Jagat

Finally, a quote that says what I have been saying all along. This is from Madhva's Bhāgavata-tātparya to BhP 3.31.35. I mean, it is just common sense, but sometimes the most commonsensical things don't seem to have their "authoritative scriptural backing." sat-puṁṣu ca tathā strīṣu na saṅgo doṣam āvadet | yathā-yogyaṁ guṇā naiva doṣa-kṛd dṛṣṭa-jantuṣu || There is no saṅga doṣa or flaw in association of saintly men with saintly women. Virtues, appropriately expressed, are not seen to be the source of vice in any creature. I have to verify the reading as the second line is a bit odd, though the first line is clear. Ascribed to the Varāha-purāna . Unfortunately, this is verified only in the GM edition, and not in the 1980 Bannanje Govindacharya edition. At any rate, as I have been saying, there is no automatic sa ṅ ga-doṣa between devotee men and women. Furthermore, in HBV 10.301 and following, it is said that the primary characteristic of undesirable assoc...

In a previous posting , I used the expression “The Other came to me as Woman” twice. I think it is important to discuss what I meant here in connection with the question of strī-saṅga . Generally speaking, it would not be an understatement that, for the sādhaka , the world is a fearful thing. As for the Buddha, whose four noble truths begin with the word “misery,” the perception is that birth, old age, disease and death haunt us and incessantly reduce all our efforts in this world to mere vanity. Thus, nearly every religion starts with some kind of movement away from the world and harbors persistent monastic movements where other-worldly values are given preeminence. Rather than calling this a movement away , it may be more correct to call it a movement within. Nevertheless, though on this stage preoccupation with the perishable is seen as a waste of time, with a change in spiritual perceptions, the position of the external world is eventually raised again. Mystics who find uni...

Madhavananda's second objection to Sahajiyaism is based in those numerous verses that I call misogynistic in character. Such verses tell us that there is nothing worse for a person's devotional life than the association of women. This is a question that needs to be explored in much depth and I will try to make a preliminary assessment of the subject. My daughter visited recently. Among the little bits of bitterness that she served up in relation to her Iskcon experience was a reference to the Gita's verse: māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te'pi yānti parāṁ gatim Those who take shelter of me fully, even those of sinful birth, women, merchants or common laborers, they too can attain the supreme destination. (9.32) My daughter uttered the words "even women" with portentous disdain--women are considered inferior beings in the bhakti world view. They have, according to different sources, two, four, six or eigh...