Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 9.20.22

reto-dhah putro nayati

naradeva yama-kshayat

tvam casya dhata garbhasya

satyam aha sakuntala

SYNONYMS

retah-dhah -- a person who discharges semen; putrah -- the son; nayati -- saves; nara-deva -- O King (Maharaja Dushmanta); yama-kshayat -- from punishment by Yamaraja, or from the custody of Yamaraja; tvam -- your good self; ca -- and; asya -- of this child; dhata -- the creator; garbhasya -- of the embryo; satyam -- truthfully; aha -- said; sakuntala -- your wife, Sakuntala.

TRANSLATION

O King Dushmanta, he who discharges semen is the actual father, and his son saves him from the custody of Yamaraja. You are the actual procreator of this child. Indeed, Sakuntala is speaking the truth.

PURPORT

Upon hearing the omen, Maharaja Dushmanta accepted his wife and child. According to Vedic smriti:

pun-namno narakad yasmat

pitaram trayate sutah

tasmat putra iti proktah

svayam eva svayambhuva

Because a son delivers his father from punishment in the hell called put, the son is called putra. According to this principle, when there is a disagreement between the father and mother, it is the father, not the mother, who is delivered by the son. But if the wife is faithful and firmly adherent to her husband, when the father is delivered the mother is also delivered. Consequently, there is no such thing as divorce in the Vedic literature. A wife is always trained to be chaste and faithful to her husband, for this helps her achieve deliverance from any abominable material condition. This verse clearly says, putro nayati naradeva yama-kshayat: "The son saves his father from the custody of Yamaraja." It never says, putro nayati mataram: "The son saves his mother." The seed-giving father is delivered, not the storekeeper mother. Consequently, husband and wife should not separate under any condition, for if they have a child whom they raise to be a Vaishnava, he can save both the father and mother from the custody of Yamaraja and punishment in hellish life.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness