This brings us to a very important consideration that at first glance seems to contradict the above. In SB, 1.15.51, the impression is made that the husband abandons his wife when he takes sannyasa and she is then on her own. There the analogy is given that one must be able to fly his own plane without any help. Prabhupada says that help is required while on the ground, but ultimately she must be able to fly her own plane alone. This is a somewhat contradictory point since in many other places, Prabhupada says that the wife follows her husband back to Godhead. In many ways, the husband-wife, and guru-disciple relationship are the same. The guru must have complete submission and faith from the disciple. He instructs the disciple to think of Krsna at the time of death. If the disciple is chaste and obedient, he will do so. Similarly, a devotee husband trains his wife to be chaste and faithful and he also instructs her to think of Krsna at the time of death. There is no difference at all. So just as the disciple must be completely surrendered to guru to be able to follow his instructions perfectly, so also the wife must be completely surrendered to her husband. They both must try to think of Krsna at the time of death. If for some reason they cannot, then the guru or husband will have to help them again. One cannot accept service from a subordinate without becoming indebted. He remains responsible to his surrendered wife right up through her death. In one letter Prabhupada said, "Even after taking sannyasa, the husband does not leave his wife. He must be certain that she is being well protected." The question raised above then is: "At the exact moment of death, is the husband still responsible for his wife, or does his duty end at that moment? Persons who think it ends, are afflicted with impersonalism. The husband is naturally indebted to his good wife, and so he must save her. just as the guru must return again and again to save his sincere disciples, so the husband must save his sincere wife. That is the duty.
In one letter Prabhupada says: "The wife becomes the devotee of her husband, and the husband becomes a devotee of Krsna." If the wife is a devotee of her husband her whole life, then naturally she will think of him at the time of death. That is logic. She may think of him, and then his instructions may remind her of Krsna. Or she may think of him, and go to him wherever he is. If he's with Krsna, then that's where she'll go. If he is liberated, then she is also liberated provided she is fully devoted to him. Chaste women understand these points very easily. The overwhelming majority of instructions from the books and letters indicate that the wife should be cent percent devoted to, and dependent on her husband, and not think she can be independent from him to learn to "fly on her own." This is in fact the only purport where such a concept is mentioned in relation to women. It is illogical to accept a meaning of this purport which contradicts everything else Srila Prabhupada had to say on the husband-wife relationship. Some careful thought must be there on how to interpret this purport. It should not be used as an excuse by women to think they don't need to be faithful to their husbands because they ultimately are on their own. That mentality will breed the kind of prostitution we see in ISKCON today. To illustrate this point, on the first page of Chapter Fourteen in The Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupada says that "performing artificial austerities will make the heart harder and harder." So does that mean we should forget the thousands of other places where Prabhupada says we must follow regulative principles? Hardly. There is a rational way to approach all such seeming contradictions as this. The tendency of most conditioned souls is to make an interpretation that allows the most sense gratification. And that is why Prabhupada very seldom gave such instructions as SB 1. 15.51 which can be misinterpreted by women to reject their husbands. Prabhupada always stressed the spiritual relationship elaborately described above.
So with this spiritual relationship in mind, what is the position of these ISKCON "sexyasis" who are claiming to be the guru of single women as well as other men's wives?