Spiritual Culture in a Degraded Society

Srila Prabhupada: But people are gradually descending from human society to animal society. They are forgetting marriage. That is also predicted in the sastras. Dam-patye 'bhirucir hetuḥ: In the Kali-yuga [the present age of quarrel], eventually there will be no marriage performances; the boy and the girl will simply agree to live together, and their relationship will exist on sexual power. If the man or the woman is deficient in sex life, then there is divorce. So, for this philosophy there are many Western philosophers like Freud and others who have written so many books. But according to Vedic culture, we are interested in sex only for begetting children, that's all. Not to study the psychology of sex life. There is already natural psychology for that. Even if one does not read any philosophy, he is sexually inclined. Nobody is taught it in the schools and colleges. Everyone already knows how to do it. [He laughs.] That is the general tendency. But education should be given to stop it. That is real education.

[There is a long pause, filled with the sound of bicycle horns, children playing, and throngs of people calling to one another.]

Bob: Presently, in America, that's a radical concept.

Srila Prabhupada: Well, in America there are so many things that require reformation, and this Krsna consciousness movement will bring that. I went to your country and saw that the boys and girls were living like friends, so I said to my students, "You cannot live together as friends; you must get yourselves married."

Bob: Many people see that even marriage is not sacred, so they find no desire to marry. Because people get married, and if things are not proper, they get a divorce so very easily. . .

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, that also.

Bob: . . . that some people feel that to get married is not meaningful.

Srila Prabhupada: No, their idea is that marriage is for legalized prostitution. They think like that, but that is not marriage. Even that Christian paper-what is that? Watch-?

Syamasundara: Watchtower?

Srila Prabhupada: Watchtower. It has criticized that one priest has allowed a marriage between two men-homosexuality. So these things are all going on. They take it purely for prostitution, that's all. So therefore people are thinking, "What is the use of keeping a regular prostitute at such heavy expenditure? Better not to have this."

Syamasundara: You use that example of the cow and the market.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes-when the milk is available in the marketplace, what is the use of keeping a cow? [Everyone laughs.] It is a very abominable condition in the Western countries-I have seen it. Here also in India, gradually it is coming. Therefore we have started this Krsna consciousness movement to educate people in the essential principles of spiritual life. It is not a sectarian religious movement. It is an essential cultural movement for everyone's benefit.