Madhavananda: In Calcutta in 1972, Srila Prabhupada was on a morning walk with a lot of brahmacharis. Some of the brahmacharis were complaining because women also lived at the Calcutta temple, at 3 Albert Road. The brahmacharis said, “Srila Prabhupada, sometimes the women don’t put their saris over their heads,” and “Why can’t the women get a place outside, separate from the brahmacharis? Their presence is not conducive to our brahmachari life.” Prabhupada was silent for the entire walk. Sometimes he stopped walking and then started again, but he didn’t respond to the brahmacharis. We came up the stairs of 3 Albert Road, someone opened the door, and there was Yamuna and Palika and Shyamasundar’s wife, Malati, and Kaushalya and Madri and other women who had stayed behind to wash the floor, cook for the Deities, bathe the Deities, dress the Deities, prepare Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasana and the cushions for the guests. The women immediately offered their obeisances and said, “Jaya, Srila Prabhupada!” Prabhupada turned to all of us and said, “But, if you associate with these women, you will go back to Godhead.”
Source: Remembrances by Sidhanta Das – Folio Vedabase
