EQUALITY OF THE SOUL - MALE AND FEMALE DIFFERENCES & EXECUTING OUR PRESCRIBED DUTIES - THE BASIS OF VARNASRAMA-DHARMA
We give Krsna consciousness both to the woman and man equally. We do not make any such distinction. But to protect them from this exploitation by man, we teach something, that "You do like this. You do like that. You be married. Be settled up. Don’t wander independently." We teach them like that. But so far Krsna consciousness is concerned, we equally distribute. There is no such thing that "Oh, you are woman, less intelligent or more intelligent. Therefore you cannot come." We don’t say that. We welcome women, men, poor, rich, everyone, because in that platform equality. ...
We do not refuse anyone. That is equality. We do not refuse anyone, that is our equality. We do not say that because you are less intelligent, a women, whatever, that you cannot join and engage in devotional service. But, we do have separate roles for men and women. Both are engaged in service, but different duties within society are still there. "You do like this, you do like that".
We first have to give some basic idea of why Vedic culture treats men and women entirely differently. Yes, first and foremost we are eternal spirit souls. Equal on the spiritual level. The idea of recognizing the material differences is based on the fact that the soul is conditioned by contact with material energy.
As long as we have a material body, we, the souls, will be conditioned by the modes of material nature. The soul is not human or demi-god or animal, neither is the soul male or female. By contact with material nature the soul becomes conditioned accordingly. We see there are differences in animal behavior and human behavior.
Modern psychologists have quantified differences in the way men and women think and emotional tolerances, etc. Doctors can give a man large quantities of female hormones and the man will change his psychological behavior and become more feminine, less aggressive, etc. (men can even grow breast if given large quantities of female hormones). Similarly women who take large quantities of male hormones change their behavior and become more aggressive and masculine (women even grow mustaches and hair on their chest if given large quantities of male hormones).
The living entity is neither male or female. The soul is conditioned by it’s contact with material nature. Chemicals can affect those modes, which in turn affect our mind and actions. LSD or alcohol are chemicals, but when we consume them into our body our mind, intelligence and actions are affected. The soul remains always the observer, but our conditional state is affected.
In this way, the make up of the male and female chemistry of our bodies has profound and direct influence on the way we think and act. Therefore, men and women are practically 2 different species. The Vedic scriptures and realized souls recognize this and organize society and family life around these differences. I have heard it argued that since Krishna Consciousness is a spiritual movement that devotees are transcendent to such distinctions.
Therefore devotees shouldn’t see the bodily differences and shouldn’t set different roles for men or women, based on the material body. These devotees are referring to an elevated state that is rarely seen in the material world, and is not possible to achieve for an entire society due to this being the material world. Sukadeva Goswami was the son of Vyasadeva. He was such an elevated soul. He made no distinction between male or female, man or animal, etc. When he was 16 he decided that he didn’t want anymore to do with family-life. He literally ran away from home. He didn’t even bother to clothe himself and ran naked through the forests.
His father, Vyasadeva took off running behind him to catch him. Vyasadeva noticed that when Sukadeva ran past a group of women who were bathing in a lake that the women, despite being naked, and despite the fact that Sukadeva was a fully developed boy of 16 and also naked, the girls didn’t feel threatened and didn’t bother to hide themselves or cover their bodies. But, when Vyasadeva, one of the greatest saintly rishis, the compiler of the Vedas, when he ran by fully clothed the girls immediately grabbed their garments and hide their private parts.
Vyasadeva himself was puzzled by this. He stopped, and went back to the girls and asked them why they did this. Why did they not feel ashamed when his son ran by naked, but quickly covered themselves when he ran by fully clothed? The women replied that they could immediately see that Sukadeva was completely transcendental to the material world. He saw only their souls and did not distinguish between male or female bodies. He was fully renounced from all bodily concepts.
Therefore there was no degree of desire for material sense gratification in him. The simple women of the forest could sense this immediately. But, they said, Vyasadeva was a married man who dealt with worldly matters. and therefore he had to distinguish between male and female. Therefore, the girls immediately felt ashamed and had to cover themselves.
The point is that if all, every single one, of our members are on the same level as Sukadeva Goswami (which would also mean not one of our members were married), than we can all act on that level of spiritual vision, seeing all souls equally. But, that is not possible to achieve in this material world. If even one person were even on the level of Vyasadeva, than we must recognize the male and female material differences and live accordingly.
Virtually 100% of us are not even any where near the level of Vyasadeva, what to speak of Sukadeva. There is no question of us being above such distinction. We are closer to the level of hippies than we are to Vyasadeva. We must organize our society along the principles of varnasrama-dharma.