Prabhupada 0021 - Why So Many Divorces In This Country?
Lecture on SB 6.1.26 -- Honolulu, May 26, 1976
So this is the general way of life. Everyone is engaged in these material activities, and the basic principle of material activity is gṛhastha, family life. Family life, according to Vedic system, or anywhere, is responsible life to maintain the wife, children. Everyone is engaged. They think this is the only duty. "To maintain the family, that is my duty. As comfortably as possible. That is my duty." One does not think that this kind of duty is performed even by animals. They have got also children, and they feed. What is the difference? Therefore here the word used is mūḍha. Mūḍha means ass. One who is engaged in such duties, bhuñjānaḥ prapiban khādan. Prapiban. Prapiban means drinking, and bhuñjānaḥ means eating. While eating, while drinking, khādan, while chewing, carva casya raja preya (?). There are four kinds of eatables. Sometimes we chew, sometimes we lick up, (Sanskrit) sometimes we swallow, and sometimes we drink. So there are four kinds of foodstuff. Therefore we sing catuḥ vidhā śrī-bhagavat-prasādāt. Catuḥ vidhā means four kinds. So we offer to the Deities so many foodstuffs within these four categories. Something is chewed, something is licked up, something is swallowed. In that way.
So bhuñjānaḥ prapiban khādan bālakaṁ sneha-yantritaḥ. The father and mother takes care of the children, how to give them foodstuffs. We have seen Mother Yaśodā is feeding Kṛṣṇa. Same thing. This is the difference. We are feeding ordinary child, which is done by cats and dogs also, but Mother Yaśodā is feeding Kṛṣṇa. The same process. The process there is no difference, but one is the Kṛṣṇa center and other is whimsical center. That is the difference. When it is Kṛṣṇa-centered, then it is spiritual, and when it is whimsical centered, then it is material. There is no difference between material... This is the difference. There is... Just like lusty desires and love, pure love. What is the difference between lusty desires and pure love? Here we are mixing, man and woman, mixing with lusty desires, and Kṛṣṇa is also mixing with the gopīs. Superficially they look the same thing. Yet what is the difference? So this difference has been explained by the author of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that what is the difference between lusty desires and love? That has been explained. He has said, ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā-tāre bali 'kāma' (CC Adi 4.165), "When I want to satisfy my senses, that is kāma." But kṛṣṇendriya-prīti-icchā dhare 'prema' nāma, "And when we want to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa, then it is love, prema." That is the difference. Here in this material world there is no love because the man and woman, they have no idea that "I mix with the man, the man who satisfies desires with me." No. "I will satisfy my desires." This is the basic principle. The man is thinking that "Mixing with this woman, I'll satisfy my sense desire," and woman is thinking that "By mixing with this man, I shall satisfy my desire." Therefore it is very prominent in the Western countries, as soon as there is difficulty in personal sense gratification, immediately divorce. This is the psychological, why so many divorces in this country. The root cause is that "As soon as I don't find satisfaction, then I don't want." That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: dāṁ-patyaṁ ratim eva hi (SB 12.2.3). In this age, husband and wife means sex satisfaction, personal. There is no question of that "We shall live together; we shall satisfy Kṛṣṇa by being trained up how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa." That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.