Page 30 - Powerful Feminine Qualities

material world and deals with the material energy. In addition, sometimes he is influenced by the society, and then
comes back with the carryover from the material society to the privacy of the house and the marriage relationship.
Therefore, the wife sometimes has to tolerate the familiarity of her partner. The husband cannot treat the wife as an
object of sense gratification; that would be a big mistake. However, sometimes these things happen. Moreover, one
cannot navigate though all problems of life unless they are tolerant, and patient, and forgiving, and use their
intelligence - how to redirect the energy of the children or husband to positive Krishna consciousness.
That is the only solution. There is no other solution. You cannot put out a fire by feeding it with more fuel. That does
not work. It just makes the situation worse. You can put out the fire only by starving it. However, there are peaceful
ways of starving that fire. By sublimating that energy toward fun things in Krishna Consciousness, is a sign of spiritual
intelligence. If someone knows how to make Krishna consciousness fun and creative, and is full of genuine affection,
then one can transform lust into love. This is what great women in Vedic literature knew how to do; they learned this
skill.

Comparison of Devahuti’s and Diti’s child bearing experience
Both Devahuti, the wife of Kardama Muni, and Diti, the wife of Kasyapa Muni, desired to have children. Srimad
Bhagavatam has vividly described the example of Devahuti. It is very instructive to compare her to Diti to understand
and the amazing benediction of redeeming oneself through Krishna consciousness, and the catastrophic result of
uncontrolled sex desire.
th
rd
In the 3 Canto, 15 chapter, the description of Diti and her uncontrollable desire to have sons by her husband, the
powerful yogi Kasyapa Muni, is portrayed. She could not control her sex desire, and purposely agitated her husband
and aroused him from a trance of meditation. He was not resolute in his self-control to stem his own desire to enjoy
sexual union with his wife. When either a man or a woman is troubled by lust for sex, it is a manifestation of sinful
contamination.
According to Vedic philosophy, a good wife can help her husband, who is still under the spell of material conditioning,
by offering her service and support for him to remain satisfied in the activities of religion, economic development and
sense gratification. A good wife can cooperate with her husband in fulfilling his material desires. When he is
comfortable in mind, he is more apt to perform spiritual activities to achieve the perfection of life by engaging in
Krishna consciousness to develop love of God. But, if one remains frustrated in his conditional life, he may remain
continually agitated by unfulfilled material desires.
When the husband becomes spiritually strong, he is able to benefit his wife so that both advance toward spiritual
perfection. It is imperative that both young girls and boys receive spiritual training in self-control and chastity during
their formative years. Then when they are married, the faithful wife and the spiritually strong husband are matched
for success in attaining the goal of life, which is full emancipation from the cycle of birth and death through love and
devotion for Lord Krishna.
Kasyapa Muni was a highly trained yogi, but his determination to maintain his self-control was weakened by his
attraction to his wife. Normally there are five kinds of Vedic sacrifices (panca yagna or panca suna) that the husband
and wife should perform to get relief from the reactions of sins incurred in the normal course of life. Laxity in
performing these Vedic duties in householder life will result in weakened determination to cultivate spiritual values.
This may lead to overindulgence in sense gratification with one’s wife. Any vestige of love is quickly transformed into
lust which only accelerates forgetfulness of Krishna and spiritual vows. Most declarations of love in the material world
are in reality lust.
The real purpose of marriage is to forge a mutual cooperation between husband and wife to follow the authoritative
scriptural instructions for spiritual enlightenment. In traditional Vedic culture the husband and wife perform daily
rituals in the home to offset the various kinds of daily activities that entail killing living entities knowingly or
unknowingly. They are: eating or drinking water, using a grinding machine, cooking, turning on a heater, sweeping the
floor, walking or driving a car. By all these daily activities, we may kill hundreds and thousands of living entities

30