690310 - Letter to Madhusudana written from Hawaii

Letters by Date, 1969

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

March 10, 1969

My Dear Madhusudana,

Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of March 5th, and you can take it from me that I give you clear sanction to get yourself married to Kancanbala dasi, at the earliest possible date. From her side, her mother has agreed, and from your side, I have agreed. So Kancanbala is an ideal girl, Krishna Conscious, and I want that some ideal families of Krishna Consciousness should be established in your country, so that people can see that our movement is not one sided or dry. So we do not want dry renouncers. Krishna Himself married so many wives as a Ksatriya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu although He was to take Sannyas at the age of 24 years, still He married twice within 20 years. Lord Nityananda Prabhu also married. Advaita Prabhu and Srivas Prabhu, they were also householders. So to become married is no impediment for advancement in Krishna Consciousness. One should be vigilant only that he is not diverting from Krishna Consciousness. One has to follow the footprints of the great Acaryas then everything is all right. I was also a married man—my family is still existing. So you should always remember that marriage is not impediment. The greatest enemy is forgetfulness of Krishna. There are many Impersonalists and voidists—they renounced this material world very early in their life; just like Sankara Acarya. He took sannyasa at the age of 8 years. Lord Buddha left home just in the beginning of his youth. But we are not concerned with them. So I hope by this time, by serving this Krishna Consciousness movement for the last two years you must have gotten some taste of the nectarine. Now you must be fixed up and execute your specified duty as ordered by me, and then I am sure there will be no difficulty. But you should always remember that wife is not a machine for sense gratification. Wife is your half body for nourishing your Krishna Consciousness status. So your are getting a wife who is already trained up in Krishna Consciousness and if you live carefully and faithfully there will be no difficulty. That is the verdict of all Acaryas. I think this will simplify your agitated mind.

Hope you are well, and also Kancanbala, and happily executing Krishna Consciousness.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami