Jedi
07-28-2004, 07:40 PM
THE HUSBAND IS THE WIFE’S HIGHEST DEITY
From the Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CXLIV
Since the marriage union takes place in the presence of fire, the husband is the wife’s highest deity. She is no wife with whom her lord is not content. In the case of women, if their lords be gratified with them all the deities also become so. That wife with whom her husband is not pleased becomes consumed into ashes, even like a creeper adorned with bunches of flowers in a forest conflagration. A woman has no protector like her lord, and no happiness like her lord. Abandoning all her wealth and possession, a woman should take to her lord as her only refuge. What chaste woman is there that would, when deprived of her lord, venture to bear the burden of life?
A householder’s home, even if filled with sons and grandsons and daughters-in-law and servants, is regarded empty if destitute of the housewife. One’s house is not one’s home; one’s wife only is one’s home. A house without the wife is as desolate as the wilderness.
In the Mahabharata, a husband describing her truly devoted wife says:
"She never eats before I eat, and never bathes before I bathe. She rejoices if I rejoice, and becomes sorry when I am sorry. When I am away she becomes cheerless, and when I am angry she ceases not to speak sweetly. Ever devoted to her lord and ever relying upon her lord, she was ever employed in doing what was agreeable to and beneficial for her lord. Worthy of praise is that person on earth who owns such a spouse. That amiable wife knows that I am fatigued and hungry. Devoted to me and constant in her love, my spouse is exceedingly sweet-tempered and worships me devoutly.
Even the foot of a tree is one`s home if one lives there with one`s spouse as a companion. Without one`s spouse, a very palace is truly a desolate wilderness. One`s spouse is one`s associate in all one`s acts of Virtue, Profit and Pleasure. It is said that the wife is the richest possession of her lord. In this world the wife is the only associate of her lord in all the concerns of life. The wife is ever the best medicines that one can have in sickness and woe. There is no friend like unto the wife.
There is no refuge better than the wife. There is no better ally in the world than the wife in acts undertaken for the acquisition of religious merit. He that has not in his house a wife that is chaste and of agreeable speech, should go to the woods. For such a man there is no difference between home and wilderness.
From the Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CXLIV
Since the marriage union takes place in the presence of fire, the husband is the wife’s highest deity. She is no wife with whom her lord is not content. In the case of women, if their lords be gratified with them all the deities also become so. That wife with whom her husband is not pleased becomes consumed into ashes, even like a creeper adorned with bunches of flowers in a forest conflagration. A woman has no protector like her lord, and no happiness like her lord. Abandoning all her wealth and possession, a woman should take to her lord as her only refuge. What chaste woman is there that would, when deprived of her lord, venture to bear the burden of life?
A householder’s home, even if filled with sons and grandsons and daughters-in-law and servants, is regarded empty if destitute of the housewife. One’s house is not one’s home; one’s wife only is one’s home. A house without the wife is as desolate as the wilderness.
In the Mahabharata, a husband describing her truly devoted wife says:
"She never eats before I eat, and never bathes before I bathe. She rejoices if I rejoice, and becomes sorry when I am sorry. When I am away she becomes cheerless, and when I am angry she ceases not to speak sweetly. Ever devoted to her lord and ever relying upon her lord, she was ever employed in doing what was agreeable to and beneficial for her lord. Worthy of praise is that person on earth who owns such a spouse. That amiable wife knows that I am fatigued and hungry. Devoted to me and constant in her love, my spouse is exceedingly sweet-tempered and worships me devoutly.
Even the foot of a tree is one`s home if one lives there with one`s spouse as a companion. Without one`s spouse, a very palace is truly a desolate wilderness. One`s spouse is one`s associate in all one`s acts of Virtue, Profit and Pleasure. It is said that the wife is the richest possession of her lord. In this world the wife is the only associate of her lord in all the concerns of life. The wife is ever the best medicines that one can have in sickness and woe. There is no friend like unto the wife.
There is no refuge better than the wife. There is no better ally in the world than the wife in acts undertaken for the acquisition of religious merit. He that has not in his house a wife that is chaste and of agreeable speech, should go to the woods. For such a man there is no difference between home and wilderness.