When the Bhagavatam contains so many stories involving sex is it appropriate for children?
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so in Bhagavatam almost in every canto there are stories about lust and becoming tempted by women especially if you want children to read the Bhagavatam then it just doesn’t seem appropriate for children to read this kind of things there are two different things over here one is the Bhagavatam is not primarily meant for children children can also read it see at that time the original purpose of the Bhagavatam is to help Parikshit Maharaj fix the mind on Krishna and the sexual attraction when the Bhagavatam talks about women Bhagavatam says that for a man woman is a temptation for a woman man is a temptation so the idea is that which is the greatest temptation in this world that is the greatest distraction for fixing the mind on Krishna and the Bhagavatam is repeatedly speaking about that so that Parikshit Maharaj whatever little distraction might happen because of the temptation he will not and he and all of us we can focus the mind on Krishna so the purpose is not to just talk about these stories but through these stories remind us of how forceful a distraction can happen in one’s life because of lusty desires and therefore one should be cautious about that. That’s the point of the Bhagavatam when the stories come they are also so you know sometimes you tell me do this like a doctor may take this medicine this this this will happen you will get cured the doctor may also say if you don’t take this medicine this this this this will happen so by both ways by affirmative and by negative both ways the same point is being said take the medicine so like that the Bhagavatam shows how wonderful Krishna is Krishna’s person is so wonderful but along with that if you don’t fix the mind on Krishna you get attracted by lower desires and the consequences of lower desires are also talked about so both ways the purpose is the same fixing the mind on Krishna and now specifically with respect to children now we as we as adults we can actually decide that some stories may not be appropriate at that age to hear actually Prabhupada even said that if we hear the Rasleela and if we start thinking that Krishna and the Gopis are like ordinary boys and girls and by hearing about Rasleela we get agitated Prabhupada says you don’t need to hear it no don’t hear it right now later on when you are purified to understand it better you can re-hear it at that time so like that now we are not disrespecting the Rasleela Rasleela is very sacred we appreciate its sanctity but at the same time realize this may not be appropriate for me right now so like that if you find some stories in the Bhagavatam which are which you feel are inappropriate for children you may skip those stories and you can read other stories at the same time I would say that that is not really necessary because we live in a hyper-sexualized culture today so even if we want to protect our children how much can we protect? there are advertisements, there are movies there are talks about us in schools also now, there is sex education also over there so we can see see the Bhagavatam’s description of these stories is also a kind of sex education see what people do in today’s sex education is that they are actually talking about how you can do sex safely that is their idea, sex education means don’t do this, this can happen therefore don’t do this but do this but their idea of sex education is they don’t talk about the dangers of sex itself they talk about the dangers of certain unsafe forms of sex and often in that process they actually trigger people’s imagination all the more you can do like this, you can do like that, this is not to be done like that but this can be done like that it makes people imagine all the more so what the Bhagavatam is doing is it is actually talking about lust and sex but it is talking about it in a way that it depicts the consequences if you do this this is what happens and that way they serve as cautionary tales so in today’s hyper-sexualized culture such cautionary tales can actually be helpful so we may think my children are protected but the culture is such that they get a lot of influences so in that sense we may not use certain specific words which may be in Bhagavatam which we feel are inappropriate but I think the stories themselves are not that objectionable the stories can actually be helpful but nonetheless if you feel that the stories are inappropriate you can tell other stories from the Bhagavatam ok Hare Krishna