Social Aspects

[Guest guest]

Once again I post with an ignorant mind. I hope you will all

forgive me if I have made any mistakes. Please do correct

me, as I know that this post will have things that don't

make sense are incorrect.

 

However, it takes a great deal of spiritual and emotional maturity to

recognize the importance of faith and bhakti and the temporal nature of

this

world. Most of us, especially as teenagers or young adults in the US,

have

a number of other thoughts in our naive minds that can take us onto all

different kinds of tangents, which are not only contradistinctive to our

spiritual nature but indeed can be dangerous from a worldy perspective,

as

well.

 

In my opinion, more than maturity, it takes strong will and family

support to be able to handle such contradictions. Lets take for

example,

a lot of children growing up in US or for that matter in India away from

the

mother land ie for telugus Andhra, tamils TN etc .. are not attempting

to

learn their mother tongue. I know of a lot of families in Chicago that

we

are in touch with, the kids are about 9 or 10 years of age and are well

versed not only in their mother tongue but also hindi. I bring this

point

up because, as I was growing up, maybe when I was 8 or 9, I used to

think that I don't need to know the mother tongue, but as I have grown

older I have come to realize that (I correct myself from the last post

of saying Indians) being ethnically from India, we should not only know

our

mother tongue but may be a few other Indian Languages in order to

learn more of the culture.

 

Maturity, whether its emotional, social, or spiritual as we grow older.

Even at

the age of 23, I feel I am not mature enough in any of these areas. I

agree as

young adults a lot goes in our minds. One of the most important thought

in

our minds during the ages of 14 through 18 is the thought of seeing our

friends in schools socializing in a way not likely approved by our

parents. I

faced this problem, growing up in a very orthodox family, where my

parents

have always taught us kids that no matter where you go, don't forget

your

culture and always try and stay close to it. I recall, many evenings

with my

parents when I used to argue the importance of socializing and getting

together with friends. What I did not realize then and realize now is I

probably

will say the same things to my kids that my parents told me. Atleast

the

next generation will have the facilities of the internet to be able to

share their

thoughts and experience.

 

 

Parents often try talking with their children about these matters, but

such

discussions can only lead to arguement. In my view, what is needed is

some

sort of objective mediary who can present ideas based on our spiritual

teachings that can re-direct an individual

 

Honestly, I don't think when teenagers think any mediators will help.

I can say from my own experience, that for teenagers grass is greener

the other side. I know this for a fact because 4 years ago I was a

teenager myself having an identity crisis. Now I talk to my cousins

in India about my experiences and try to help them out in their thought

process, but I get the same reply that I once gave "We will learn

from our own experiences."

 

back to the correct path by showing him/her that our strength and purpose

are in

Perumal alone.

 

For this to happen it will take a long time, reason being that until the

Americans

here understand the hindu way of living, the teenagers will not want to

live

by our cultural norms.. this for them may not be normal.

 

While it is true that priests are dedicated to Bhagavad Kainkarya, we

should

also recognize that they too have spouses, children and probably also

undergo wome of the ups and downs of life that we do. Be that as it may,

however, their priestly duties and training justifiably keep them away

from

taking on the added burden of serving as counselors. That is the reason

I

suggested that some of the veterans in our community serve in such a

capacity, being mentors and role models for the younger generation.

 

I would like to disagree here, because the catholic priests are not

married. If they

are able to give advise to the common people without experience, why can

it not

be possible that even though our priests are married and have children,

they may

not go through these thoughts, as they believe in leading a simple life

and the

children at a very young age devote themselves to Bhagvad Kainkarya.

A very simple example is my husbands cousins and uncles, still live like

they

did in olden days. They still have kudumi etc, and during my talks with

them

in the last one year, I have realized they don't go through the thought

process,

that we did when we were their age. My inlaws are not priests or

anything, they

are normal educated citizens of India, but have devoted their life from

a very

young age to bhagvad kainkarya. I agree that the younger generation

needs mentors,

but to be very honest.. I would not be comfortable if my children went

and spoke

to an outsider and have them come as a mediator between us and them.

This is

because believe it or not .. we as Indians(may be as hindus, I am not

sure)

believe that family matters should stay in the family, as the family is

the foremost

thing that will come to ones aid when in need, our future generations

will have

parents who grew up here, who have gone through the process. Which

brings

me to say that we as parents will be in a better position to answer our

kids

queries, than our parents were, since they grew up in India amongst our

people, who understood their way of life. I repeat myself by saying

that

by giving ourselves to Sriman Narayan we will be happier.

 

I would like to quote from an email I received yesterday :

 

"The purpose of life in any form and in any world is to serve Sriman

Narayana commonly known as God. That is the only purpose of our

existence because we "belong" to Them i.e. Sriman Narayana and Maha

Lakshmi."

 

"We are controlled by Ishwara and we control achetana to some extent

to fulfill the purpose of Ishwara."

 

" If all catholics relied on the pope to practice their religion, then

how many

people can he alone preach to?"

 

Manjula V. Sriram

Programmer Analyst

Rockwell Automation

414-382-0530