​If Draupadi can have five husbands, what’s wrong with Muslims having many wives?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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And Draupadi can have five husbands. What’s wrong with Muslims having multiple wives? See, here the point is that there is in scripture something which is based on time-place circumstance. So, if we see the Vedic tradition is not specifically against polygyny.
If there is polyandry or polygyny, whichever way it is. If you see the Pandavas, their family was quite extraordinary because the Pandavas, five Pandavas had one wife, that is Draupadi. But each of the Pandavas had his own wives.
Now, Arjuna had several wives actually. You know, there was Subhadra and then there was Ulupi and so he had other wives also. The important thing is that there is the sense of responsibility and commitment, which is what is important.
And when that is not there, when the primary purpose is just in the mutual exploitation and enjoyment, and then there is neglect and termination of the relationship for casual purposes, all that is what becomes a serious problem. So, now, we don’t have to make value judgments about any particular thing based on what was done specifically in the past. Because in the Puranas itself it is described that the Puranas themselves are Deshkal Vibhagavit, that actually there are family principles which have to be applied according to time, place, circumstance.
And the time, place, circumstance is an important consideration. So, we see even at those times, Ram chose to have only one wife and that was respected by everyone. So, the thing here is that the mood is primarily of how we can best do our duties, how one can best practice dharma.
So, now, if you look at the Pandavas specifically, each of them there is a past life story which describes how Draupadi got to have five wives, five husbands or there is a whole story behind or history behind each of the relationships that were formed over there. So, the important thing here is that in today’s time, place, circumstance where the culture is significantly different, where the social arrangements are substantially different, practicing spirituality in any way is not about turning back the clock, it is about turning on the compass. Turning back the clock means that we can’t, nobody can go back and live the way 5000 years ago people used to live or even when a Muslim want to live say at the way 105, 1500 years ago when Mohammed was there.
You can’t turn back the clock. Time has moved forward and we have to move forward in time. So, spirituality is essentially about turning on the compass.
Turning on the compass means the compass is the direction within us, the intelligence within us. That Krishna says, I will give the intelligence by which how you can come to me. So, we have to, according to time, place, circumstance, understand which cultural practices are not relevant, which cultural practices are essential and which cultural practices are optional.
So, the principle that is essential is that whenever relationships are formed, they have to be committed relationships and in today’s socio-cultural ethos, the way the world is that polygamy is often not practical and it is not desirable in today’s world because as I said, the values are very different. So, rather than drawing upon what is given in ancient scriptures to justify what is to be done right now, we should focus on what is the best way we can live in today’s world. There are some essential principles.
See, whenever we apply scripture, there are specific examples in scripture and from those specific examples, we have to understand the underlying principle and from that principle, we have to look at how the principle is to be applied today. So, the specific practice at that time, the rigidly try to apply the same practice at some time in the past, now it doesn’t work. So, the important thing is to understand the underlying principle and apply this