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TEXT 58
yadi naivedya na deha ha-iya krpani
buda bharta habe, ara cari cari satini
SYNONYMS
yadiif; naivedyaoffering; nado not; dehagive Me; ha-iyabecoming; krpanimiser; budaold; bhartahusband; habewill have; araand; carifour; carifour; satinico-wives.
TRANSLATION
"If you are miserly and do not give Me the offerings, every one of you will have an old husband with at least four co-wives."
PURPORT
In India in those days and even until fifty years ago, polygamy was freely allowed. Any man, especially of the higher castes-the brahmanas, the vaisyas and particularly the ksatriyas-could marry more than one wife. In the Mahabharata, or the old history of India, we see that ksatriya kings especially used to marry many wives. According to Vedic civilization there was no restriction against this, and even a man more than fifty years old could marry. But to be married to a man who had many wives was not a very pleasing situation because the husband's love would be divided among his many wives. To punish the girls unwilling to offer Him the naivedya, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu apparently wanted to curse them to be married to men who had at least four wives.
The social structure allowing a man to marry more than one wife can be supported in this way. Generally in every society the female population is greater in number than the male population. Therefore if it is a principle in the society that all girls should be married, unless polygamy is allowed it will not be possible. If all the girls are not married there is a good chance of adultery, and a society in which adultery is allowed cannot be very peaceful or pure. In our Krsna consciousness society we have restricted illicit sex life. The practical difficulty is to find a husband for each and every girl. We are therefore in favor of polygamy, provided, of course, that the husband is able to maintain more than one wife.
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