344 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 3, Ch. 14
helping the other three sections of society cultivate spiritual values, the
householder also makes advancement in spiritual life. Ultimately every
member of society automatically becomes spiritually advanced and easily
crosses the ocean of nescience.
TEXT 19
TABU ay ATeErTA Aah |
Tet aE gata see 11281
yam ahur atmano hy ardham
Sreyas-kamasya manini
yasyam sva-dhuram adhyasya
pumams carati vijvarah

yam-—the wife who; ahuh—is said; atmanah—of the body; hi—thus; ard-
ham—half; sreyah—welfare; kamasya—of all desires; manini—O respectful
one; yasyam—in whom; sva-dhuram—all responsibilities; adh yasya—entrust-
ing; puman—a man; carati— moves; vijvarah— without anxiety.

TRANSLATION

O respectful one, a wife is so helpful that she is called the better half of
a man’s body because of her sharing in all auspicious activities. A man can
move without anxiety entrusting all responsibilities to his wife.

PURPORT

By the Vedic injunction, the wife is accepted as the better half of a
man’s body because she is supposed to be responsible for discharging half
of the duties of the husband. A family man has a responsibility to perform
five kinds of sacrifices, called pajica-yajiia, in order to get relief from all
kinds of unavoidable sinful reaction incurred in the course of his affairs.
When the man becomes qualitatively like the cats and dogs, he forgets
his duties in cultivating spiritual values, and thus he accepts his wife
as a sense gratificatory agency. When the wife is accepted as a sense
gratificatory agency, personal beauty is the main consideration, and as soon
as there is a break in personal sense gratification, there is disruption or
divorce. But when husband and wife aim at spiritual advancement by
mutual cooperation, there is no consideration of personal beauty or the
disruption of so-called love. In the material world there is no question of
love. Marriage is actually a duty performed in mutual cooperation as direct-
ed in the authoritative scriptures for spiritual advancement. Therefore
marriage is essential in order to avoid the life of cats and dogs, who are not
meant for spiritual enlightenment.
