Sai Inspires - 18th December 2005 from Prashanti Nilayam

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SAIRAM.

 

MESSAGE FROM H2H, RADIO SAI E-JOURNAL TEAM, PRASANTHI NILAYAM BEING FORWARDED....

SWAMI BLESS US ALL

 

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Dear Reader,

 

Loving Sairam from the Heart2Heart Team.

 

Scroll down to read our Weekend Special on "Adding Life To Our Years…"

 

Are we moral in our conduct? Swami gives us the tools to judge ourselves.

 

 

Sai Inspires - 18th December 2005

Of all human values, three are most important. The foremost is love of God.

Where there is love, there is sacrifice, and there arises purity in the heart.

There should be fusion of love, sacrifice and purity. These are not mere human

qualities, they constitute the vital organs of a human being. They are as

essential for a human being as the head, heart and hands for the body. Without

these attributes, no one is completely human.

- Divine Discourse, 13th Jan 1984.

Do not follow the Body, Do not follow the Mind, Follow the Conscience. - Baba

“Adding Life To Our Years…”

Loving Sai Ram and greetings from Prashanti Nilayam. People often say that

Science is evil. This is not true because Science is just knowledge. However,

knowledge can be used for either good or for evil purposes; this is the choice

that humans make and therefore it is wrong to blame Science as such for many of

the problems we face today.

 

There cannot be any question that Science has conferred many benefits on

humanity, one of these being the increase in longevity. Way back around 1940,

the average life expectancy in India was just 27 years but today, it has

climbed to well over fifty. In the advanced countries, it is quite common to

see people live beyond 70 and even 80. This is good news no doubt but there is

also, unfortunately, a flip side to it. Late President Kennedy called attention

to it in his own characteristic way; he said we have added years to life but we

still have the task of adding life to years. What exactly did Kennedy mean?

That is what we wish to reflect on presently.

 

It is nice to live longer but old age also brings its many “gifts”, like

arthritis, hip fracture, and so on, all of which handicap a person. And this

precisely is where the problem starts. Who takes care of the old, especially

those who are not keeping in good health, are disabled in some way, are infirm,

suffer from dementia, etc? This problem is at once an individual and a social

issue, an issue that is rapidly becoming more and more critical as the number

of aged people in many societies is constantly increasing, even as the birth

rate is declining perceptibly.

 

Let us start at the level of the individual. Every individual on earth exists

because of his or her parents. It is the parents who bring the person into the

earth. It is they who take care of the person in infancy, when the baby simply

cannot survive on its own. Particularly the mother, who most lovingly makes an

enormous sacrifice to take care of the child, not content with the enormous

difficulty she had to bear while carrying the baby in the womb and the pangs

she suffered at the time of giving birth.

 

All this is well known, but unfortunately quickly forgotten by the children when

they grow up, especially these days. For thousands of years, people in all

societies regarded taking care of parents in their old age as a mandatory

responsibility. True the going was not always smooth, but for the most part,

old people were taken care of and not discarded like worn out socks. Things

changed drastically when children started going away to other places for work,

settle down in big cities where accommodation was limited and so on, making it

difficult to maintain old people. Added to all this, the lady of the house was

often a working-woman and that compounded the problem.

 

In the affluent countries, the problem was partially solved by the emergence of

Retirement Colonies, into which old people could move in without botheration to

their children, with their offspring making occasional visits. But this system

is running into problems of its own, with many in the lower income bracket

having little savings to put away for old age and retirement homes. Often such

people have to survive by becoming baby sitters for their grandchildren. In

other words, instead of being taken care of, they have to bring up children

once more.

 

In India, there was an ancient tradition according to which mother was regarded

as God. Not any more, with many sons abandoning their mothers and leaving them

to be cared for by the daughters. In one house, the daughter-in-law was so

hostile, she would lock up the refrigerator when she went for work; the poor

aged parents of her husband would be left hungry throughout the day till the

husband and wife returned in the evening. It was only then that they got some

scraps as the evening meal. The son’s home had thus become a prison. Swami once

narrated a story concerning this sad state of affairs but we shall not go into

that now. However, we would like to draw attention to what Swami says about the

debt everyone of us owes to our parents.

 

Swami says that if a person borrows from a bank say, he has to settle the debt;

if he fails to, he would be in trouble and would have to face action. It is the

same with parents, especially mother. Swami says every human being, whether it

is a man or a woman, occupies the mother’s womb for nine months. What about

paying “rent” for that? Swami adds that is why mother is called a parent – the

word is a reminder that one must PAY RENT to one’s mother! This is typical of

the way Baba plays on words. But behind that is a serious message. Paying rent

to the mother means taking care of her in her old age. If one defaults, one

will get paid back by destiny for sure – that is what the Law of Karma is all

about.

 

In a home for the aged in New Zealand regularly visited by Sai children, the

inmates were very happy whenever the children came because they gave the old

people the love that the sons and daughters ought to have offered but failed

to. There was one particular lady whom the children loved very much. One week

when they came, they found the bed occupied by the lady was empty. When they

asked where the old lady was, they were told she had passed away. The children

sat there and wept. One wonders whether the sons and daughters of the old lady

grieved as much.

 

We would do well to remember that the Love a mother selflessly showers on her

young baby to nurse and protect is actually the Love of God – the physical

mother is merely a proxy for God. That is why in ancient India, it was

mandatory to regard mother as God. As Swami says, there is no mother who hates

her son but there are many sons who, when they grow up, develop an aversion for

their mother because mother is now a drag. Can one afford to forget who gave one

one’s life, besides providing so much love and protection?

 

Yes, people are no doubt living longer but unless life is made meaningful and

pleasant for the aged, the extension of their life might well be worthless.

This enrichment of old age can be done not by machines, not by technology, but

only by humans, especially sons and daughters. Is this asking for too much? Or

should parents also should be disposed off when they become old like old TV

sets, cell phones, computers and cars are got rid of? Is that what progress is

all about? Think about it!

 

Jai Sai Ram.

 

 

With Love and Regards,

"Heart2Heart"

RadioSai e-Journal Team,

In Sai Service.

 

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