Beliefnet.com regularly features excerpts from Sanga on its Hinduism pages. This column called “Ask the Swami” can be found here.
Here are questions sent to Swami Tripurari from Beliefnet readers.
Q. Is sex before marriage acceptable according to Hinduism? I am a good Hindu and always want to follow what Hinduism says. I believe that God created men and women for enjoying. (Otherwise he should have created only men or only women). In this big universe, is physically meeting a girl before marriage a moral crime?
A. The material world is not about enjoyment. According to Patanjali’s Yoga-sutra (2.15) the wise understand that sense pleasure begets suffering either as a direct consequence (parinama), in the form of anticipation (tapa) of its inevitable loss, or in the form of new craving (samskara) for sense pleasure that arises from impressions of it embedded in the mind. Thus sense pleasure is mixed with suffering in all three phases of time.
Real joy comes from the culture of selfless action, in which one acts for the satisfaction of God and not one’s material senses. Everyone acknowledges that sex life must be restricted in some manner. This sense arises in human life. Marriage is an important part of the culture of selfless action, and sexual indulgence should be confined within marital commitment for those interested in religious and spiritual life, in which real joy can be found.
In Bhagavad-gita 7.11 Krishna also identifies himself with love that is in accordance with scriptural law. While love by nature is lawless, Krishna advocates the taming of material love. The effect of this is the awakening of the soul and its prospect for love on the spiritual plane, real love arising out of self-sacrifice. Although love is lawless, in material life its unbridled pursuit amounts to ignoring obvious laws of nature, which in the least render such love unenduring. Scripture points this out and advocates that material love be redirected in order that it be fulfilled. When love is fully spiritualized, it transcends scripture.
Q. Is it wrong for a Hindu girl to fall in love with a Muslim boy or someone outside her religion?
A. Our hope is that all Hindus and Muslims will one day love one another. Otherwise morals are relative. What is good is that which helps one progress in spiritual life, and what is bad is that which hinders one’s spiritual progress. At the core of both Hinduism and Islam there is some common ground. If a Hindu/Muslim couple can find that common spiritual ground and base their relationship on it, then it is possible that they can live a spiritual life together. Infatuation passing as love, on the other hand, may make this difficult.
Q. Faith seems like a vicious cycle. They say in order to pray effectively or receive blessings from God one must have faith. Yet, how can one develop faith in God in the first place? Do I pray for it?
A. Divine faith develops in the company of those who have it, as well as from scriptural study under the direction of realized souls. So make it your goal to associate with a realized soul. Try to find real sadhu-sanga.
Q. When I perform my prayers in the morning there are people who keep coming into my mind and my mind is unable to concentrate. What should I do?
A. The best thing you can do in all circumstances is to chant the names of God (Krishna). This one act is complete in and of itself. If you do this, nothing will be lacking in your life.
Q. I am sure this is a common question but I feel the need to inquire nonetheless. My uncle who was still young just died of cancer. He was a kind, charitable person who never did ill to anyone. Before the cancer he was healthy and full of vitality. Three grieving young children survive him. These children cannot understand how such a great soul could be taken away from them. How can I explain to his children, who have lost faith, that God works in mysterious ways and that there is a reason for all that happens?
A. When someone dies young it is not that God is cruel, for he has given us life to begin with. When saints die young, we should understand how much God loves them, for in such cases he cannot tolerate their separation any longer. If a saint’s loved ones who are left behind truly love him, they must serve God as he did, for there is little doubt that this is what he would have wanted. Furthermore, the reason that those left behind love him as much as they do is because of his saintly character.
Q. What are Hindu beliefs on abortion and genetics (stem cells, etc.)
A. According to Hindu scripture, human life begins when the male semen fertilizes the female egg.
karmana daiva-netrena jantur dehopapattaye striyah pravista udaram pumso retah-kanasrayah (SB. 3.31.1)
“By divine arrangement in accordance with the principle of karma, the living entity enters into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.”
So there is no debate within Hinduism as to when life begins. Thus abortion involves killing, which in most cases is not acceptable. Although I have not studied the argument, it is likely that on similar grounds Hinduism would oppose stem cell research, which as I understand it is most effectively done on the stem cells of aborted fetuses.
Q. Oftentimes the women in my family are not allowed to go to the temple, practice pujas, or even go into the kitchen when they have their menstrual period. When I was in India, my aunt said she was “cursed” because she always got her period during important festivals, and could not participate in the ceremonies. Although it may have been hygienic in the olden days, now it seems pretty useless—after all, there are clean and sanitary ways to handle the situation. I would like to know where it states (in Hinduism) that women are not allowed to do anything during their period? And why do we continue to practice this seclusion even in these days; after all, isn’t the menstrual cycle (which allows a woman to procreate) one of the most natural and important of bodily functions?
A. Prohibitions regarding women’s involvement in ritualistic worship during their menstrual cycle are implied throughout the scripture. At least this is how those who have formed lineages have interpreted sections of the scripture that discuss this period. The Bhagavata Purana for example attributes the menstrual cycle to one fourth the karmic reaction to Indra’s inadvertent killing of a brahmana. According to that Purana, Indra killed a brahmana and was then chased by the karmic reaction to this killing. He then negotiated with four groups who each agreed to absorb one quarter of the reaction in exchange for a blessing. Women got the blessing that they could have sex during pregnancy without endangering the embryo in exchange for accepting the monthly menstrual cycle.
sasvat-kama-varenamhas turiyah jagrhuh striyah rajo-rupena tasv amho masi masi pradrsyate (BP. 6.6.9)
It is also stated in this Purana that one should not eat food seen by a woman during her monthly period, bhunjitodakyaya drstam (BP. 6.18.49). You may also find something about this in Manu Samhita.
Not only ancient Hindu society but practically all religious cultures of premodern times considered the menstrual period of women unclean in the least. This uncleanness involved more than ritual uncleanness and often sentenced women to solitary confinement during their cycle. Thus we are left to conclude that either pre-modern religious cultures knew more about women’s menstrual period than we do today, or that premodern understanding of this period was uninformed on some level.
The latter seems more likely, and one merely needs to read up on the varied fears premodern cultures had about this period in a woman’s life to know that their understanding involved considerable superstition. Hindu culture is no exception. Indeed, even the most orthodox Hindus have altered their position on this issue in today’s world, while for the most part holding on to some part of premodern thinking about it with regard to ritual purity. Thus while Hindu women are no longer confined to solitude, and the clothes worn during their monthly cycle are no longer burned, they are often prohibited from ritual worship and even entering the temple. In my opinion, it is likely that these current prohibitions will also be lifted in time. The main concern in Hinduism seems to be with regard to bleeding, as even men who are bleeding from any particular ailment are not allowed to participate in ritualistic worship. However, today the question remains as to whether modern methods of cleanliness that control bleeding do not change the equation.
In my particular lineage, there is already a difference of opinion. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura states in his Bhagavad-gita commentary on Bg. 9.26 that the word prayatatmanah refers to physical purity and thus prohibits women from engaging in temple worship during their menstrual period. But my own guru considered that such worship did not contradict the guidelines outlined by the lineage’s founders. In this regard he wrote, “According to the smarta viddhi, women cannot touch the Deity during their menstrual period, but the goswami viddhi allows. But it is better not to do it. One thing is that the seva can never be stopped for any reason. This also for the cooking.”
(Here Prabhupada implies that women can do these services for the Deity during their menstrual cycle if necessary.)
In the bhakti tradition, God is more accessible, especially Krishna. However, overall in this age (Kali-yuga) the most effective spiritual practice is chanting God’s names, and there are no prohibitions for Krishna kirtana. Such chanting can be performed by anyone at any time under any circumstance.
