Women: Masters or Mothers? — A book by HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami

Women: Masters or Mothers? presents traditionalist arguments for the direction of the Krishna consciousness movement, proposing that we should take up Srila Prabhupada’s mandate to establish varnasrama-dharma rather than capitulate to the norms and ideologies of secular culture. Particularly discussed are gender roles, parental responsibilities, feminist follies, and some of Srila Prabhupada’s more controversial teachings, such as those concerning early marriage, divorce, and polygamy.

  1. Book reviews

    Women: Masters or Mothers? called by the author a “tract,” is much more than just a religious pamphlet. It is a deep and thoroughly cogent treatise on the current social anomalies within ISKCON (mirroring the social aberrations of the Western world) and how these incongruities relate to and have arisen due to our members remaining too much influenced by Western...
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  2. Video reviews

    Watch devotees from around the world reviewing the book "Mothers and Masters." We will be publishing these video reviews on regular intervals so please come back to find more. You can also record your review and send us at mothersandmasters.bvks@gmail.com. Guidelines can be found...
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  3. Reply by Bhakti Vikasa Swami to Dhanurdhara Swami’s critique of “Mothers and Masters”

    His blog posting is a mixture of praise for the book mixed with some bashing, and I’m going to respond mostly to the bashing. I appreciate that he’s taking the trouble to critique the book. He’s not afraid to do so in a negative way ... It’s not a personal matter. We are discussing the whole direction of the Krsna consciousness movement. And that’s actually the major subject of this book
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  4. Mothers and Masters

    Several devotees have asked why the title of Women: Mothers or Masters? has been changed to "Mothers and Masters," and why the cover design has been changed. These changes were made before the ban was removed. The reasoning was that certain detractors much objected to the title and the cover, so, rather than waste time and energy in defending
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  5. The Book Ban: What’s At Stake

    Harmonize means “to bring into consonance or accord,” but there was no attempt on the part of the GBC to reach accord with me, despite my repeated pleas for discussion. What the GBC resolution calls harmonization is rather an attempt to crush a voice that it doesn’t like—
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  6. Reactions to the Ban

    Devotees all over the world have expressed their concerns about the way that ISKCON GBC banned the book, "Women: Masters or Mothers?" In this section, we plan to publish the reactions that we receive from devotees on this particular issue.
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  7. “Harmonizing our Preaching Efforts”

    I am duty-bound to respect the authority of the GBC, but nevertheless I feel that this ban and the manner of imposing it have been very unfair. Therefore, to present another side of the story – a side that the promulgators of this ban have consistently been unwilling to hear –
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