Wedding Ceremony

Giriraj Swami: Well, it’s a great honor and privilege and pleasure to be here on this auspicious occasion in this auspicious assembly. In Queen Kunti’s prayers to Lord Krishna, she asked, “Oh Lord of Madhu, please sever my attachment unto my family’s members,” she is asking Krishna. Now, this might seem to be a very odd verse to quote on this occasion but I will explain the import and relevance. Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport that both of Kunti’s families, her husband’s side and her father’s side were devotees, and the service of devotees is not outside of the range of Krishna consciousness. That Krishna can be more pleased by our serving His devotees than by our trying to serve Him directly. 

So, why is Kunti praying that, “Please sever the ties of affection from my family.” Srila Prabhupada explains that our relationship with our family members can be based on the body, and so when she prays for her ties of affection to be severed, she means the affection that is based on the body. There is another type of affection that’s based on the soul, one soul to another soul through the medium of the Supersoul or the Supreme Soul. One of our very nice devotees in this community is Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Balai dasa. And so after she got married, her husband asks Srila Prabhupada that, “Sometimes I feel some affection for my wife. Is that alright?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Yes, the right hand can have a relationship with the left hand but it is through the body. So similarly, one soul may have a relationship with another soul, but it is through the medium of the Supersoul or the Supreme Soul.” So, in our relationships, and these relationships may be outside of grihastha ashram, any relationship that we have, may have a material component or bodily component and a spiritual [component]. So we want to act in such a way that the spiritual component becomes more and more prominent and the material component becomes less and less.

Now, you are very fortunate because from the very beginning the spiritual component is very high, it’s [unintelligible 00:04:48] and maintained, and that’s how it should be. Now, many of the senior devotees will give you blessings that you may live peacefully and happily in your grihastha ashram. 

So, I will quote another person, who is actually an authority on marriage.  And when you hear the first words of his advice you might again think, “What kind of a talk is this?” Well, what the authority said was, “Marriage is not supposed to make you happy. Marriage is supposed to make you married and when you are fully and securely married, you have a safe and a strong situation in which you can find your own happiness.” And what does that mean? Our own happiness, that means the happiness can be derived from devotional service in Krishna consciousness. So, what the authority in marriage said is what our scriptures and our acharyas say that marriage in itself, grihastha is the word, being situated in grihastha ashram. . . The word ashram comes from the word āśraya, which means shelter​​. But, being situated in gṛha, but in grihastha ashram or any ashram, we are supposed to be in the shelter of Krishna and Krishna’s pure devotees. So, I am very hopeful and confident that it will be successful. 

I will cite a wonderful instance that to me illustrates what a wonderful and perfect wife she will be. There was kirtan, [unintelligible 00:08:10] and she sings beautifully. I hear her kirtans and it’s really wonderful how she sings. I also wanted to lead but I can’t play harmonium and sometimes I couldn’t even carry the tunes but she played the harmonium to accompany me and she is very encouraging. At the end I felt sort of embarrassed that I had to engage her in playing the harmonium for me, but she is so encouraging and so that was a wonderful kirtan. From that I got the idea that she could be very supportive and very [unintelligible 00:09:11]. So, based on that experience, I feel that you are a very fortunate man to have her. And, I am sure she [unintelligible 00:09:26]