Today is the Appearance Day of Jahnava Devi, Lord Nityananda's wife. Here are some relevant quotes from Guru Maharaja's Sanga:
Volume V, No. 22: Women Diksa-Gurus
Q. Srila Prabhupada seems to say in one purport that women can be siksa (instructing) gurus but not diksa (initiating) gurus: "According to sastric injunctions, there is no difference between siksa-guru and diksa-guru, and generally the siksa-guru later on becomes the diksa-guru. Suniti, however, being a woman, and specifically his mother, could not become Dhruva Maharaja's diksa-guru." (SB 4.12.32) How do you understand this purport?
A. One should not identify spirituality with the social norms that were prevalent in previous centuries. These cultural considerations were transcended to some extent in Mahaprabhu's time in light of his emphasis on essential spirituality. Therefore, there was no prohibition against Jahnava-devi being diksa-guru for her nephew/stepson Virabhadra and other spiritual luminaries of the time. More women diksa-gurus followed her in succession and other women also initiated in various other Gaudiya Vaisnava lineages. While qualifications in her line deteriorated after some time (warranting the concern of Srila Sridhara Maharaja, which he voiced in his book Sri Guru and His Grace), I have no doubt that there have been a number of very qualified women diksa-gurus in Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Although Srila Prabhupada said one thing about the Vedic times of Dhruva, he said something quite different in his time, something that supports the idea that there is no prohibition in Mahaprabhu's movement for women becoming diksa-gurus.
Prof. O'Connell: Is it possible, Swamiji, for a woman to be a guru in the line of disciplic succession?
Prabhupada: Yes. Jahnava-devi was Nityananda's wife. She became. If she is able to go to the highest perfection of life, why it is not possible to become guru? But, not so many. Actually one who has attained the perfection, she can become guru. But man or woman, unless one has attained the perfection.... Yei krsna-tattva-vetta sei guru haya. The qualification of guru is that he must be fully cognizant of the science of Krsna. Then he or she can become guru. Yei krsna-tattva-vetta, sei guru haya. In our material world is it any prohibition that woman cannot become professor? If she is qualified, she can become professor. What is the wrong there? She must be qualified. That is the position. So similarly, if the woman understands Krsna consciousness perfectly, she can become guru." (Conversation 6/18/76)
It is really quite striking that during Mahaprabhu's times women served as gurus even though the socioreligious norms were much more conservative than today. The norm in those times was that even if one was spiritually qualified as a Vaisnava but born in a lower caste he would not perform marriages and Vedic (karma-khanda) sacrifices, which were part of the religious occupation of the brahmanas (not that he would have any desire to do so). This idea was even supported by Jiva Goswami in his very conservative commentary on the capacity of bhakti to destroy prarabdha karma (Brs.1.1.21)
Therein, Sri Jiva says that a lower-class person in consideration of birth who becomes spiritually qualified as a devotee is eligible to perform Vedic rites, but just as a brahmana boy is eligible but must wait to do so until receiving his sacred thread, similarly the devotee from a lower class family while eligible do to his engagement in bhakti must wait until his next birth to perform brahminical duties. This, of course, does not include arcana (Deity worship), which is a limb of bhakti. However, Visvanatha Cakravarti many years later wrote the opposite when commenting on the same section. He emphasized that the slightest touch with bhakti immediately qualifies one for the performance of Vedic rites or any other religious duty. In doing so, he demonstrated that Sri Jiva Goswami's commentary was written in consideration of the socioreligious norms of his time. The sampradaya was just beginning to be established in the religious society, which was predominated by Advaitin smarta brahmanas.
Can we not consider the socioreligious norms of our times when discussing and implementing our doctrine? The historical record says yes. We must extract the essence and apply it dynamically. This is the business of a guru.
The first half of the verse that Srila Prabhupada quotes twice in the excerpt above is kiba vipra kiba nyasi sudra kene naya, which means one's social or religious standing in society has no bearing on one's capacity to serve as guru. The only qualification is ei krsna tattva vetti, one must know the tattva of Krsna. Pujapada Sridhara Deva Goswami, predicting that the question of women accepting the role of acarya in our movement would someday arise, cited the examples of Jahnava-devi and Gangamata Goswamini and said that whoever was qualified should be accepted as acarya.
One should be careful not to interpret this verse from Caitanya-caritamrta to say that it refers only to siksa-gurus in an effort to discourage women from serving as diksa-gurus. This is the argument that some caste Goswamis use to say that sannyasis can only be siksa-gurus, not diksa-gurus. Caste, asrama, gender, and other material considerations are transcended by knowing the science of Krsna. Thus Mahaprabhu, through the pen of Krsnadasa Kaviraja, tells us that anyone who knows that science in a substantial sense can become guru.
Furthermore in another conversation, Prabhupada stresses the same point:
"If a woman is perfect in Krsna consciousness ... Just like Jahnava devi, Lord Nityananda's wife, she was acarya. She was acarya. She was controlling the whole Vaisnava community.... It is not that woman cannot be acarya." (Conversation 6/29/72)
Here Prabhupada says that a Krsna-conscious woman can be an acarya and that Jahnava devi was an acarya who was in charge of the whole Vaisnava community. Although she was recognized substantially as leader of that community, she may have at times deferred to male devotees in ceremonial matters in consideration of social norms. However, the same social norms no longer exist. What applied in those times as well as today is yei krsna tattva vetti, one who knows the tattva of Krsna consciousness is guru. Anyone, man or woman, who knows and lives the tattva of Krsna consciousness can become acarya and give diksa and siksa.
Volume V, No. 3: Sri Guru and His Grace
Q. Could you please explain the following quote from Srila Sridhara Maharaja's book "Sri Guru and His Grace"? Some devotees say that in this passage Srila Sridhara Maharaja was questioning the validity of female gurus.
"We have to follow the spirit; otherwise after Jahnava devi, the wife of Lord Nityananda, up to Vipina Goswami, from whom Bhaktivinoda Thakura took initiation, there are so many unknown lady gurus. Through them, the mantra came to Vipina Goswami, and from him Bhaktivinoda Thakura received the mantra. We accept Bhaktivinoda Thakura, but should we count all those ladies in our disciplic succession? What was their realization?"
A. Srila Sridhara Maharaja told us that the question of women serving the Krsna consciousness movement in the capacity of gurus would arise one day and stated that he was personally not opposed to this idea. His apparent criticism of women that you have cited was not a criticism of women at all, but rather a criticism of the idea that the spiritual current of the parampara is tied exclusively to birth and family connection.
In particular the family lineage known as Nityananda vamsa abused their family ties to Sri Nityananda Prabhu to the extreme at one point. After the disappearance of Nityananda his wife Jahnava Mata became a prominent guru in this lineage in which manjari bhava is cultivated. After Jahnava Mata, because of her prominence in this succession, many unqualified women members of this seminal lineage were inappropriately held in high regard. These women without consideration of spiritual qualifications were promoted as representatives of Jahnava Mata merely on the basis of being born female in a family originally connected to her. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura was against this policy and voiced criticisms of this seminal lineage in his commentary on the eleventh canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Srila Sridhara Maharaja was referring to those criticisms.
Apart from his criticisms of this seminal lineage, the opinion of Srila Sridhara Maharaja was that any woman qualified to serve as guru can give diksa and siksa and that she should be honored appropriately.
Editor's note: Sri Guru and His Grace, by B.R. Sridhara Deva Goswami, has been described as contemporary Vaisnavism's most definitive and enlightening book on the topic of guru. This book answers questions on both the relative and absolute aspects of guru as well as addresses the issue of personality cults and fanaticism in the name of guru. It also describes both traditional and modern conceptions of guru according to different schools of Indian theism and explains the meanings of various mantras, their importance, and their effects.