Srila Prabhupada on a japa walk with Yamuna Devi Dasi, Malati Devi Dasi, and others.

The history of ISKCON has shown that Kali, the personification of the current Age of Quarrel, is adept at introducing controversies that act like storm clouds obscuring the effulgent sun of Mahaprabhu’s saṅkīrtana movement. The propensity for debate, argument, and verbal conquest can be likened to turbulent winds; harsh speech to torrential rain; and fleeting victories in establishing one’s position to flashes of lightning—offering only momentary illumination before plunging everything back into darkness.

Kali wields his two chief whips—hypocrisy and quarrel—to sow discord and undermine unity. As aspiring servants of Lord Chaitanya, we must all be vigilant not to become Kali’s instruments by ourselves coming under the sway of these two influences. All who remain oblivious to or otherwise unmindful of these dangers may meet with spiritual stagnation, or in severe cases, spiritual ruin.

In this spirit, I offer a historical reflection on the topic of women’s roles in ISKCON leadership. I approach this subject not as a participant in the ongoing debate, which I feel is an unproductive mode of discourse among Vaiṣṇavas, but as one providing historical evidence to clarify misconceptions. Those inclined to debate would do better to direct their energy toward engaging with the billions of atheists and opponents of Vaiṣṇavism across the planet.

* * *

Approximately a year ago, I submitted a document titled Q&A on FDG to a senior, respected Vaiṣṇava guru for his review. He responded that his primary reason for opposing the idea of women serving as initiating gurus in ISKCON was that “Srila Prabhupada never appointed women to the role of temple president or GBC.”

However, this is not a complete account.

When Srila Prabhupada formed the GBC in 1970, he intended to give two women, Govinda Devi and Yamuna Devi, one shared vote as GBC members. Govinda Dasi recounts: “[Srila Prabhupada] explained that he wanted two ladies on the GBC, “to deal with matters relating to women and children.” Because, he explained, “children are shy and young women are also shy,” so they may only talk to a woman if there are problems” (1, see all footnotes below).

In Yamuna Devi: A Life of Unalloyed Devotion, Yamuna narrates the episode as follows: “In the fall of 1970, before we had come to India, Srila Prabhupada had created the Governing Board, and the two GBC members in Europe and England had different ways of managing, and this was creating havoc. So Srila Prabhupada said, “I am making an experiment with this Governing Board. I do not know if it will succeed, but I am making the experiment. My Guru Maharaja had the idea for a Governing Board. And although he tried to implement it, it was a failure within the Gaudiya Math. And I am also trying to implement. But if there is no success, then once again I will have to take all managerial responsibilities. You know, I was planning that you and Govinda Dasi would be as one Governing Board member. Half.

“I was very surprised and said to Srila Prabhupada, ‘I don’t think this would be very successful, because I have a female body, and it simply wouldn’t work.’ And he said, “Yes. Tamal Krishna has also agreed. It will not work’” (2).

Although it may seem that Srila Prabhupada’s decision to grant one half-vote each to Yamuna and Govinda Devi would have placed them in an inferior position as compared to the men, by entrusting them with primary decision-making power on issues concerning women and children, he was effectively granting them authority over more than half of ISKCON’s society.

But why did Yamuna say, “it simply wouldn’t work”? Was it due to a sense of personal inadequacy as a woman? Or was there another reason?

An interview with Yamuna Devi recorded in 1987 for the ISKCON World Review sheds more light on what actually took place. When asked about women serving on the GBC and Prabhupada’s proposal for her to take on this role, Yamuna explained:

“When Prabhupada was trying to establish the GBC, he put both Govinda Dasi and I down as one member of the GBC. And there was one particular person that was a male member of the proposed GBC—when he heard that women were being proposed for the GBC, he went to Prabhupada and said, ‘This will not work; the men will never agree to it. I want them off.’ And that person had quite a bit of influence on Prabhupada…So that’s what happened. It never came to a vote or anything” (3).

This account provides a clearer understanding: Yamuna did not doubt her or Govinda Devi’s competence. Instead, her statement reflected the resistance they faced from a male member of the proposed GBC, namely His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami, who strongly opposed their inclusion. Another godsister remembers: “These early years were often difficult for women devotees, and among some leading men there was a lack of proper respect at the time. Yamuna expressed to Srila Prabhupada that she felt it would not work, and as far as I know, it was never brought up again by him” (4).

From this, it is clear that Yamuna’s decision to decline the service of GBC was driven by the reluctance of certain male leaders to accept women in leadership roles, rather than any inherent inadequacy in women. After all, it was Srila Prabhupada himself who had proposed the idea.

It is also significant to note that later in life, Tamal Krishna Goswami apologized to Yamuna and several other godsisters, acknowledging the harm caused by the offensive attitudes and practices toward women within ISKCON’s institutional culture. Pranada Devi recounts: “In September [1996] at North America’s first Vaishnava-Christian Dialogue, I sat at a table with Tamal Krishna Maharaja and Ravindra Svarupa dasa in East Freeport, MA, eating lunch prasadam between sessions. Unexpectedly, Tamal Krishna Goswami thanked me for my work of educating devotees about Vaishnavis. He point blank told me that he supported all my efforts to initiate change for women in all spheres of ISKCON participation including as gurus—a belief which he had already demonstrated in welcoming Sudharma to the GBC.

“He said that he had changed his views about women by interacting with highly intelligent women in academia (some more intelligent than him, he told me), by observing how much our outreach was being hindered by ISKCON’s sexist attitudes that weren’t supported shastrically, and by personal realizations about how much harm he did to his godsisters, many of whom were highly competent. He was genuinely repentant” (5).

Others have shared similar accounts. Although Tamal Krishna Goswami was initially the main opponent of women assuming leadership roles, he later embraced a perspective he believed better reflected Srila Prabhupada’s vision for a spiritually inclusive and dynamic ISKCON society.

Why, then, did Srila Prabhupada never again bring up the idea of having women serve on the GBC or in other leadership roles? It has been suggested by some ISKCON leaders that this indicates that Srila Prabhupada didn’t really want women to have a voice in leadership. But is it possible, instead, that being fully aware of the disrespectful attitudes some of his prominent leaders held toward women, he simply wished to avoid creating unnecessary disturbances within ISKCON’s fledgling administrative structure?

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In conclusion, as the above narrative illustrates, it is incomplete history to claim that Srila Prabhupada never appointed women to the role of GBC. By proposing to give women GBC members a half-vote each, he expertly preserved gender distinctions and granted women a voice in the leadership of his ISKCON society, while acknowledging the competence and dedication of his female disciples.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Citations
1.  From an email correspondence with Govinda Dasi on May 3, 2024
2.  Yamuna Devi: A Life of Unalloyed Devotion, p. 371. The book can be ordered aquí.
3.  1987 unpublished interview with Yamuna Devi, recorded by Nori Muster of the ISKCON World Review.
4.  May 30, 2024 email interview with a female disciple of Srila Prabhupada, who wishes to remain anonymous.
5.  “The Untold Story of How I Found My Voice,” published in The Emergence of Women’s Voices in ISKCON, compiled and edited by Pranada Devi Dasi, published by Bookwrights Press in 2020. It is available online in various formats aquí.

Sobre el autor
A disciple of His Grace Vaisesika Dasa Adhikari, Lokarama Dasa lives in Mayapur with his wife, Madhavi Dasi, and their three children. He serves as English editor for the BBT’s Sanskrit and Bengali translations division. He is also researching and writing a book about ISKCON history post-1977 from a Krishna conscious perspective. He is a GBC college graduate (class of 2023). You can visit his latest initiative, the ISKCON History Archive website aquí. Lokarama also spoke alongside Krishna Kshetra Swami at the 2025 ILS on the topic “Writing Our History to Prepare ISKCON’s Future.” Readers can watch that presentation aquí.

Las opiniones expresadas no reflejan necesariamente las opiniones y creencias de ISKCON o ISKCON News.