Adultery Shows Why Purity Must Protect Family and Devotion
Purity is not only a private virtue; it protects family life, social order, and spiritual consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that adultery leads to unwanted children, disturbed duties, and a society that cannot remain peaceful or pure. The same principle reaches inward: when the soul's activity is mixed with material desire, consciousness becomes adulterated. Therefore family discipline and devotional purity work together to protect the path back to Kṛṣṇa.
Adultery Disturbs Family and Society
Adultery breaks the trust and restraint that allow family life to serve a higher purpose. When marriage and chastity are not protected, society becomes impure and unstable. A peaceful culture requires responsibility from both men and women, because unrestricted behavior creates consequences beyond the individuals involved. The result is not freedom but disorder.
- A chaste and faithful woman must not practice adultery - that is a greatly sinful act.
- If all the girls are not married there is a good chance of adultery, and a society in which adultery is allowed cannot be very peaceful or pure.
- Irresponsible men also provoke adultery in society, and thus unwanted children flood the human race at the risk of war and pestilence.
- Powerful women are controlled by shyness. Once this control valve is loosened, women can create havoc in society by adultery.
Varṇa-saṅkara Follows When Protection Fails
Adultery is especially dangerous because it produces varṇa-saṅkara, unwanted population that disturbs social and religious life. Arjuna feared that if families were broken by war, women would become unprotected and sacred duties such as śrāddha would be neglected. This concern shows that sexual conduct affects lineage, culture, and the future moral atmosphere. Social protection is therefore meant to prevent suffering, not merely enforce external rules.
- Adultery means production of unwanted children known as varna-sankara, who disturb the world.
- He (Arjuna) argued, - No, no. If I fight, my people will die, and their wives will become widow, and they will be adulterated, and then, by adulteration, unwanted population will increase, and who will offer sraddha.
- On the failure of varnasrama-dharma, naturally the women become free to act and mix with men, and thus adultery is indulged in at the risk of unwanted population.
Regulation Protects the Purpose of Human Life
The purpose of regulation is to prevent the senses from ruling the soul. Without restraint, even religious or spiritual attempts become weakened by indulgence and distraction. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that yoga cannot be practiced while one lives in extravagance and unrestricted sense enjoyment. Protection, marriage, modesty, and discipline are meant to preserve the human opportunity for self-realization.
- By being engaged in various religious practices, women will not be misled into adultery. According to Canakya Pandit, women are generally not very intelligent and therefore not trustworthy.
- One cannot practice yoga in a congested city, living a life of extravagancy, including unrestricted sex indulgence and adultery of the tongue.
- Jamadagni then ordered his youngest son, Parasurama, to kill his brothers, who had disobeyed this order, and his mother, who had mentally committed adultery.
- The great sage Jamadagni understood the adultery in the mind of his wife. Therefore he was very angry and told his sons, "My dear sons, kill this sinful woman!" But the sons did not carry out his order.
Devotion Must Remain Unadulterated
Adultery also points to a deeper spiritual principle: consciousness becomes impure when it is mixed with material desire. The soul's natural activity is service to Kṛṣṇa, but contact with matter produces lust, hankering, and distorted expression. Pure devotion fixes the mind on Vāsudeva without such adulteration. When the relationship with Kṛṣṇa is mixed improperly, it becomes rasābhāsa, a shadow or distortion of true spiritual mellow.
- Rantideva fixed his mind upon Lord Vasudeva and rendered devotional service unto Him. This is the sign of a pure devotee, whose heart is not adulterated by material desires.
- Rasabhasa occurs when one’s relationship with Krsna is adulterated. There are different types of rasabhasa - first class, second class and third class. The word rasa means “mellow,” and abhasa means a shadow.
- The soul's activity becomes adulterated in contact with matter, and as such the diseased activities are expressed in the form of lust, desire, hankering, inactivity, foolishness and sleep.
Conclusion
Family purity and devotional purity are connected because both protect the soul from degradation. Adultery produces social disorder, unwanted population, and neglect of sacred duty, while adulterated consciousness produces lust, hankering, and distorted devotion. Śrīla Prabhupāda directs human society toward regulation so that family life supports spiritual progress rather than obstructing it. When purity is guarded, both household life and devotion can become favorable for service to Kṛṣṇa.
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Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Adultery. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience his teachings in their direct, verbatim form.