The Age of Marriage and the Law

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The Age of Marriage and the Law

(HinduDharma: Marriage)

 

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We saw that it would be best to perform a boy's upanayana when he is

seven years old. A girl must be married about the same age so that she

too will develop the attitude of surrender. But you will ask :" Is it

possible these days? Will it not be against the law? "

 

It would not be right on my part to ask you to disobey the law. Those

who rule us today themselves resorted to civil disobedience once. They

justified their action thus: "Some people have enacted what are called

laws. But we won't let them come in the way of our freedom." Why do I

ask you not to defy the law that stipulates the minimum age for the

bride? Not because people are not spirited enough to rise in protest

against it, not because they are not ready to go to gaol or even die

instead of accepting a law that has brought down the marriage

samskara with its high ideal of Atmic well-being to the mundane level. I

ask you not to disobey the law because the attitude of defiance, if

extended to other matter, will jeopardise discipline and order in society

itself. We must, however, keep impressing upon the government the

sastric view with regard to the age at which a girl ought to be married.

 

But it is not the government alone that has gone against the sastras.

More than 90 per cent of our people do not respect the sastric view. The

few conversant with the scriptures must keep enlightening the rest

about this view. Without going against the law they must resolve

themselves to do their best, in a peaceful manner, to restore a worthy

custom, no matter whether it takes a hundred years or even more to

yield results. Why, even if we do not live to see the results, even if it

takes a thousand years, we must sow the seeds now. Nothing will be

achieved without effort. The tree does not grow if the seed is not sown.

 

We must, in a persuasive manner, keep impressing upon the

government and the public that the Dharmasastra itself is a great legal

code.

http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part18/chap3.htm