Liberated Woman: Out of Place

New York Times, April 10, 2002—MAUREEN DOWD— Baby Bust

He said he had wanted to ask me out on a date when he was between marriages, but nixed the idea because my job made me too intimidating.

Men, he told me, prefer women who seem malleable and overawed. He said I would never find a mate, because if there's one thing men fear, it's a woman who uses her critical faculties. Will she be critical of absolutely everything?

Now comes Time magazine with an equally distressing commentary. The cover story offers the scariest statistics for women since Newsweek declared in 1986 that a 40-year-old woman was more likely to be killed by a terrorist than to tie the knot. full story

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Prabhupada: I condemn everyone, that "You are all dogs and hogs." And United Nations a pack of dogs barking. That's a fact. And in Chicago I said, all women, "You cannot have freedom. You have got only thirty-four ounce brain, and man has got sixty-four ounce." I told them. So I became a subject of very great criticism.

Trivikrama: Women's liberation.

Prabhupada: I denied, "No, you cannot have." I told them. One girl in the airship, she was seeing like ... [makes some gesture. Laughter]. I asked her, "Give me 7-Up." "It is locked now." So I frankly said that "No, no. You cannot have equal rights because your brain is thirty-four ounce." Actually that's a fact. Where is woman philosopher, mathematician, scientist? Not a single.

Dr. Patel: Apart from that, I mean, they are made for a particular mission.

Prabhupada: How they can have equal rights? Up to date in the history there is not a single woman who is a great scientist or great philosopher or great...

Dr. Patel: Madame Curie was a...

Prabhupada: All bogus. [laughter]

Dr. Patel: You are getting too harsh on them because...

Prabhupada: No, no. How can I give you equal rights, because your brain is less substance.

Dr. Patel: We cannot degrade our mothers that way.

Prabhupada: It is not degrading. It is accepting the actual fact.

Dr. Patel: These girls are misled, these American girls.

Prabhupada: There is no history. There is no history. Just like Kunti is mother. She produced so many heroes, but she was not hero. She could produce heroes like Arjuna, like Bhima. But not that she becomes hero.

Dr. Patel: Mother can produce heroes...

Prabhupada: That's all right. Still, nobody will say that Kunti is as good as Arjuna or Bhima.

Dr. Patel: How can anybody say?

Prabhupada: That is... How you'll get the equal rights?

Dr. Patel: No woman smaller than Kunti could have produced an Arjuna.

Prabhupada: You can produce. That is another thing. A cook can produce foodstuff suitable for rich man, but that does not mean he is rich man.

Dr. Patel: You argue. [laughs]

Hansadutta: Prabhupada, you told one story about the animals having a meeting and trying to become free from the control of ...[indistinct].

Prabhupada: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Our shastras say [cites Sanskrit text].

Prabhupada: [Speaks Sanskrit.] Everyone is [speaks Sanskrit]. That is according to his position. That does not mean equal. Krishna Himself worshiped Sudama Vipra. That does not mean Sudama Vipra is as good as the Personality of Godhead. When Narada was coming in Dvaraka, Krishna immediately got down and... Narada was smiling, "Just see the fun." But etiquette. Narada never said that "I am better than Krishna or equal to Krishna." Never said.

Trivikrama: Maharaja Yudhisthira the same.

Prabhupada: Yes. Everyone. Everyone knew their position. Therefore Krishna is addressed by Arjuna, "Achyuta, You promised to drive my chariot, therefore I'm asking You. Don't forget. You never deviate from Your promise." Achyuta. Senayor ubhayor madhye ratham sthapaya me 'chyuta [Bhagavad-gita 1.21]. "Don't forget that You are Achyuta. Don't think that I am Your servant, I am ordering." He knows that "I am servant of Krishna. I am ordering Him."

Hansadutta: You were explaining to that reporter in Pennsylvania, Srila Prabhupada, that actually this women's liberation is just a trick by the men.

Prabhupada: Yes! It is trick by the men, yes.

Dr. Patel: How... Could you explain that?

Prabhupada: Because if they remain free, they get young women free. That's rascal's man brain. That "You take freedom."

Dr. Patel: This is a third-class argument.

Prabhupada: This is argument! This is argument. This is fact. These rascals keep these women unmarried to enjoy daily new, new young women, these karmis, these rascals. There is club. There is club. These young women are paid for that topless, bottomless. You do not know.

Dr. Patel: No. I have never seen a girl naked. I refuse to...

Prabhupada: I have... I know everything.

Hansadutta: Prabhupada, you gave the example that what is the use of keeping a cow if you can get milk in the marketplace.

Prabhupada: Yes. Yes. Cow-keeping is expensive.

Dr. Patel: Why keep a cow when milk is available. [laughs]

Trivikrama: It's a fact. The young men think like that.

Prabhupada: They make pregnant and they go away. And this poor girl, either she has to kill the child or beg from the government, "Give me welfare; otherwise..." Is that freedom? These rascal woman...

Dr. Patel: This is freedom. Actually the government recognized...

Prabhupada: Government means a set of rascals. But practical point of view the woman wants equal right. Equal rights they enjoy, and the woman becomes pregnant, and he goes away, the boy. And she has to kill the child or beg from the government. This is her freedom. And still, equal rights. Where equal right? The boy has gone away. You also go away? No. You'll have to carry the child. To get freedom you have to kill or you have to beg. And still she thinks, "I am free."