Jagat

tyaktvā saṅgaṁ dūrataḥ strī-piśācyā sarvāśānāṁ mūlam uddhṛtya samyak | daivāl labdhenaiva nirvāhya dehaṁ śrīmad-vṛndā-kānane joṣam āssva || Renouncing from afar the company of witch-like women, pulling up the very root of all material hopes, maintaining the body by whatever fate gives you, lovingly take up residence in Vrinda Devi’s forest. (1.31) Commentary Here we have another of Prabodhananda’s intense vairāgya verses. In the modern age, statements that associate the words woman and witch to one another are very difficult to reconcile with current ways of thinking. Generally, however, it is conceded by spiritualists of all paths that the greatest danger to spiritual life results from an attachments to sense desires, if they take us away from service to God. If a woman who acts like a piśācī is a source of bondage for a man, then the same is true for a woman who attaches herself to a materialistic man, a piśāca . [ Misogyny, MGTOW and the Bhagavatam .] ...

I want to say something about the impression that people have that I am always talking about sex. Perhaps it is because I have been open about the subject in a way that others have not been that has created this impression. Women are ready to talk about misogyny, but fail to recognize that ambivalence and confusion about sexuality itself are an important contributing factor in misogyny, and a spiritually viable response is needed to assimilate sexuality into our culture of the sacred. There are many people who feel uncomfortable with any mention whatever of sexuality, and tell me to emphasize love. After all, our tradition has always hidden direct references to sex and dressed it up in Radha Krishna's "love dalliances" or whatever. I think that a little direct talk is not only useful but necessary. That does not make me a sex maniac or a lusty old womanizer. Indeed, most people in the modern  materialistic view of sexual liberation would find me a fusty conservative ...

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...