What are the duties of a modern woman who wants to practice bhakti?

Answer Podcast

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What are the duties of a modern woman who is trying to practice bhakti? Answer Srila Prabhupada was pragmatic. Pragmatic means he was wisely practical. So, we have to see according to time, place, circumstance, what is the best way we can serve Krishna.
Prabhupada in his books talks about stridharma. He talks about how a woman’s primary duty is that the whole responsibility of the house is on her. She is like the queen of the house and she has to take care of everything in the home.
Prabhupada in his books primarily talks about a woman as a homemaker and that is indeed the primary responsibility. But the way Prabhupada dealt with women was he did not impose this on them. He encouraged them to serve Krishna and whatever way they could best serve Krishna, he facilitated that.
So, there is an Acharya’s words and there is Acharya’s actions. So, in terms of his words, he has given certain instructions in his books in terms of actions. He has focused on whatever is the best way that people can, that everyone including women, they can serve, they can be facilitated for that.
So, the principle is that we have our horizontal duties which is to our family, to our society, maybe to our profession if we have a profession and we have a vertical duty. That is our relationship with Krishna. So, now how we can balance this, that is something which is flexible, that we can adapt according to time, place, circumstance.
The principle is that we all should be engaged in activities which are fulfilling for us. So, and how that will work out according to time, place, circumstance, that will vary according to individual nature. So, the spiritual side of our duty, that is our relationship with Krishna, our practice of sadhana bhakti, that is something which is universal, that is something which everyone has to do, whether male, female, modern, traditional, everybody has to do that.
But with respect to the interaction in the material world, whether one works in a particular environment, whether one has a job or focuses on home, all this is something which is flexible. This is something which will vary according to time, place, circumstance. So, Ishwara Prabhupada was pragmatic, as I said.
He encouraged people, everyone to practice bhakti in whatever way was best suited according to their nature, according to their circumstance. So, the spiritual is universal, the material is often contextual. And so, just for example now, even for brahmacharis and sannyasis, we cannot live entirely the way we are living traditionally.
Traditional brahmacharis would not be giving classes on Facebook. So, nor would traditional sannyasis be traveling in planes. So, nobody can rigidly stick to the tradition, but that doesn’t mean that everything in the tradition is just contextual and it has to be rejected.
No, there are certain principles which are to be followed and are followed strictly. So, there has to be this dance of balance between the contemporary and the traditional. And that is something which we can consult our spiritual guides, use our own intelligence.
It comes from the practice of bhakti. The dhami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayanti te. Krishna gives the intelligence.
And based on that, based on guidance and intelligence, we can adjust our material responsibilities, material duties in such a way that we are fulfilled and we can progress in our bhakti.