Prabhupada's lecture - Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.24 - Vṛndāvana, August 5, 1975


What is that prayojana? To get son. Marriage means to get son. That is prayojana. Putrāyate kriyate bhāryāḥ. Bhāryā means wife. One has to accept a bhāryā, a wife, why? Putrāyate. For the matter of getting a son. Why? Why there is necessity of getting a son? Putra-piṇḍa-prayojanam. This is Vedic civilization. Putra. Putra means Pun-nāmno narakād yasmāt trāyate iti putra. Pu-tra. Pu means pun-nāmno narakāt. There is a hell which is called put. So from that hellish condition, one who delivers, trāyate iti tra, therefore he is called putra. This is... Every Sanskrit word has got meaning, root meaning. Putra. Putra-piṇḍa-prayojanam. Putra is required. Why? After death, if by chance the father does not get ordinary life or goes to the hellish condition of life, the son will deliver. Therefore śrāddha ceremony. There is śrāddha... What is that śrāddha ceremony? Śrāddha ceremony means to offer foodstuff to Viṣṇu, and with the prasādam, to the forefathers or father it is offered so that by eating prasādam, if he is in ghost life or in hellish life, he'll be delivered. This is called śrāddha.


So it is the duty of the son, śrāddha ceremony. And Advaita, Advaitācārya, He was also performing the śrāddha ceremony, and He offered the prasādam, the remnants of foodstuff, to Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was in Śāntipura, and he was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra day and night, and when he was to take some prasādam he used to come to Advaitācārya's place and take prasādam there. So one day Haridāsa Ṭhākura asked Advaitācārya that "Why You are giving me prasādam?" Means he presented himself that "I am coming from Muhammadan family, but why You take so much care upon me? You are giving me prasādam, You are taking so much care, You are making a cottage for me. Why? You are one of the leaders of the brāhmaṇas in Śāntipura, all very exalted learned brāhmaṇas, and if You are taking so much care upon me, then they may criticize You, blaspheme You. So I think You should not do this. I don't want that You may be criticized, or I may be criticized."


So Advaitācārya said, "No, no, no. I'm not doing anything against the śāstras, so nobody can criticize. I'm doing nothing against the śāstra." So in the śāstras... Jīva Gosvāmī also has given quotation from the śāstra that it doesn't matter from which family a person is coming, but if he's a pure devotee, he should be taken all care, and he should be offered charity, he should be offered prasādam. All care should be taken for him. There is śāstra indication. So Advaitācārya said that "I am doing the right thing. And by feeding you I am feeding daily many millions of brāhmaṇas by feeding you. By feeding you." These are statement in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So this offering prasādam, the putra, a right putra is meant for offering prasādam to Viṣṇu so that his forefather and father may be delivered. That is the system of putra.