child marriages

[Guest guest]

[spoken by Rasaraja Dasa, in "Glimpses of Traditional Indian Life," by HH

Bhakti Vikas Swami]

 

When I was living in the States, someone asked me, "Is it true that in India

they have child marriages?"

 

I said, "Yes, my mother got married when she was eleven."

 

He said, "Isn't that barbaric?"

 

Now, this would put most Indians on the defensive. If you are a

pseudo-inellectual following one of these shallow Westernized Indian

writers, you may even vigorously agree! However, by this time I had just

started reading Srila Prabhhupada's books, and could thus come up with a

good response. Already in the late 70s they had separate resting rooms in

the high schools of Detroit for pregnant shcoolgirls. So, I asked him in

turn, "Is it true that in America even yong girls, 11 or 13 years old, get

pregnant?"

 

He said, "Yes."

 

Then I asked him, "So which is more barabaric, child marriages or child

pregnancy?" The answer was obvious to him.

 

Indians busy imitating the West want to give up child marriage, but now

they will have to accept extra-marital child pregnancies. That is already

happening. What else can we expect when we let boys and girls mingle

unrestrictedly?

Anyway, the point is, as much as every Tom, Dick, and Harry is ready to

criticize Vedic tradition, let them also try to comprehend its deep

spiritual dimension. Whether it should be adopted in all its details is

antoher question. The first thing is to understand and follow the underlying

spiritual principles. In this case, the underlying principle is chastity.

Exactly how that principle is adhered to can be adjusted accoding to the

changed circumstances in modern times. But that principle itself should not

be abandoned. (GOTIL, p 174)