Saturday, April 4, 2015

Parents and children

GAYATHRI DEVI, GOOD FRIDAY
Hari Om.
In our lives many things are important and essential. But there’s one aspect of our lives that the present youngsters fail to acknowledge and that is the role and duty of their parent in their lives. The most important factor in each one of our lives – and the fact that we are who we are – is due to the effort and ethics of our parents. In this day many of us think our parents are old-fashioned and we might have some wise friend or aunt who might be advising otherwise, telling us to do it the other way. I want you all to understand one thing, especially the youngsters: when you are in deep trouble, in the most difficult time of your life, when everything in front of you is collapsing, no friend or aunt with wise words will come to you. But your mother and father will find, do and procure anything to make sure their child is happy. It’s strange but true.

The children of today have a strange idea that parents are still living in their days. So when a parent tells them something they say, “That was in your days, Ma. This is in modern days”. In these modern days we have more drought and more load shedding. In the olden days we didn’t have all that. The reason we have all these things is that in modern times you are careless and as youngsters you are all careless. I can tell you as we sit here, on Monday we will have news that 3 or 4 youngsters from Tongaat have had an accident. The reason is they were speeding, drag racing whatever. Do you think they listened to their parents? No.

But in some cases parents are delinquents too. The parents give their child everything. And in that the child gets spoiled. We must be able to nurture, grow and develop our children to the best of our ability and the children need to know that there’s nobody out there closer than their parents. Not your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife – they are not closer to you than your parents. I’m saying this because we have so many youngsters at the Gayathri Peedam and so many of them have delinquent parents. You know why a child can’t think any more? Why do we have to tell them the same thing 10 times before they understand what we said? It’s because their fingers and eyes do the thinking on their cellphones. They cannot live without the cellphone. We have failed miserably in our duty. You go to a restaurant: mother, father and 2 children, each of them is on their cellphone doing their own business. They’re supposed to be a family. Why is this? Because we have failed as parents. You don’t know what the cellphone is going to do to you and your child. As soon as the child cries for a cellphone we give it to them because we don’t know any other way to quieten the child. When we were young there were methods to quieten us – things that really worked. And if I had my way right now I’d do the same thing to all the delinquent parents and children here.

Please, children, first and foremost in your life, before anything else, are your parents. Only after that siblings come. Parents know when their child is being hurt somewhere in America or when the child is sick somewhere in India – they know and will make that call at the most appropriate time because they are the most connected to you. Not your wife, girlfriend, or friend. It’s not about having a good time. It’s like being vegetarian. We’re told that it’s unfortunate to be a vegetarian because everyone who is vegetarian meets a meatarian. When they ask you if you are a vegetarian and you say “yes” they say “shame”. It’s shame on them, not on us. In the same way we become weak with our children. You know why you were born into that family?

Do you know why it took your mother 13 years to deliver you? It’s because for 13 years she couldn’t have a baby. God needed to find the right karmic consequences for each one of you including the child. That’s why it takes so long. For some people it just happens, but for others it takes longer. God has to find that child for you and you need to nurture the child without the child going anywhere out of alignment of parent-child discipline. It’s very important. God didn’t send a child to you and when you don’t have a child you go to 21, 22, 23 astrologers and all those temple people and when you have the child after 3 or 4 years you loudly say, “I shouldn’t have had you, I was better without you”. Same parent. Delinquent. Parents, just like prana, are the life-giving force for each one of you.

If you have parents nurture them like they are the life. That’s all. You must look after your parents, that is your duty. You must listen to your parents, that is your duty. Sometimes they say mad things. Tashi always says, “Dad, something’s wrong with you”. I said, “Something’s wrong with God, he sent you to me. Nothing’s wrong with me. Something’s wrong with God”. He sent Bhavta to my house like I’m not satisfied with 3 females already so he had to send another one.

Anyway, I know it’s the Easter weekend and you are the crazy people who go to temple when everyone else goes everywhere else. All religious people, spiritual people are crazy. Please believe that. Spiritual people don’t do different things, they do the same things you do differently. If you stir your tea clockwise they’ll stir theirs anti-clockwise, but it’ll taste sweeter than yours.

Hari Om.