How a women should dress
When the living entity wants to enjoy the modes of material nature in their totality, he prefers, out of many bodily forms, to accept that body which has nine gates, two hands and two legs. Thus he prefers to become a human being male or female. (I have explained about this in another video “Human Body – City of Nine Gates, Way to control Mind & Senses”)
All information I collected from different lectures and books by His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. This information is very important for current generation as we are facing so many rape and sexual assaults. The reason for this is, current generation is not following vedic injunctions. Men are not able to control there senses and women are forgetting shyness.
As far as the women class are concerned, they are accepted as a power of inspiration for men. As such, women are more powerful than men. Mighty Julius Caesar was controlled by a Cleopatra. Such powerful women are controlled by shyness. Therefore, shyness is important for women. Once this control valve is loosened, women can create havoc in society by adultery.
According to Vedic system, a woman should dress very nicely just to satisfy her husband. That is the Vedic system. If her husband is not at home, then she should not dress nicely. There are injunctions. There are different dresses of woman. By seeing the dress one will understand what she is.
A young woman… Therefore the woman’s name is kāminī. Kāminī…Kāma means lust. So they invoke one’s lust. Therefore by nature, women are beautiful, they dress themselves beautifully. This is nature, to invoke the lusty desire of man. So according to Vedic civilization, woman, when she is dressed nicely and she is beautiful, she must invoke lusty desires. A woman should not be given independence.” For their interest they must be protected by father, husband, and sons, because if they are polluted, they become very dangerous. Therefore Vedic civilization does not allow a woman to be nicely dressed unless she is before her husband. Because if she, I mean to say, agitates the lusty desires of all others, that is not very good. So woman is allowed to dress herself very nicely when her husband is present. Otherwise she will not dress. There are some restrictions.
The lusty desire is so prominent that whenever they will get some opportunity. That’s all. Therefore it is ordered that you should not remain alone even with your sister, with your daughter, with your mother — and what to speak of others. This is prohibited. And those who have taken this brahmana, religious, for them to see even one women and appreciate, “Oh, she is very nice,” that is also subtle sex.
When one sees the opposite sex, naturally the sex impulse increases. It is said that if a man in a solitary place does not become agitated upon seeing a woman, he is to be considered a brahmacārī. But this practice is almost impossible. The sex impulse is so strong that even by seeing, touching or talking, coming into contact with, or even thinking of the opposite sex—even in so many subtle ways—one becomes sexually impelled. Therefore according to Vedic civilization, woman is allowed to dress herself very nicely only before the husband.
The material body is influenced by the three modes of material nature, namely goodness, passion and ignorance. The present population is more or less influenced by the modes of passion and ignorance, and the symptoms for such influence are exhibited in their becoming very lusty and greedy.
By nature, women are weak. So they require protection. And until she reaches youthhood, she is protected by the father. As soon as she reaches youthhood, she is given to a young man, her husband, to give protection. And in old age, she is protected by the elderly sons. This is the Vedic culture. They have three phases of life: childhood, youthhood, and old age. So… Because they are weak. In the Western countries, the women are given freedom like man, but that is unnatural. Therefore these poor souls are being exploited by the other section. It is a great deficiency of the Western sociology.
Once a woman is given the freedom to mingle with all kinds of men in her youth, it is very difficult for her to keep chaste. An unchaste woman is very easily carried away by paramours, and it sometimes happens that her husband is violently killed by her paramours. If the yogī gives his mind a chance and does not restrain it, his mind will give facility to enemies like lust, anger and greed, and they will doubtlessly kill the yogī.
The human being is a social animal, and his unrestricted mixing with the fair sex leads to downfall. Such social freedom of man and woman, especially among the younger section, is certainly a great stumbling block on the path of spiritual progress. Material bondage is due only to sexual bondage, and therefore unrestricted association of man and woman is surely a great impediment.
There are three kinds of woman: kāminī, svairendrī and puṁścalī, according to śāstra. Just like children. They are innocent, and if they are given freedom they will be spoiled. Everyone knows it. If you don’t give proper training to the children and allow him to do independently whatever he likes, that means that child is spoiled.
Three kinds of women Svairiṇi means free, freedom, nobody is controller that is called svairiṇi, kāmiṇī means to attract, very much attract and puṁścalī living with man for some time; giving up; again another; again another. That is exemplified by the lightning. You have seen the lightning—immediately, within a second, from this cloud to that cloud, that cloud to that cloud. Similarly, there are divisions of men also, those who are trying to enjoy the senses to the utmost are called Karmis, above them are Jnanis, who try to conquer the urges of the senses, and above them are the yogis, who have already conquered the senses. None of them, however, are situated in a transcendental position. Only devotees who belong to none of the above-mentioned groups, are transcendental.
Good population in human society is the basic principle for peace, prosperity and spiritual progress in life. The varṇāśrama religion’s principles were so designed that the good population would prevail in society for the general spiritual progress of state and community. Such population depends on the chastity and faithfulness of its womanhood. As children are very prone to be misled, women are similarly very prone to degradation. Therefore, both children and women require protection by the elder members of the family. By being engaged in various religious practices, women will not be misled into adultery. According to Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, women are generally not very intelligent and therefore not trustworthy. So the different family traditions of religious activities should always engage them, and thus their chastity and devotion will give birth to a good population eligible for participating in the varṇāśrama system. On the failure of such varṇāśrama-dharma, naturally the women become free to act and mix with men, and thus adultery is indulged in at the risk of unwanted population. Irresponsible men also provoke adultery in society, and thus unwanted children flood the human race at the risk of war and pestilence.
Woman, they are generally equipped with the qualities of passion and ignorance. And men also may be, but man can be elevated to the platform of goodness. Woman cannot be. Therefore if the husband is nice and the woman follows, woman becomes faithful and chaste to the husband, then their both life becomes successful. There are three qualities of nature: sattva, rajas, tamas. So rajas, tamas generally, that is the quality of woman. And man can become to the platform of goodness. Therefore initiation, brahminical symbolic representation is given to the man, not to the woman. This is the theory. Therefore the combination should be that the husband should be first-class devotee, Kṛṣṇa conscious, and woman should be devoted to the husband, faithful, so that she would help the husband to make progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then their both life is successful. Then both of them will make progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and that is the perfection of life.
If we move according to the instructions of the Vedas, the perfect paths for our lives will be set. Otherwise, if we do not move in that way but act according to our whimsical ideas, our lives will be spoiled by confusion and will end in despair. Actually, because people at the present moment are not following the instructions of the Vedas, they are all confused.
The specific example of Bhavānī is very significant. Bhavānī means the wife of Bhava, or Lord Śiva. Bhavānī, or Pārvatī, the daughter of the King of the Himalayas, selected Lord Śiva, who appears to be just like a beggar, as her husband. In spite of her being a princess, she undertook all kinds of tribulations to associate with Lord Śiva, who did not even have a house, but was sitting underneath the trees and passing his time in meditation. Although Bhavānī was the daughter of a very great king, she used to serve Lord Śiva just like a poor woman. Similarly, Devahūti was the daughter of an emperor, Svāyambhuva Manu, yet she preferred to accept Kardama Muni as her husband. She served him with great love and affection, and she knew how to please him. Therefore, she is designated here as sādhvī, which means “a chaste, faithful wife.” Her rare example is the ideal of Vedic civilization. Every woman is expected to be as good and chaste as Devahūti or Bhavānī. Today in Hindu society, unmarried girls are still taught to worship Lord Śiva with the idea that they may get husbands like him. Lord Śiva is the ideal husband, not in the sense of riches or sense gratification, but because he is the greatest of all devotees.
Females are not meant for the renounced order of life; they should be faithful to their good husbands, for if a husband is competent for liberation, his wife will also achieve liberation with him. As stated in the śāstra, the results of a husband’s pious activities are shared by his wife. Therefore a woman’s duty is to be very chaste and faithful to her husband. Then without separate endeavor she will share in all the profit the husband earns. A woman becomes beautiful by her chastity and faithfulness to her husband.