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?