Duty Towards Parent
To enable us to cultivate the right and proper attitude towards others, starting with the home, our scripture begin with the saying, Matru Devo Bhava, Pitru Devo Bhava. Mother and father are, indeed, the physical manifestations of God for us. We all know the sacrifice that our parents are making on our account and for our well-being. We will never be able to repay it fully, not even a fraction of it really. Even so, we should try to repay whatever little extent we can.
Love and obedience to our parents is our first duty. God Himself has shown us an example for this. Lord Sri Rama was about to be crowned as the Prince of Ayodhya. Everything was set ready for this. Just at the last moment, circumstances and taken a strange turn. He was told that, to keep up the honour of his father’s word, he should go into exile for 14 long years, forsaking the palace and the princedom. Not a second’s hesitation, and not a murmur! Rama walked away into exile, happy and glad that he was able to uphold the honour of his father’s word and pledge. What an example he had set for all time!
Service to parents is equally important. We can help our parents in the domestic chores. We have to always remember that service to parents is, indeed, the highest religion. We have the great example of Pundalika with regard to this.
Pundalika was engaged in the service of his parents. Lord Vitthal Himself came and knocked at the door. Even so, Pundalika went on doing his duty, asking the Lord to wait till he finished his work of bathing and feeding his old parents. He flung a brick near the doorstep, asking the Lord to step on it, and wait there meanwhile. The Lord did not take it amiss at all; He was indeed overwhelmed with joy and pleasure, seeing Pundalika’s love and single-minded devotion to this parents.
There is an incident told about one of the persons who had to visit Puttaparthi. Actually, he had no faith in Sri Sathya Sai Baba at all, but his son-in-law happened to be devoted to Baba, and soon after the marriage, as his son-in-law insisted, he accompanied his daughter and son-in-law to Puttaparthi though most reluctantly. Although he came there he did not feel interested to run for Baba’s Darshan, as all people, without exception, do. But it then so happened that when he was standing aloof somewhere, Baba came that way itself and walked near to him and said in solicitude and love, “Do you know how much I like you and why? I am very pleased with your love and devotion for you mother. Every morning as you get up, I know, the first thing you do is to go and bow at her feet. Actually whether one has devotion for God or not does not matter. One’s own mother and father are truly the God, and service done and respect shown to the parents is indeed the highest form of worship of God.” This incident also explains to us why God chose to walk down to Pundalika’s poor cottage in the ages yore. It was Pundalika’s intense love and devotion and the service he was doing dedicatedly that drew the Lord of the Heaven to his very doorstep to specially bless him.
Thirdly, we have to be frank and truthful. We should not hide anything from our parents. We have an example from Gandhiji’s life. In his childhood, he fell into bad company. One boy with whom he was close, tempted him into smoking and meat-eating. Being short of money, once Gandhi stole a gold bangle from the home. But his conscience pricked him much. He felt great remorse. He wrote a letter confessing this, and praying to his father to forgive him assuring him that he would never do such things again. He walked to his father and gave the letter to him. As the father read this letter, tears trickled down his eyes. Gandhiji in his autobiography, My Experiments with Truth, writes, “My father did not punish me, did not say a word, but his tears were enough.” After this, Gandhi was a chastened boy. The seed was sown for him to grow into and become a great soul, a Mahatma in his later life. Suputrah, Kula-Deepakah, it is said. Blessed indeed is the family which bore such a great son, who was light not to his family alone but was a light unto the whole Nation and all the world too.