Text 41] Diti Vows to Kill King Indra 239
artists, especially female singers, are especially welcome. Some of them
earn fabulous amounts of money simply by singing. Therefore, as taught
by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, a woman’s singing is dangerous because it
can make a sannydsi fall a victim to the woman. Sannydsa means giving
up the company of women, but if a sannyasi hears the voice of a woman
and sees her beautiful face, he certainly becomes attracted and is sure to
fall down. There have been many examples. Even the great sage
Visvamitra fell a victim to Menaka. Therefore a person desiring to ad-
vance in spiritual consciousness must be especially careful not to see a
woman’s face or hear a woman’s voice. To see a woman’s face and ap-
preciate its beauty or to hear a woman’s voice and appreciate her singing
as very nice is a subtle falldown for a brahmacari or sannydsi. Thus the
description of a woman’s features by Kasyapa Muni is very instructive.

When a woman’s bodily features are attractive, when her face is
beautiful and when her voice is sweet, she is naturally a trap for a man.
The Sdstras advise that when such a woman comes to serve a man. she
should be considered to be like a dark well covered by grass. In the fields
there are many such wells, and a man who does not know about them
drops through the grass and falls down. Thus there are many such in-
structions. Since the attraction of the material world is based on attrac-
tion for women, Kasyapa Muni thought, “Under the circumstances, who
can understand the heart of a woman?” Canakya Pandita has also ad-
vised, viSvdso naiva kartavyah strisu raja-kulesu ca: “There are two per-
sons one should not trust—a politician and a woman.” These, of course.
are authoritative sastric injunctions, and we should therefore be very
careful in our dealings with women.

Sometimes our Krsna consciousness movement is criticized for min-
gling men and women, but Krsna consciousness is meant for anyone.
Whether one is a man or woman does not matter. Lord Krsna personally
says, striyo vaisyas tathd siidrds te ‘pi yanti pardm gatim: whether one is
a woman, Sidra or vaisya, not to speak of being a brahmana or ksatriya,
everyone is fit to return home, back to Godhead, if he strictly follows the
instructions of the spiritual master and sdstra. We therefore request all
the members of the Krsna consciousness movement—both men and
women — not to be attracted by bodily features but only to be attracted by
Krsna. Then everything will be all right. Otherwise there will be danger.
