Page 35 - Powerful Feminine Qualities

environment of peace and steady advancement in spiritual life. Prabhupada talks about how husband and wife can
make spiritual progress in the Bhagavad-gita, 16 Chapter 7 Verse:
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“As for behavior, there are many rules and regulations guiding human behavior, such as the Manu-samhita, which is
the law of the human race. Even up to today, those who are Hindu follow the Manu-samhita. Laws of inheritance and
other legalities are derived from this book. Now, in the Manu-samhita it is clearly stated that a woman should not be
given freedom. That does not mean that women are to be kept as slaves, but they are like children. Children are not
given freedom, but that does not mean that they are kept as slaves. The demons have now neglected such injunctions,
and they think that women should be given as much freedom as men. However, this has not improved the social
condition of the world. Actually, a woman should be given protection at every stage of life. The father should give her
protection in her younger days, the husband in her youth, and the grownup sons in her old age. This is proper social
behavior according to the Manu-samhita. However, modern education has artificially devised a puffed-up concept of
womanly life, and therefore marriage is practically now an imagination in human society. Nor is the moral condition of
woman very good now. The demons, therefore, do not accept any instruction which is good for society, and because
they do not follow the experience of great sages and the rules and regulations laid down by the sages, the social
condition of the demoniac people is very miserable.”
There is significant erosion of family life today due to a divorce rate of 50% or more of marriages in the United States.
There are broken families in which children do not have the support of two loving parents working cooperatively to
raise the child. The breakdown of the family is becoming a major problem with social consequences. There are laws
that encourage the breakdown of the family in the United States. If a woman is not married and has children, she gets
financial help from the government. She can make it on her own without having a husband. Some couples choose to
divorce so that the wife can get government welfare. This is happening in poor White, Black and Hispanic families.
Almost 40% of the children born in this country are born into a single parent family because of divorce. The divorce
rate in the USA is nearly 50% for first time marriage, 67% for second time marriage and 74% for third time marriage.

Make the best of a bad bargain
In the Vedic culture, divorce is not an option for a couple having marital problems. Temporary or long-term separation
is preferred. During the time of separation, there is a good possibility of the couple correcting their behavioral
problems with spiritual guidance and reconciling again so that their parents divorcing and perhaps remarrying other
partners do not traumatize the children. If it is impossible to reconcile their behavioral problems by adherence to
Krishna consciousness principle and practice, then long term or permanent separation is preferable. Only in the most
acute circumstances is divorce the last resort.
A woman who accepts a paramour or a second husband in the presence of her husband casts a shadow of dishonor on
her father’s family and her husband’s family. If a husband or wife philanders with third parties while still married, it is
unacceptable in Vedic culture. Similarly, filing for divorce is not permissible. Every effort is made to rectify the errant
husband or wife over time to correct their ways and return to a stable family life.
There is the story of Amogha, the son-in-law of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, who purposely insulted Lord Caitanya when
the Lord was a guest at the home of his father-in-law, Sarvabhauma Bhatacharya. Amogha burst into the private room
in Sarvabhauma’s house where Lord Caitanya was taking prasadam and spoke ignoble words to the Lord accusing him
of not being a strict sannyasi because he was eating opulent food. Amogha being a caste Brahmin was also jealous of
the Lord because he was giving Krishna consciousness to non-brahmin people. Amogha was falsely caste conscious. He
believed that one could only be a Brahmin if he was born into a Brahmin family. He objected to the Lord’s
encouragement of Sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the Hare Krishna Mantra. He considered it a violation of
caste division because the Lord accepted all people regardless of their caste affiliation coming together in public and
chanting the holy Names of God. He also criticized the Lord for propagating the chanting of Hare Krishna and not
emphasizing the study of Vedantic philosophy as the best means of spiritual elevation. This is a specious argument
because the brahmins held the exclusivity on Sanskrit learning through the birth right of braminical families. There was no

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