Marriage and Family Life on the Yogic Path

The significance of married life is great indeed. Marriage is a sacred spiritual partnership entered into for the cultivation of integrity, virtue and God-realization—the full awakening of one’s true inner spiritual nature in the role and duty of a householder.

Married life, if lived in the ideal manner, is no hindrance to spiritual life or to God-realization. A true marriage is a spiritual center and solace for the happy couple, realizing God as the center of the home. Marriage is a holy sacrament. It is a promise. Once the couple is united, they should advance forth as one, remembering that a true marriage is a marriage of divine souls. Human love is fertile ground on which to sow the seeds of divine love.

To attain this uniquely beautiful state, the couple must work together for the attaining of Self-realization, living in harmony for the uplifting vibrations of ideal human experience and the higher ideals of divine living, recognizing that they are two parts of the whole, coming together through the material laws that govern this earth plane, through the grace of God.

The individual spiritual impulses of each person become a tremendous inspiration and support for the spouse. Through the coming together of these two God-centered souls, the individual spiritual impulses mentally influence the entire home and the couple can then go hand in hand toward the divine goal, supporting, sustaining, encouraging, loving and inspiring one another. Friendship should be a solid part of the foundation. Friends first, friends always. That is marriage.

Marriage must never be viewed in the physical or sense-wiles manner. Marriage is sacred unification for the cultivation of divine ideals. Do not misinterpret the instinctual impulses as an excuse to satisfy sense desires. Without self-control all discrimination can be easily lost to the elemental lusts of the weak.

The purpose of sexual union is the opportunity for a waiting soul to receive incarnation—not for the kindling of insatiable desires. Marital life should be based on self-control and love. Each partner must see the other as a material manifestation of God. Become the human incarnation of the highest ideals of boundless, unconditional love, mercy, understanding, compassion, support, strength and steadfast fidelity and commitment. Try to always encourage one another to the highest. Be a shining example for other young couples who have chosen married life.

Allow the mind to be the temple of God; speaking thinking, breathing and moving through you always. Love is the spiritual sword which cuts the cord of maya for the yogi householder. The greatest romance is with the Infinite. God bless the sacred union of committed couples and the sanctity of the ideals of the divine manifested in human forms. May they ever walk, hand in hand, in perfect harmony toward the eternal abode.

To produce children on the plane of divine love and inside the realms of spiritual consciousness is a very sacred act. To produce offspring is hardly an accomplishment, and it is not to the mindless, animalistic act of sex I am referring, but to the conscious invitation of souls coming into this earth plane to further their own spiritual awakening.

The yogi householder prays for the welfare of the child prior to and during conception, psychically and spiritually sending forth divine love. A spiritual invitation is sent into the subtle realms. The yogis know that the consciousness of the couple at the moment of conception magnetizes the specific vibration into the womb. It is the greatest of prayers, for through their purified states, they bring into this world a unique soul, with its own spiritual nature, evolution and karma.

Rearing children should be undertaken with the full awareness of responsibility. The parent(s) should always remember they are not human parents, but caretakers and representatives of the divine. The growth and evolution of the children will be by example in the home, not by worldly schooling or empty words and chastisements.

The parents should be kind in word, thought and deed, guiding the children with the omnipresent love of God. There must be harmony, love and respect. This creates the ideal atmosphere for the children to grow, by manifesting the various aspects of God and working in harmony for the development of the child. This is the equanimous state the parental yogi cultivates.

The home is a sacred place and God should be the most important component in both life and in the home. A married couple should pray together as well as privately. When children come, pray as a family, evolving the depth of spiritual life in the family. Love all, serve all. God bless you.