Contraceptive method (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"contraceptive method" |"contraceptive methods" |"methods of contraception"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

The cats and the hogs, a big family. You are afraid of begetting one child even. This contraceptive method. But they are not afraid.

Lecture on BG 1.31 -- London, July 24, 1973: The gṛhasthas, they become sometimes distressed. The gṛhastha-āśrama means unless there is Kṛṣṇa or full consciousness of Kṛṣṇa, it is simply miserable, simply miserable. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg. 8.15]. Simply working hard day and night, then there is, child is sick, then wife is not satisfied, the servant is not satisfied... So many things, problem. But if there is Kṛṣṇa in the center, the all problems will be solved. But people do not know this. They think that "I shall be happy with wife, children, servants, house, and this and that." No. That is not possible. Therefore one should be in gṛhastha-āśrama. Not only in family life. Family, the dogs have got family life. He has got wife, children. The cats and the hogs, a big family. Because a hog begets, at a time, one dozen children. What you beget? You are afraid of begetting one child even. This contraceptive method. But they are not afraid. They beget one dozen children at a time, twice in a year. So to live with family, wife, children... Then the hog accepts family life. No. That is not family life. You live with wife, children, peacefully, if you like, but bring in Kṛṣṇa in the center. That is gṛhastha-āśrama.

That is real contraceptive method, that "I should not produce cats and dogs. I should produce a child who will never come back again to another mother. He will be liberated. He will go back to home, back to Godhead."

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Manila, October 12, 1972: Śāstra says, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt: "One should not become father, one should not become mother," na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum. The father and mother's duty is to the children that "This child has come to me in my womb," mother, "this is the last. He will have no more to come back to the womb of mother. I will teach him in such a way that he will be liberated." That is the duty of the father and mother. If one's father and mother is not able to coach and teach his children like that, how to get out of this entanglement of birth and death, he should not become father and mother. That is real contraceptive method, that "I should not produce cats and dogs. I should produce a child who will never come back again to another mother. He will be liberated. He will go back to home, back to Godhead." That is the duty of the father and mother.

Householder, husband and wife, both Kṛṣṇa conscious, engaged in Kṛṣṇa conscious business, but when they require a child, Kṛṣṇa conscious, that's all. That is also voluntary contraceptive method. One or two or three children, that's all, no more.

Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969: Śīlavatī: Yet the other day you were extolling the virtues of household life and you said, and you named some of the great ācāryas that were householders and you said... Prabhupāda: Yes, that is bhakti-yoga. In this ordinary yoga system as it will be explained in this chapter, one has to strictly follow the life of celibacy. But in the bhakti-yoga system the whole idea is that you have to fix up your mind in Kṛṣṇa. So whatever position, householder life does not mean to indulge in sex enjoyment. A householder may have wife, may have sex life, but that is for having children only, that's all. A householder does not mean he gets license to legalize prostitution. That is not householder. Householder can simply have sex life to beget nice child, that's all, no more. That is householder life; completely controlled. Householder does not mean whenever he has got this machine and he can use it. No. Householder, husband and wife, both Kṛṣṇa conscious, engaged in Kṛṣṇa conscious business, but when they require a child, Kṛṣṇa conscious, that's all. That is also voluntary contraceptive method. One or two or three children, that's all, no more. So householder life does not mean sex life without any restriction. But for spiritual life one who wants to advance in spiritual life, either you accept this bhakti-yoga system or this aṣṭāṅga-yoga system or jñāna-yoga system, sex indulgence unrestricted is never there. Sex indulgence means you have to come back again. If you try to enjoy the senses, that is materialistic way of life.