Temple room behavior in Mayapur

[Guest guest]

Home Base: ISKCON-Baroda

 

Dear Pancharatna Prabhu,

 

Namonamaƒ. Jaya ®r…la Prabhup€da!

 

Thank you for your message:

 

> Dear Basu GHosh prabhu ji,

>

> Dandavad. Prabhupada kijaya!

>

> I have been following the debate on various COM conferences regarding

> women's roles in ISKCON. I am not about to throw my hat in the ring as I

> can see that there are certainly very able speakers on both sides of the

> issue and, for now, I just don't have the time to add my two cents.

>

> However, in one of your comments you mentioned Mayapur and so I felt

> compelled to ask some questions.

>

> You wrote to someone on this conference:

>

> > But since you've never lived here in India... guess you might not have

> > 1st hand experience of that. Seems you never visited Mayapur... and

> > seen how traditional gaudiya vaishnava women behave... in the culture

> > that Srila Prabhupada wanted us to learn and follow...

>

> I'm not sure who you mean by "traditional gaudiya vaishnava women."

> However, I can tell you from my experience living here that it is not at

> all uncommon for visiting pilgrim ladies to push there way to the front to

> take darshan of Lord Nrsnghadeva (this is the only time that men are "in

> the front"). They don't seem to look to see if there is a sannyasi in the

> way.

 

Prabhuji, I hope you'd agree that Mayapur, being a large pilgrimage center

witness "crowd behavior" that is an exception to the cultural rule,

especially seen in rural Bengal (which is what I meant by "traditional

Gaudiya Vaishnava women") that women usually keep in the background during a

kirtan program, arati, etc.

 

Indeed it used to be like that in Mayapur, when the facilities were smaller.

 

> On the other hand, they generally do move out of the way when requested

> although I am not sure how they really feel about it. Usually no one asks

> them to move (sannyasis included) but they just make space for them.

>

> My point is that it seems that the tradition is more to give ladies the

> front of the temple than the back. What is your experience in Gujarat?

 

Well... the point is that there is separation in public places.

 

At Dakor... Sri Ranchodraiji (Ranchor) Mandir indeed there is a separate

enclosure for women at the front. At Dwaraka... men & women are separated,

by a divider and they stand on either side of that.

 

At Nathadwara, at Rajasthan (Mewar... not Marwar), again the ladies are

accomodated at the front.

 

However at Tirupati, Udipi, Melkote & Kanchipuram... there is no separation.

 

But then the system there is continuous darshan... there is no long arati

like in the North... nor short darshan periods like in the Vallabh

Sampradaya (Nathadwara). In the South you buy a ticket & they do an "arati"

(there they call it "Harati"...); the brahmana pujari then lights a small

piece of camphor & offers it to the Lord.

 

Usually families visit such South Indian temples, i.e Parthasarthy at

Madras, Sri Rangam, etc., and have darshan together and have an arati done.

 

But in the "big crowd" temples in the North... separation... well... it is

an unwritten & unforced rule in many places. But, yes, there are

exceptions. In Jaipur at Radha Govinda... well, again, it's like the South;

families keeping together. But ladies to congregate there & do bhajans. As

do men.

 

There is no enforcement of separation anywhere; it's part of the local

system in place for years. People just see the local situation and

voluntarily follow those customs.

 

And my wife, who just returned from a month on Braj Mandal parikrama

informed me that at Radha Kund, during the night of "Radhakund Appearence

day", when some thousands went to bathe... those ladies that went in a group

for bath (By the way... Srila Prabhupada told me personally NOT to bathe in

Radhakund...at Bombay back in '76) had an incident free experience... but

one girl from Ahmedabad went to bathe on her own & was molested there by a

group of youths. Too bad... Of course this is somewhat a change of

subject... but separation might have helped her... if it was stictly

followed by society.

 

My feeling is that in smaller temples, on a daily basis, separation ought to

be followed. Simple, no?

 

VaiŠava d€sanud€s,

 

B€su Ghosh D€s