Be satisfied with one wife, as opposed to woman hunting.

[Guest guest]

This is a reply to a post Bhakti Vikas Swami made several weeks ago. I

wrote a reply, but it seems it got lost before I sent it. I wanted to

reply, so I rewrote and am sending now:

 

Letter COM:2441258 (13 lines) [W1]

Bhakti Vikasa Swami

01-Jul-99 13:39

Basu Ghosh (das) ACBSP (Baroda - IN) [15243]

for DMW

---------------------------

Here is a quote in which zrIla PrabhupAda recommends that devotees have one

wife. It does not nullify texts recommmending polygamy, but should be borne

in mind and understood in the context of such quotes. I haven't researched

or deeply considered this, but it seems that best for an individual man's

spiritual progress is if he sticks to one wife, but that it is a social

necessity for capable men to accept more than one wife.

 

"One should be satisfied with his married wife, for even a slight deviation

will create havoc. A Krsna conscious grhastha should always remember this.

He should always be satisfied with one wife and be peaceful simply by

chanting the Hare Krsna mantra."

 

============ REF. SB 6.1.64 ppt.

 

------------------ Ameyatma's reply:

 

I don't fully agree with Maharaj's understanding of this purport, and would

like to respectfully offer my views.

 

It must be kept in mind the context to which the above quote was pretaining

to. The topic of discussion was of Ajamil's leaving his religiously

married wife and talking off with a debauched prostitute. In that

context, it is best if a man remains satisfied with his one wife. SP was

not saying it in reference to polygamy. Polygamy was not at all raised

anywhere in these texts or purports. It was not being refered to here at

all. SP did not say one should remain satisfied with his one religiously

married wife as opposed to taking 2 or more wives. NO, he was saying it is

best to remain satisfied with one wife as opposed to leaving that wife and

running off with a prostitute. Polygamy was simply not an issue or topic

being discuss here at all.

 

 

Here is the entire purport from which Maharaj extracted the quote:

 

>>>>>>

There are many instances throughout the world in which even a purified

person, being attracted by a prostitute, spends all the money he has

inherited. Prostitute hunting is so abominable that the desire for sex with

a prostitute can ruin one’s character, destroy one’s exalted position and

plunder all one’s money. Therefore illicit sex is strictly prohibited. One

should be satisfied with his married wife, for even a slight deviation will

create havoc. A Krsna conscious grhastha should always remember this. He

should always be satisfied with one wife and be peaceful simply by chanting

the Hare Krsna mantra. Otherwise at any moment he may fall down from his

good position, as exemplified in the case of Ajämila.

<<<<<< ------------------- SB 6.1.64

 

Ajamil was NOT a polygamist who religiously married and took good care of

more than one wife very responsibly. That will not create havoc in society.

What creates havoc is the fact that Ajamil left his religious wife and

moved in with a degraded prostitute just for the purpose of illicit and

unrestricted sex life. Where is polygamy meantioned? It isn't.

 

Yet, also in SB there is a similar situation in the falacious story of King

Puranjan. Note the following purport:

 

>>>>>>

One form of hunting is known as woman-hunting. A conditioned soul is never

satisfied with one wife. Those whose senses are very much uncontrolled

especially try to hunt for many women. King Puraïjana’s abandoning the

company of his religiously married wife is representative of the

conditioned soul’s attempt to hunt for many women for sense gratification. ...

<<<<<<< -------------------------- SB 4.26.4 Purport

 

Just as Ajamil left his religous married wife to seek out sense

gratification with a prostitute, in this story King Puranjan also left his

religuos married wife to go woman hunting and enjoy illicit sex with some

debauched prostitute. Srila Prabhupad also says that a conditioned soul

is never satisfied with one wife. But, was this refering to polygamy? No,

the next line clarifies that it is in reference to hunting for many women,

prostitutes, not offering to protect more than one wife religiuosly.

 

 

I find justification for this view in Srila Prabhupad's purport to the

second verse after this one, still discussing the same topic. There he says:

 

>>>>>>>

People have become so degraded in this age that on the one hand they

restrict polygamy and on the other hand they hunt for women in so many

ways. Many business concerns publicly advertise that topless girls are

available in this club or in that shop. Thus women have become instruments

of sense enjoyment in modern society. The Vedas enjoin, however, that if a

man has the propensity to enjoy more than one wife—as is sometimes the

propensity for men in the higher social order, such as the brähmanas,

ksatriyas and vaishyas, and even sometimes the südras—he is allowed to

marry more than one wife. Marriage means taking complete charge of a woman

and living peacefully without debauchery. At the present moment, however,

debauchery is unrestricted. Nonetheless, society makes a law that one

should not marry more than one wife. This is typical of a demoniac society.

<<<<<<<< -------------------------------SB 4.26.6 Purport

 

Polygamy is marriage, and marriage means to take complete charge of the

woman and to live peacefully without debauchery.

 

This purport is evidence that when Srila Prabhupad says a man should be

satisfied with one wife, in the context of the topic, the other side was to

leave the wife and go woman hunting, that creates havoc in society. But,

to take up polygamy or any religious married life, that is to live

peacefully without debauchery. Again, in the reference to one wife,

polygamy was not the other alternative being discusses, prostitute hunting

was. When polygamy is refered to in the same context, it is favorably

refered to.

 

Then he explains that to prohibit a man from taking more than one wife,

that is typical of a demoniac society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ys ameyatma das