Duty

Actions (karmas) carried out in accordance with the principles of Dharma are referred to as duty. Simply put ‘Duty’ is the work assigned to an individual. The duty of a student is to study, that of a doctor is to effectively treat his patients and that of a railway booking clerk is to issue tickets.

As children what are our major duties?

1. Duty to parents – Tending to our parents, with love, reverence, obedience and gratitude is our primary duty.
2. Duty to elders – Rendering loving service to them and taking care of parents and grandparents are our obligatory duties.
3. Duty to Teachers and Gurus – We should respect, revere our teachers who bestow knowledge upon us and our Gurus who help in bringing out the human values and turn our mind towards God.
4. Duty to society – We acquire physical, intellectual, mental, emotional and spiritual skills from the society. Having acquired such skills, one should contribute to the welfare of the society. We cannot imagine life without our collaborators in society.
5. Swami says the best way to be grateful is to Love All and Serve all. The dictum, ‘Help ever Hurt never’ should find its truest expression. It is our duty to duly respect the rights and freedom of others in the society. Duty means the responsibility, we have, not to hinder or harm anyone by our movements, speech, behavior or activities. When we walk on the street waving a big stick we have to be conscious of the person walking behind.
6. Duty to Mother Earth – We derive our food, dress and shelter from the natural resources. It is therefore imperative on our part to conserve natural resources and live in harmony with nature. We should never insult Mother Nature by polluting the environment.
7. Duty to Motherland- We should love our motherland and prevent the forces that mar the sovereignty. We should discharge our duty as an ideal citizen.
8. Duty to our Divine Parent- We are the children of God. We must therefore please our God by our exemplary behaviour. We should strive to sustain the harmony among thought, word and deed (trikarana suddhi)

Bhagavan says that we should fulfill these duties during our lifetime and we must do them wholeheartedly and we must dedicate them to God. Then only work (our duties) can be called worship.

Gurus can narrate episodes from life of Swami, His childhood days, how He fulfilled the promises He made to His mother Easwaramma, how He carried water for the family etc so that children understand how Swami was an exemplar in following His duty in all spheres right from His childhood.