How many children one must have after getting married?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on April 17, 2021, in which several devotees participated. The questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Śrī Tinku asked: In olden days everyone used to have many children. People would commonly have said ten children. Nowadays, why are people having only one or two children? Is it alright to have only one child? Will it reduce God’s entertainment? Or is having ten children and having a single child, one and the same in terms of giving entertainment to God? Some people say that a couple should have a minimum of two children since if the couple unfortunately loses one child, there will at least be one more. Is this thinking correct?]

Swāmi replied: This is the topic related to worldly life or pravṛtti. However, since you have mentioned the name of God in context with His entertainment, I will say that God knows very well the technique to maintain the balance of overall population. How many couples are not there without children? How many children meet untimely death? All these parameters are related to the overall population about which God is very well acquainted and very well capable of balancing administration. All these issues are not important for a devoted soul. Important points for the devoted soul in the worldly life are following justice and rejecting injustice to please God.

The world or yourself is made of three constituents:- 1) Awareness, 2) Inert energy and 3) Inert matter. Try to sacrifice these three to God. By learning spiritual knowledge about God (Jñāna Yoga) and by developing devotion to God (Bhakti Yoga), you shall sacrifice your awareness. By sacrificing inert energy, you shall sacrifice your work for God (Karma Saṃnyāsa). By sacrificing inert matter, you shall sacrifice your fruit of work to God (Karma Phala Tyāga). Karma Saṃnyāsa and Karma Phala Tyāga together are called “Karma Yoga”. Like this, if you sacrifice your three components to God, it is called as “Total Surrender” or “Sarvasya śaraṇāgati”. Instead of wasting your time and energy on unnecessary matters of divine administration, please concentrate on your total surrender to God.

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