Woman reporter: Where do women fit into these four classes?
Prabhupada: That I already explained. Women’s position is subordinate to man. So if the man is first-class, the woman is first-class. If the man is second-class, the woman is second-class. If the man is third-class, the woman is third-class. In this… Because woman is meant for assisting man, so the woman becomes suitable according to the man, her husband.
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Woman reporter: Would you say that women are inferior to men?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Woman reporter: Why?
Prabhupada: By physiological condition. Just like you are. Your bodily features are different from the man’s features. You cannot deny it. So according to the bodily features, the psychological condition and everything is there. How you can deny it?
Woman reporter: Do you think that I am inferior to you?
Prabhupada: It is not the question of inferior or superior. Different. Now you take one inferior or superior. That is your calculation. But the bodily features are different. That is material. But spiritually, they are all one. Materially… Just like your bodily feature and a man’s bodily feature is different. Now, so far question of inferior, superior, that is your calculation. But we say that by nature, a woman and man is different.
Woman reporter: What does this mean as far as whether women can do the same things that men can do, or whether women can lead people?
Prabhupada: Well, women can bear children, but the man cannot. Is it possible to bear children? A man can become pregnant? Is it possible?
Woman reporter: No.
Prabhupada: Physically… Therefore there are so many things which is possible in man and which is not possible in woman, by nature. How you can say that they are of the same nature?
Television Interview, July 9, 1975, Chicago
Makes me think of the story of Adam and Eve and the rib:
God created the first woman, Eve, by removing a “rib” from Adam’s body and fashioning it into the woman. The creation account indicates that God used Adam’s rib to create Eve instead of making her from the dust of the ground as He had done for Adam.
God apparently had formed male and female animals separately, but the female human was originally part of man—Adam said, “She shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23).
the two beings were designed to work and fit together perfectly, not just physically but in all ways. The strengths of each compensated for the weaknesses of the other. It was “not good” for the man to be alone (Genesis 2:18), but, together, Adam and Eve were something far stronger and more magnificent than either of them could have been alone. Adam had to lose a rib, but he gained so much more.
Like Prabhupada said:Because woman is meant for assisting man, so the woman becomes suitable according to the man, her husband. It is not the question of inferior or superior. Different. Now you take one inferior or superior. That is your calculation. But the bodily features are different. That is material. But spiritually, they are all one.
The way Prabupad danced around her fiendish attempts to re-frame his beliefs was masterful.
Prabupad found his way into my brain from a TV interview many, many years ago; long before what some call ‘enlightenment’ found me. I was not meditating, but writing a teary poem when my daughter was being hi-jacked by this cult.
Eastern Orthodox calls it ‘theosis’ and with it comes the gift of knowledge, which is also a curse due to others not being able to understand things you can see like the nose on your face.
Thanks for your interesting comment Tim. Hare Krishna. Jaya Prabbhupada.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji.
Nobody explains this better than Srila Prabhupada.