According to the social system and circumstances of ancient India, it was possible for a man to have several wives.

Once upon a time, there was a man who had four wives. This Indian man fell ill and was about to die. At the end of his life, he felt very lonely, so he asked his first wife to accompany him to the afterlife.

“My dear wife,” he said, “I have loved you day and night. I’ve taken care of you all my life. Now that I’m about to die, will you come with me wherever I go after death?” He expected her to say yes. But she replied, “My dear husband, I know you have always loved me. And you are about to die. It is now time for us to part. Farewell, my dear.”

He then called his second wife to his bedside and pleaded with her to follow him into death. He said, “My dear second wife, you know how much I have loved you. Sometimes, I was afraid you would leave me, but I clung to you. Please, my dear, come with me.” The second wife responded rather coldly: “Dear husband, your first wife has refused to follow you after death. How could I follow you? You only loved me out of selfishness.”

Lying on his deathbed, he called his third wife and asked her to come with him. The third wife replied, tears in her eyes: “My dear, I am sad and sorrowful. That’s why I will accompany you to the cemetery. That is my final duty to you.” She too refused to go beyond death.

Three wives had refused to follow him. Then he remembered that he had a fourth wife, whom he had never really cared about. He had treated her like a servant and always showed great indifference toward her. He thought that if he asked her to follow him in death, she would surely refuse. But his loneliness and fear were so great that he forced himself to ask her to accompany him to the other world.

The fourth wife willingly accepted her husband’s request. “My dear husband,” she said, “I will go with you. No matter what happens, I am determined to stay with you forever. I cannot be separated from you.”

This is the story of a man and his four wives. Every man and woman has four spouses. What do these wives symbolize?