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THE WAY OF LIFE
on in an excellent manner; and there will be organisation and discipline in the family. The members will take their food at the right time. The house will be clean, neat and tidy. There will be order and system in the family. Even this is an important fruit of marriage.
THE CAUSE FOR THE FAILURE OF A MARRIAGE
From the Audience : Now-a-days, we are getting less of this fruit of marriage. We get much of the domestic work done by the servants.
Maharajashri : What an unhappy predicament! How unfortunate is your condition ! Moreover, those who are affluent - have to deem it a good fortune if they can get the opportunity of eating the food prepared by their wives. Cooks prepare food and probably they give the food to the master and others, while the mistress of the house is absorbed in listening to the radio or gossipping with her companions, who are idle women like her. She may not do any domestic work and you know the consequence of all this. "A double-decker body and medicines". That means, the mistress grows fat and corpulent and becomes a bundle of diseases. Unnecessary expenditure and ignoble ways result. In the middleclass and poor families, women do all the domestic work them. selves. In the cities, like Bombay even in middle class families "Servocracy" (the rule of the servants) prevails. They blindly ape at the affluent families.
How did this situation arise ? The first error lies with your choice. You did not choose proper women for your wives. The second defect is your craze for wealth, and the third fault, of course, is the absence of any desire to perform spiritual activities. If you choose a woman for your wife in accordance with the principles laid down in the Dharmabindu; if your children are noble and ethically excellent, there will be purity, order and system in all the activities of your family. There will be purity in the customs and traditions which are proper and essential for your family life. The purity in the actions and activities of the members is of great importance in family life.
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