Is it right or wrong for a person to change the gender they are born with?

[dattaswami]

Is it right or wrong for a person to change the gender they are born with?

Smt. Priyanka Seethepalli asked: Nowadays, due to medical technology, transgenders are going through surgery and hormone injections to attain the physical features of the gender they wish to have. Some of them feel trapped in the body of the gender they were born with and they are willing to go through whatever is needed to change their gender.

Swami replied: Gender is, in no way, connected with the soul. It is only related to the external gross body. The change of gender is a subject only related to worldly issues and not to spiritual issues. In view of the souls, there is no difference in gender. All souls belong to only one gender and that is female. God alone is said to be the male (Puruṣa) in the sense that He is the Controller of creation. All the souls, including the rest world, are said to be female (prakṛti) in the sense that creation is controlled by God. Of course, this Controller-controlled concept is based on the trend of the old generations, when men used to be the controllers of the family. This is not the trend of the present generation. When Tulasi Das told Meera that females were not eligible to enter his asylum, Meera asked him “Are there males among souls too? So far, I used to think that Lord Krishna alone is male”. Tulasi Das fell at her feet and became her disciple. Till then, Meera was a disciple of Tulasi Das!

[iambiguous]

Is it right or wrong for a person to change the gender they are born with?

Which answer will send me to Hell?

[promethean75]

^^^ Blaise Pascal goes to India.

[dattaswami]

Is it right or wrong for a person to change the gender they are born with?

Which answer will send me to Hell?

“This space is infinite and neither you nor I can find its boundary. I cannot show you the existence of hell, heaven or God in this infinite space. But you too cannot show me their absence in this infinite space by taking me up to the boundary of space. Hence, hell may exist or it may not exist.
Here is where a 50-50 probability has to be accepted. Suppose, I believe in the existence of hell and hence, I do not commit sins. Even if, after my death, I find out that there is no hell, there is no loss for me. While I am still alive, I have already enjoyed the benefit of living a tension-free life and not having to bother about the police and courts, since I have not committed any sins. On the other hand, if you commit sins believing that hell does not exist and after your death, if you find out that unfortunately, hell does exist, you are totally lost!

So, whenever there is a 50-50 probability, a wise man always errs on the safe side. One must always choose the side with a lower risk. Let us say there is a blind person walking on the road. One person tells him that there is a fire ahead in his path and another person tells him that there is no fire ahead. Whom should the blind man choose to follow?

Certainly, if he is a wise blind man, he will turn back because even if the fire is absent, there would be no loss to him. But if the blind man is foolish, he will choose to disregard the warning and take the risk of going forward. If unfortunately, there is actually a fire ahead, he will get burnt!
Therefore, choose the side of lower risk given the 50-50 probability and believe in the existence of the unimaginable God, heaven and hell. Worship God with devotion and do meritorious deeds without committing any sins. Even if God, heaven and hell are absent, you will get enough benefit of believing in God, heaven and hell, which is a life of happiness, peace and freedom from even a trace of tension of the police and the courts.
After all, whether a person is a theist or an atheist, all the efforts the person makes in life is only to get this benefit of a peaceful and happy life. Apart from this benefit in this world, there is also the possibility of you getting a huge benefit in the upper worlds after your death, which is very clearly stated by several Godmen and divine scriptures.”

If the atheist leads a worldly life following justice and avoids sins (pravṛtti), it is more than sufficient. Devotional life (nivṛtti) is not mandatory for him. But accepting at least the existence of the unimaginable God is essential for everybody because it controls sins by instilling the fear of punishment from God. God and His ways of punishment being unimaginable, one can never escape from them, even though one might be able to escape from the police and the courts in this world. The concept of the Human Incarnation is not necessary for an atheist. The atheist should also have open mind to observe the genuine miracles in this world. The observed genuine miracles are essentially unimaginable events and they prove the existence of their source, who is the unimaginable God. The concept of the Human Incarnation is only essential for nivṛtti, which is the path chosen by devotees who aspire for the extreme grace of God.

[iambiguous]

Is it right or wrong for a person to change the gender they are born with?

Which answer will send me to Hell?

“This space is infinite and neither you nor I can find its boundary. I cannot show you the existence of hell, heaven or God in this infinite space. But you too cannot show me their absence in this infinite space by taking me up to the boundary of space. Hence, hell may exist or it may not exist.
Here is where a 50-50 probability has to be accepted. Suppose, I believe in the existence of hell and hence, I do not commit sins. Even if, after my death, I find out that there is no hell, there is no loss for me. While I am still alive, I have already enjoyed the benefit of living a tension-free life and not having to bother about the police and courts, since I have not committed any sins. On the other hand, if you commit sins believing that hell does not exist and after your death, if you find out that unfortunately, hell does exist, you are totally lost!

So, whenever there is a 50-50 probability, a wise man always errs on the safe side. One must always choose the side with a lower risk. Let us say there is a blind person walking on the road. One person tells him that there is a fire ahead in his path and another person tells him that there is no fire ahead. Whom should the blind man choose to follow?

Certainly, if he is a wise blind man, he will turn back because even if the fire is absent, there would be no loss to him. But if the blind man is foolish, he will choose to disregard the warning and take the risk of going forward. If unfortunately, there is actually a fire ahead, he will get burnt!
Therefore, choose the side of lower risk given the 50-50 probability and believe in the existence of the unimaginable God, heaven and hell. Worship God with devotion and do meritorious deeds without committing any sins. Even if God, heaven and hell are absent, you will get enough benefit of believing in God, heaven and hell, which is a life of happiness, peace and freedom from even a trace of tension of the police and the courts.
After all, whether a person is a theist or an atheist, all the efforts the person makes in life is only to get this benefit of a peaceful and happy life. Apart from this benefit in this world, there is also the possibility of you getting a huge benefit in the upper worlds after your death, which is very clearly stated by several Godmen and divine scriptures.”

If the atheist leads a worldly life following justice and avoids sins (pravṛtti), it is more than sufficient. Devotional life (nivṛtti) is not mandatory for him. But accepting at least the existence of the unimaginable God is essential for everybody because it controls sins by instilling the fear of punishment from God. God and His ways of punishment being unimaginable, one can never escape from them, even though one might be able to escape from the police and the courts in this world. The concept of the Human Incarnation is not necessary for an atheist. The atheist should also have open mind to observe the genuine miracles in this world. The observed genuine miracles are essentially unimaginable events and they prove the existence of their source, who is the unimaginable God. The concept of the Human Incarnation is only essential for nivṛtti, which is the path chosen by devotees who aspire for the extreme grace of God.

No, my own interest here revolves around the actual behaviors we choose on this side of the grave that result in either immortality and salvation or damnation and Hell.

Behaviors that on this thread revolve around those who do change their gender. With some religious denominations that is, what, a major sin?

How about your denomination?

[dattaswami]

Behaviors that on this thread revolve around those who do change their gender. With some religious denominations that is, what, a major sin?

How about your denomination?

God has no objection for change in gender but it is only a meaningless affair that is all. God never object a person who is want gender change. God has given full free will to all the human beings, they can do whatever they like...

[iambiguous]

Behaviors that on this thread revolve around those who do change their gender. With some religious denominations that is, what, a major sin?

How about your denomination?

God has no objection for change in gender but it is only a meaningless affair that is all. God never object a person who is want gender change. God has given full free will to all the human beings, they can do whatever they like...

Okay, for others here who reject your God and insist it is their own God's judgment that, in regard to our very souls, really counts, they will invariably "demonstrate" this by quoting from the Scripture. Then around and around they go. My God is the one true God because it says so in our Scripture. And our Scripture must be true because it is the Word of God.

How about you? How is that different?

After all, there are millions of Christians who are more or less in sync with the narrative of these folks...

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parent ... trugglers/

...regarding gender.

So, beyond what you believe in your head about gender here and now, what substantive evidence can you provide that would compel mere mortals to choose your own One True Path? With so much at stake for our souls on the other side of the grave.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Not 'wrong', just impossible...

[dattaswami]

So, beyond what you believe in your head about gender here and now, what substantive evidence can you provide that would compel mere mortals to choose your own One True Path? With so much at stake for our souls on the other side of the grave.

The Unimaginable God exists in every divine form of every religion and in every divine form of every sub-religion of Hindu religion. The candy is one and the same and the forms of candy-statues only differ from each other externally. Hence, every divine form of every religion is absolute unimaginable God because the merge of the Unimaginable God with any medium is perfect so that the unimaginable God became the imaginable medium retaining His original unimaginable nature without interfering with the properties (guṇas) of medium.

The scripture of every religion in the world was written by the same one unimaginable God and the written contents (syllabus) is one and the same even though the culture and language differs from one religion to the other. The goals and paths prescribed by scriptures are one and the same because the goal and author is one and the same God.

Certain defects appeared in the scriptures due to insertions made by some ignorant followers and due to this, no religion shall be rejected and none should convert in to other religion. If you filter these impurities, all religions become only one religion called Universal Religion based on Universal spirituality.

Then, religions differ only externally by different cultures and languages. Every devotee can exist in one’s own religion and simultaneously be a member of Universal religion just like a citizen in India belongs to a State Government and simultaneously to the Central Government!
Unimaginable aspect is beyond imagination, which is neither imaginable matter nor imaginable energy. Energy or space was created by God (Tat tejo'sṛjata..., Ātmana Ākāśaḥ...- Veda), which became matter (Ākāśāt vāyuḥ...- Veda) and awareness (Annāt puruṣaḥ...- Veda) in due course of the process of creation.

These three fundamental building components of the creation (inert energy or Rajas, inert matter or Tamas and non-inert awareness or Sattvam) are called as three fundamental qualities (Triguṇas) because they depend on the substratum called God. Hence, the Unimaginable God without creation or these three guṇas is called nirguṇa or attributeless and the mediated God is called saguṇa or with attributes.
The various permutations and combinations of these three fundamental qualities in various proportions generate different qualities, which are associated with mediated God as divine qualities and associated with souls as good and bad qualities. The three qualities are always associated together even though one may become predominant and such predominant quality is called the pure single quality as per scriptures.

[iambiguous]

So, beyond what you believe in your head about gender here and now, what substantive evidence can you provide that would compel mere mortals to choose your own One True Path? With so much at stake for our souls on the other side of the grave.

The Unimaginable God exists in every divine form of every religion and in every divine form of every sub-religion of Hindu religion. The candy is one and the same and the forms of candy-statues only differ from each other externally. Hence, every divine form of every religion is absolute unimaginable God because the merge of the Unimaginable God with any medium is perfect so that the unimaginable God became the imaginable medium retaining His original unimaginable nature without interfering with the properties (guṇas) of medium.

The scripture of every religion in the world was written by the same one unimaginable God and the written contents (syllabus) is one and the same even though the culture and language differs from one religion to the other. The goals and paths prescribed by scriptures are one and the same because the goal and author is one and the same God.

Certain defects appeared in the scriptures due to insertions made by some ignorant followers and due to this, no religion shall be rejected and none should convert in to other religion. If you filter these impurities, all religions become only one religion called Universal Religion based on Universal spirituality.

Then, religions differ only externally by different cultures and languages. Every devotee can exist in one’s own religion and simultaneously be a member of Universal religion just like a citizen in India belongs to a State Government and simultaneously to the Central Government!
Unimaginable aspect is beyond imagination, which is neither imaginable matter nor imaginable energy. Energy or space was created by God (Tat tejo'sṛjata..., Ātmana Ākāśaḥ...- Veda), which became matter (Ākāśāt vāyuḥ...- Veda) and awareness (Annāt puruṣaḥ...- Veda) in due course of the process of creation.

These three fundamental building components of the creation (inert energy or Rajas, inert matter or Tamas and non-inert awareness or Sattvam) are called as three fundamental qualities (Triguṇas) because they depend on the substratum called God. Hence, the Unimaginable God without creation or these three guṇas is called nirguṇa or attributeless and the mediated God is called saguṇa or with attributes.
The various permutations and combinations of these three fundamental qualities in various proportions generate different qualities, which are associated with mediated God as divine qualities and associated with souls as good and bad qualities. The three qualities are always associated together even though one may become predominant and such predominant quality is called the pure single quality as per scriptures.

More of the same, of course.

Paragraph after paragraph after paragraph bursting at the seams with what, to me, are ponderous spiritual recitations that in no way shape or form do you attempt to demonstrate as being true beyond you simply believing that they are. They comfort and console you. Let's just leave it at that.

From my frame of mind, it's like someone programmed you. For all I know you may well be a computer program.

Anyway, if you're not, let's get back to this...

Just for the record, let's get back to the manner in which human beings do suffer day in and day out:

...an endless procession of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and tornadoes and hurricanes and great floods and great droughts and great fires and deadly viral and bacterial plagues and miscarriages and hundreds and hundreds of medical and mental afflictions and extinction events...making life on Earth a living hell for countless millions of men, women and children down through the ages...


"Each day, 25,000 people, including more than 10,000 children, die from hunger and related causes. Some 854 million people worldwide are estimated to be undernourished, and high food prices may drive another 100 million into poverty and hunger." United Nations

Believe in God? Believe in an omniscient and omnipotent God?

Why?

This or that God might exist, sure. God is, after all, one possible explanation for existence itself.

But if He does, given the world we live in, why is it unreasonable to suggest that He is a sadistic monster?

[Trajk Logik]

Is it right or wrong for a person to change the gender they are born with?

Smt. Priyanka Seethepalli asked: Nowadays, due to medical technology, transgenders are going through surgery and hormone injections to attain the physical features of the gender they wish to have. Some of them feel trapped in the body of the gender they were born with and they are willing to go through whatever is needed to change their gender.

How can someone change their gender if "gender" is a social construction? Wouldn't you have to change the society to change one's gender, and not one's body?

A social construction is an agreement, or expectation between two or more people about how they both should behave, not a personal feeling.

In a society where it is criminal to walk around stark naked, we must cover our bodies with clothing. How do we tell the women from the men when we have to cover our bodies? - Social constructions. Women wear dresses and makeup while men where pants and don't wear make-up. For the purpose of mating, we have expectations of the other sexes to display their, well their sex.

When a man creates a hole between his legs, he needs to put in a stent to keep the wound from closing in attempt to heal. The body knows what it is, despite what the mind might sometimes believe.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

That's what happens when people reject science--you get all kinds of contradictions and anomalies.
If 'gender' doesn't exist, then how can anyone 'feel' that they are a 'particular' gender? What exactly are they 'feeling' like? Why would they need surgery, if 'gender' is just a 'feeling'?
No one else knows what I 'feel'. Being envious of women and wanting to be one is not the same thing as being one. A person might envy birds and yearn to fly. They might even 'feel' that they 'are' a bird. Of course, no one knows how birds 'feel' about themselves. Any 'feelings' on the part of the human can only ever be fantasy. The scientific reality will soon let this person know that they were sadly mistaken--in the form of gravity as they are hurtling towards the ground after jumping off a cliff.

[dattaswami]

In a society where it is criminal to walk around stark naked, we must cover our bodies with clothing. How do we tell the women from the men when we have to cover our bodies? - Social constructions. Women wear dresses and makeup while men where pants and don't wear make-up. For the purpose of mating, we have expectations of the other sexes to display their, well their sex.

When a man creates a hole between his legs, he needs to put in a stent to keep the wound from closing in attempt to heal. The body knows what it is, despite what the mind might sometimes believe.

First of all, one should know that the concept of sex should not be magnified and should not be given over attention. Sex is a biological need of the body like hunger and thirst. It is a biological issue at physical level because, when the food is taken, a part of it is supplied to the reproductive system, by which, it gives signals in the form of sexual desire for the growth of human race on this earth.

It is created by God for this purpose so that the souls come down to the earth through the bodies created by sexual union. Thus, sex is a factor involved in the divine mission, which functions in a circular way by bringing down the souls to the earth and taking them away from the earth.

Disease is another biological need for the body to disintegrate and liberate the soul for its journey to the upper world. This is the cycle of creation called as “karma chakra”, which involves of taking the souls to the upper world for treatment and bringing down the souls after treatment. Birth is a vehicle in one direction running with the petrol called sex.

Death is the same vehicle running in reverse direction with the petrol called illness. Petrol is one and the same and therefore sex is a type of illness, which is in the divine service of God and should not be looked down or aversed. Sex is divine and its deity is “Manmadha” or “kama deva”, who is the son of Lord Narayana only. He is doing the divine duty following the path of Pravritti or justice. In the Gita, Lord said that He is kama, following justice (Dharmaaviruddhah...). There is no need of shy in feeling hungry, thirsty, sleepy, spitting, urination, excretion etc. which are just simple biological, universal and routine activities. Sex is also in the same list, about which you should not think so much.

[Gary Childress]

Is it right or wrong for a person to change the gender they are born with?

Smt. Priyanka Seethepalli asked: Nowadays, due to medical technology, transgenders are going through surgery and hormone injections to attain the physical features of the gender they wish to have. Some of them feel trapped in the body of the gender they were born with and they are willing to go through whatever is needed to change their gender.

Swami replied: Gender is, in no way, connected with the soul. It is only related to the external gross body. The change of gender is a subject only related to worldly issues and not to spiritual issues. In view of the souls, there is no difference in gender. All souls belong to only one gender and that is female. God alone is said to be the male (Puruṣa) in the sense that He is the Controller of creation. All the souls, including the rest world, are said to be female (prakṛti) in the sense that creation is controlled by God. Of course, this Controller-controlled concept is based on the trend of the old generations, when men used to be the controllers of the family. This is not the trend of the present generation. When Tulasi Das told Meera that females were not eligible to enter his asylum, Meera asked him “Are there males among souls too? So far, I used to think that Lord Krishna alone is male”. Tulasi Das fell at her feet and became her disciple. Till then, Meera was a disciple of Tulasi Das!

All souls are female? God is the only male? Do you have anything that should reasonably be counted as evidence for these claims?

If someone is an adult and wants very badly to wreak havoc on their hormones trying to change their "gender", then so be it, however, I think it's wrong to allow children to make such decisions about their own lives any more than I would trust a child to decide whether or not they should go to school vs. sit at home on Playstation all day. They're just too young to fully understand the consequences of such actions. And if a parent is making such decisions for their children, then that parent perhaps needs to have their child taken away by DCF before they do some long-lasting psycho-social damage to the child. On the other hand, if a young boy likes to knit or a young girl likes to play soldier or something, then fine. I don't have many quarrels about that.

[dattaswami]

If someone is an adult and wants very badly to wreak havoc on their hormones trying to change their "gender", then so be it, however, I think it's wrong to allow children to make such decisions about their own lives any more than I would trust a child to decide whether or not they should go to school vs. sit at home on Playstation all day. They're just too young to fully understand the consequences of such actions. And if a parent is making such decisions for their children, then that parent perhaps needs to have their child taken away by DCF before they do some long-lasting psycho-social damage to the child. On the other hand, if a young boy likes to knit or a young girl likes to play soldier or something, then fine. I don't have many quarrels about that.

I agree to this..