Fishing needs a state licence, driving a car needs a state licence, gold prospecting needs a state licence, similarly, sex needs a licence which is called marriage. The difference being that fishing is about taking fish lives and licit sex is about propagating human life. Human life is superior to fish life and killing is at the antipode of propagating life. Granted Australia is a free country. But do we really need to emphasize that illicit activities will always get us into troubIe sooner or later? And even though we may escape by chance or design the vigilance of the state laws, there is no such hope for escaping the laws of Karma. The laws of karma are infallible– sharper, faster with a better memory than the fastest and most sophisticated computers.

In Australia and other countries, marriage license is a kind of a double license or if you insist you can make it a single licence as well, in both cases through a registered marriage celebrant by the Federal Department of Justice, the Attorney General’s Department, currently Senator The Honourable Michaelia Cash of the great state of Western Australia.

As far as the double licence is concerned, one gets it from one’s God representative, Who (God) may not always bear the name Krishna, it may be Allah or Jehovah or Lord Buddha or another name. He is the same ONE God though, from a different perspective, sporting different names. It would have to be a sad and poor God Who would have only one or two Holy Names, as most of us have more than “one or two” names ourselves. But that’s a contradiction in itself. There is no such thing as a poor God or in Sanskrit “Daridra Narayana.” No, on the contrary, God is the richest and that’s only one of six reasons why He is God, the other five being: God is the most knowledgeable, God is the most powerful, God is the most beautiful, God is the most renounced and God is the most famous. These are the six reasons which make Him “Bhagavan” or the possessor of all riches. When you have found the person who possesses these six qualities in full, as decribed, then you research is over. You have just found God. Congratulations to you!

The Almighty God, Krishna has thousands of names. There is a book in Sanskrit language which is called “Vishnu Sahashra Nam” or “The thousand names of Lord Vishnu.” As Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of the Hare Krishna Movement and current prophet writes:

“Any nomenclature which is meant for the Supreme Lord is as holy as the others because they are all meant for the Lord. Such Holy Names are as powerful as the Lord, and there is no bar for anyone in any part of the creation to chant and glorify the Lord by the particular name of the Lord as it is locally understood. They are all auspicious, and one should not distinguish such names of the Lord as material commodities.” Ref. VedaBase => SB 2.1.11

God is also called “asamordhva.” The word is a combination of three elements — a, meaning “not,” sama, meaning “equal to,” and urdhva, meaning “greater than,” which combine to mean “no one is equal to or greater than God, Krsna.” The Sanskrit sandhi rules dictate that the combination makes asamordhva,

Ref. VedaBase => FM 6: Concerning Corrections on VedaBase Updates

To get back to our actual subject matter:

“As mentioned before, there are four basic characteristics of an impure life — illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating and gambling. According to the Vedic principles, sex should not be indulged in outside of marriage. In human society there is therefore a system of marriage which distinguishes us from the cats and dogs. Whether we are Hindu, Moslem, or Christian, we acknowledge the system of marriage. The purpose of this system is to avoid illicit sex. According to the Vedic system, intoxication is also discouraged; nor is meat-eating advocated, for human beings should be nonviolent. We have been given sufficient grains, fruits, milk, and vegetables, and there is no necessity to kill poor animals. Some people argue that if we do not eat meat we will be undernourished, but we can see that the students of this Krsna consciousness movement have given up meat and are very healthy, whereas people who are eating meat are still, despite their meat-eating, subject to so many diseases and unhealthy conditions. Gambling is also discouraged because it simply agitates the mind.”

Ref. VedaBase => EK 3: Toward a Peaceful Society

“So this Krsna consciousness movement, there is austerity, but it is not very difficult. We recommend our students not to have illicit sex. We don’t stop sex, but regulate. We don’t stop eating, but regulated, krsna-prasadam, no meat-eating. No… We don’t say “No eating,” but “No meat-eating.” So what is the difficulty? Now see. In our krsna-prasadam, we have got so many varieties of fruits, vegetables, nicely cooked. What is the difficulty? “No illicit sex” means don’t be cats and dogs. Be married man and have one wife, one husband, and be satisfied.”

Ref. VedaBase => Lecture – July 20, 1971, New York

But best of all is to renounce sex altogether. “One must be convinced that sex-life without exception means trouble,” Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Kirtiraja — Mayapur 28 February, 1972.

Actually, at least for some, at some stage of life, there is no need for sex. There is need for air, there is need for food and water, but there is no compelling need for sex in some cases. There is defintely no need for meat-eating. In my preaching activities, I have come across men who are not claiming to belong to the Hare Krishna Movement but have been celibate for quite sometime. So it is not such an unusual thing in society at large. Besides that semen is a valuable bodily fluid, not to be wasted unnecessarily. In this particular domain we should really take our inspiration from some animals who mate only when reproduction is possible.

“The system of brahmacarya has been current since the birth of Brahma. A section of the population, especially male, did not marry at all. Instead of allowing their semen to be driven downwards, they used to lift the semen up to the brain. They are called urdhva-retasah, those who lift up. Semen is so important that if, by the yogic process, one can lift the semen up to the brain, he can perform wonderful work — one’s memory is enabled to act very swiftly, and the duration of life is increased. Yogis can thus perform all kinds of austerity with steadiness and be elevated to the highest perfectional stage, even to the spiritual world. Vivid examples of brahmacaris who accepted this principle of life are the four sages Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanat-kumara, as well as Narada and others.” Hare Krishna.

Ref. VedaBase => SB 4.8.1