Conception: Not Just a Chemical Reaction

Don't Blow Your Brains Out
Discussions with Syamasundar on Sigmund Freud

Prabhupada: Therefore our prescription is that in the beginning of life, teach him brahmacharya restraint, and when he is grown up, he is above twenty, get him married. In the beginning he will learn how to restrain. If you teach your child to become saintly, he retains his semina, his brain becomes strong, he can understand things, because wasting your semina means less intelligence. So from the beginning, if he is brahmachari, if he stops misuse of semina, then he becomes intelligent and strong and fully grown. For want of education, everything is being stunted—brain, bodily growth, and everything. So after he is trained as a brahmachari, if he thinks that still he will have sex enjoyment, all right, he can be married. But because he will have strength of body and brain, he will beget a child, immediately there will be male child. This is practical remedy. And because he has been trained from boyhood to renounce this material way of enjoyment, when he is fifty years old, naturally his first-born child must be twenty-five years old, so he can retire from sex life. Because household life means a license for sex life. That is all. It is not required. But one who cannot restrain, he is given a license: "All right, you have sex life by marriage," as I explained in the beginning. So that is real program. That will save the society.

Injecting a State of Mind
Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.20.28): Conversation between Maitreya and Vidura

Mind is the subtle body of the living entity. We may sometimes be absorbed in some thought which is sinful, but if we give up the sinful thought, it may be said that we give up the body. Brahma's mind was not in correct order when he created the demons. It must have been full of passion because the entire creation was passionate; therefore such passionate sons were born. It follows that any father and mother should also be careful while begetting children. The mental condition of a child depends upon the mental status of his parents at the time he is conceived. According to the Vedic system, therefore, the garbhadhana-samskara, or the ceremony for giving birth to a child, is observed. Before begetting a child, one has to sanctify his perplexed mind. When the parents engage their minds in the lotus feet of the Lord and in such a state the child is born, naturally good devotee children come; when the society is full of such good population, there is no trouble from demoniac mentalities.

Quality of Sperm
Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.16.35): "The Two Doorkeepers of Vaikuntha Cursed by the Sages

Here is clear proof of how a living entity coming originally from Vaikunthaloka is encaged in material elements. The living entity takes shelter within the semen of a father, which is injected within the womb of a mother, and with the help of the mother's emulsified ovum the living entity grows a particular type of a body. In this connection it is to be remembered that the mind of Kashyapa Muni was not in order when he conceived the two sons, Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu. Therefore the semen he discharged was simultaneously extremely powerful and mixed with the quality of anger. It is to be concluded that while conceiving a child one's mind must be very sober and devotional. For this purpose the garbhadhana-samskara is recommended in the Vedic scriptures. If the mind of the father is not sober, the semen discharged will not be very good. Thus the living entity, wrapped in the matter produced from the father and mother, will be demoniac like Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu. The conditions of conception are to be carefully studied. This is a very great science.

For the Sake of the Nation
Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.14.38): Pregnancy of Diti in the Evening

The conditions for having good progeny in society are that the husband should be disciplined in religious and regulative principles and the wife should be faithful to the husband. In Bhagavad-gita (7.11) it is said that sexual intercourse according to religious principles is a representation of Krishna consciousness. Before engaging in sexual intercourse, both the husband and the wife must consider their mental condition, the particular time, the husband's direction, and obedience to the demigods. According to Vedic society, there is a suitable auspicious time for sex life, which is called the time for garbhadhana. Diti neglected all the principles of scriptural injunction, and therefore, although she was very anxious for auspicious children, she was informed that her children would not be worthy to be the sons of a brahmana. There is a clear indication herein that a brahmana's son is not always a brahmana. Personalities like Ravana and Hiranyakashipu were actually born of brahmanas, but they were not accepted as brahmanas because their fathers did not follow the regulative principles for their birth. Such children are called demons, or rakshasas. There were only one or two rakshasas in the previous ages due to negligence of the disciplinary methods, but during the age of Kali there is no discipline in sex life. How, then, can one expect good children? Certainly unwanted children cannot be a source of happiness in society, but through the Krishna consciousness movement they can be raised to the human standard by chanting the holy name of God. That is the unique contribution of Lord Chaitanya to human society.

Don't Produce Cats and Dogs. For you it is "Stop."
Conversation on Train to Allahabad, January 11, 1977, India

Ramesvara: The Western conception is that one man can only have one woman.

Prabhupada: Why? If he can produce many big men, he can have hundreds of women. But you cannot do that. Therefore you are restrained. You are bad. You better restrain. Don't have sex, because you'll produce cats and dogs. But one who is able to produce great brain, great philosophers, he should produce hundreds. You do not know how to produce good brain. Therefore you stop! Don't produce cats and dogs. For you it is "Stop." You do not know how to use sex. Therefore you should stop. You should not any more use sex. But one who can produce better brains should have hundreds of times. You must know how to produce. That is Vedic civilization, dharmah samskara idam... It is not a secrecy, how to produce brain. And because brain is not produced, therefore there is agitation, that they have no brain. They do not know the value of this Krishna consciousness movement. You have been produced like cats and dogs; therefore you cannot appreciate. Therefore you should stop. But one who has power to produce brain, to produce Krishna conscious children, they should be use. Foodstuff is forbidden for a person who cannot digest. One who can digest food, he must eat sumptuously. There is no restriction for him. Food is not bad. One who cannot digest, it is bad for him. This is the conclusion. What is food for one is poison for another. If you cannot use sex power how to use it for better purposes, you should not use sex.

Destiny's Child (or Not)
Srimad-Bhagavatam (6.15.4): The Saints Narada and Angira Instruct King Chitraketu

Just as sterile grain cannot produce more grain, a sterile person, by the will of the Supreme Lord, cannot beget a child. Sometimes a child is born even to an impotent father and sterile mother, and sometimes a potent father and fertile mother are childless. Indeed, sometimes a child is born despite contraceptive methods, and therefore the parents kill the child in the womb. In the present age, killing children in the womb has become a common practice. Why? When contraceptive methods are taken, why don't they act? Why is a child sometimes produced so that the father and mother have to kill it in the womb? We must conclude that our arrangement of so-called scientific knowledge cannot determine what will take place; what is enacted actually depends on the supreme will. It is by the supreme will that we are situated in certain conditions in terms of family, community and personality. These are all arrangements of the Supreme Lord according to our desires under the spell of maya, illusion. In devotional life, therefore, one should not desire anything, since everything depends on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated in Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu (1.1.11):

anyabhilashita-shunyam
jnana-karmady-anavritam
anukulyena krishnanu-
shilanam bhaktir uttama [Chaitanya-charitamrita Madhya 19.167]

"One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Krishna favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service." One should act only to develop Krishna consciousness. For everything else, one should fully depend upon the Supreme Person. We should not create plans that will ultimately make us frustrated.