Unmarried men and women should not travel together constantly, but married devotees and brahacaris make an ideal sankirtan party.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Room Conversation about Marriage — September 24, 1968, Seattle 680924R1-SEATTLE [27:49 Minutes] Prabhupāda: I understand that she, she felt some inconvenience, that girl, in your company. Govinda dāsī: [whispers] Harṣarāṇī! You're making... Prabhupāda: So she was... Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I told her, I said if she wished to come with us, [break] ...that only married women could come with us. I told her that. Because it was not good for men, unmarried men, brahmacārī and brahmacārīṇi, to constantly be mixing, and so I felt that it would be better for married people than brahmacārīs.
And she... [someone moves microphone] ...did she wish to come? Prabhupāda: She likes this... [microphone noise] But also marriage problem, one must have a choice. So if we force something, that is not [chuckling] good. At least, in your country it is not... Of course, in your country and our country, all the boys and girls are, I mean to say, not major, whatever the parents force, that is another thing.
When the boys and girls are grown up, it is not possible. Just like in India, there was svayaṁvara. Svayaṁvara means the girl will select her own bridegroom. That was allowed to princess. Princess, highly qualified princess.
So the father would make a challenge that "This is the condition. One who can fulfill this condition, I'll offer my daughter to him." So this was generally amongst the princes. So there was great fight. [laughs] Just like Arjuna.
Arjuna married Draupadī. You know the condition? Her father made condition: there was a fish on the ceiling and one wheel was circling. So one has to pierce the eyes of the fish through the hole of the circle.
And he cannot see directly. He has to see down. There is a reflection in water pot. In this way, he had to pierce.
[laughs] "In this way, he has to fix, and in one stroke the eye will be pierced. One who is successful, my daughter is for him." So nobody could, except only Arjuna. He was such expert bowman that he... Similarly, Lord Rāmacandra also made. In the palace there was a big bow.