Category:Accepting a Wife
Theme Analysis
This category explores the Vedic perspective on marriage, specifically the act of accepting a wife. In Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this is not a contract for sense gratification but a religious duty performed for spiritual advancement. The primary purpose of accepting a wife is to beget a virtuous son (putra) who can offer oblations to the forefathers and deliver the family. A qualified wife is considered the better half of the husband's body, assisting him in the execution of dharma, economic development, and ultimately liberation.
- Progeny and Deliverance: The main reason to accept a wife according to Vedic injunctions is putra-piṇḍa-prayojanam—to produce a son who can offer piṇḍa (oblations) to the ancestors. Without a son, there is a risk of the forefathers suffering in hellish conditions; thus, marriage serves a crucial intergenerational function.
- Partnership in Dharma: A wife is not meant for exploitation or lust. She is accepted as a partner to help the husband navigate the grihastha-ashram. Quotes highlight that a chaste wife is the cause of success in religion, economic development, and salvation, acting as a source of strength during life's dangers.
- Regulation of Sense Gratification: Śrīla Prabhupāda warns against accepting a wife merely as a machine for satisfying lust. The Vedic system prescribes marriage as a means to regulate sex life, restricting it to religious principles, rather than encouraging unrestricted enjoyment which degrades human intelligence to the level of animals.
- Exemplary Standards: The category cites examples like Lord Rāmacandra, who accepted only one wife (eka-patnī-vrata) to set an ideal standard for society. It also mentions that even renounced souls like the Pracetas or Priyavrata Mahārāja accepted wives under superior orders to fulfill specific services for the creation.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: The Religious Purpose of Accepting a Wife.
Pages in category "Accepting a Wife"
The following 51 pages are in this category, out of 51 total.
A
- A ksatriya king is generally accustomed to accept more than one wife; therefore Maharaja Pariksit also inquired about His (Krsna's) number of wives
- A person who does not have a chaste wife accepted by religious principles always has a bewildered intelligence
- A son is required . . . why one should accept a wife for begetting son? Putra-pinda-prayojanam. According to Vedic dharma the pinda-dana, offering pinda, oblations to the forefather, putra is pun-namno narakad yasmat trayate iti putrah
- A young man accepts a young wife who is very beautiful in the beginning, but in due course of time, after giving birth to many children and becoming older and older, she demands many things from the husband to maintain the entire family
- According to the Vedic injunctions, one must accept a wife just to beget a son who can deliver one from the clutches of Yamaraja. Unless one has a son to offer oblations to the pitas, or forefathers, one must suffer in Yamaraja's kingdom
- According to the Vedic system, a gift is offered to the spiritual master, which is called guru-daksina. Then the disciple should take to householder life and accept a wife according to religious rites
- After twenty-five years he will remain a student brahmacari, then you accept one wife according to religious ritualistic ceremony. But no illicit sex. That is not allowed. Bachelor daddy is not allowed. That is very dangerous
- At a certain stage, say between 20-25 years, one may accept a wife, live with her to the maximum age of 50 years, and then there should be no more sex relationship - stringently
B
- Because Devayani liked Yayati, who was a ksatriya, she requested him to accept her as his bona fide wife. Although this would be pratiloma-vivaha, a marriage between the daughter of a high family and the son of a lower family
- By the Vedic injunction, the wife is accepted as the better half of a man's body because she is supposed to be responsible for discharging half of the duties of the husband
E
- Eka-patni-vrata, accepting only one wife, was the glorious example set by Lord Ramacandra. One should not accept more than one wife. In those days, of course, people did marry more than one wife
- Even Lord Ramacandra's father accepted more wives than one. But Lord Ramacandra, as an ideal king, accepted only one wife, mother Sita
F
- Following the order of Lord Brahma, all the Pracetas accepted the girl as their wife. From the womb of this girl, the son of Lord Brahma named Daksa took birth. Daksa had to take birth from the womb of Marisa due to his disobeying and disrespecting Siva
- For a grhamedhi, to accept a wife means to satisfy the senses, but for a grhastha a qualified wife is an assistant in every respect for advancement in spiritual activities
I
- I shall not maintain you any more. A henpecked husband like Lord Rama may accept a wife like Sita, who went to another man's house, but I am not henpecked like Him, and therefore I shall not accept you again
- If one gets a chaste wife, accepted through a religious marriage ritual, she can be of great help when one is threatened by the many dangerous situations of life
- If the women outnumber the men, some men can accept more than one wife. In that way there will be no prostitution in society. If men can marry more than one wife, illicit sex life will be stopped
- In the next part of life (after Brahmacarya), one may accept a wife and beget children, but one should not beget children like cats and dogs
- It is natural that one should accept the wife selected by one's father, just as a son accepts the name given by the father or as he accepts the property offered by the father. That is the general course in increasing the population of the world
- It is said that the intelligent man should pick up nectar from a stock of poison, should accept gold even from a filthy place, should accept a good and qualified wife even from an obscure family
L
- Lord Ramacandra took a vow to accept only one wife and have no connection with any other women
- Lord Rsabhadeva for a while became a student in the gurukula, and after returning, He followed the orders of His guru and accepted a wife named Jayanti, who had been given to Him by the King of heaven, Indra. He begot a hundred sons in the womb of Jayanti
O
- O My (Visnu's) dear son Daksa, Prajapati Pancajana has a daughter named Asikni, whom I offer to you so that you may accept her as your wife
- O My dear son Daksa, Prajapati Pancajana has a daughter named Asikni, whom I offer to you so that you may accept her as your wife
- Of the six sons of Advaita Acarya, three, Acyutananda, Krsna Misra and Gopala dasa, lived faithfully in the service of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Since Acyutananda did not accept a wife, he had no issue
- One has to accept a wife because a wife will produce children, and the children in their turn will offer foodstuffs and funeral ceremonies so that the forefathers, wherever they may live, will be made happy
- One who cannot (remain naisthika-brahmacari), he's allowed to accept wife and become a householder and remain there for twenty-five years. Because generally, the brahmacari was going home at the age of twenty-four years, twenty-five years
- One who has married, he's thinking, "Why did I marry? I would have remained free." He's lamenting. And who is not married, - Oh, I did not accept a wife. I would have been happy
S
- Sannyasis should never associate with women, but that does not mean that one who is in the lower stages of life, a young man, should not accept a wife in the marriage ceremony. BG 1972 purports
- Since Maharaja Priyavrata was fully trained in transcendental knowledge, he could have returned home and conducted the business of government as a brahmacari. Instead, however, when he returned to household life, he accepted a wife also
- Some of the brahmacaris are allowed to remain naisthika-brahmacari, without going home and accepting a wife
T
- The home should be a place for devotional service, and the wife should be chaste and accepted by a ritualistic ceremony. In this way one can become happy at home
- The purpose of accepting a wife in religious marriage, as sanctioned in the Vedas, is to have a putra, a son qualified to deliver his father from the darkest region of hellish life
- The wife is the cause of all kinds of success in religion, economic development, sense gratification and ultimately salvation. When one accepts a wife, it is to be understood that he is being helped in his progressive march toward liberation
- The word kalatra means wife, and adi means beginning. Because a man feels alone, he accepts a wife, and immediately there are children and then grandchildren. In this way there is expansion
- There are other kinds of marriage, such as gandharva marriage and marriage by love, which are also accepted as marriage. Even if one is forcibly kidnapped and later on accepted as a wife, that is also accepted
- There is no harm in accepting a wife and living without any disturbance of the mind and thus sincerely advancing in Krishna Consciousness
- These principles (lifting the semen up to the brain instead of allowing them to be driven downwards, not living at home neither accepting a wife) were followed from the beginning of creation, and such brahmacaris never created progeny
- They (the brahmacaris) did not live at home means that they did not accept a wife, and so there was no question of their discharging semen
- To teach a lesson on sex life to devotees and to human society in general, Lord Sri Ramacandra, although the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, underwent a series of tribulations because He accepted a wife, mother Sita
W
- We keep one wife, and that is very difficult for us. We have to think over hundred times, "Whether I shall accept a wife to maintain?" You see? But Krsna had sixteen thousand wives
- We say that there is necessity of a putra, or a son; therefore to have a son, a wife is necessary. Therefore wife is accepted. This is a plan
- When a man becomes qualitatively like the cats and dogs, he forgets his duties in cultivating spiritual values, and thus he accepts his wife as a sense gratificatory agency
- When Bhisma refused to marry Amba, who wanted him to become her husband, Amba met Parasurama & by her request only, he asked Bhismadeva to accept her as his wife. Bhisma refused to obey his order, although he was one of the spiritual masters of Bhismadeva
- When King Yayati delivered Devayani from the well, she felt great relief and requested Yayati to accept her as his wife
- When the King refused to accept his wife and son, who were both irreproachable, an unembodied voice spoke from the sky as an omen and was heard by everyone present
- When the wife is accepted as a sense gratificatory agency, personal beauty is the main consideration, and as soon as there is a break in personal sense gratification, there is disruption or divorce