Hṛdayānanda: How old were you, Prabhupāda, when you...
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Hṛdayānanda: How old were you when you got married?
Prabhupāda: I was student, so we were living separately. When she was thirteen years old, after puberty, then she was at... But there are many mothers still—the difference between the child, first child, and mother, twelve years. There are many mothers. At twelve years they gave birth to a child, especially in Bengal.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America that is considered very horrible.
Hṛdayānanda: Why?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Catastrophe.
Prabhupāda: All my sisters were married within twelve years. My second sister, she became twelve years, and I heard my mother become so disturbed: "Oh, this girl is not being married. I shall commit suicide." (laughter)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At twelve!
Prabhupāda: Twelve years. And she was given to a boy, my brother-in-law, for the second marriage. Means that my brother-in-law lost his first wife, and still, he was twenty-one years old. My sister was twelve years old and brother-in-law was twenty-one. In the śāstra... I do not know exactly what is that śāstra, but they say that if the girl before marriage has menstruation, then the father has to eat that menstrual liquid. Means it is, mean, very strict. And if the father is not living, then the elder brother has to eat. (break) ...ty of getting the girl married rests on the father. In the absence of the father, the eldest brother. The girl must be married. That is it. It is called dāya, kanyā-dāya.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dāya.
Prabhupāda: Dāya. Dāya means legally inheritance. That is called dāya. Just like your father's money you get automatically. So similarly, kanyā-dāya means to get the girl married is a dāya. You cannot refuse it. It is incumbent, you must do it.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So many of our, the girls in our society, they have reached that age, but they are not getting married.
Prabhupāda: No, your society is different. Now it is here also.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean in ISKCON, in our society.
Prabhupāda: ISKCON is not going to be social reformer, but as far as possible, we can help. Our main business is how to make everyone Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is our business. We cannot take up, but if possible, we can take up all the system of varṇāśrama.