What “Women Are Less Intelligent” Meant.

If you’re a feminist, then I ask you to open your mind. If you’re a covert male chauvanist, I also ask you to open your mind… because I want to clear up some misconceptions about this statement by Srila Prabhupada and the following is something that may challenge your current belief system.

It’s a sore point isn’t it? The statement about women being less intelligent by Srila Prabhupada. I do hope however, by the end of this article his deeper intention is understood, rather than this external statement continuing to grind against sentiments about being a strong or empowered woman or emphasising any preconceived negative notions about women by men.

I will start by saying that this statement is understood depending on your perception. Perception is created from your past experiences and belief systems. So depending on what you already feel and believe about women, you will feel and react accordingly from this statement.

So I ask you to place your perception by your side for the moment, as I attempt to share with you what he really intended. How can I say I can do this? I am not saying that I am an expert but, I have in my life read and tried to deeply understand Srila Prabhupada’s intentions through the whole of his writings.

Srila Prabhupada’s statement about women being less intelligent understandably has repelled some people, but, the key thing to note, is that he was not for or against any particular “body”. I refer to the physical gross body when I say this. His purports to the Vedic texts, continuously emphasise the knowledge that we- Are. Not. This. Body. We are the soul within.

Therefore his statements regarding women and men were very much based on the knowledge of the psycho-physical attributes of both. To understand what srila prabhupada meant, we need to understand how he defined “intelligence” and how the nature of a woman can be understood according to this. Let’s start with this definition according to the Vedic literature.

Intelligence

The Vedic texts explains “intelligence” as the ability to discriminate right from wrong, good from bad, one object from the other (Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.13.43). Intelligence helps to guide us in understanding the nature of something and helps guide the senses and therefore the mind (Srimad Bhagavatam, 3.26.29).

From this we can see that the word “intelligence” does not refer to directly being smarter, but it refers to the discriminatory ability.

The ability to have clear intelligence is also a quality of the mode of goodness, whereas being overcome by emotions; fluctuations in mood due to material hankering, is a quality of the mind in the consciousness of passion; a more clouded mental conditioning.

When someone is overcome by various emotions such as envy, pride or anger, their intelligence decreases (Srimad Bhagavatam, 6.1.443). It is like fog covering one’s vision and the ability to discriminate and make healthy judgements is compromised. This of course, applies to everyone, as men also become over powered by emotions and make decisions they later regret. However I will now talk about how this is generally, a bigger weakness for women.

Difference between men and women

Although we need to always aim for equality (for my feminist sisters) we can not at the same time disregard valid differences. Modern science and social sciences have also proven the difference between men and women’s mental and neurological functioning.

Srila Prabhupada understood these differences by understanding the consciousness of both according to what the Vedas explained, as mentioned above, but lets understand modern science.

Modern science has explained that the mental functioning of a man is based mostly from the left hemisphere of the brain and that of a women’s is generally from the right. The left hemisphere of the brain governs cognition, logic and decision making processing. In other words the ability to discriminate and see reality. The right hemisphere governs emotions, meaning making and creativity.

It means that women generally are better at understanding emotions, empathising and being sensitive and men are generally better at thinking with logic and rational. In the negative sense, women can believe things to be true, based solely on the emotions evoked without seeing the facts and men can respond too logically when more sensitivity is needed.

In the book Men are From Mars and Women are From Venus, it explains that women are unable to separate their emotions from logic whereas men are able to switch between them. But these differences are not to be judged.

There is also a huge grey area in the middle, where some men are more right brain functioning and some women are more left brain functioning. There is no all or nothing here, and of course any one can fit into any category. There is the fact that some men have the internal psychology of being a women and some women have the internal psychology of being a man. This opens another separate conversation about gender diversity and transitioning genders. It has its place but I will leave that discussion for another day.

So due to this psycho-physical difference of men and women, women are more likely to respond emotionally, where their discriminating ability is weakened. And this is from my research and understanding, the reason behind Srila Prabhupada’s statement.

If all of us; women, men and others can understand the unique qualities of themselves, we will be better able to harness our strengths and manage our weaknesses. Emotions are a part of mental processing in experiencing the world. We need to accept them, express them healthily but not personally identify with them, so that we can manage our human condition but also see through clear intelligence.

In context

The biggest credit to Srila Prabhupada’s writings, was that he never said anything from his personal opinion. If you have read his books you will be able to see that he never makes statements from his own thoughts, assumptions or preconceived notions. He alway has explained the activities of the world through the teachings of the Vedas, which merely explains consciousness. All of this is what I understand as the underling reason for his statement which has been commonly mis-understood.

Furthermore to balance the statement, Srila Prabhupada also stated other things about women. That they were; soft hearted, more inclined to spiritual practices and should be respected as mothers. He made seemingly “negative” statements about men also; such as having bigger egos. But we can hopefully see how they were more about the natures of the two, rather than devaluing statements.

I want to finalise this article with an excerpt from the Science of Self Realisation of a conversation between a journalist Sandy Nixon and Srila Prabhupada in 1975, highlighting Srila Prabhupada’s indifference to the material body, when it comes to spiritual life.

Ms. Nixon: How about in spiritual life—can women also succeed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: We make no distinction on the basis of sex. We give Kṛṣṇa consciousness to both men and women equally. We welcome women, men, the poor, the rich—everyone. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.18):

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne

brāhmaṇe ga vi hastini

śuni caiva śvapāke ca

paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

“The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater.”

Writer: Chaitanya Lila d.d