Marriage for Restriction

Why Get Married?

Marriage and Krishna Consciousness Hansadutta das

No problem. You want to get married? Take a wife. Wife is also given by God. So husband and wife will love Krishna. That kind of relationship will last, because the love is not for each other’s body or platonic, mental, intellectual love, but the love is for the highest cause, the service of Godhead. Such a relationship has real… you see? It has a real basis. Relationships that are not God-centered will not last. After they become familiar with one another’s body or mental and intellectual nuances, they become bored. Familiarity breeds contempt. Why people are being divorced? Because they have lost the centrepiece of the human relationship or the marriage relationship, which is God. more

Prabhupada: Every living entity has got these propensities: intoxication, sex intercourse. Vyavaya amisha. Amisha: meat-eating, fish eating. They're there already. One does not require to be educated, how to eat meat, how to drink, how to use sexual intercourse. No. It is already there. Nitya hi... Na hi tatra codana. There is no need of encouragement. Then why the shastra's ordering that "You eat meat in this way. You drink in this way. You have sexual intercourse in this way"? What is the purpose? The purpose is to restrict him. Because by natural propensity he'll have... Just like in Western countries there is no marriage practically. But they have sexual intercourse. They think, "Sex is there, available. Why we should bound ourselves by marriage tie?" They think like that. So why the marriage is there? Just to restrict. Without marriage, the man and woman will be open to so many other men and women. Therefore it is to restrict. One man, one woman. Otherwise, if you associate with so many men and so many women, this is animalism. So in order to check him from the animal life, sex intercourse, the marriage is there. This is the purpose. Therefore shastra. Shastra means simply restrict. One who is accustomed to restriction, he's perfect. Not indulgence. The animals are not restricted. But nowadays, better animal is restricted. They have got a time for sexual intercourse. But these, these animals, the four-, two-legged, two-hands animal, they have no restriction. Any time. Less than animal. Therefore shastra is there.

So vaidha. Vaidha means what is sanctioned by the shastra. That is vaidha stri-sanga. Yes. One may have association with the women... There must be association with women. By God's creation, there is man, woman. They're meant for being united. So therefore in the Bhagavad-gita it is said that dharmaviruddho kamah aham. "When sex intercourse is there according to the shastra, that is I am. That is I am." Dharmaviruddhah. So there are rules and regulations, how to have sex life. So... There are two kinds of association with women, vaidha and avaidha. Vaidha means according to shastra, and avaidha means without any restriction, without any restriction of the shastra. So asat, eka stri-sangi. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said. And the sahajiyas , rascals, they interpret: asat eka stri-sangi. One who has got only one wife, he's asat. One must have many wives. The sahajiyas, you know. They keep so many women, like monkeys, in their company. You see, they have interpreted in this way. Asat eka stri-sangi.

So we, we, shastra restricts, but rascals, they interpret in a different way, and they enjoy. The real purpose comes... Just like what is that sannyasi in Australia who wrote against... What is the name? Where is Pradyumna? What is the name of that rascal sannyasi? In Australia?

Devotee: Aghananda. Aghananda.

Prabhupada: Oh, Austria, Austria.

Devotee: Aghananda. Aghananda.

Devotee (2): No. Aghananda Bharata.

Prabhupada: Eh?

Pradyumna: Aghehananda Bharata.

Prabhupada: Agyanananda? No?

Pradyumna: Aghehananda

Prabhupada: Aghehananda. That rascal says that "This, this is our ultimate goal: unrestricted, eating meat and sex." Is it not? Did he not say like that?

Devotee (3): No, I think that's Rajneesh Acharya.

Prabhupada: Eh?

Devotee (3): Rajneesh Acharya says that one should have unrestricted sex life.

Prabhupada: So there are so many rascals. Therefore...

Indian: Shakespeare writes in his books that marriage is nothing but legal prostitution.

Prabhupada: Yes. So that is their interpretation. Marriage, Vedic shastra enjoins marriage, and it is for prostitution. Just see the interpretation. [Sarcastically:] All the great rishis, they recommended: "Yes, you can go on, prostitution, with your prostitution, under the sanction of the shastra." No, it is not that. The real purpose is to restrict. Just like meat-eating. Meat-eating is recommended in Vedic literature. There is kali-puja. Kali-puja. By sacrificing one goat before Goddess Kali. Goddess Kali's worshiped on the amavasya [new moon]. Amavasya takes place once in a month. Therefore these rascals who are meat-eaters, they'll be restricted. If they accept the shastra, "No, no, if we eat meat from the butcher's place, then we shall be sinful. Let us eat meat..." Just like in Calcutta you'll find so many butchers, they have kept one Goddess Kali deity so that people will think now it is not sinful. Here the mamsa, the meat is not..., it is sanctified. Hindu-brahmana-kati(?). So these things are going on. Actually, it is restriction. And even when there is bali, the sacrifice is given, the mantra means, the mantra says that "This man is killing you. You'll get next life a human being. But you have the opportunity, option, to kill him." This is the mantra. Now, if somebody's responsible, he'll certainly think that "I am going to be killed by this goat again?" Mamsa khadati. Mam: "He will eat me." That is mamsa. So no responsible man will take that responsibility, that "I will kill this animal. Again he'll become a man and he'll kill me. No, no. Stop this business." So this is the process of restriction. Similarly those who are drunkards, for them is recommended by offering liquor to Chandi, they can drink. Similarly, marriage is also like that. It is restriction. It is not prostitution. It is restriction. Pravrittir esha bhutanam nivrittis tu maha-phala. This is natural tendency. If you want, if one can stop it, that is called tapasya. And human life becomes perfect by tapasya.

tapasa brahmacharyena
shamena cha damena cha
tyagena satya-shauchabhyam
yamena niyamena va

"To concentrate the mind, one must observe a life of celibacy and not fall down. One must undergo the austerity of voluntarily giving up sense enjoyment. One must then control the mind and senses, give charity, be truthful, clean and nonviolent, follow the regulative principles and regularly chant the holy name of the Lord. Thus a sober and faithful person who knows the religious principles is temporarily purified of all sins performed with his body, words and mind. These sins are like the dried leaves of creepers beneath a bamboo tree, which may be burned by fire although their roots remain to grow again at the first opportunity. " [Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.13]

This is human life. Not like animals, unrestricted. Animals are also restricted. So vaidha-avaidha. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has strongly restricted that: "Don't associate with these rascals. Asat." Asat means those who are interested in material affairs. Asato ma sad gama. The Vedic injunction. That is Vedic injunction: sad gama. Just try to make progress towards sat. Om tat sat. Don't be interested in asat. Asato ma sad gama. Jyotir gama. So these are the Vedic injunctions.