Marriage without children

[Guest guest]

Here is a direct instruction from Srila Prabhupada (letter written to

Satsvarupa Maharaja):

 

"If the husband and wife can voluntarily restrain by powerful advancement of

Krishna Consciousness. That is the best method. It is not necessary that

because one has got wife, therefore you must have sex life. The whole scheme

is to avoid sex life as far as possible. And if one can avoid it completely

then it is a great victory for him."

 

I suppose he was advising them to become abominable? Or maybe he didn't

understand that they needed a son to deliver them from hell?

 

Quotes about a house without a son being like a "desert" or "void" is

nothing even remotely related to saying "married life without children is

abominable". You are really trying to stretch things and connect the dots,

but the dots seem to be on different pages of the coloring book. Chanakya

also says the same about a poor man with no money ("he sees everything as

void"), so should we make it a policy that devotees should try to accumulate

wealth? The material happiness or distress of a situation is not that

important to devotees according to Srila Prabhupada ("whether in heaven or

hell the devotee is satisfied with doing Krishna's service"). Thus whether a

house is materially happy and rejoicing due to the presence of children or

not isn't of primary importance for devotees engaged in the service of

Krishna.

 

I would still be interested in any direct quote where Srila Prabhupada says

"married life without children is abominable". Preferably a quote where we

don't have to connect the dots, stretch the meaning beyond the obvious, or

refer to popular hindu cultural practices of today as authoritative

reference.