Herein lies the crux of my comment. My comment is about privacy, or more to the point, the lack of privacy that is visited upon you when you become a completely totally absolutely servile public figure like a Guru. You might as well stand naked on a stage, because that would afford you more privacy then being a guru in ISKCON.
We now have some female disciples of Srila Prabhupada, I am told, that have had their names put forward as possible Diksha Gurus within ISKCON. When your name is put forward in the public forum to become a Guru within our ISKCON institution, then you (by fiat) open yourself up to the whole wide world for inspection, consideration, and evaluation. A predominating feature of Srila Prabhupada's life, especially after he became a world Acharya, was his utter complete total lack of privacy.
My question is one of chasity. Why would any advanced chaste lady want to put herself through the microscopic (sensuous) gaze of the public that follows you when you become an initiating Guru in ISKCON? Why would a women surrender her right to privacy by following such a path?
For example, there is a lady that has had her name put forward as a possible candidate for the position of initiating Guru in our ISKCON institution. I doubt anyone really wants to, in the least, stand in any kind of judgment about the particulars of her life . Everyone respects
her, greatly admires her actually. But because her name has been put forward to be a Guru then (again by fiat) that opens her entire life to be evaluated by the public.
I am wondering, is anyone going to ask the tough questions of these ladies, now that they have been put forward (or have put themselves forward) as public figures????? Or are we going to defer to their femininity, back off, and not put them under the same public microscope as we do to a soul in a male body that has had his name put forward as a possible Guru or Sannyasi in ISKCON? What is good for the goose is good for the gander, the old aphorism goes.
Because her name has been placed in the public domain as a possible initiating Guru in ISKCON, that now makes her "fair game", so to speak, for the tough questions, and so now we have before us this question.
The question is not can a women become Guru, but can a divorced women become a Guru?? The particulars of the divorce do not matter to me (who was wrong, who was right, who was dumped on, and who did the dumping) . Her husband (the father of her male child) is still alive and
kicking, and something of a practicing devotee. So, considering our tradition, our sastra, the many examples of the women in our sastra, who often went through hell and high water to remain devoted wives to their husbands, can a women of divorce whose husband is still alive become a Guru???? Is anyone going to ask this question, which is the real question we have before us???? I personally cannot even begin to answer it. But my question is, can anyone
answer it, and more to the point, is anyone going to ask it?
Also, again only because her name is now before us in the public forum, one has to ask this question. This lady in question has a grown up son . I don't know if he is married or unmarried. But let us say that five years down the line, he has a child with a wife and the wife dies in childbirth. Not only does the wife die in childbirth, but the baby born of that union is a crippled child confined to a wheelchair for life. Is our Diksha grandmotherly Guru going to proceed on with her ISKCON duties or is she going to bow out to help her son who is now in desperate need of her help??? And let us say, she proceeds on with her ISKCON duties, and ignores her grown up son with the crippled child, what kind of example is that???? Or worse still, she uses her ISKCON position, and the money and power it accrues to her, to help her son. Maybe she asks a couple of disciples to see to her crippled grandchild needs. My question is, what kind of devotional service would that be???
So, you see how quickly complex the question becomes of women Gurus.
Now finally, let us say that this particular woman in question is indeed completely transcendental beyond the modes of material nature. If that is true (and for all we know it can be true ) then let us ask just one more question. If this is her position, what is better, what is more in keeping with our sastra, what would be more of a good example for our society, becoming a Guru, or getting back with her husband (the father of her child) and (if he is in maya more than she is) saving him and bringing him back home back to Godhead???? If she is truly beyond the modes of material nature she could do either------become a Guru or save her long divorced husband from the endless cycle of birth and death.
I suspect, that perhaps, this "transcendental" women of divorce (any women of divorce) may find the former easier than the latter------and much more "fun".
Your servant,
Gita Nagari dasa
Edited slightly.
