Maharajji answers questions in Śrī Guru Darśanam, p 505
Question: In Caitanya Caritāmṛta in the purport, it is mentioned that Mahāprabhu had three and a half confidential associates (CC Adi 10.137: “Caitanya Mahāprabhu had three and a half very confidential devotees. The three were Svarūpa Gosāñi, Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya, and Śikhi Māhiti. Śikhi Māhiti’s younger sister, Mādhavī devī being a women was considered the half”) Could you explain more about them?
Answer: Nothing much is known except that they are associates of Mahāprabhu.
Question: And why is it three, why is the lady considered as a half?
Answer: That is because they counted ladies as half.
Question: Half confidential or because she is a woman?
Answer: Because she is a woman. Now you can make it four, but in those days they counted women as a half person. Now it is not three and a half, so you may change it and make it four. Previously in Christianity they said that women do not have souls, and similarly in Bengal they said that women have half of a soul.
Only Śrī Caitanya gave complete status to women in everything, whether it was worship of śālagrāma, worship of the deity, chanting or initiation. Before Him, no one else allowed women to do those things. In varṇāśrama or even in other Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, women were always considered as less than men. But Śrī Caitanya gave them equal rights, as far as devotion is concerned.
Question: What was Śrī Caitanya’s attitude towards women, because He allowed them to do many things, from which they were barred previously.
Answer: Mahāprabhu had an equal vision toward women, because every human being has a right to worship Bhagavān, and there is no discrimination in that. Therefore, He gave equal rights to women to worship just like men. He ordained that women should not be discriminated against when it comes to the service of Bhagavān.
Question: But why was He so strict with Choṭa Haridāsa, who begged rice from a woman?
Answer: The punishing of Choṭa Haridāsa was done to warn people that they should not take advantage of these equal rights for women. Because people, in general, have the tendency to get into material relations, which have nothing to do with spiritual life. So this was an example for us. Bhakti means not having any other desire or motive to serve Bhagavān. For that, Mahāprabhu gave equal rights to both, men and women.
But it is not proper to think that because He has given equal rights, therefore men and women can mingle together, and men can exploit women in material dealings for enjoying. Mahāprabhu did not allow that in the name of spirituality one starts to flirt.
Therefore He gave this warning by punishing his associate. Of course, there was no harm done to him, but He punished him to teach others that the tendency of people in the material world is to misuse the principle. Nowadays many sādhus go to houses and beg for food, and this is called mādhukarī. The original idea was that the sadhus should not keep anything for themselves nor make any arrangements for their maintenance. They were completely absorbed in doing service, and to support their bodies, they would beg for food. But in the begging, they [can] establish relationships with women, because it is the women who are in the house and cook the food. Men go out in the fields and do their jobs outside the home. So the sādhus establish a relationship with women and then they deviate from the original principle for which mādhukarī or begging was actually instituted. By the example of Choṭa Haridāsa, Mahāprabhu was giving instructions that sādhus should be very careful. He said, “Now you want to beg rice, but later..” Although Choṭa Haridāsa’s intention was to beg for Śrī Caitanya, it was still not proper that he would go and meet women. The person who was punished was a sannyāsī; they are not supposed to have any dealings with women, therefore Mahāprabhu forbade this kind of activity.
There were so many women associates of Mahāprabhu and He was eating food from their hands. Many of these devotees from Bengal used to carry food in baskets all the way to Jagannātha Purī, which is a few hundred kilometers away. It was stored for snacks. Every day Mahāprabhu would eat something from it. His servant would give it to Mahāprabhu, informing Him, “This food is prepared by such and such devotee,” because he kept the person’s name on the food. So Mahāprabhu would eat the food cooked by women, but in this way, there was no possibility of materialistic attachment.
Question: What is the meaning of Gosvāminī when it comes to the female gurus in our sampradāya?
Answer: Previously there was a tradition that the mantra was to be taken from the mother, and not from the male. The mother is considered to be superior to the father. The mother is considered as the first guru of the child. So in our Vaiṣṇava paramparā, dikṣā was taken from the wife (mother) and not from the husband (father).
So Gosvāminī in this case does not mean the renounced order, but the wife of the guru. This changed at my guru’s (our param-guruji’s) time, because his father gave dikṣā. Before that it was always from the wife (mother).
In the case of my guru, his mother had left her body before he could take dikṣā from her. Then there was a meeting of the scholarly people to decide who would give him (my guru) dikṣā. Then it was decided that his father would give dikṣā.
[..]
Question: Is there also something like veṣa [renounced order] for women in uttama bhakti?
Answer: Everybody has the right to take it, but generally it is difficult for women to practice it. But the right is for everybody. However, dikṣā in uttama-bhakti is complete surrender anyway, so it does not matter. It was only for niṣṭhā that a certain class of people would give up everything, so that they could fully take to the path and give guidance to others.
Categories: Q/A
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s vision of the Spiritual equality of women & men is both refreshing and outstanding both within Sanatana Dharma and in world religions. We must not allow this aspect of Mahaprabhu’s teaching to be eclipsed by the more regressive and Abrahamically influenced ideas of some of the modern Neo-Gaudiya sects who claim to speak on behalf of Gaudiya Vaishnavism these days. It’s time to reclaim the narrative. Thanks for another superb post.
Thank you for sharing these brilliant uncomplicated Q & A questions. These do make a lot of sense.
Answer:” Previously there was a tradition that the mantra was to be taken from the mother, and not from the male. The mother is considered to be superior to the father. The mother is considered as the first guru of the child. So in our Vaiṣṇava paramparā, dikṣā was taken from the wife (mother) and not from the husband (father).
So Gosvāminī in this case does not mean the renounced order, but the wife of the guru. This changed at my guru’s (our param-guruji’s) time, because his father gave dikṣā. Before that it was always from the wife (mother).
In the case of my guru, his mother had left her body before he could take dikṣā from her. Then there was a meeting of the scholarly people to decide who would give him (my guru) dikṣā. Then it was decided that his father would give dikṣā.”
Isn’t this still practiced in Nityananda Vamsa and Adwaita Parivar?
In your parampara is your guru’s father listed as your param guru and in turn his mother (your guru’s grandmother) as your parat param guru? Or is the parampara different? Are different mantras taken from different people at different times?
I dont know if it is still practiced in other parivaras. As it stands today, in our parivaar, the practice is no longer current.
The parampara does not include the father. Only the person who gives the diksha is included in the parampara. Mantras are only given once by the diksha guru
“As it stands today, in our parivaar, the practice is no longer current.”
In other lineages coming from the Gadadhara Parivara it is probably practiced though, right?
I don’t know.
“So Gosvāminī in this case does not mean the renounced order, but the wife of the guru. ”
But if the mother is the diksha guru where does “wife of the guru” come from?
He is trying to explain the word Gosvamini. Goswamini means the wife of Goswami.
“Previously in Christianity they said that women do not have souls”
Is there a source for that? Seems to run contrary to Biblical doctrine.
“and similarly in Bengal they said that women have half of a soul.”
Bengal was ruled by Muslims at the time, so perhaps that’s why. I think, if I remember correctly, Quran says a woman’s witness in court counts as half. Or 2 women witnesses equals 1 man witness.
I don’t know where he got this information from.
Hare krsna ,firstly how can men and women be equal cuz for this we’ll have to discard gender roles ,People of other sampradayas especially smartas raise this question on gaudiyas that we tend to go against smritis
One said to me that Gaudiyas say chaitanya mahaprabhu changed rules for men and women going against shastras like women worshipping shaligram
I said whats wrong hes bhagwan svayam ,he said buddha was also avatar of bhagwan but one must reject even Gods words if it goes against shastras
(altho women did get Pancharatra diksha in ramanuji sampradaya but they usually had to be married for diksha madhvas didnt have this constraint)
men and women being equal is propagated due to feminism ,Prem Nidhi Dasa has exposed feminism in a blog “Freedom versus Protection of Women” on jiva institue website u can check comments ,in the name of equality will we go further making women priests? giving them upanayan adhikar too? then whats even the use of gender roles and worst of all is that we are doing ashastriye things by neglecting shastras
secondly talking about womens intelligence this is what shastras say
Devi Bhagavatam 9.38.1-6 ”…O Bhagavân! The woman kind has been created by the Creator as devoid of any Tattvajñâna or true knowledge
Rig Veda 8.33.17 Indra himself hath said, The mind of woman brooks not discipline, Her intellect hath little weight.
Acharya Medadithi writes on Manu Smriti 9.18,
”Destitute of Organs.’- ‘Organ’ here stands for strength; courage, patience, intelligence, energy and so forth are absent in women
The new study confirms the earlier findings that the adult men have IQs 3.3 to 5 points higher than women.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/men-smarter-than-women-study/articleshow/1971720.cms
If u look up to past 20 years data of any entrance exams in India too be it jee or neet its men who topped ,harly few women fell into range of AIR 100(even tho women get reservation due to which their result gets way better yet men surpass them)
even in neet 2022 3 students got same marks 2 boys and 1 female but they made that girl topper
Its been more than 170 years since feminism started but even if we look at past 20 years where women all around globe got education same as men or past 10 years all inventions and tech based advances have been done by men
because I believe men are made to be ambitious and achieve goals and built while females are made to nurture families
A chaste woman must dress nicely and decorate herself with golden ornaments for the pleasure of her husband. Always wearing clean and attractive garments, she should sweep and clean the household with water and other liquids so that the entire house is always pure and clean. She should collect the household paraphernalia and keep the house always aromatic with incense and flowers and must be ready to execute the desires of her husband. Being modest and truthful, controlling her senses, and speaking in sweet words, a chaste woman should engage in the service of her husband with love, according to time and circumstances.ŚB 7.11.26-27
We know hinduism is pro patriarchy(not in a bad way it means rule of father/men lead)
CC Antya 7.106, Hearing this, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “My dear Vallabha Bhatta, you do not know religious principles. Actually, the first duty of a chaste woman is to carry out the order of her husband
Hare krsna
Ok first read the rules for commenting on this website. If you post long essays your messages will be deleted.
I disagree with everything you say. You do not have clear concepts about Bhakti and varnasrama. You are mixing them. The statements you cite about women are from a varnasrama point of view. But there are also statements in Bhagavata that Bhakti is for everyone. Sri Jiva makes an extensive analysis of this point in the Bhakti sandarbha. So Sri Caitanya followed Bhakti shastras not varnasrama sastras.
Your so called evidence of women from scriptures is irrelevant and also myopic. You selectively cite evidence and ignore other evidence. For example, Gita says kirti srir vak ca narinam smrti medha dhrti etc
So who will decide what statements to follow and which ones to not follow? For that you have to learn these things from the guru. Since you cite jiva.org, these are the views of Babaji whom we follow —
https://www.jiva.org/?s=Women
There is a huge overlap in IQ distributions between women and men and only not at the extreme tails of distributions. Even so, the gender gap on competitive exams is decreasing, which shows that the underperformance of women on these exams is a complex multifactorial phenomenon. Things are improving for women :
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED562837.pdf
Self-doubt in women is no doubt in part caused by brainwashed people who selectively cite verses from the Bhagavata to teach them to sweep the floor and dress nicely for the husband. Really? How about the fact that women used to learn the Vedas in the past? See articles on this topic on jiva.org.