1. A discussion about marriage

    Prabhupada: I married; my wife was eleven years old.

    Radha-vallabha: You were responsible, though.

    Prabhupada: Everyone is in India responsible. That is Indian culture still.

    Radha-vallabha: When they agree at this young age, they should wait till they get older, right?

    Prabhupada: Yes. Generally a girl attains puberty at fourteen years, thirteen years. In India, because it is tropical climate… I think in Western countries they attain puberty not before fifteen, sixteen years. So although a girl is married before puberty, she is not allowed to go to the husband until she has attained puberty. Formerly, in our days also, after attaining puberty there is another, second marriage. Then the husband and wife live together.

    Radha-vallabha: Is there a minimum age for the man?

    Prabhupada: No. Minimum age means generally the husband must be older than the wife, at least five years’ difference.

    Radha-vallabha: What is the most amount of years they can be different? What is the maximum amount of years there can be difference?

    Prabhupada: Man has no maximum. Even an eighty-years-old man can marry a sixteen-years-old girl. [laughter]

    Radha-vallabha: Because this one devotee has a daughter twelve, and he wanted to marry her to a man twenty-six, but he thought that was too much
    difference.

    Prabhupada: Yes. That is too much difference. But eight years, ten years usual.

    Radha-vallabha: Eight or ten years is best.

    Prabhupada: That is healthy. And in no case… The girl must not be older than the boy. That’s not good at all.

    Room Conversation, Mayapur, February 27, 1977