A discussion between Sage Suka and King Janaka in “Devi Bhagavatam” is a classic. When Suka did not want to marry, his father Vyasa sent him to Janaka and Janaka dispelled the notion that marriage and children are a bondage. Marut Mitra’s blog post on this is worth reading:
Especially, the last paragraph is fantastic and I am reproducing it below. Actions and interactions with elements and gunas are unavoidable while embodied. But it is not actions or objects of those actions that bind one, but a sense of ownership and possession over those actions and objects that binds one. One should see various obejcts and actions with them as the play of Prakriti and go through the play with no sense of possession. King Janaka is spot on below:
Janaka replied: “O sage, you think you can be free from all bondage if you go and dwell in the forest. Remember that there are animals there also and you can develop likes and dislikes towards them. The same five elements which are here are present in the forest also. How can you be free from any connection with them? As long as you have a body, you will need food. The thought about food will be with you even in the forest. Can you become free from thoughts about your yogadanda (staff), your deer-skin and your water pot? The thoughts I have about my kingdom are also only of the same nature. It is not the quantity or quality of what one has that makes for bondage, but it is the sense of possession. A renunciate attached to his loincloth is not less in bondage than a king attached to his kingdom. It is the thought that this body is yours that is the fundamental bondage. Being free from all sense of possession and knowing that I am not bound, I remain happy all the time, whatever I do. You, on the contrary, are always sad, thinking that you are in bondage. Giving up this wrong notion, know that you are never in bondage and that you are ever free and be at peace with yourself. If you understand this truth, you will realise that a man fully engaged in action can still be completely liberated”.
