## Protection of Women August 3, 1976, Paris Room Conversation With French Commander (French translations throughout) **Prabhupāda:** Yes. Anyway, just inquire. These are our garden flowers. **Jayatīrtha:** Oh, very nice. **Prabhupāda:** This is also? **Bhagavān:** Yes. **Prabhupāda:** Yes. **Anything grown in the garden, that is hundred times valuable than it is purchased from the market. **(pause) ***Bhagavad-gītā* is a book which can guide the whole human society. In all different branches of knowledge, namely in politics, in sociology, in religion, in culture, in philosophy, in economics, everything, all lines are described very vividly, and the human society can take advantage of it.** The *Bhagavad-gītā* begins in the battlefield with politics... (**Mrs. Marchand** speaks) **Translator:** **She wants to know if it is recommended that a woman become a *sannyāsī*.** **Prabhupāda:** **Woman should stay under the father, under the husband, and under the elderly sons. Nothing more.** Therefore it is the duty of the father to give her in charge of a young man when she is young. This is Vedic culture. **Translator:** **She's asking what should a woman do if she is alone?** **Prabhupāda:** **She cannot be alone.** Na svātantryam arhati. Woman should not be allowed... Just like children. Children cannot be alone. They must taken care of. **Similarly a woman, in childhood, should be taken care of by the father; when she's young, she should be taken care of by the husband; and when she's old, she should be taken care of by elderly sons. **You'll find in the Vedic literature, the father's responsibil ity is until she's handed over to a suitable young man. **And the husband's responsibility is so long she hasn't got elderly children.** At that time, when she has got elderly children, he can leave home and take *sannyāsa*. So the process is a woman is kept under protection always. There is no independence for woman. That is... Still, in India it is going on. The father is obliged to find out a suitable husband for the daughter and give her in his charge. Then his responsibility finished. Until that, she is, he's responsible to take care of the daughter. Unmarried girl to remain always under the protection of the father. **Yogeśvara:** **But today there seem to be so few qualified husbands**. **Prabhupāda:** **Because you do not train the boys to be qualified.** You train them to become debauch. What can be done? **You train them from *brahmacārī*, then they'll be responsible husbands. Both the girls and the boys should be trained up.** Then they'll be responsible husband and wife and live peacefully. In their young days, if you give them freedom, they'll spoil. What can be done? Young, youthful days, if you give them full freedom, they'll be misguided and spoiled. **Translator:** She's asking that **since in these Western countries the families are so broken up and the women sometimes cannot find a qualified husband, what should she do?** Prabhupāda: That, here is the society. You train them. You have got all children. You train them in that way, so that... Whatever is done is done. Now you can make very good society, Kṛṣṇa conscious society. Not that one mistake has been done, you should continue. Rectify it. Not by Birth, But by Training, Hyderabad, August 22, 1976: Conversation with Seven Ministers of Andhra Pradesh