The Female Diksa Guru Issue -- Yet Again | His Grace Basu Ghosh Dasa (ACBSP) 

I think if Prabhupada had even envisioned the idea of FDG, he'd have listed at least 1 on his list of 11 Ritviks which later was changed to Dikshas. But he didn't.

Had Prabhupada named even one woman on his list of 11 Ritviks, which were later changed to Dikshas, we would have had FDG as the norm today.

Me, too! As a woman I find Maharaja our champion for setting things straight, that stri dharma isn't some impossibility but a necessity for stable Vaisnava communities.

Okay well maybe that's what YOU want to do, but don't force that s**t on others.

The disease of modern society is that we consider ourselves completely independent of any higher guidance and do as per our own whims and fancies. Is it not intelligent to find out what our creator has ordained for us, for our wellbeing and just do that? Whatever the creator has said, that is called “Dharma” and not what we think or feel. Dharma is nothing but the word of God. dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19)). The cause of the current degraded situation of society is not following this dharma. It’s the duty of a leader to educate his followers about their “Dharma” so that people can live happily and fulfill the purpose of their life. A Sannyasi is a leader of society, he is a leader for all Varnas and all Ashramas; HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami being a Sannyasi is duty bound to share the unadulterated Dharma with society without caring for the opinions of people. Whomsoever follows his instructions can attain the perfection of his life. Sharing some quotes from Srila Prabhupada to support what I have stated above. “In bhāgavata-dharma there is no question of "what you believe" and "what I believe." Everyone must believe in the Supreme Lord and carry out His orders. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam: (CC Madhya 19.167) whatever Kṛṣṇa says-whatever God says-should be directly carried out. That is dharma.” Lecture by Srila prabhupad Manusmriti Verse 8.15 says dharma eva hato hanti dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ | tasmād dharmo na hantavyo mā no dharmo hato'vadhīt || 15 || This means that we should never give up walking on the path of Dharma, Dharma protects those who follow and destroys them who don’t follow. Bg 16.7 Srila Prabhupada purport: “There are many rules and regulations guiding human behavior, such as the Manu-saṁhitā, which is the law of the human race. Even up to today, those who are Hindu follow the Manu-saṁhitā. Laws of inheritance and other legalities are derived from this book. Now, in the Manu-saṁhitā it is clearly stated that a woman should not be given freedom. That does not mean that women are to be kept as slaves, but they are like children. Children are not given freedom, but that does not mean that they are kept as slaves. The demons have now neglected such injunctions, and they think that women should be given as much freedom as men. However, this has not improved the social condition of the world. Actually, a woman should be given protection at every stage of life. She should be given protection by the father in her younger days, by the husband in her youth, and by the grownup sons in her old age. This is proper social behavior according to the Manu-saṁhitā. But modern education has artificially devised a puffed-up concept of womanly life, and therefore marriage is practically now an imagination in human society. The social condition of women is thus not very good now, although those who are married are in a better condition than those who are proclaiming their so-called freedom.”

Very cool feature added by RU-vid for the comments section. If you merely put the time mark like above (6:32 or 14:10) without any qualifiers, RU-vid comments interprets that as a reference to the time in the video and automatically includes a link to that time on the video. And, you can easily get the time by opening up the auto-generated subtitles for the video. You just click on the three dots next to the download button, and the option to display the subtitles is given there and see the time next to each subtitle.

Hare Krishna Prabhu Thanks for the feature details.

I agree Prabhu a schism is absolutely needed. Hare Krishna

Women are very talented no doubt and some of them are exceptional too. But if we look at the recent history we have seen how deterioration has happened in the last 50-100 years, amongst families and society in general. And we cannot ignore the role played by the fact that women stepped out of their houses, while ignoring their core duty of being a homemaker. Whenever you do something against scripture, you might get positive results which are short term, more importantly the net impact is mostly negative. Some women have reached the pinnacle of corporate ladders but the sacrifices they need to make can be seen from Indra Nooyi’s (former President of Pepsi) interview “Women can’t have it all!”. She said, “But if you ask our daughters, I'm not sure they will say that I've been a good mom.” Every time a woman steps out for work, she has to make countless decisions, the chief amongst them being the choice to be a corporate executive or a family person. For more details please go through the article: www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/why-pepsico-ceo-indra-k-nooyi-cant-have-it-all/373750/ Previously throughout the world, it was unquestioned that men and women have particular roles according to their psychophysical disposition. Women played a more subtle and subdued role, and this was the natural order. And this resulted in stable families, happy relationships, emotionally secure kids which have become just a dream in today’s hypocrite and hedonistic society. It has been surveyed that traditional women were happier and more satisfied (in a society which was less advanced and more conservative) than the women of today who are unnaturally drafted into go-getter male roles and not encouraged to develop their innate female tendencies of love and selflessness. Maybe women can do everything men can do, and if given the opportunity women can not only compete with but even excel more than men. But we shouldn’t ignore its repercussions and the negative impact to the woman in question, her family and the society.

These are due to some western PPL

Exactly. Srila Prabhupada says my next step would be to open the farm communities but almost all ISKCON GURU and GBC is reluctant to lose the luxury lifestyle rather opening luxury hotels, banquet halls etc.

Not a good Idea ... Prabhupada always says never ever leave Iskcon... Your love for me will be shown by how you all Co-operate . These are the words of Srila Prabhupada.. And you are saying for breaking the Iskcon society and start alternative society....Completely bewildering and deviating from the Prabhupada path or Prabhupada instruction.

But what when ISKCON deviates and leaves Prabhupada's teaching, becoming a guru business, trying to please worldly secularists?

@@ASTRUM502 I have the same question!

You say we are not this bodies but then why do you say women are less likely to fall? Why reject body first then accept a women body, why? If we are not this bodies why do you identify someone with a women's body? Answer is, we should not mix spiritual existence with material, once we have accepted a material body we need to live as per Shastric injunction to remove misidentifications... For God's sake tell this feminists please please don't spoil Vedic society, westerners have done enough damage just leave us alone please... Please be better off with your choices elsewhere don't force your ideology on our native way of living Please 🙏🙏🙏

So Srila Prabhupada should be blamed for giving sannyasa to such persons. He should've known that women make better gurus because they're less likely to fall. Right?

Who is a Guru? As per Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam “tasmād guruṁ … upaśamāśrayam (SB 11.3.21)… The qualification of the bona fide guru is that he has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters. The guru is the external representative of Krsna. Guru could be Shiksha guru or Diksha guru, Shiksha guru offers transcendental knowledge about spiritual subject matters. Diksha guru in addition to the above takes responsibility of engaging the disciple in devotional service and takes responsibility of delivering the sincere disciple back home back to godhead. So from this definition we can see that irrespective of what body you take if you have fully surrendered to Krishna you can take the role of Initiating Guru. But when we understand this in depth and look at ancient vedic literature, there is no reference to even one woman who acted as an initiating guru. The biological mother is considered to be the first guru (shiksha guru) of the child-not in the same way as an initiating Guru, but because she teaches her children the basic principles of human behaviour and instills in them the basic principles of dharma, which is later solidified by formal gurus. The norm in Vedic culture is that women should follow stri-dharma, and that formal leadership roles, such as that of guruship, is restricted to men. Caught up in dehatma-buddhi(the bodily concept of life) and the quest for sense gratification we have gone far away from vedic culture. Biologicaly and psychologically, men and women are different. Women’s body is different from man body and her mentality is different than from a man.Therefore her social role must also be different. Also, diksha guru needs to possess a measure of independence in order to perform his service nicely. Women are never to be given independence but always protected. Hence, they can’t effectively perform the necessary independent duties of a diksha guru. In the Gaudiya tradition, exceptional cases of women as guru were Jahnava Mata, Gangamata Goswamini and Hemalata Thakurani. However, all of them largely observed stri-dharma. For instance at the famous kheturi festival, Jahnava Mata took charge of the kitchen and cooked for the attending devotees. These few “very special cases” are accepted within the Gaudiya tradition as having been liberated souls situated on the topmost platform of devotional service. Srila Prabhupada in his lecture in LA on (SB 1.3.17 - Sep 22,1972) once said “Woman, they are generally equipped with the qualities of passion and ignorance. And man also may be, but man can be elevated to the platform of goodness. Woman cannot be.…. Therefore initiation, brahminical symbolic representation, is given to the man, not to the woman. This is the theory”. Hence Srila Prabhupada never implemented women spiritual masters himself and didn’t name even name one women among the 11 ritvik representatives, because it is directly against the injunction of shastra. Besides this, he didn’t make a single woman as Temple President, or GBC or appoint them to any responsible post. That is because that would be directly against the shastra injunctions. Tamal Krishna Maharaj recalls that Srila Prabhupada once told him that Yamuna devi dasi was very elevated, almost on the level of bhava, and that “she weren’t a woman, I would make her a GBC”. Again, Srila Prabhupada, as an acharya, did not deviate from the shastra. Srila prabhupada made it clear in the Bhagavatam how he wanted women to behave (see SB 3.23.2, 7.11.25-29 and 9.3.10). We as followers of Srila Prabhupada need to apply ourselves to learning how to practice our stri-dharma, which is the desperate need of society today. If on the other hand, we introduce practices which are unprecedented in Vedic culture, we are risking ourselves and the whole society.

Maharaja is making his case perfectly clear in the words he uses. His viewpoint is simply based on his motivation to maintain “segregation” and “discrimination” between the sexes. If that is the case, then why not allow qualified VDGs to give initiation to other women who are desiring to take shelter of them? If you propose segregation is “Vedic” (yet to see any pramana for that) then why should women continue taking initiation from celibate men? Or is it that sannyasis just abhor any system that might interrupt the stream of young women worshipping their feet?

You are right. So how to preserve the innocence? In traditional India, girls were married at an early age. Why? To preserve the innocence and chastity. Once known to the girl, that a particular man is going to be my husband she would cultivate loving feelings for him and would be loyal to him forever. However in the modern world we see that due to unrestricted mixing of boys and girls, this loyalty is hard to find. At the first instance of compromise situation, the couple starts discussing separation, because for them the relationship is as casual as any other boy girl relationship. Unrestricted mixing may cause exploitation of innocent girls as we see how the crime against women is on a rapid rise. In previous times girls were always under protection “A woman must always be protected, either by her father, by her husband, or by her elderly son. (ref: Manu Smriti)”, and although India was conservative women were much safer. Are the scriptures saying that all males are criminals - No, Are all relationships based on physical attraction - No, but they are guiding us so that we specially females remain protected all the time.

What a load of crap!! I'd much rather be single than in a bad marriage. I don't need a man to make me complete. Welcome to 2023!!

If Prabhupada wanted female Dikshas, he'd have listed at least 1 on his list of the 11 Ritviks which were later changed to Dikshas.

It has already been implemented in UK schools

🤣🤣🤣

@@NAMELESSNAMELESS324 toilet as well

@@NAMELESSNAMELESS324 The madness of modern, liberal, "woke", gender equality people, who are ignorant of the vedic concepts, as taught in Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and all vedic literature.

Few people doing something wrong doesn't make the whole system bad...but one systemic deviation will definitely make the whole organisation suffer.. Yes it is not 1800's but can we think of an advancement which doesn't have repercussions... Most of the social changes that have happened in the recent century have been coupled with drawbacks. In fact if we talk to our grandparents or go two generations back and enquire, we ll find how the condition of an individual was much better in terms of mental peace, physical strength and emotional well-being than today, though we have made tremendous progress in science and are technologically advanced now. Men and Women although spiritually equal yet have different social duties (sva-dharma) which at once corresponds to, and fulfil their respective natures (sva-bhava). Women have more important roles to play other than just being a “diksha guru” like taking care of family, supporting husband, raising kids in a Krishna conscious environment - which definitely cannot be taken by men. She is indeed the first guru to her kids, she is the master of her house. Previously throughout the world, it was unquestioned that men and women have particular roles according to their psychophysical disposition. Women played a more subtle and subdued role, and this was the natural order. And this resulted in stable families, happy relationships, emotionally secure kids which have become just a dream in today’s hypocrite and hedonistic society. It has been surveyed that traditional women were happier and more satisfied (in a society which was less advanced and more conservative) than the women of today who are unnaturally drafted into go-getter male roles and not encouraged to develop their innate female tendencies of love and selflessness. Maharaj exposes the truth behind the duplicity of this world where in women are exploited in the name of feminism. Please read “Women : Mother and Masters” by HH Bhakti Vikas Swami, which presents traditional arguments for the direction of Krishna consciousness movement and discusses gender roles, parental responsibilities, feminist follies and many other Srila Prabhupada’s teachings on this subject matter.

Hare Krishna First of all I would like to mention that your earlier user name in itself was contradictory as bhakti can never have a dark side ...its transcendental, beyond the three modes of nature.....light and dark , happiness and distress such duality is found only in this material world but bhakti is beyond the realm of this material world, its causeless service out of only and only pure love for the lord . The process of Bhakti is perfect but the practitioner who is trying to purify himself by this process would certainly have many anarthas....that is the reason may be you are seeing it as the dark side ...but we all are in a diseased condition and exhibit symptoms like lust anger greed etc.but by sincerely following the vedic system we will be able to purify our conditioned senses and mind. Regarding the question you have raised ,that also shows that you have come across such devotees who are in that diseased condition but solution you have given is not at all based on shastra. In Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna says "He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination." (Ch 16 .23) First of all in my Krishna conscious life of 10 years, I have never seen any female devotee being abused or harrassed, may be there are few cases in and around your area but as I said everyone of us has a certain package of anarthas because of which we want to be the controller and enjoyer by exploiting others, so few male members of the society may have that mindset of exploiting fellow women . In material world female has been given the leadership roles in society,has that shift of role reduced the problems of society...No ...rather problems have raised in the form of sexual abuse, financial exploitation, stranged relationships, anxiety, depression , increased cases of divorce, rape, suicide and abortion . But in Krishna consciousness the goal of our life should be clear which is to please Sri Krishna and He would be pleased when we act the way He is guiding us through scriptures like SrimadBhagvatam and Bhagavad-gītā. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā that Prescribed duties should never be renounced. If one gives up his prescribed duties because of illusion, such renunciation is said to be in the mode of ignorance. ( Ch 18.7) The duties prescribed for females is to serve their husband and family and to be chaste and follow the husband sincerely.If she gives up her prescribed duties as given in shastra and be a guru how can she attain liberation as she would be in the mode of ignorance. Anyone who gives up prescribed duties as troublesome or out of fear of bodily discomfort is said to have renounced in the mode of passion. Such action never leads to the elevation of renunciation.(ch 18.8) Whatever trouble or bodily discomfort she is feeling is because of her own karma in past lives , if she would try to run away from the reactions to those karmas, she has to take birth again but if she tolerates her material condition and pleases Krishna through her devotional activities to the lord, she would be liberated. It is better to engage in one’s own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another’s occupation and perform it perfectly. Duties prescribed according to one’s nature are never affected by sinful reactions.(ch 18.47) Nature of women is that she is soft natured , emotional, chaste ,shy, tolerant loving and caring as a wife, mother...so she should perform activities according to her nature ... today we are artificially trying to change these qualities through the propaganda of feminism, women empowerment, women liberation etc and thus be inflicted by sinful reactions Every endeavor is covered by some fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one should not give up the work born of his nature, O son of Kuntī, even if such work is full of fault.( Ch 18.48) On spiritual platform all living entities are jivas and thus equal but till the time we are in encaged in a specific condition in a specific body, we have to act accordingly. Spiritually even a servant in your house is equal to you but u will not allow him or her to sit on your sofa set and enjoy, some social norms have to be accepted. Studying Bhagavad-gītā or deeply thinking over the matter, I come to understand that I am not this body. That's all right. But actually I am working on bodily plane. This adjustment is required, for the present moment, because you are entangled or enwrapped within this body, so you cannot say that "I will work without this body." But you can work in such a way that even with this body you can work in your spiritual platform. Although I am in this bodily conception of life, still, I can work from the spiritual platform. That technical knowledge is instructed by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, that "You are not this body, but you have to work at the same time." Then how? Now, here is the formula: yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi [Bg 2.48]. [Be steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna. Perform your duty and abandon all attachment to success or failure. Such evenness of mind is called yoga.] Here the Lord is instructing to perform your duty as prescribed and not be attached to the result...the sannyasis who have fallen from their status performed their prescribed duties and even if there was a failure, the Lord would take care of that but women if given that particular role which is going against the shastra would certainly displease the Lord .

Here are some other statements of Srila Prabhupada regarding the role o women in society: 
Yogeśvara: So here's a problem: The women today want the same rights as men. How can they be satisfied? Prabhupāda: Everything will be satisfied. Just like our women, Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are working. They don't want equal rights with the men. It is due to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are cleansing the temple, they are cooking very nicely. They are satisfied. They never said that "I have to go to Japan for preaching like Prabhupāda." They never say. This is artificial. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means work in his constitutional position. The women, men, when they remain in their constitutional position, there will be no artificial . . . (indistinct) . . . (loud traffic noises) Srila Prabhupada’s Morning Walk @ Rome, Italy, on May 27, 1974

The following statement of Srila Prabhupada was about "vaishavis", women in ISKCON: Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, is this school for women also, or just for men? Prabhupāda: For men. Women should automatically learn how to cook, how to cleanse home. Satsvarūpa: So they don't attend varṇāśrama college? Prabhupāda: No, no. Varṇāśrama college especially meant for the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya. Those who are not fit for education, they are śūdras. That's all. Or those who are reluctant to take education-śūdra must. That's all. They should assist the higher class. [From Srila Prabhupada's morning walk at Vrindavan on March 14, 1974. Seen at: vanisource.org/wiki/740314__-Morning_Walk-__Vrndavana?hl=college]

Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada wrote in his purport to Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi-lila Chapter 10, Text 137, about one of the TOPMOST Vaishnavi, Madhavi Devi: "Within this world, Caitanya Mahāprabhu had three and a half very confidential devotees. The three were Svarūpa Gosāñi, Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Śikhi Māhiti, and Śikhi Māhiti’s sister, Mādhavīdevī, being a woman, was considered the half.Thus it is known that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu had three and a half confidential devotees." So even such an exalted vaishnavi was consider "a half" by the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON.

Here are more quotes from Srila ACB Prabhupada wherein he states his vision for the role of woman - vaishnavi's - in ISKCON: Prabhupada: And the women are declaring, “independent.” They are begging door to door to a man, “Please give me shelter. Give me a child,” and they’re independent. One American woman, was…. She was speaking that “In India the woman are treated as slave. We don’t want.” So I told her that it is better to become slave of one person than to slave of become hundreds. (laughter) The woman must become a slave. So instead of becoming slaves of so many persons, it is better to remain satisfied, a slave of one person. And our Vedic civilization says, nari-rupam pati-vratam: “The woman is beautiful when she remains as a slave to the husband.” That is the beauty, not the personal beauty. How much she has learned to remain as a slave to the husband, that is Vedic civilization… And the beauty of woman is how much she is devoted and obedient to the husband. So it is very difficult. (Srila Prabhupada, Morning Walk, March 19, 1976, Mayapur, India) Prabhupada: We shall teach the girls two things. One thing is how to become chaste and faithful to their husband and how to cook nicely… These two qualifications required. She must learn how to prepare first-class foodstuff, and she must learn how to become chaste and faithful to the husband. Only these two qualification required. Then her life is successful. Educate the girls how to become faithful, chaste wife and how to cook nicely. Let them learn varieties of cooking. Is very difficult? And by fifteenth, sixteenth year they should be married. And if they are qualified, it will be not difficult to find out a nice husband. Here the boys, they do not want to marry because they are not very much inclined to marry unchaste wife. They know it, that “I shall marry a girl, she is unchaste.” What do you think? (Srila Prabhupada, Morning Walk, July 10, 1975, Chicago, USA) In Vedic society no girl was allowed to remain independent and unmarried. Independence for women means they become like prostitutes, struggling to capture some man who will take care of her. In this way the so called independent woman has to work very hard to make herself attractive by artificially wearing cosmetics -- mini skirts and so many other things. Formerly the girl would be married to a suitable boy at a very early age, say six years old. But although a girl was married early she did not stay with her husband immediately, but was gradually trained in so many ways how to cook, clean and serve her husband in so many ways -- up until the time of her puberty. So all the time there was no anxiety because a girl would know -- I have got a husband, and the boy would know I have got this girl as my wife. Therefore when the boy and girl would come of age there was no chance of illicit sex-life. And the pychology is the first boy that a girl accepts in marriage, that girl will completely give her heart to, and this attachment on the girls side for her husband becomes more and more strong, thus if a girls gets a good husband -- one who has accepted a bona fide spiritual master and is firmly fixed up in his service, automatically the wife of such a good husband inherits all the benefits of his spiritual advancement. So you are fortunate. Go on in this present attitude, serve you husband always and in this way your life will be perfect, and together husband and wife go back home -- Back to Godhead. ----------------------------------------- From Srila Prabhupada's letter to Naiskarmi -- Bhaktivedanta Manor 28 July, 1973 Reporter: Are men superior in your movement, though? Prabhupada: Hm? Reporter: Are men regarded as superior to women? Prabhupada: Yes, naturally. Naturally, woman requires protection by the man. In the childhood she is protected by the father, and youth time she is protected by the husband, and old age she is protected by elderly sons. That is natural. Female Reporter: That goes against the thinking of a lot of people in America now. Do you know that? Prabhupada: No... America, maybe, but this is the natural position. Women require protection. March 5th, 1975 / Room Conversation / New York City ------------------ A woman’s real business is to look after household affairs, keep everything neat and clean, and if there is sufficient milk supply available, she should always be engaged in churning butter, making yogurt, curd, so many nice varieties, simply from milk. The woman should be cleaning, sewing, like that.
(Srila Prabhupada, letter to female disciple, February 16, 1972) A man’s psychology and woman’s psychology are different. As constituted by bodily frame, a man always wants to be superior to his wife, and a woman, as bodily constituted, is naturally inferior to her husband. Thus the natural instinct is that the husband wants to post himself as superior to the wife, and this must be observed. Even if there is some wrong on the part of the husband, the wife must tolerate it, and thus there will be no misunderstanding between husband and wife.
(Srila Prabhupada, Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 3, Chapter 23, verse 2) Naturally a woman is under the control of the man. That is our Vedic system,
and natural system also. However the woman may claim equal rights, they are
under the control of the man. That is natural.
-----------------------------------------
From Srila Prabhupada's lecture on 16 Dec 1975 Bhagavad-gita. 16.7 प्रवृत्तिं च निवृत्तिं च जना न विदुरासुरा: । न शौचं नापि चाचारो न सत्यं तेषु विद्यते ॥ ७ ॥ pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca janā na vidur āsurāḥ na śaucaṁ nāpi cācāro na satyaṁ teṣu vidyate Synonyms pravṛttim - acting properly; ca - also; nivṛttim - not acting improperly; ca - and; janāḥ - persons; na - never; viduḥ - know; āsurāḥ - of demoniac quality; na - never; śaucam - cleanliness; na - nor; api - also; ca - and; ācāraḥ - behavior; na - never; satyam - truth; teṣu - in them; vidyate - there is. Translation Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. Neither cleanliness nor proper behavior nor truth is found in them. Purport In every civilized human society there is some set of scriptural rules and regulations which is followed from the beginning. Especially among the Āryans, those who adopt the Vedic civilization and who are known as the most advanced civilized peoples, those who do not follow the scriptural injunctions are supposed to be demons. Therefore it is stated here that the demons do not know the scriptural rules, nor do they have any inclination to follow them. Most of them do not know them, and even if some of them know, they have not the tendency to follow them. They have no faith, nor are they willing to act in terms of the Vedic injunctions. The demons are not clean, either externally or internally. One should always be careful to keep his body clean by bathing, brushing teeth, shaving, changing clothes, etc. As far as internal cleanliness is concerned, one should always remember the holy names of God and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. The demons neither like nor follow all these rules for external and internal cleanliness. As for behavior, there are many rules and regulations guiding human behavior, such as the Manu-saṁhitā, which is the law of the human race. Even up to today, those who are Hindu follow the Manu-saṁhitā. Laws of inheritance and other legalities are derived from this book. Now, in the Manu-saṁhitā it is clearly stated that a woman should not be given freedom. That does not mean that women are to be kept as slaves, but they are like children. Children are not given freedom, but that does not mean that they are kept as slaves. The demons have now neglected such injunctions, and they think that women should be given as much freedom as men. However, this has not improved the social condition of the world. Actually, a woman should be given protection at every stage of life. She should be given protection by the father in her younger days, by the husband in her youth, and by the grownup sons in her old age. This is proper social behavior according to the Manu-saṁhitā. But modern education has artificially devised a puffed-up concept of womanly life, and therefore marriage is practically now an imagination in human society. The social condition of women is thus not very good now, although those who are married are in a better condition than those who are proclaiming their so-called freedom. The demons, therefore, do not accept any instruction which is good for society, and because they do not follow the experience of great sages and the rules and regulations laid down by the sages, the social condition of the demoniac people is very miserable.

Srila Prabhupada is clearly against FDG.

Which women in ISKCON now has reached the highest perfectional stage? Who has attained their svarupa? Can we know? Don't pick one quote and disregard the rest. Books are the basis. How many times have we been told that. Prabhupada told us to distribute his books. The final conclusion is there. In Srimad Bhagavatham he clearly writes that women can't become diksa-guru. She can be a guru - as a siksa-guru. Go and read the books.

Even though I think it's wrong, I think if a woman wanted to be a Diksha and became Acharya of her own new movement for women, I say go for it!