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Comments on Previous Editions
Phalinī Devī Dāsī (ACBSP)
India/USA
Women: Masters or Mothers? called by the author a “tract,” is
much more than just a religious pamphlet. It is a deep and
thoroughly cogent treatise on the current social anomalies
within ISKCON (mirroring the social aberrations of the Western
world) and how these incongruities relate to and have arisen
due to our members remaining too much influenced by
Western society.
His Holiness Bhakti Vikāsa Swami is not concerned with how
he will be viewed for stating facts. He speaks courageously
and truthfully about the unquestionable presence and
pernicious effects of feminism within ISKCON, the need for
early marriage, the practicality of polygamy, the importance
of shyness among women and their need for protection, the
fact that Śrīla Prabhupāda never appointed women as temple
presidents or GBC members, the dangers of co-education and
worldly careers for women, and other such hush-hush, hot
topics that may arouse angry arguments but that nonetheless
need to be addressed, discussed, and adopted in our society as
part of fulfilling the other 50% of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission:
daiva-varṇāśrama-dharma.
Śrīla Prabhupāda did not want us to emulate the American
(aka Western) way of life. He came to improve it, to change it,
to replace American culture with Vedic culture. He wanted us
to transcend the American way of life and to realize that we
don’t belong in this world. Śrīla Prabhupāda states, “I am not
in the world... just like I am in America... I am not adopting
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