Shri Krishna and the 16000 wives !!!

Well, I think most of us accept the fact that He did have 16,000 wives and henceforth the question "Polygamy in Indian Culture(Hinduism)".

I recently came across a you tube video where a woman asks Mr. Zakir Naik, why Islam encourages polygamy for which he explains that Quran is the only book that supports one woman man for which I do not have a contradict. Good if it says so. But then he also says that there is nothing in wrong in having more than one wives and gives so many stupid examples which I will bring in the later part of this article.

The question was raised by a Hindu woman. He has to convince her that only Islam is right and there he takes the example of Lord Shri Krishna for which the woman had nothing to say further.

To talk about Dr. Zakir Naik, I would say that he is unlike the normal muslims in India and he is among those who's existence is a threat to the entire world and to the Islam itself for his goal is to convert and not follow. He need numbers, he want to change the names. He proclaims himself as an encyclopedia of Vedic texts and claims that Vedas has been interpreted and the corrected form is the Quran. He already have so many haters in Islam. I had only one question for him, if I were ready to join Islam, out of the 72 sects which sect should I be joining for all have a vast difference in the beliefs. And any person should be given the right to believe and not he should forced to be believed. Mr Zakir Naik and company does the later.

I'm not religious. I'm spiritual. And being spiritual is the ultimate goal of the so called Hinduism though the Hindu word does not make any sense to me.

My focus is to explain to the woman and to those like her about the Shri Krishna his 16000 wives.

Lord Shri Krishna was wedded to none except Rukmini. The myth of 16000 wives came from a story where he liberated 16000 captive girls from Narkasur. The story itself is questionable. Further the story never states that Krishna married 16000 girls. It says he protected them, which is true if story is correct. had Krishna married 16000 of them, it would have taken him more than 10 years even at rate of 4 marriages a day as per the prevailing rituals!

Krishna was so strictly disciplined that he observed complete Brahmacharya for 12 years before planning to be a father. That is why Krishna is such a role model for entire society. The narrator of Geeta had no time for anything except nation-building in those testing periods.

Krishna never had any love-games with any Gopi. These are figments of imaginations which got popular during dark age of foreign rule when rulers of small states indulged in wasteful enjoyments after accepting supremacy of foreign rulers. Further the whole story of Radha is a figment of imagination. It exists only in Brahma Vaivart Puran which is another unscrupulous book like Bhavishya Puran that insults legends like Krishna and Ram. The concept of Radha grew popular only in very recent times during dark age of India when rulers of princely states were busy only in considering themselves Krishna incarnate and indulging into lustful activities by demeaning just a legendary Brahmachari character! Mahabharat does not contain these.

Please read this excellent article by Dr Satya Pal Singh, Police Commissioner of Police, Pune: Lord Krishna – Lord Krishna – an enlightening personality.


POLYGAMY IN GENERAL

While polygamy was practiced by certain rulers at various points in time, it was restricted only to ruling class and never became a mainstream in larger population. That is why Hindus had no discomfort or objection to formal introduction of monogamy as a law after independence.

All the great legends of Hinduism, whom many consider to be near God, were purely monogamous or brahmachari- Vishnu, Shankar, Ram, Lakshman, Bharat, Shatrughna, Hanuman and Krishna.

Thus it is a gross myth that Hinduism accepts Polygamy.

On contrary, Vedas are unambiguous over recommendation of monogamy alone. The same has been the trend for general population and our role models.
If there is any philosophy that condemns polygamy and specifically demands monogamy, it is the Hindu Dharma based on noble precepts of Vedas.


Now my contradicts to Dr Zakir Naik's explanation to justify polygamy:

Dr. Zakir Naik says – Average life span of women is more than that of men.
By this logic, polyandry (one wife- multiple husband) should be allowed. Because, on average, one wife would require more than 1 husband to cover her entire life!

Dr. Zakir Naik says – World female population is more than world male population.
This contradicts previous point. If one looks at 2008 data of World Population as published by UN Statistics Division, there are 2% more males than females in the world! The same is also true for marriageable age discarding children and elders. Does he recommend Polyandry now?

Before we get further, let us also look at the countries with worst gender ratio. You can view the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio
The table has facility to sort by fields. What we observe is that the top 9 countries with more men than women are all Muslim countries. Stricter the Islamic Law, more adverse the gender ratio. There are 2.74 times more men in UAE and 2.46 times in Qatar. India and Pakistan are also is not far off with their significant Muslim population!

Dr. Zakir Naik says – Muslim women in due faith could bear a small personal loss to prevent a greater loss of letting other Muslim sisters becoming "public properties".
We just saw the data above. Does Dr Naik recommend the inverse now?

In civilized societies like Vedic Dharma, each women apart from one' s wife is viewed as mother, by default. The basic rule is “Matrivat Paradaareshu – All except wife are like my mother”. That is why the question of someone becoming public property does not arise. In wars, legends like Shivaji would bow to imprisoned women and call them mother! And in a society that respects women, the question of adverse gender ratio does not arise as is happening in conservative Muslim countries.

What is important is use of word “property” for women. Dr Naik recommends that polygamy enables women to be private property rather than “public property” at small personal loss. This small loss is a great insult to entire womanhood. If sharing of husbands is haram, why is sharing of wife merely a small personal loss? Vedas do not discriminate at all between men and women and provide them equal rights and privileges in all matters including marriage.

Next he lists 4 reasons why polygamy is permitted but polyandry is not permitted:

a. This will help identify father of the child!
(But now we have DNA testing available!)

b. Man by nature is more polygamous!
(What is the proof for this except that polyandry is stoned to death? Is this not a ploy to insult entire womanhood by justifying polygamy?)

c. It is biologically difficult for women to be polyandrous and rear children!
(This is again another shameless reason to justify keeping multiple wives and concubines, in name of religion and social service!)

d. High chance of acquiring sexual disease!
(On contrary, medical science proves that it is women who are more susceptible to contract such diseases from polygamous men than vice versa. Being a medical student sometime, Dr Naik should have verified at least this much before publication. Or perhaps he never got a chance to practice or get back to medical books!)

And finally you know what he says; this is what made me pissed off. He says :-
> Woman cannot stay virgin.
> Woman will be raped, someday or the other.
> A woman will never die virgin.
> And later she will become a prostitute.

What make me pissed of is not about what this idiot speaks. It is the appreciation that he gets for these comments makes me feel ugly about these people. Are they so idiots? The problem with these men is that most of them are SADISTS. And thats the truth.

Wise can decide themselves the mentality of this admirer of Osama bin Laden. And I have heard him lot many times praising Osama bin Laden.

In summary, Polygamy is a malpractice, quite aptly condemned by the Vedas. Hinduism guided by Vedas and its role models has always emphasized on monogamy and self-control as the only way for humans.

Efforts to justify polygamy, through whatever reasons, is an insult to entire womanhood.

May such deviant minds introspect and come into the shade of Vedas. May they inculcate feeling of respect for entire Matru-Shakti.