Re: Obey your elders etc.
Pranam all
Jai Ganesh Jai Ganesh Deva, Mata Jena Parvati Ne Pita Shankar Deva
I don’t know if the question is parents in particular or elders in general.
Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.
If it is parents then we are duty bound to obey as scott ji has inferred.
Matru devoBhava, Pitru devoBhava.
off course when faced with Dharma conflict then there should be proper discrimination and act accordingly. My father use to say after certain age one should treat their children as friends, so there is responsibility on elders as well. But to a mother, a child even if middle-aged will always remain a child. We can never repay our dues to them.
Two incidence come to mind one from Mahabharat and other from Ramayan
Pandavas obeyed the words of mother Kunti, unknowing she had asked the brother to share equally what they had brought with them.
Bharat refused the kingdom although Kaikai wished it.
Respect is in our language, I would address any individual even if stranger with appropriate words. Until some one gives you a cause to reject an action, the old adage of respecting an elder in my opinion should not be questioned. Once we start doing it is slippery slop and we soon loose touch with our roots.
I had a great cultural shock when I came to west but that’s another story. In India even now the elders behave as elders should, unfortunately this will change in due course of time as today’s youth, in emulating the west loose touch with their tradition.
Although a lot of elders in west are loosing their grip with dharma unfortunately a lot more today’s youth are fast loosing any thing to do with dharma, caught between two cultures, one offers instant pleasures in the form of wine women and song and the other mostly due to lack of knowledge or time or both, says do as I tell you because they did what their elders told them.
So my question would be, what should elders do to regain their respect ?
Jai Shree Krishna
Rig Veda list only 33 devas, they are all propitiated, worthy off our worship, all other names of gods are derivative from this 33 originals,
Bhagvat Gita; Shree Krishna says Chapter 3.11 devan bhavayatanena te deva bhavayantu vah parasparam bhavayantah sreyah param avapsyatha Chapter 17.4 yajante sattvika devan yaksa-raksamsi rajasah pretan bhuta-ganams canye yajante tamasa janah
The world disappears in him. He is the peaceful, the good, the one without a second.
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