Background
In January 2021, an anonymous author circulated a paper titled Sunīti’s Ineligibility in ISKCON. An analysis of two statements made by Śrīla Prabhupāda (further on referred to as SI for brevity). SI attempts to analyse Śrīla Prabhupāda’s purport on SB 4.12.32 (or the “Sunīti pramāṇa”) with the aim to show that the purport does not prohibit women from acting as dīkṣā-gurus. In particular, SI posits that
Sunīti could not become Dhruva’s dīkṣā-guru on account of both her gender (woman) and role (mother) — and not just her gender.
The paper prompted a response from Kṛṣṇa-kīrti Prabhu, titled Śrīla Prabhupada on Suniti Devi: Only Woman, not Mother, is the Prohibited Category (further on referred to as OW). In OW, Kṛṣṇa-kīrti Prabhu argues that Sunīti’s role as Dhruva’s mother was immaterial for her ineligibility as Dhruva’s dīkṣā-guru because being a mother necessarily implies being a woman. He illustrated his conclusion, in part, with
elements of set theory.
OW, in turn, caused yet another response from SI’s author titled A Response to Krishna-kirti Prabhu’s Argument (referred to as RK). In RK the author points out what s/he sees as inconsistencies, unfounded assumptions, and fallacious extrapolations in OW. Particularly, RK argues that mothers are not always a subcategory of women, and objects to OW’s collapsing the two into one — women. As both sides make some valid points and both commit some logical omissions, it appears necessary to try and analyze the purport in terms of a formal and objective mathematical paradigm that naturally lends itself to the debate at hand — set theory
At below link you can read the whole research paper.
The Sunīti Pramāṇa and Set Theory
BY MADANA-MOHANA DĀSA.
CONTRIBUTORS: AKIÑCANĀ-RATI DĀSA, PHD (MATH.), DVIJA-GOVINDA DĀSA, PHD (MATH.), SUKUMĀRĪ-SUNDARĪ DEVĪ DĀSĪ, PHD (MATH.) ET AL. (FEBRUARY 2021)
If Madana Mohana Dasa is involved you know it has to be wrong. If Madana Mohana said “the Sun rises in the East.” I would double check.
Same old story of FDG proponents: “Women could not be diksa-gurus only for Dhruva”. If you ask: “Why only for Dhruva? Why is Dhruva so special?”, they don’t know what to reply. They use formal mathematics ignoring the laws of rhetorics: any author inevitably has to cut long full syllogisms because people will not listen or read long full chains of logical premises and conclusions. That’s why Srila Prabhupada wrote “could not be diksa-guru of Dhruva”. He might say full chain: “could not be diksa-guru of anyone, therefore could not be diksa-giru of Dhruva”. But he was interested to say about Dhruva’s diksa-gurus in order to use this in his next reasoning that’s why he cut out one link of the chain and wrote just as he wrote.
No matter how many Ph.Ds will be engaged in “proving” whatever they want to prove… the fact is a fact. You will never find a statement in Srila Prabhupada’s books, neither in Bhagavatam nor Caitanya Caritamrita, which clearly straightforwardly says “women are allowed to initiate and be diksa-gurus”. We only need dozens of pages of such research pages to juggle the meaning in favor of these ideas. Whereas in CC it clearly says that, yes, women can get initiated, but only if they are chaste and sincere.
CC Madhya 24.331 PURPORT: The following injunction is given in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (1.194) regarding mantra-adhikārī, the qualification for receiving mantra initiation:tāntrikeṣu ca mantreṣu dīkṣāyāṁ yoṣitām api
sādhvīnām adhikāro ’sti śūdrādīnāṁ ca sad-dhiyām“Śūdras and women who are chaste and sincerely interested in understanding the Absolute Truth are qualified to be initiated with the pāñcarātrika-mantras.” This is confirmed by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.32):māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye ’pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ
striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te ’pi yānti parāṁ gatiṁ“O son of Pṛthā, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth — women, vaiśyas [merchants] and śūdras [workers] — can attain the supreme destination.”If one actually wants to serve Kṛṣṇa, it doesn’t matter whether one is a śūdra, vaiśya or even a woman. If one is sincerely eager to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra or dīkṣā-mantra, one is qualified to be initiated according to the pāñcarātrika process. However, according to Vedic principles, only a brāhmaṇa who is fully engaged in his occupational duties can be initiated. Śūdras and women are not admitted to a vaidika initiation. Unless one is fit according to the estimation of the spiritual master, one cannot accept a mantra from the pāñcarātrika-vidhi or the vaidika-vidhi. When one is fit to accept the mantra, one is initiated by the pāñcarātrika-vidhi or the vaidika-vidhi. In any case, the result is the same.
So much of mental gymnastics just to avoid the obvious – Srila Prabhupada never appointed one single lady in a position of authority. “Very simple thing. Very simple thing. But it is simple for the simple, but it is very hard for the crooked.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Boston, December 26, 1969)