25. INITIATING WOMEN: WHY?

This brings us to an important point: Why did Srila Prabhupada initiate women if they were meant to be the disciple of their husbands? As stated above, young girls were coming to the movement in large numbers. Prabhupada often stated, "they couldn't be rejected, because they are also coming to Krsna for shelter." Prabhupada had said that all the women had to be married, but at the same time we can see that if he said openly that women were disciples of their husbands, it would create havoc with their Western egos. They would have been so offended by such a proposition that there is no telling what they would have done. And of course they can't be blamed, since the men were not very advanced either. So again-a difficult situation. He stated that he would not discriminate against them by not initiating them and had said they should not remain single and unprotected. Since a man needs full devotion from his wife if he's to be faithful to her, Prabhupada always told the women, both in his books and letters, to fully surrender themselves to their husband and see him as their guru.