Male means

Expressions researched:
"male means"

Philosophy Discussions

Male is only God. That is the characteristic. Male means enjoyer and female means enjoyed. So except God, except Kṛṣṇa, nobody is enjoyer. Therefore He's God.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Śyāmasundara: Well, are there not certain characteristics that are particularly male and certain characteristics that are particularly female?

Prabhupāda: Male is only God. That is the characteristic. Male means enjoyer and female means enjoyed. So except God, except Kṛṣṇa, nobody is enjoyer. Therefore He's God.

Śyāmasundara: So it's a false idea to think that anything is masculine besides God.

Prabhupāda: Masculine is a different (indistinct). Masculine gender. So that is called (indistinct), symbolic. But a real male is Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: So what is masculine?

Prabhupāda: Masculine, that means the symbolic representation in the material body is called masculine. Just like we (indistinct)... Just like in Bengali it is said, when you see cow, whether you see male or female, you just raise up the tail and you will understand. So a cow, I mean to say, vagina is covered by the tail, so if you raise on the tail of a calf by, simply by raising the tail you can understand whether it is a male calf or female calf. So this science is a representation of the mentality.

Śyāmasundara: So the mentality of God.

Prabhupāda: Not God—of the particular living entity.

Śyāmasundara: So to say that, for instance, the ocean is a female, has female characteristics, and the mountain has masculine characteristics...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) I do not know why the ocean has female characteristics (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: Well, they say "mother ocean." They sometimes say "mother ocean."

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. That is just like because ocean keeps within, her cover, covering element. (indistinct) element. As the female keeps the child covered within the abdomen, so in that comparison you can say "mother." But similarly in the mountain also, there are so many minerals, so many gems, and so many nice stones. Simply by saying it is very strong. So generally male is strong and the female is weak. In that sense you can give a terminology.

1969 Correspondence

Purusa synonymously means male, but actually, in the spiritual dictionary, male means "enjoyer" and female means "enjoyed." So in this sense, Krishna is the only male and all others being energies of Krishna, they are prakrti, or female.

Letter to Janaki -- Los Angeles 28 February, 1969:

Regarding your questions, as Brahma realized that he was the maidservant of Krishna, similarly, everyone of us has to realize that Krishna is the only single purusa. purusa synonymously means male, but actually, in the spiritual dictionary, male means "enjoyer" and female means "enjoyed." So in this sense, Krishna is the only male and all others being energies of Krishna, they are prakrti, or female. Please do not try to understand this male and female in the material sense. In other words, our perfection of life will be actually realizing that we are all females. In the material world we have got simply different dresses. Here in the material world, everyone is in the temperament of male, even the so-called females are also in the temperament. This is very prominent in the Western part of the world, and you know it very well how the females here think on the level of equality with males. This aptitude is material.