desired activities

[Guest guest]

> For clarification--I did *not* suggest that a divorced lawyer woman was

> engaging in "desired" activities, but rather activities that are not in

> accordance with her varna and ashrama at all. Desired activities, in either

> the spiritual or external realm, are in accordance with one's general

> categories of duties in that realm. Rather, I gave such a woman as an example

> of someone whom we may not be able to engage externally in a way that would

be

> most conducive to hers and the society's welfare, but at least we can engage

> her in spiritual duties, and help her to offer to external actions to Krsna

in

> whatever way possible. Hopefully we will raise our daughters so as to avoid

> such situations.

 

Dear Urmila, I beg your pardon. It still hasn't been established what

"desired activity" means with regards to it being a subdivision of

prescribed duty. You have presented it as being something a person wants to

do that is not sinful, not whimsical, and that is in line with his or her

psychophysical nature/varna. So, is "desired activity" something that

clearly falls within one's occupational duty? You here explain the lawyer

woman doing is not engaging in "desired activity". So what is the

classification for such activity? Whimsical? Emergency? Is she performing

vikarma? Is there a scriptural reference elaborating on desired activity the

way it is briefly presented in the Gita?

 

> As far as a woman's varna being determined by her father--there are many

> places in the scripture where a man's varna is "determined" by birth, but

> really these are simply cases where the person's quality corresponded to that

> of the father, which is true for most people, especially in a society where

> men and women of the same caste married each other and performed rituals to

> attract a like-minded son or daughter.

>

> Yes, a woman *should* mold herself to her husband, and the parents should

make

> that easy by choosing a husband of the same varna. Especially a woman should

> not marry a man of a lesser varna.

 

So you are saying a woman's caste is not determined by her father or

husband? In your paper on the topic of women and varnasrama, you write:

 

"From studying Vedic marriage arrangements we learn that the qualities that

distinguished a woman's varna existed before her marriage. The husband

didn't determine a woman's varna. Rather, she married someone in the same

varna in which she was naturally situated by quality and work. Devahuti, for

example, "had good character and was well-qualified; therefore she was

searching for a suitable husband just befitting her." (SB 3.22.9) A woman's

varna could not be ascertained by that of her father (birth) because "one

can become fit for a certain type of activity by qualification, not by

birth." (SB 5.4.13)

 

Would you please explain, with reference(s) from Srila Prabhupada's

teachings, how a Vedic woman would have already been situated in the "work"

or karma of a brahmana or ksatriya before marriage. Please also show how a

girl's and woman's caste is anything other than her father's or husband's?

 

Your servant, Sita dd