A pretty, young woman from the east coast told the following story:
"My propensity toward marriage and family life was present from early childhood. I got my first marriage proposal in the sand box at age five. He said he wanted to be a policeman when he grew up, and we planned to have ten children. Then when I was about eight years old, a mock wedding was performed on my parent's front porch with my little brother acting as a priest. In my memory I wore a wedding gown that was just my size. Maybe I got it from a Halloween outfit...Otherwise, the power of imagination at that age certainly must have created one.
"In our neighborhood (the early 1960's), my friends and I roamed freely from house to house, knowing there was a mother present in every home. And although we lived in a major American city, I safely walked alone down an alley several blocks to kindergarten each school day.
"Yet, sometime in the middle of fourth grade, my parents moved our family residence west and my world completely changed. Instead of planning on marriage, I was told to plan on college and a career. And my mother, attracted to the feminist movement and thus encouraging me in that way, was suddenly very restless and unhappy at home and started working outside.
"I felt like I'd lost my mother at nine years old. And we'd often hear about families close to us being broken up by divorce. And from the time I was 10-17, my friends ranged from runaways to rape victims to girls who were practically prostitutes by their promiscuous behavior. We felt encouraged to unrestrictedly mingle with the opposite sex during and after school time.
"I remember my friends and I standing on a street in a tourist town looking for men... Some of us girls had abortions.
"We were told that this was freedom."
Meanwhile, understanding the sad situation of this young lady and so many like her, Srila Prabhupada had come to America, crossing the Atlantic to save us all from such an illusion. He spoke out:
"In the Bhagavad-gitä, the Supreme Personality of Godhead says that one who has spiritual vision sees everyone as equal. And yet in another place the Supreme Lord says, strisu dustäsu värsneya jäyate varna-sankarah: unless you protect women, low-class men will seduce them, and society will be burdened with unwanted children. Just take this 'women's liberation'—it is simply a trick by the men. Now the men can have free prostitutes, that's all." ( --BTG 1979)
Similarly, during a morning walk in Bombay in 1977, this conversation took place:
Hamsadüta: Prabhupäda, you gave the example that what is the use of keeping a cow if you can get milk in the marketplace.
Prabhupäda: 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.
Prabhupäda: 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?
Today, the author of Domestic Tranquility, Carolyn Graglia echoes Prabhupada's statement.
"How could we allow such a catastrophe to take place? The feminist revolution was powered by male greed -- for sex, money, and irresponsibility. 'The women's movement,' Mrs. Graglia writes, 'could have been orchestrated by Playboy: readily available sex without marriage; if married, a working wife to unburden the male from responsibility for supporting the household; readily available abortion to eliminate unwanted children . . .' Women are advised nowadays (by sober, good-hearted feminists) that, given the no-fault divorce laws that make it so easy to chuck an old wife and get a spiffy new one, they had better be prepared to earn their own living. 'No-fault divorce laws did not, however, result from an edict of the gods or from some force of nature, but from sustained political efforts, particularly by the feminist movement.' Statistics show that in the first year after divorce the average woman and her minor children experience a severe decline in living standards."
So, it turns out that while this young woman and her girlfriends were told that we were sexually liberated, actually they were being sexually repressed, repressed from the normal result of responsible sex life, namely bearing children and nurturing them within the spiritual asrama designed by Krishna, within the husband and wife relationship. They are living proof that feminism doesn't work for normal women. Or as one devotee put it: "Although the feminists claim to be giving more freedom to people, actually they are taking away people's freedoms, freedoms to live a sane and normal life."
Srila Prabhupada writes in Srimad Bhagavatam 4.25.42purport: "A young woman who has no husband is called anätha, meaning 'one who is not protected.' As soon as a woman attains the age of puberty, she immediately becomes very much agitated by sexual desire. It is therefore the duty of the father to get his daughter married before she attains puberty. Otherwise she will be very much mortified by not having a husband." --SB 4.25.42 p
Reading such statements in Prabhupada's books, our young friend says that finally she felt understood and that "Despite such horrible conditioning during my teenage years and the untold, lifelong heartache it has brought to me, my life's been redirected towards a happier ending. Thanks to Srila Prabhupada and the Vaisnava acaryas, I've found my way back home, gradually learning to dovetail my natural girlhood longings towards marriaged life for the service of Lord Chaitanya's sankirtana mission."
"My propensity toward marriage and family life was present from early childhood. I got my first marriage proposal in the sand box at age five. He said he wanted to be a policeman when he grew up, and we planned to have ten children. Then when I was about eight years old, a mock wedding was performed on my parent's front porch with my little brother acting as a priest. In my memory I wore a wedding gown that was just my size. Maybe I got it from a Halloween outfit...Otherwise, the power of imagination at that age certainly must have created one.
"In our neighborhood (the early 1960's), my friends and I roamed freely from house to house, knowing there was a mother present in every home. And although we lived in a major American city, I safely walked alone down an alley several blocks to kindergarten each school day.
"Yet, sometime in the middle of fourth grade, my parents moved our family residence west and my world completely changed. Instead of planning on marriage, I was told to plan on college and a career. And my mother, attracted to the feminist movement and thus encouraging me in that way, was suddenly very restless and unhappy at home and started working outside.
"I felt like I'd lost my mother at nine years old. And we'd often hear about families close to us being broken up by divorce. And from the time I was 10-17, my friends ranged from runaways to rape victims to girls who were practically prostitutes by their promiscuous behavior. We felt encouraged to unrestrictedly mingle with the opposite sex during and after school time.
"I remember my friends and I standing on a street in a tourist town looking for men... Some of us girls had abortions.
"We were told that this was freedom."
Meanwhile, understanding the sad situation of this young lady and so many like her, Srila Prabhupada had come to America, crossing the Atlantic to save us all from such an illusion. He spoke out:
"In the Bhagavad-gitä, the Supreme Personality of Godhead says that one who has spiritual vision sees everyone as equal. And yet in another place the Supreme Lord says, strisu dustäsu värsneya jäyate varna-sankarah: unless you protect women, low-class men will seduce them, and society will be burdened with unwanted children. Just take this 'women's liberation'—it is simply a trick by the men. Now the men can have free prostitutes, that's all." ( --BTG 1979)
Similarly, during a morning walk in Bombay in 1977, this conversation took place:
Hamsadüta: Prabhupäda, you gave the example that what is the use of keeping a cow if you can get milk in the marketplace.
Prabhupäda: 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.
Prabhupäda: 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?
Today, the author of Domestic Tranquility, Carolyn Graglia echoes Prabhupada's statement.
"How could we allow such a catastrophe to take place? The feminist revolution was powered by male greed -- for sex, money, and irresponsibility. 'The women's movement,' Mrs. Graglia writes, 'could have been orchestrated by Playboy: readily available sex without marriage; if married, a working wife to unburden the male from responsibility for supporting the household; readily available abortion to eliminate unwanted children . . .' Women are advised nowadays (by sober, good-hearted feminists) that, given the no-fault divorce laws that make it so easy to chuck an old wife and get a spiffy new one, they had better be prepared to earn their own living. 'No-fault divorce laws did not, however, result from an edict of the gods or from some force of nature, but from sustained political efforts, particularly by the feminist movement.' Statistics show that in the first year after divorce the average woman and her minor children experience a severe decline in living standards."
So, it turns out that while this young woman and her girlfriends were told that we were sexually liberated, actually they were being sexually repressed, repressed from the normal result of responsible sex life, namely bearing children and nurturing them within the spiritual asrama designed by Krishna, within the husband and wife relationship. They are living proof that feminism doesn't work for normal women. Or as one devotee put it: "Although the feminists claim to be giving more freedom to people, actually they are taking away people's freedoms, freedoms to live a sane and normal life."
Reading such statements in Prabhupada's books, our young friend says that finally she felt understood and that "Despite such horrible conditioning during my teenage years and the untold, lifelong heartache it has brought to me, my life's been redirected towards a happier ending. Thanks to Srila Prabhupada and the Vaisnava acaryas, I've found my way back home, gradually learning to dovetail my natural girlhood longings towards marriaged life for the service of Lord Chaitanya's sankirtana mission."