Generally speaking, India and the rest of the third world (or the global south) is portrayed in the mainstream media as backward and countries that disempower women. There are frequent calls from “modern game changers” for a rapid restructuring of society for liberating the female energy. 

But what happened a few days ago was indeed surprising because a group of five female crew members in the developed West went into space, which signaled the ultimate achievement of women in outer space. At least that was the perception. The blast-off of the Blue Origin all-female crew was described by one columnist in these words: “The all-female Blue Origin flight broke boundaries and set records in the spouting of girlboss gibberish.” 

Billionaire Jeff Bezos owns Blue Origin, a rocket tourism company, and it was his idea to take celebrity female passengers on a space trip. Prices ranged from zero to $28 million. It was zero for his fiancie, but others had to pay. His own media channel kept explaining that unlike in the past when men went to space, this mission was all about emotions. One passenger served an entire word salad bar proclaiming this trip involved the “feminine divine” and being “super connected to love” or it was about making “space for future woman.” 

This flight was promoted for months in advance as a triumph of feminism, a win for science and an embrace of the kind of expansive, curious human spirit of striving and possibility that once gave life to both. Instead, it served as a kind of perverse funeral for the America that once enabled both scientific advancement and feminist progress. It became a spectacle that mocked these aspirations by appropriating them for crass marketing and profit dollars. 

Instead of dignifying women, the crew’s self-presentation bordered on girlish silliness that insults women by cavalierly linking their gender with superficiality, vanity and non-seriousness. Instead of curiosity, inquiry, discovery, exploration, a sense of their own mortality or, even better, an apprehension or realization of the divine, these women forcefully associated womanhood with cosmetics and looks. 

If feminism is indeed concerned deeply about protecting the dignity of women, uplifting their consciousness and giving them social acceptance (among a host of other things), this space trip contributed to none of the above. It appeared that both the East (or the Global South) and the West are guilty of the same crime, albeit with different complexions. 

Let us see how Sri Krishna dealt with ladies in three of His famous pastimes. First, in the case of Draupadi, the famed common wife of the five Pandava brothers, He saved her from being stripped of her clothing in front of the whole royal assembly. When asked about the incident Sri Krishna explained, “When I was away from Draupadi, she cried with the words, ‘He Govinda!’ This call for Me has put Me in her debt, and that indebtedness is gradually increasing in My heart!” This statement by Krishna gives evidence of how one can please the Supreme Lord simply by addressing Him, “He Krishna! He Govinda!” 

Later when Krishna came to Mathura along with His elder brother Balarama, they chanced to see a hunchback woman hurrying along the royal road, carrying sandalwood paste for the tyrant Kamsa. Her name was Trivakra (or one who was ugly looking and bent in three places). Here is someone who today’s media would call a “loser or low-life or a nobody.” Yet, she still had one sterling quality: she was never in love or infatuated with anybody. Yet, upon beholding Krishna’s beautiful features, she immediately felt a spontaneous urge to apply sandalwood paste to His body, and she took the enormous risk of offering her best resources in the service of Krishna. Krishna accepted her and, in return, just by touching her made her exceptionally beautiful. 

Finally, we see Krishna marrying 16,000 princesses — all at once! There was a great demon king named Narakasura who had kidnapped many daughters of great kings and kept them imprisoned in his palace. But when he was killed by the Lord and the Lord entered the house of the demon, all the princesses were enlivened with joy and offered to become His wives. Unless the Lord accepted them, they said, no one would agree to marry them. According to Vedic society, girls are transferred from the custody of the father to the custody of the husband. Since these princesses had already been taken away from the custody of their fathers, it would have been difficult for them to have any husband other than the Lord Himself. 

By serving Sri Krishna these ladies took a giant leap in the science of self realization.

 —Syamananda Dasa