Nowadays feminism is very common, and often feminists criticize our movement due to elements of the Vedic culture that doesn’t agree with their ideas. The notion that a woman should follow her husband, for example, is very hard for them to agree on. As a result, often they accuse our philosophy of being chauvinist. There are however a few things they fail to notice.
Vaishnava philosophy is neither feminist nor chauvinist. These are both misguided mundane concepts, that represent extremes that should be avoided. Chauvinism consists of exploitation on the part of men, while feminism is a reaction on the opposite extreme. Both ideas are based on the mistaken identification with the body, and both are condemnable. Instead of freeing ourselves from the material shackles, both further condition us.
If one thinks that he is a man, the next question is: For how long are you a man? One started being a man from the moment of his birth, before he could have been a woman, a cow, or even a monkey, who knows. Similarly, another question would be: How long will you be a man? One will continue being a man until the time of his death, but after that, no one knows. He may become a woman in his next life, or a horse, or a mosquito. The same applies to someone who thinks she is a woman. In fact, men and women frequently switch sides from life to life, since usually men become attached to women and women to men. Hate is also a form of attachment, therefore fervorous feminists may see themselves as men in their next lives.
The idea is not to increase our identification as men or women, nor to prove that one is better than the other, but instead to reinforce our true identification as souls, eternal servants of Krsna.
In reality, Vaishnava philosophy is true feminism, because it teaches us how to become free of the oppressive materialistic “male” tendency of being an enjoyer of this material world and instead reconnect with our original feminine nature, as subordinate to Krsna. Yes, feminists are right in a sense, all “males” are bad, and they are all misguided, trying to be what they are not. Every “male” in this world is thus just an imperfect imitation of the actual male, Krsna.
The Sanskrit word for “male” is Purusha. Purusha also means “enjoyer”. However, in the Bhagavad-Gita, the word “Purusha” is used in the sense of all souls in this material world, both men and women. This is because in this material world everyone wants to be the master or enjoyer; we want to imitate Krsna and that’s the source of our problems. Men see women as objects of enjoyment, just as women see men as objects of enjoyment. In this way, sometimes the men exploit the women, and sometimes women exploit the men, and both situations are the fruit of the same basic mistake.
In this material world, everyone wants to be the center. We can see how this tendency is exposed in social networks, for example, where both men and women compete over likes. The real goal of life is to break with this conditioning and gradually restore our natural subordinate position as servants of Krsna.
Unfortunately, worldly feminism is contradictory to this true awakening. It is just another misguided philosophy that just creates another type of “male”, another type of false enjoyer who wants to exploit the resources of this world. Instead of helping the soul in a female body to reconnect with her true nature as an associate of Krsna, it just convinces her to try to become a false male, competing with the other false males in masculine bodies for supremacy. Instead of curing the disease, it just intensifies it, creating yet another path to suffering.
Krsna Consciousness on the other hand is based on abandoning this “male” tendency for material supremacy and instead accepting our subordinate nature as servants of Krsna. The idea is to make our ego smaller, instead of bigger.
Everything can be misused, and there are certainly men who try to use Krsna Consciousness as a means to expand their “male” nature of subjugating the opposite sex, but real Krsna Consciousness is different from that. For a man practicing Krsna Consciousness, the challenge is to renounce this tendency and center his life not on himself, but on Krsna.
Truly intelligent women are happy in reconnecting with their original subordinate position, just as their male counterparts, be it alone or with the help of a husband. The mundane feminists, on the other hand, may have to contend with taking another birth in this world, possibly as a man, where they will have the opportunity to further develop their dominating propensities and become further entangled in illusion.