As a society we are experiencing historical moments of social discontent, not only in the Krishna Consciousness movement, but also in the general society.
Emergingly in recent years and from different parts of the planet, as if it were a butterfly effect, a large number of female devotees and non devotees have denounced different types of gender violence, abuse, mistreatment and rape within the ISKCON community , by some so-called devotees and / or leaders of the Institution. For many years their voices were silenced or ignored, without obtaining the due protection they deserved.
Adding to this international context of violence against women, we find the case of Afghanistan, a country that has been taken over by the Taliban fundamentalists. In recent days, thanks to the mass media, we have been learning about the bases and aberrant religious laws of discrimination against thousands of women and girls living in that country and in response to these events, the international community is raising its voice repudiating these misogynistic ideologies and actions.
Thus, in the framework of these social exaltations, finally the women and girls of Srila Prabhupada's spiritual family, we find ourselves twinned to raise our claims, preparing this letter; where we express our pain and shame of others, when listening to a video posted on YouTube[1] three weeks ago, in which Ragunatha Swami at the bottom of the video clearly presents the initials of ISKCON.
In this video, Ragunatha S. expresses an absolute rejection of the leadership and performance of roles and functions of the female devotee, within ISKCON, as well as an absolute misuse of the scriptures cited by him. These quotes are taken out of context and devoid of the deep reflection that these texts deserve, exposing the image of ISKCON before people outside the movement and having its position to promote political debates, when talking about the distribution of power and the internal administration of ISKCON, which has nothing to do with his spiritual guidance work. As an example we reproduce verbatim some of his unfortunate statements:
'' Diksa guru women, female temple commanders, female presidents, GBC women, this plague appeared after Srila Prabhupada's departure, unfortunately our current discernment seems to be below a canistha level. Our most well-versed scholars have been arguing for over 15 years to figure out whether women are inferior to men or not. How about devotees? They are Vaishnavis, they have distributed so many books, we are going to vote, we put them as diksa gurus, yes or no, and they voted as the monkey, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. ''
Clearly, it is not our intention to discuss in this letter the scriptures so as to extract concepts and convenient citations to the rights, roles and prestige of the female devotees within ISKCON, or even to use resources of hermeneutics, since on innumerable occasions they have been made deep and contextualized reflections on these issues and which are also public knowledge.[2]
“Women in ISKCON in the time of Srila Prabhupada where he mentions all these misunderstandings about women and explained with the same writings of Srila Prabhupada why of them. A brief analysis of Srila Prabhupada's claims reveals that he did not consider his female disciples less intelligent or less capable than his male disciples.”[3]
Those who mistake unchanging principles for varying details distort our philosophy and threaten ISKCON with irrelevance and failure. Prabhupada himself often enunciates these principles of preservation and adaptation:
“I have to make arrangements according to the country, according to the circumstances, as far as possible. … So we have to adopt deśa-kāla-pātra… But we keep our principles as they are, but make arrangements according to circumstances. That is mandatory".[4]
“ISKCON should welcome any qualified devotee to serve as guru, without imposing a body test in terms of ethnicity, nationality or gender. Lord Caitanya personally declared, "Whoever knows the science of Krishna is a guru"[5].
Prabhupada himself quoted this verse when he insisted that women can be gurus in the parampara. On June 18, 1976, Professor Joseph O'Connell of the University of Toronto asked Prabhupada,
"Is it possible, Swamiji, for a woman to be a guru in the line of disciplic succession?" Prabhupada replied,
“Yes. ... male or female ... Yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā sei guru haya. The qualification of the guru is that he must fully know the science of Kṛṣṇa. Then he or she can become a guru. Yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei guru haya. In the material world, is there any prohibition that a woman cannot become a teacher? If you are qualified, you can become a teacher. What happens there? She must be qualified. That is the position. Similarly, if the woman fully understands Krishna consciousness, she can become a guru. "[6]
To our regret, Swami Ragunatha, does nothing but directly offend half of the people who take shelter in ISKCON, that is, the female class, with anachronistic, violent and misogynistic sayings like those he presents.
“The real story is very different. From 1972 to 1988 more or less, women were practically silent about the roles assigned to them and the way they were treated. At that time, the leading men of ISKCON cornered them to be located at the back of the temples, prevented them from teaching classes, leading kirtans, chanting japa in the temple, doing service in administrative activities, they provided them less facilities for living or directly they did not provide ashrams for them, they removed them from the pujari service, such as offering the arati during a ceremony as crowded as the mangala-arati, and implemented other social and devotional restrictions.
For more than a decade, women kindly, humbly, and devotedly followed the dictates and commands that our brothers imposed on us, even though those rules were often completely contrary to Srila Prabhupada's guidance and example.
Women leave ISKCON and we are surprised. Paraphrasing Srila Prabhupada: We should better be surprised at the women who stay.”[7]
Ragunatha Swami's statements are far from representing the Modality and Mission of our spiritual leader Srila Prabhupada. Quite the contrary, his unfortunate sayings place us in a similar way to Islamic fundamentalism, so strongly rejected socially.
Swami Ragunatha, with his opinion, logically does not represent the majority of ISKCON members, so we respectfully but urgently request an intervention from the GBC and its local leaders, so that Swami Ragunatha refrains from teaching in our communities, as well as councils and directives as a representative of ISKCON.
In addition to the above, a public and open apology from this devotee, to the GBC body, to the disciples of Srila Prabhupada who openly offends, as well as to the entire community of female devotees and non devotees, is also just and necessary. in general, that they have massively expressed their total repudiation of the said misused and without any reflection, presented in said video.
Waiting for your actions in order to direct and invite this devotee to reflect on the path of Krishna Consciousness, so that he can live in peace and respect towards this Institution that lovingly watches over the success in his spiritual life, and also towards this great Srila Prabhupada's family, which constitutes his global community, made up of women and men, all of goodwill, who day by day, we are sincerely struggling to transcend all material conditionings of ethnicity, color and gender, recognizing ourselves as eternal spiritual souls, under under the loving care and guidance of the Parampara and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
We thank you in advance for your attention, willingness and collaboration, as well as a prompt response.
The undersigned, we sincerely greet you.
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3AEt7gJLZM
[2] https://www.hdgoswami.com/understanding-prabhupada-2/
[3] Article presented by Jyotirmayi at the conference “Vaishnavis in ISKCON” . Marina Del Rey, California, December 5th to 7th, 1997. http://vaishnaviministry.org/mujeres-en-iskcon-en-el-tiempo-de-prabhupada/
[4] Srimad Bhagavatam Conference 1.2.10 - Delhi, November 16, 1973.
[5] [CC 2.8.128]
[6] [BTG 33-02 1999]
[7] http://vaishnaviministry.org/introduccion/