The books of Srila Prabhupada are like a beacon of light that has helped millions of people in their spiritual path. More than 50 million copies of the Bhagavad-Gita as it is alone have beem distributed and we can only imagine the impact these books have created in society.
However, there are a few components in Srila Prabhupada’s teachings that many find difficult to digest. One of them is his assertions that women are less intelligent than men. Nowadays ladies attain high positions as university teachers, doctors, engineers, computer programmers, researchers, and even spiritual leaders. Many other historical examples can also be added from different times and cultures. Having this in mind, how can we understand this?
This is actually a quite deep point that requires an elaborate explanation. If that’s what you are looking for, this article is for you.
Equal in the spiritual platform
The first point to keep in mind when we study books from Srila Prabhupada is that he writes from a spiritual and nontemporal perspective, that goes much deeper than the ephemeral values of mundane society, which are always changing. Many of us fail to understand how much the values of our society changed in the last century, and how much they will probably change in the next. Although our society advanced in terms of technology and technical knowledge, it could be argued that we regressed in terms of moral and spiritual values. Perhaps, people from the next century will see our times with as much disgust as we see the history of past centuries.
Many of us don’t notice how much we are indoctrinated by the dominant ideas since our early childhood. They are everywhere: in schools, in books and magazines, on the internet, in talks with friends, the same ideas are repeated over and over and the ones who don’t conform to the dominant thinking are frequently ostracized. It’s said that a lie repeated one thousand times becomes accepted as truth, and we can see it in many conclusions accepted as dogmas in our current society. If one accepts all of this as fact, he will have serious problems when confronted with different ideas. Critical thinking is important for one interested in progressing in life and is crucial for one walking through the spiritual path. Unfortunately, thousands of hours of superficial reading, scrolling through social media, makes us not very good at it. Most of the time we react to new ideas with an emotional response, which is rarely productive.
The first point we face when discussing this topic is that many men have an exploitative attitude towards women, always trying to put them down in an effort to assess their own superiority. This is actually a tendency that comes from the lower modes and is naturally not an acceptable behavior for anyone, especially from a transcendentalist. This creates a polarizing situation, that divides instead of unifying.
Not many would disagree that, on average, women are physically weaker than most men. They can carry less weight when going up a flight of stairs for example. Any man of good character, seeing a lady struggling to bring her groceries up the stairs would offer to help her. Only a nasty, degraded man would use it to try to ridicule her. Contrary to popular dogma, men and women are different, and that’s what makes relationships interesting. If everyone would be equal, life would be much less colorful. The question is that people of good character are interested in cooperating, and not in putting others down.
A transcendentalist will respect everyone and humbly try to help each and every soul to advance in the spiritual path. As Krsna explains in the Bhagavad-Gita (18.21), “knowledge by which one sees that in every different body there is a different type of living entity you should understand to be in the mode of passion”. The soul living inside the male body is not different from the soul living in the female body, therefore in the spiritual platform, there is equality.
The only question is that the female body presents a particular set of challenges for the spiritual advancement of the soul that needs to be properly understood and addressed. Men face a certain set of challenges and similarly, women face a certain set of challenges, therefore both have to cooperate in order to overcome such limitations. That’s actually what family life is all about: cooperation.
That’s why the traditional Vedic system prescribes different roles for men and women, taking into account the differences. This is something that is crucially important when we get married. Without cooperation, any marriage will fall apart, and it’s much easier to cooperate when each performs tasks that are natural for him or her. If the lady can take better care of the child than the man, then why would the man not agree to work overtime so the wife could take some time off her work while the child is growing, for example?
The differences between men and women go much further than mere social conditioning. There are some intrinsic differences that start with the fact that women can beget children and men cannot. This leads to many psychological differences since a woman is hardwired to beget and nourish a child.
While everyone is a soul, and therefore equal in the spiritual platform, when we come down to the material platform there are certain intrinsic differences in the constitution of body and mind.
In other words, while the soul is the same, the machine is different, therefore the type of activities and roles should also be distinct if we want to have functional relationships and a workable society.
When Srila Prabhupada speaks about differences between men and women, he is not speaking about the soul, but just about such differences in the body and in the proper roles according to the vehicle one is driving. By understanding the qualities and limitations of our vehicle, we can go much further. Another important point is the potential for disruption in the social structure, especially inside the families when the roles of males and females are not properly followed. Families are the basis of any civilized society, where morals, values, and culture are transmitted to the next generation. Without families, society will face serious unrest, as we can observe nowadays all over the world. Much of it comes from the deterioration of family relations. When we think about it, we realize how this topic can be essential.
Now that is clear what we are talking about, we can continue discussing the initial topic. What about intelligence?
Measuring intelligence
In modern society, intelligence is measured according to the capacity of one to acquire technical skills, mundane information, and manipulate material energy to obtain sensual satisfaction. In Vedic culture, however, intelligence means being able to understand spiritual knowledge, control one’s senses, perform austerity, and solve life’s real problems: birth, disease, old age, and death. The learned brahmana, living in simple conditions is considered intelligent, while the expert materialist, who may be very prolific in technical knowledge and social skills is considered foolish. Someone living under a bodily concept of life is not considered intelligent according to the Vedic standard.
When a soul gets a female body, he tends to become more firmly attached to his physical form and appearance. This can be exemplified in a simple manner: if you say to a man that he has an ugly face, he will probably not take it very seriously, maybe he will just say “So what?” and laugh, but if you do that to a lady, she will become seriously offended or depressed.
The female body also makes it harder for the soul to exert sense control and perform austerities. This is connected with the natural role of a woman as a mother. The mother has the duty of nourishing the child and supplying everything necessary for his well-being. If a lady has a very austere and renounced attitude, this can be conflictive with her role as a mother. Since these qualities would be detrimental to her natural role, nature supplies them in smaller amounts. Sometimes we think things happen by chance, but there is intelligence in nature. Just like cows have teeth appropriate to eat grass and lions have teeth appropriate to hunt, similarly, men and women have certain differences in their natural sets of talents that are more adequate to their natural roles.
This also explains why women do better than men in certain areas. Many women have better social skills, are better with language, are better at designing harmonic environments, and so on. There is however also a downside: women tend to identify with their bodies more strongly, and this creates challenges when there is a need to distinguish spirit from matter. In other words, ladies can have more difficulty than men in controlling their senses and practicing renunciation. On average, their attachment to the body is stronger, and this creates challenges when it comes to transferring one’s consciousness to the spiritual platform.
The general idea is that a soul identified with a female body tends to have more difficulty in distinguishing spirit from matter, therefore, taking the Vedic criteria, men can be considered generally more intelligent than women, at least considering individuals from the same social or spiritual level.
An advanced lady will surely do better than a lesser man, but when we compare a man and a woman of similar stature, the man tends to do better in such areas. Many women are more intelligent than most men, the point is that every intelligent woman can find (somewhere) a man who is more intelligent than her. When this happens, she will often become attracted and want to marry him.
This is another point where we can observe how wise nature is. No woman of sound mind would desire to have a dumb, foolish husband. A simple woman from the village could be satisfied with an illiterate husband, but an intelligent, educated woman will desire a man who is at least as intelligent as her. The more intelligent, qualified, and successful a man is, the more attractive he will appear in the eyes of the lady. Therefore, nature creates a balance, so each lady can have the opportunity to find a suitable pair. If all men would be dumb, most ladies would not be very satisfied.
There is also another reason material nature creates bodies with such differences: women are not created to compete with the men for supremacy, but to cooperate with them in the creation of a spiritually progressive society. Men are created to be better in their particular roles, and women to be better in their particular roles. The Vedic system offers us some advice on how we can have a peaceful life and advance spiritually. If we don’t want to follow, we can remain in this material world and just swap roles, following the laws of karma: the man can become a lady and deal with men similar to the one he is in this life, and the lady can become a man and deal with women similar to the one she is in this life.
Some think that Srila Prabhupada makes his points about men and women out of chauvinism or cultural prejudices, but the truth is that he is just concerned about our welfare. Just like a concerned father warns his children about costly mistakes they can make in life, he similarly warns us. We do better when we listen and try to understand.
With this, we come down to the third point: the nature of relationships between men and women and the model for health relationships that is offered in the Vedas. It’s very difficult to understand Prabhupada’s statements without understanding these principles.
Social implications
Ladies are normally more emotional than men and therefore they demand a greater level of protection. In the Vedas, it’s mentioned that women are nine times more lusty than men. Although this word may sound loaded, the meaning is simply that women have a greater need for a romantic relationship. It’s very difficult for a lady to be alone.
Relationships are a central part of the life of any woman, therefore to build a family is the natural path. If a lady can find a nice and kind man, develop a healthy relationship with him, and raise a few children, this is going to bring her great satisfaction. We can practically see that many successful ladies voluntarily abandon their careers in their late thirties or early forties to get married and have children. Modern society tries to impose on us the image of the successful solitary lady, but this is not a good path in terms of well-being and personal satisfaction. Happiness is not in money and social status but in relationships.
Even when we consider ladies who are transcendentalists, seriously following a spiritual path, the same need for relationships is present. Therefore, even for them, it’s much more natural to follow the spiritual path in family life, which is the general recommendation from the Vedas. If the husband is also serious about the spiritual path, his company can also be of great help in terms of spiritual elevation. If the husband is competent to give emotional support and material facilities, and at the same time is wise and gives a good example in the spiritual path, his company can be of great benefit to the wife.
In the Vedas, men are sometimes recommended to follow the path of celibacy, which if properly followed can bring important spiritual benefits, but this is generally considered a path very difficult for ladies, and therefore not generally recommended. There are a few cases of ascetic women in our line, like Krishnapriya and Vishnupriya, the daughters of Ganga Narayana Chakravarti, as well as Sri Gangamata, who was a lifelong celibate, but they are rare. Most ladies would not be attracted to the idea of living the way they were living. For them, the recommended path is family life.
The difficulty is that peaceful family life demands a certain mindset that is incompatible with the image of the independent lady that is propagated in Western culture. No lady will want to be married to a weak and helpless man who will act more like a child than as a husband. Deep inside, every lady wants to get married to a strong and qualified man. The way to inspire such qualities in the husband is to take a submissive position, so he can be encouraged to fulfill his role and act like a man, taking responsibility for the family’s maintenance and giving physical and emotional protection, thus allowing the lady to fulfill her natural role as a wife and mother. When the lady plays her proper role, she empowers the husband to also play his proper role, and thus both are benefited.
Most men have the need for a lady who provide him inspiration, so he can work with determination and thus be able to achieve his potential, both in material and in spiritual affairs. As the saying goes: “Behind every great man there’s a great woman”. Only men who are situated on a high spiritual level are capable of working with determination without the inspiration of a woman. We can practically see that men (with the exception of the above-mentioned ones who are spiritually advanced) who don’t have a wife tend to fall down into the mode of ignorance, developing laziness, apathy, uncleanliness, etc.
By acting in an appropriate way, a lady provides this needed inspiration to the husband, so he can fulfill his true potential. The lady is thus benefited with material facilities, social status, good spiritual example, etc. and the husband and children are benefited by the love and care offered by the woman. This is, by the way, one of the things women do much better than men: when their natural propensity is properly engaged, they are invaluable as caregivers. Without dedicated wives and mothers, there are no families, and without families, there is no civilized society. From this, we can understand the crucial role of women in any progressive society.
We can see that there are two sides to the question. The man is supposed to have certain qualifications, being kind, wise, responsible, self-controlled, etc. but the lady also has a role to play. It’s just like the difference between a house and a home. A house is supposed to provide certain facilities, but it’s the attitude of the people living there that makes it a home. To get a house is only half of the work. Similarly, to get a man is only half of the work, the lady still has to do her part to make him a good husband. Building a successful family demands a lot of effort, it doesn’t come automatically after marriage.
There are always struggles and difficulties in material life, but this traditional family model is the closest that a lady can get to a happy life in this world. A lady is in better condition when she is protected by a man. Naturally, the problem nowadays is that there are not so many qualified men around, but still, a lady who understands this basic psychology can go much further with the husband she got.
If the lady is arrogant and independent, she conflicts with the role of the husband, creating strife, dissension, and other problems. It is all about roles: The Vedas prescribe certain roles for the husband, wife, children, etc. based on the psychological characteristics of each. If we can apply such roles properly, our family life can work peacefully and everyone can be happy. Since most people need to go through family life (both men and women), we do better when we try to follow these roles. This is one of the meanings of intelligence: to be able to learn from the advice of the scriptures, and thus avoid having to learn the hard way, by committing costly mistakes. In the Bhagavad-gita, we learn how we can do our duties (play our role) with a detached mindset.
Even secular ladies end up coming to these conclusions, usually after one or more failed marriages. One example is Kathy Murray, a lady from the United States who gave a famous interview to the BBC, describing how she learned to be, in her words, “a surrendered wife”. These are a few excerpts from her interview, where we can see how a lady who defines herself as a feminist came, after much struggle, to many of the same conclusions:
“The first time I married I was divorced by 26. I married for the second time at 32 but soon found myself sleeping in the guest room. My husband and I fought all the time”… “I didn’t tell anyone I was in constant conflict with my husband. I was embarrassed, angry and resentful.”… “My husband often resorted to watching TV and snuggling with our pets as I’d rage at him over ignoring my needs.”… “I was about to end my marriage when I picked up a book called The Surrendered Wife by Laura Doyle. I mean, they don’t teach us how to be successful in marriage in school and the women in my life didn’t share the secrets either.”
“It was incredibly humbling to recognize that I had something to do with why my marriage was failing and perhaps even why my first marriage failed. But it was also empowering. I didn’t know I’d been disrespectful to my husband or even that I’d been controlling and critical.”… “I’ll never forget the day I first apologized to my husband for being rude for correcting him in front of the children, or the day I said “Whatever you think” when I’d previously been extremely opinionated about what he should do.”
“I had trained my husband to ask my permission for everything. And then complained about it for a year in counseling that he couldn’t make simple decisions! I relinquished control of my husband’s life, choices, and decisions and instead, I focused on my own happiness. I was no longer acting like his mother.”… “My kids began to notice the change in our relationship too, and as a result, their behavior improved and our home became peaceful and fun again.” (BBC, 100 Women 2016: I am a ‘surrendered wife’)
In this context, it is easy to understand statements from Srila Prabhupada like this one:
“Woman Reporter: But you say women are subordinate to men.
Prabhupada: Yes, that is also natural. Because when the husband and wife are there or the father and daughter is there, the daughter is subordinate to the father and the wife is subordinate to the husband.
Woman Reporter: What happens when women are not subordinate to men?
Prabhupada: Then there is disruption. There is disruption, social disruption. If the woman does not become subordinate to man, then there is social disruption. Therefore, in the western countries there are so many divorce cases because the woman does not agree to become subordinate to man. That is the cause.
Woman Reporter: What advice do you have to women who do not want to be subordinate to men?
Prabhupada: It is not my advice, but it is the advice of the Vedic knowledge that woman should be chaste and faithful to man.” (Television Interview, 9 July 1975)
True equality
Naturally, a lady doesn’t need to spend all her time taking care of the family (that’s the point where these traditional values can be harmonized with modern ones). Whatever talents she has, she should use in Krsna’s service. But the family works as a safe base from which she can operate. One time, HG Bhibavati dd asked Srila Prabhupada: “Should I live like in the Vedic times, and simply serve my husband and child?” Srila Prabhupada answered: “No, you have a talent as a writer, you should write articles for newspapers and propagate Krishna Consciousness”. Another time, he wrote to Jayatirtha: “It is not that women should only produce children, but they are meant for advancing in devotion.”
Srila Prabhupada was quite progressive regarding the roles of his lady disciples, Not only did he allow ladies to live in the temples and perform all kinds of activities, including deity worship, but also engaged qualified ladies in giving classes, performing kirtanas, writing articles, painting, giving public speeches, etc. Once a friend asked what was my opinion about ladies leading kirtanas. I answered that as far as I know, there is a lady leading kirtan in all Iskcon temples every day in the morning, and that was instituted by Prabhupada himself.
Even 50+ years ago, Prabhupada was already more progressive than many of us are nowadays. In this way, he upheld the true Vedic conclusion that every person has a right to use his or her talents for Krsna, breaking with previous traditions that were more restrictive.
Even though criticized by some of his godbrothers, when asked years later if he would have preferred to establish the movement differently, Srila Prabhupada stated that he would do things in exactly the same way. From this, we can see that far from making ladies a subjugated class, he was eager to engage their talents in Krsna’s service and facilitate their spiritual advancement. As he explains in the interview with reporter Sandy Nixon:
“We give Krsna consciousness both to the woman and man equally. We do not make any such distinction. But to protect them from this exploitation by man, we teach something, that “You do like this. You do like that. You be married. Be settled up. Don’t wander independently.” We teach them like that. But so far Krsna consciousness is concerned, we equally distribute. There is no such thing that “Oh, you are woman, less intelligent or more intelligent. Therefore you cannot come.” We don’t say that. We welcome women, men, poor, rich, everyone, because in that platform equality.”
Srila Prabhupada would generally mention this point about ladies being less intelligent when confronted with feminist ideas. Feminism comes from bodily identification, which in the Vedic view is a symptom of foolishness. To live in family life demands a great deal of humility. Such humility is also essential for one to be able to advance in his or her spiritual patch.
The argument that ladies can do most things that men can do and therefore they should just be like the men is not very sound, because it disregards all psychological aspects, propensities, and differences. This idea falls into the same basic mistake as communism, trying to artificially abolish all differences and social roles, which in the end just creates havoc. Men are more fit for certain roles and ladies are more fit for other roles. When both can cooperate harmoniously, both can be happy and society can flourish. When cooperation fails, problems start.
A lady who can accept a supportive role to a qualified man can fulfill her natural tendency towards family life and be happy, which in turn allows her to follow spiritual life with a peaceful mind. We can see by historical examples that even great, exalted women, like mother Sita, Kunti, Draupadi, etc. were married to even greater husbands, like Ramacandra, Pandu, the Pandavas, etc., and would become even more dignified acting as dedicated wives and giving birth to exalted children. Naturally, nowadays the men are not like Ramacandra or Arjuna, just like the women are not like Sita or Draupadi, but the principle remains the same: a lady selects a man whom she considers more qualified than herself and takes a submissive role, working in harmony with him. Srila Prabhupada gives a nice explanation about this in his purport to SB 9.10.27:
“Not only was mother Sita powerful, but any woman who follows in the footsteps of mother Sita can also become similarly powerful. There are many instances of this in the history of Vedic literature. Whenever we find a description of ideal chaste women, mother Sita is among them. Mandodari, the wife of Ravana, was also very chaste. Similarly, Draupadi was one of five exalted chaste women. As a man must follow great personalities like Brahma and Narada, a woman must follow the path of such ideal women as Sita, Mandodari and Draupadi. By staying chaste and faithful to her husband, a woman enriches herself with supernatural power.”
Feminism turns everything upside down, teaching ladies that they should be independent. The result is that they can’t be proper wives or mothers, which just creates a distressed condition for everyone: the ladies themselves, their husbands, and their children. Worse still is that it creates additional obstacles to their spiritual development.
Nobody is independent. Everyone is dependent on different authorities. When a child is born, the authorities are the parents, and as one grows up other authorities are added, like the teachers and mentors, the instructing gurus and the initiating guru, and so on. Some of these are authorities on a material level and others on a spiritual level, but all of them are representatives of Krsna, who are empowered by Him to give us direction, teaching us what is proper and improper to do, and thus advance.
To be able to advance in spiritual life (or even to advance in a material sense, becoming a civilized human being), it’s essential that one accepts this principle of authority. That’s why this particular point is emphasized in the scriptures. One is allowed to not follow an authority in cases where such a person gives unbonafide instructions (like when Bali Maharaja rejected Shukracharya) or falls from the regulative principles, but the general rule is that we should respect and follow authority.
In fact, we are for so long in this material world exactly because we don’t want to accept our dependent position. We want to be separate enjoyers, masters of everything that we see. In this sense, feminism is just as bad as chauvinism, since it feeds this diseased condition of the soul, leading one to rebel against the principle of authority, which is essential for a progressive life.
The result is just bitterness and frustration. Real intelligence means being able to abandon our propensity of trying to be the controllers in this material world and realize our original spiritual position.
Without following these roles, it’s very difficult to have a peaceful family life, which is the basis for any kind of progressive society. A man may be irresponsible and a lady independent as long as he or she is satisfied with staying alone in the forest. As soon as a lady needs a man and a man needs a lady, there is a need for the marriage institution, and as soon as we talk about marriage and family, it’s essential that both follow their proper roles, so the relationship can work. Irresponsible males and independent females don’t work well in a family context.
This is a topic that tends to make people defensive since most ladies have experience of being exploited or neglected by unqualified men, therefore when someone speaks about chastity or submissiveness, an image of exploitation comes to the mind. That’s the other side of the question: men need to be trained to be responsible and respectful toward ladies, especially their own wives.
As Srila Prabhupada emphasizes in his purport to SB 7.11.28: “It is not that a chaste woman should be like a slave while her husband is naradhama, the lowest of men. Although the duties of a woman are different from those of a man, a chaste woman is not meant to serve a fallen husband”. On the one hand, the wife should be supportive and chaste, but on the other, the husband should be qualified and act properly. As he explains, the most sinful thing is to exploit someone who has taken shelter of us. A man who exploits a lady who gives her heart to him commits a most grievous sin and should expect a very severe reaction, be it in this life or in the next.
A woman will feel naturally inclined to follow a man who has good qualities and takes good care of the family. If the man is respectful and responsible and the lady is supportive, a very deep and peaceful relationship can be established. If the relationship is not deep, it will break easily when problems appear. As Srila Prabhupada writes a little later, in the same purport: “The conclusion is that a husband should be a pure Vaisnava and that a woman should be a chaste wife with all the symptoms described in this regard. Then both of them will be happy and make spiritual progress in Krsna consciousness.”
As you can see, this is a complex subject that deals with a set of values that is different from the ones we find in modern society. Srila Prabhupada simply speaks based on these principles, in line with the succession of teachers he represents. The idea of a woman acting like a woman and a man acting like a man may sound strange in an era when men are trained to be like ladies and ladies like men, but ancient societies based on these values prospered for thousands of years. Considering the rate of divorces, depression, and suicides in our current societies, maybe we could consider the possibility that they understood a few things we don’t.