Page 64 - Defending Prabhupada Words - By Harivlas Das

gross sense of completely violating the will of a woman
like in the case of Ravana raping Rambha devi who was
on her way to meet her lover when Ravana intercepted
her and forced her to have sex, is not the context of Srila
Prabhupada’s comment. Anyone who misinterprets what
Srila Prabhupada is saying as referring to a gross rape is
missing the whole point. He is delineating the aggressive
lover like King Puranjana who is attracted by a beautiful
woman and aggressively seduces her with her consent.
Sometimes such aggressive seduction may be considered
rape as in the case of Bryant. If Bryant aggressively seduces
his wife, it may be called love or as Srila Prabhupada says,
“…so-called love within this material world is nothing but
sexual satisfaction.” In the hotel room with the nineteen
year old girl, Bryant’s aggressive seduction was considered
by the girl as rape. If Bryant insisted on seeing the girl
again and again and lavished gifts and many other signs of
personal interest in her as well as a proposal of marriage,
she would have considered his aggressive attention as love
and not rape. There is a fine line in the matter of material
love or sexual satisfaction that when crossed is no longer
love but a violation of a person’s dignity. Such things also
happen in marriage where aggressive seduction may no
longer be considered pleasing by a spouse and considered
rape. There are instances today of wives that accuse their
husband of rape.
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