Revered Vaishnavas,
Offering my humble obeisances at the lotus feet of anyone who has served ISKCON and also at the feet of those who will serve in the future, I address the body of devotees in whose hands lies the power to make decisions affecting the very future of Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
I am not going to quote from various Sastras or even from the words of His Divine Grace.
Rather I wish to talk about certain principles at play when addressing the FDG issue. With the current debate inviting quotes and counter quotes, the following is a call to see reason.
The process bestowed upon us by Srila Prabhupada is the same as presented by His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada.
Differing from the other branches of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s tree, Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada introduced the system of saffron cloth and Tridanda sannyasa and pointed his mission in the direction of establishing Daiva Varnashrama. This was a sort of weaponisation of the process, enabling it to be actively preached while giving it the required societal resilience protection against sahajiya influences and niyamagraha constraints that it needed to guard against. This along with sufficient stress on Pancaratrika marg keeps us focused on gradually making progress on the Bhagavat Marg, while we are protected by the Varnashrama system.
It is certainly true that in Bhagavat Marg there is no consideration of one’s gender as being an absolute disqualification from guiding someone back to Godhead. But we cannot deny that the Varnashrama system and the Pancaratrika system, as given to us by Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada, certainly don’t allow it.
Now if we set aside the regard which we must give the latter two in order to somehow accommodate the former, we will pull the stitching out of the structure that Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur has given. We would have transgressed. We would give undue focus to the Bhagavat Marg for which the great vast majority of us are not ready. The society would not be able to withstand it.
And all that in order to do what? To pre-empt some kind of objection a future devotional candidate has against us.
But a person floating in nescience has no business demanding the teacher to change the process for his education. By this logic we would have to continue to accommodate one demand after another as time goes by.
It is true that the numbers in the United States and other places are dwindling at the present moment. So should we change our process because of that. No. Let us be prepared to speak to the four walls if no one would come and hear us. Let us take shelter in the same house that our Thakurs have given us and persevere.
Our entire philosophy points out that it is only our loyalty to our Guru Parampara that will give us success.
Nothing else.
To all the exalted matajis who believe that the current situation is unfair to them, we humbly say that if you are really inspired to go out and preach to the masses and bring them to the lotus feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, there is nothing that can stand in your way. Give them shiksha and be content in knowing that you have successfully preached to a soul and sent them on the way back to Godhead. For the sake of Varnashrama and Pancaratrika propriety, let the said candidate take diksha from any qualified Guru that you see fit. After all we are all following Srila Prabhupada as our principal shiksha guru and everyone else is just there to help us understand and implement Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. In the ultimate sense there is no mankind versus womankind. It’s all the Vaishnavas cooperating within the Varnashrama structure framework to ensure the maintenance of its sanctity.
Don’t undermine the foundation of this mission by disregarding Varnashrama and Pancaratra.
Thank you.