Respected Gurumahārājā,

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Please accept my humble obeisances at your feet. All glories to Srīla Prabhupāda.

I was reading how mother Yaśodā becomes struck with wonder when she sees the entire universe in baby Kṛṣṇa's mouth.  http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/8/43. Then I saw the word Vaiṣṇavīm in a later verse that was used to refer to yoga-māyā. That reminded me of Monkey/Bhakta Tom’s post here: http://hps.monkeywarrior.com/node/6920 and thought I would share some of my findings on the topic.

Vaīṣṇava (masculine) and Vaiṣnavī(feminine)

The word Vaiṣṇava literally means one whose worshipable lord is Viṣṇu. Based on the sūtra sāsya devatā, the suffix a[ṇ] is applied after Viṣṇu which eventually gives the word Vaiṣṇava through various grammatical rules. This is a masculine word. By adding a suffix ī[p] we get Vaiṣṇavī the equivalent feminine word for Vaiṣṇava. Srīla Jīva Gosvāmī, in his grammar book, Harināmāmṛta Vyākaraṇa, uses the word Vaiṣṇavī a few times and he means a female Vaiṣṇava.

Some of the examples are:

1. Male and female who thinks he/she is a Vaiṣṇava
   1. Vaiṣṇavam <2.1, object form of Vaiṣṇava> + man eventually becomes Vaiṣṇava-mānī (“one who thinks himself a Vaiṣṇava”)
   2. Vaiṣṇavīm <2.1, object form of Vaiṣṇavī> + man enventually becomes Vaiṣṇava-māninī(“one who thinks herself a Vaiṣṇavī”)
2. In one of the compound word examples we find Vaiṣṇava-bhāryaḥ.  The commentator elaborates that the vigraha(separation of the constituent words) of Vaiṣṇava-bhāryaḥ is Vaiṣṇavī bhāryā yasya (“one whose wife is a Vaiṣṇavī”).
3. In another example we see atithir Vaiṣṇavī (“the female Vaiṣṇava guest”).
4. From a philosophical point of view, Jiva Gosvāmī doesn’t assume that everyone in their present condition is already a Vaiṣṇava. This I say because he gives examples such as vaiṣṇavī-kṛtya (“having made into a Vaiṣṇava). Other examples that show gradation among Vaiṣṇavas using the word vaiṣṇava in a compound are eka- vaiṣṇavaḥ (“the best Vaiṣṇava”), purāṇa- vaiṣṇavaḥ (“an old vaiṣṇava”), kevala- vaiṣṇavaḥ (“A pure vaiṣṇava”)

Ātman, a masculine word

However I didn’t find any examples for the masculine word ātman in feminine gender. Monier William’s dictionary says that the masculine word is used as a reflexive pronoun in all three genders and gives the example ātmānam(masculine object form) sā (feminine subject she) hanti (verb strikes).

One of the main things is that in Sanskrit, the gender doesn’t really mean the literal gender. For example tree (vṛkṣaḥ) is masculine and creeper(latā) is feminine. However when it comes to the names of humans and the pronouns used for them there are masculine and feminine words matching the genders. I find ātman an exception but there are feminine words like yoginī, brāhmanī, gopī whose masculine forms are yogī, brāhmaṇa and gopa. Vaiṣṇava and Vaiṣṇavī are in the similar category.

Your insignificant servant

Srinivasacarya dasa

ASA - Tom Brown, PhD  ---  Thank you very much Srinivasa-acharya Das. We saw many cases of Vaisnavi in the Vedabase.com, and except for like three these refered to Durga, Yoga-maya, like the citation above. The others seem that may be coming from a little tinge of the bodily concept of life.
What is the Sanskrit for Canakhya Pandita's statement that one should see every woman except for his wife as Mataji?