AT THE FEET OF THE MOTHER
Ask Alok da

Is our purpose in life merely to please our parents by doing whatever they ask? When we don’t meet their expectations, they often say, “You have made us unhappy,” or “Because of you, we are suffering.” They emphasize ideas like, “You must keep your parents happy, you will never find happiness if you make them unhappy,” and regard parents as equivalent to gods. Even for someone who is not pursuing a spiritual life, is it necessary to always prioritize pleasing parents? When they don’t understand your path, your goal and say things like these, what should one do?

If the purpose of life was to please parents, elders or anyone else then the Gita would be meaningless. The purpose of life is not to please anyone or live for one’s own or other’s happiness. The purpose of life is to progress, to discover oneself and the higher possibilities, to seek and find Truth and Peace, to live for higher and greater ideals than merely earn, have a family, look after parents and have children as a security for one’s own old age. 

Of course one should take care of everyone around us, especially those who depend upon us but to satisfy them cannot be the purpose. There is a difference between caring for someone and making that person the centre of one’s life.

Affectionately,

Alok Da

Share this…

Related Posts

I remember once reading in Sri Aurobindo’s commentary on the Isha Upanishad that one cannot become a Brahmin without first becoming a Kshatriya. I believe that I never had the Kshatriya element developed sufficiently within me, and it has always been a source of embarrassment and insecurity for me as a man. 💪🙏🏻🪷[…]

He said both are needed. But these are things ingrained within us. Brahmin and Kshatriya are not  soul states, inner innate temperaments and not so much of outer actions. Nevertheless everything can be developed by practice. By taking the challenges of life, through vigorous physical exercises, by praying for strength, by reading …

Read More >

Bhaiya, Rishi Panchami fast is coming up, and I read the story behind it. Honestly, I found it quite absurd. The story talks about a woman unknowingly breaking certain rules during menstruation, cooking food that her husband eats, and then both of them facing severe karmic consequences in their next life. 🪷🙏🏻 […]

Yes, all these things have been added much later and have no authority in the main  Scriptures. It is a story added in some of the Puranas, mainly I suppose to enforce rules of hygiene for women during the menstrual period. This was one of the ways to instil certain hygiene practices through fear. It has no meaning now. Most of the fasts …

Read More >

How should we understand deities like Subrahmanyeshwara (Skanda/Murugan) and Vinayaka (Ganesha)? Are they individual divine beings, cosmic powers of the One Divine, or symbols of different aspects of consciousness? How should an aspirant in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga relate to them in practice? 🙏🏻✨

The four original gods, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh and, behind them all Krishna, are, in their origin, the four aspects of the One Divine, named in Indian spiritual thought as Sacchidananda. Sat (सत) is infinite existence from which Brahma ji emerges. Chit is Chit-tapas, Consciousness and Force from which Hari or Vishnu ji and Hara or Shiv ji …

Read More >