_Question:_ Why do you feel marriage is compatible with the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: Marriage may or may not be compatible with the spiritual life in each particular case. It is up to the individual to decide whether or not marriage is compatible with his spiritual life. In the spiritual life it is not at all obligatory for a seeker to get married. It entirely depends on the individual. To say that marriage is compatible with the spiritual life is to say something which may be very far from the truth in some cases. It is the individual seeker who has to decide whether marriage and the spiritual life can and should go together for him or for her. In a good marriage, immediately two eyes become four eyes, two arms become four arms. Everything is doubled: strength, consciousness, reality, divinity, everything is doubled. In a bad marriage, everything is weakened. Frustration looms large, and finally destruction plays its role most ruthlessly. There is no hard and fast rule that one should not get married in the spiritual life or that one should get married. It entirely depends on the soul’s decision. Some souls feel that through marriage they will be able to make faster progress, while others feel that marriage will be a hindrance to their spiritual progress. God and the individual souls must make the decision, not the human mind.

From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol.II-3, No. 9, 27 September 1976, Vishma Press, 1976
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