Till Death do us apart.

This post is one of my lame attempts to create some humor during boredom and explain why a woman cries during a marriage while a guy laughes and celebrates. But please do not try to seek to seek any deeper meaning to this post.

A Hindu marriage is valid for 7 rebirths. Everybody has attended a couple of marriages, heard the vows being taken, but this time I could not stop myself wondering.

Can this be true?

It better be, else you are starting one of the most important relationship of your life with a lie.

But how can this be true?
If your spouse died early, then you can’t remarry. Because if you do, you would have to marry twice in the next birth also. Won’t I be breaking the law?
or the customs and traditions is above the law?

What if I don’t re-marry… after all divorce and remarriage is a western concept. We Indians believe in Sati, or living life as a widow/widower.
But then this introduces a different problem.
If I outlive my spouse by a couple of decades, then what happens in the time being?
Does my spouse eagerly awaits my death, prays for it so that he can again walk on the planet Earth?
I won’t like to think that there is a guy who is eagerly waiting for me to die. Hence lets assume that my spouse takes a rebirth.
But then, won’t that mean that in my next rebirth I would have to marry someone who is much older than me?
I am sure a husband would be delighted to have a younger wife, but what about having an older wife?
Haven’t seen that happening often. Also I have never heard a guy marrying a bimbo half her age to suddenly become spiritual and start chanting. Well folks I am just fulfilling the vows I took a 100 years ago.

Ok Ok Ok!
What about the third possibility. SALVATION!

God always wants good people, hence they die early (a famous Hindi movie dialogue that I have heard so many times that it has to be true)
So does that mean that if my spouse died early and got salvations because if his/her good deeds, I will also get salvation?
Because if it does not happen that I will have to take rebirth and end up as a spinster…. That would mean that my spouse broke his promise (which he took in presence of the holy fire god) and since a good person can never break his promise, he is automatically ineligible for salvation.

So the gist is that the sins of my spouse would prevent me from attaining salvation. No wonder why so many saints and great men practiced celibacy.

Since Indians rarely go for a live-in relationship, most likely they would again take the vows in the next rebirth. So Christians might be taking vows which is valid for this lifetime, a hindu marriage might result in eternal damnation.
Now I know why an enlightened woman cries during the wedding ceremony while his buffoon husband unaware of the legal implications of his actions celebrates.