Parental Affection
Ajamilas sinfulness is shown by the fact that although he was eighty-eight years old, he had a very young child. According to Vedic culture, one should leave home as soon as he has reached fifty years of age; one should not live at home and go on producing children. Sex is allowed for twenty-five years, between the ages of twenty-five and fifty. After that one should give up the habit of sex and leave home as a vanaprastha and then properly take sannyasa. Ajamila, however, because of his association with a prostitute, lost all brahminical culture and became most sinful, even in his so-called household life.
Ajamila was a young man of twenty when he met the prostitute, and he begot ten children in her. When he was almost ninety years old, the time came when he was to die. At that time most of his children were grown up, so naturally the youngest child, Narayana, became his parents favorite, and Ajamila was very much attached to him.
A babys smile immediately attracts the father, mother, and relatives. When the child begins to talk, making sounds in broken language, it is very joyful for the parents. Unless this attraction is there, it is not possible to raise the child with affection. Parental affection is natural even among the animal species. In Kanpura, a monkey once came with her baby near the room where we were staying. The baby monkey entered the window through the bars, and the mother became very upset. She became mad with anxiety. Somehow or other we pushed the baby monkey out of the bars, and immediately the mother embraced the baby and took it away with her.
In human society, the affection between a mother and her child is very much eulogized, but as we see, this relationship is visible even among the animals. Therefore it is not an outstanding qualification; it is material natures law. Unless the mother and child are affectionately connected, it is not possible for the child to grow up. Parental affection is natural and necessary, but it does not raise one to the spiritual platform.
The character of the debauchee Ajamila was abominable, but he was still very affectionate toward his youngest child. Although Ajamila was nearly ninety, he was still enjoying the childs playful pastimes, just as Maharaja Nanda and mother Yasoda enjoyed the childhood pastimes of Lord Krsna.

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