Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Sept.24

Mutual Behaviour in the Family

In this human life, one should do appropriate duty towards others. There should be perfect harmony in the house. The young should not find faults with elders. Children should follow the righteous behaviour of the father, this enhances the reputation of the family. The elder members, on retirement, should regard themselves as the servants of God. A wife should have no other deity than the husband. All should stick to the name of God. He who behaves according to his inherent normal nature in his youth, can easily do so in his old age; his old age will not at all be painful to him. We behave unnaturally, that is, with attachment; in old age our capacity for work gets reduced, but attachment remains unchanged, and that becomes the root cause of trouble. The person who is free from attachment and insistence in his old age, will be liked by others, in spite of his bodily weakness. His hearing may be impaired, his eyesight may get affected, he may not be able to recollect past events, his sleep may diminish; in spite of all this, none may feel like avoiding him, and he himself will not be tired of life. How splendid it will be if our ego melts away in old age! There will be no sorrow if the feeling of doership is absent and the tendency, 'but I tell you this' is eliminated.
Everybody in the family should introspect, find out his own defects, and try to eliminate them. The age between sixteen and twenty-five years is a period of growth of intellect. For its proper growth, some regulation is necessary. The best regulation is to obey the parents; because they don't have any motive except the welfare of the children. How can we hope to learn everything in the world by self-experience? Therefore we should certainly benefit from the experience of our parents. Not that our parents will not err sometimes, for to err is human. But their error will not do permanent damage to us because they have only our well-being at their heart. No one can foretell whose good luck brings a good period to the family; therefore, never feel despaired.
The greater the righteous deed, the greater are the obstacles. Constant remembrance of God is the greatest righteous deed. We should therefore resolutely and with a doubt-free mind chant nama and live in its joy.
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