Ours is the only living culture where even Gods get married.
The Goddesses have intrinsic qualities that are indispensable for Gods and so the interdependent equation.
So, it's a balance, the essence of being a complimentary couple.
That message serves us in our mortal world, to the married couples, the families & therefore the larger humanity.
Our scriptures have more stories with interpretive messages than what any single person can possibly comprehend.
These stories are the essence of our cultural pluralism. That spouse is for eternal, including in reincarnated lives, is also the powerful message emanating from the mythological stories.
There isn't even a word for 'divorce' in any of our hundreds of native languages.
Marriage to a Hindu is a civilizational duty.
In the Hindu's cognition, on getting married, he or she instantly inherits the cultural heritage and has the responsibility to pass on the legacy through children by living by the civilizational ethos.
And so, ours is the only ancient civilization that continues to survive and thrive.
Only those who are seduced by the illusion of the so called modern society have abandoned our ancient culture or have become excessively Western, underestimate the significance of marriage.
They then come to a conclusion that there's only one life, and so attempt to make their marriage work by controlling their spouse using binary logic, or abdicate their responsibilities by becoming indifferent to the other's need, and eventually fail.
They actually failed to learn and accept that vagaries within a married life are nothing more than Karmic offerings & outcomes.
Perhaps such people rationalize that it's better to be miserably lonely than remain unhappily married. Not having invested in emotional bonding, the relationship feels like a bondage.
So, while the Indian marriages work, the innately Abrahamic cultured nations are seen struggling to retain the family structure.
Having said that, the gold, glitter, glitz & glam in rich urban households during the wedding season get the media attention and gossip traction.
We too are forgetting what marriage in our culture is about.
We have begun to associate the cluster of invented events as marriage.
No; marriage is not a party. Marriage is also not just a cohabitation. One dosen't share only half the bed; one builds on the dreams together with the significant other.
Marriage is sacrament where the time is auspicious, ritualistic, presided by a pundit, with the divinity as a witness, as symbolized by fire.
There is no such thing as a poor marriage. It can be as huge or small as one wants.
Of significance is that, typically, it is attended by close family members and can be simple.
Let us not mistake marriage with the pre-or-post wedding events tamasha.
Let's keep it sacred.
Marriage is not a happy ending for a couple in love. It is the beginning of a love story.
