Text 19]
The Marriage of Kardama Muni and Devahūti
879
ataḥ —therefore;  bhajiṣye —I shall accept;  samayena —on the conditions;  sādhvīm —the chaste girl;  yāvat —until;  tejaḥ —semina;  bibhṛyāt —may bear;  ātmanaḥ —from my body;  me —my;  ataḥ —thereafter;  dharmān —the duties;  pāramahaṁsya-mukhyān —of the best of the  paramahaṁsas ;  śukla-proktān —spoken by Lord Viṣṇu;  bahu —much;  manye —I shall consider;  avihiṁsrān —free from envy.
TRANSLATION
Therefore I shall accept this chaste girl as my wife, on the condition that after she bears semina from my body, I shall accept the life of devotional service accepted by the most perfect human beings. That process was described by Lord Viṣṇu. It is free from envy.
PURPORT
Kardama Muni expressed his desire for a very beautiful wife to Emperor Svāyambhuva, and he accepted his daughter for marriage. He was in the hermitage practicing complete celibacy as a  brahmacārī , and although he had the desire to marry, he did not want to be a householder for the whole span of his life because he was conversant with the Vedic principles of human life. According to Vedic principles, the first part of life should be utilized in  brahmacarya  for the development of character and spiritual qualities. In the next part of life, one may accept a wife and beget children, but one should not beget children like cats and dogs.
Kardama Muni desired to beget a child who would be a ray of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should beget a child who can perform the duties of Viṣṇu, otherwise there is no need to produce children. There are two kinds of children born of good fathers: one is educated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that he can be delivered from the clutches of  māyā  in that very life, and the other is a ray of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and teaches the world the ultimate goal of life. As will be described in later chapters, Kardama Muni begot such a child—Kapila, the incarnation of the Personality of Godhead who enunciated the philosophy of  sāṅkhya . Great householders pray to God to send His representative so that there may be an auspicious movement in human society. This is one reason to beget a child. Another reason is that a highly enlightened parent can train a child in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that the child will not have to come back again to this miserable world. Parents should see to it that the child born of them does not enter the womb of a mother again. Unless one can train a child for liberation in that