What do parents want from their children?

Parents are the most precious gift of God to a child. No love in this world is greater than mom's love and no care greater than dad's care. It is said that mother's love for her child is unconditional because she bonds with the child before its birth. Those nine months when the child is inside her womb, there isn't a single moment when the mother is not concerned about the well being of her little one. Everyting she eats, every drop of water she drinks, every breath she takes is for the sake for her child. Can this love be compared with any other felling in this world? It can only be experienced by the parents who have gone through this beautiful phase of life.

Parents sacrifice their life to raise their children. They shower unconditional love on their children, educate them with patience, nurture them with love and care while being firm and fair and spend quality time with them to make them a responsible human being.

When a child is small and innocent he leads a life paved by his parents. At that point of life parents are his friend, philosopher and guide. Once the child grows up and becomes aware of the outside world he wants to live life on his own terms and condition. Parents also want their children lead an independent life while providing moral support from behind. In the adolescent stage of life a piece of advise from parents seems like interference to children. But here one should not forget that parents cannnot stop caring for their children just because they have grown up. Generation gap between a parent and a child cannnot be ruled out. That which becomes height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another. Thus it is essential for children to respect the experience of their parents and patiently listen to their advise witouth any argument.
Parents do not want their children to follow each and every advise. All they want from their children is to lend a patient ear to their advise and decide for themselves what is best for them.

But very few children listen patiently to the advise of their parents. They quarrel with them and take their advice for interference.  They part their ways from their parents and leave them when they need them the most. It is a bitter fact but very true.

Can't we sacrifice a bit for the unconditional love and support of our parents.
We never know the love of parents until we become parents ourselves. The most beautiful feeling in this world is to see your parents happy and knowing that you are the reason behind that happiness.  So before its too late tell your parents how much you love them. Don't expect them to change for you at old age. Remember that as you are growing up they too are growing old. Love them for what they are.

Undoubtedly loving them unconditionaly is what parents want from their children once they grow old.

Are we ashamed of calling ourselves Hindu?

The present political turmoil in the country forces me to raise the question "Are we ashamed of calling ourselves Hindu?".
The vote bank politics based on religious bigotry played by the elected representatives of our country is posing a great challenge towards the secular image of our country. In order to woo the voters the politicians have made a mockery of secularism. The communal violence in Muzzafarnagar triggered by the hate speech of politicians to woo certain section/caste of society is a recent example of this mockery.

In the present scenario if a person stands up in the praise of Hindu religion then he is branded to be a part of "saffron brigade"and blamed to be a communist.Does mere talking about ones religion makes one communist? This is what 66 years of freedom from british rule has provided us.

India was once noteable for its religious diversity with Hinduism, Sikhism,  Islam,  christianity and jainism among the nations major religions. The predominant religion , Hinduism has been shaped by various historical school of thought, including those of upanishads, the yoga sutras, the Bhakti movement and by Buddhist philosophy.  Hinduism is not a religion in usual sense. It is a civilization based on simple metaphysical insight about the unity of individual and the universe and has self development as its objective. Swami Vivekanand who is known for glorifying the diversity of Hindu religion beyond the boundaries of India mentioned in his speech at world parliament of religion at Chicago,"I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance.  We believe not only in universal tolerance, but we also accept all religions as true".

If today we raise in praise of our religion why are we branded as communist? The lust for power had made us so weak that we no longer take pride in our religious belief.
Development will not come by the triumph of any one religion and destruction of other. Religious unity plays a very important role in the development of a country. Until our electoral representative understand this very basic necessity,  India will burn in the fire of communal violence and the common man will continue to suffer.
We will loose our stand  as a tolerant civilization of the world and become slave to our own religious dogma.

Mantra for Happiness :)

Mantra for Happiness J

Expectation is the cause of all unhappiness that we see around. Do good to others and goodness will come back to you. This statement proves everything. Very few people in this world are selfless in their action. You need to have a very strong heart for this.

 “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”. This is the secret mantra for happiness. A person who expects nothing from others does not have grudge in his heart. It is a bitter fact, but also very true that good people are often sad because they expect that their act of goodness will reward them with the same in return. But life is not so fair. Kindness, Honesty & generosity have no reward in today’s world. People make fun of good & honest beings. They are laughed at and titled as fools. This is very hurting. I have seen good people turning selfish because they expect reward in return of their act.

The lines of Mother Teresa holds very true in this context:

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” 

I am very blessed to have known two such people personally who without any expectation do what their conscience allows them, without any complaints. I will not name them here, but I truly respect them and will one day definitely try to have a heart as strong as theirs.

The best reward for kindness, honesty & generosity is peace of mind. A person who expects peace of mind will be the happiest of all.

Desire for a selfless need

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”.   These are the famous lines of Mahatma Gandhi. Since time immemorial mankind has testified the validity of this saying.  I too was a firm believer until 1^st Feb’13. A small incident forced me to reflect upon the necessity of need in our life.

My husband and I were returning from a movie at 11 PM on 1^st Feb’13. The security guard at the township gate stopped us for routine verification as it was late in the night. While waiting for the gates to open my eyes suddenly caught hold of a black (dark) image beside the gate. To my astonishment, I saw a person sitting beside the gate in the winter cold night. It was difficult to identify whether it was a male or female because only the eyes were visible. As we entered the township gate my heart beat started to increase looking at the thermometer inside my car. It showed 5^o C. I wondered how a person can withstand the freezing cold in just one blanket.

Those black eyes kept on resonating in my mind. It was very difficult for me to get back home and sleep in my cozy bed with the thought of that person freezing in the night’s cold. I shared my thoughts with my husband and within a fraction of second we decided to get a blanket from our home for the person. As it was getting late we hurried to the gate with the blanket.

To our utter surprise we found that it was a lady who was taking refuge outside our township premises. As soon as we offered the blanket to her, she replied that she cannot accept it as she already had one. Her reply was very shocking as it was freezing outside and she had just one black blanket. Despite our continuous effort to convince her to accept the blanket she refused to accept it.

We returned back to our home with utter disbelief on the entire incident. It was difficult to believe how a person who does not even have a home to live, refuse to accept a blanket as she already had one. She could have very well accepted it and even if it was of no use to her, she could have sold it to earn some money. But her need was above her greed.

If we look back upon the entire incident we will be forced to imagine how beautiful this world would be if everyone shed there greed.  This greed to yearn more is the root cause of corruption in our society.

Undoubtedly we will have enough if it is required only for the need and not for the greed.