Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Married man means responsibility - Blog - ISKCON Desire Tree

Married man means responsibility

At about 4.00 A.M. Srila Prabhupada called Harikesa Swami and me into his room upstairs. He had just finished his writing, and was leaning back against the cotton-filled bolsters. There was no managerial topic to discuss, he just wanted to preach to us. He told us that family life is the impetus for material advancement. He said that when he was a young man he applied to become the agent for a very large firm. The territory covered from Delhi to Benares, a large area worth many thousands of rupees. Their first inquiry to him was, "Are you a married man?"

"This means," he said, "that they know if you are a married man, then there is responsibility."

He went on to share some information about his youth and marriage. His mother planned to get him married by age 17, but she died when he was only 14 and he married at age 22, when his wife was only 11. This is the Vedic system, he explained. The man is married by the age of 25 and the girls between 12 and 16. Early marriage means responsible citizens. Therefore the parents arranged early marriages for their children in consultation with astrologers, to see if the two people were compatible. They took it that even if a boy was poor, if he was hard-working and from a good background, that he was acceptable. Prabhupada said that his grandfather's brother-in-law was very poor, but because he was a good worker his mother-in-law secretly gave him 500 rupees -- a large amount at that time -- to begin a business. He started a lace-making business and became a very rich man and a prominent landowner in Calcutta, and even had a road named after him.

Prabhupada concluded with a laugh. "Good family life -- that is the materialists' desire."

- From "A Transcendental Diary Vol 4" by HG Hari Sauri Prabhu

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