Reporter: I should just like to know how old you are.
Prabhupāda: I am? I am seventy-four years old. I was born in 1896.
Reporter: Whereabouts?
Prabhupāda: In India, Calcutta.
Reporter: Are you married, sir?
Prabhupāda: Yes. I have got my sons, grandsons, my wife, all living, but I have no connection with them. I am a sannyāsī, renounced order. I have got elderly sons.
Reporter: You say you have no connection with your family?
Prabhupāda: No.
Reporter: Why?
Prabhupāda: Because I have taken sannyāsa. I have dedicated my life for Kṛṣṇa. That is the Vedic system, that certain portion of your life should simply dedicate for God. That is called sannyāsa.
Reporter: To do this, did you have to divorce?
Prabhupāda: No. There is no question of. We do not know what is divorce. In our country there is no divorce, at least in Hindu law. Yes. Wife and husband, once combined, that is for life. There is no question of separation, in all circumstances. Either in distress or in happiness, there is no question of separation. Now our modern politicians, they have introduced this divorce law. Otherwise, according to Hindu, Manu-saṁhitā, there is no divorce law.
Reporter: When did you renounce your family?
Prabhupāda: In 1959.
Reporter: How are they managing without you?
Prabhupāda: They are managing. My sons are grown up; they are earning. My wife is also rich man's daughter. She has got some property. So they have no problem.
Reporter: Do you ever see them at all?
Prabhupāda: No. I cannot see. I cannot see at least my wife. But if my sons and daughters come to see me, they can see. But my wife cannot see me. That is stopped. That is the system of sannyāsa. A sannyāsī cannot meet his wife again. That is renouncement. Renouncement means renouncing connection with woman, or renouncing sex life. That is renouncement.
(Arrival address-------London).

Guest (1): As a mother loves the child in pure love, does that help her to also find the pure love in the spiritual world?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Just like Mother Yaśodā is loving Kṛṣṇa. Nanda Mahārāja is loving Kṛṣṇa. That is pure love.
(Evening darshan----------New York).

Devotee: I have a question, Śrīla Prabhupāda. At what point is a householder to know when he should leave his family or her family?
Prabhupāda: After fifty years of age.
Rūpānuga: Fifty years old.
Prabhupāda: When he is fifty years old, then he can think of leaving household.
Devotee: What if the spouse is very antagonistic toward Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Prabhupāda: Antagonistic?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Opposed.
Prabhupāda: That is not the remedy, because afterwards he give up and become a sannyāsī, and then again become this gṛhastha. This is not good. Opposition is already there, especially in the Western countries; they will never agree. So why do you marry? That is understood. Huh? Both the boys and girls trained in such a way that there must be opposition. So that is expected, that in your married life there will be opposition. So why do you marry?
(Room conversation---------Washington, D.C.).