herself is her service to

> the husband. If she performs her duties to the best of her ablility, why

> would she not gradually adopt the finer qualities?

>

> >And I haven't seen examples in the practical life of this, that a women

> >by getting married develops good qualities of her better half. I have

> >seen the oposite: partners keep their qualities and if they are very much

> >different

> the >marriage ends up in a divorse.

>

> But were those women faithful servants of their husbands?

 

Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu!

 

Wise words, Guru Krishna Prabhu... faithfully echoing the teachings and

values of our Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada and the Vedic tradition that

he worked so hard and selflessly to spread all over the world.

 

Too bad that so many initiated devotees don't have the full faith in his

words and teachings that your writings so nicely display.

 

It is highly offensive and simply slanderous to label as "misogynists"

devotees such as yourself who's only "crime" is to present in such a

transparent manner the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. Wonder what fate

awaits such offenders? Only Lord Krishna and He Himself in His form of Time

will tell...

 

VaiŠava d€sanud€s,

 

Basu Ghosh Das