The home is where we imbibe values and we should try to follow traditional family structures to learn how to respect, love and trust, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj
A happy family is but an earlier heaven,” said George Bernard Shaw. Jingles like ‘small family, happy family’, coined by the administration, had changed the family planning scenario in India over the years. But it is so ironical that despite becoming the first country to adopt a national policy for limiting a great Indian proclivity, India is expected to overtake China in 2034. At the time of Independence there were 345 million Indians. The world took 454 years to go from 345 million in 1310 AD to a billion, but India took just 52 years.
looking at the above facts and figures one wonders as to what would be the societal structure in a country that takes the burden of population of a billion peopleIJ Sadly, the situation is quite grim because today we see less families and more individuals living their lives on their own terms with a ‘I care a damn’ attitude, quite common in the metropolis. Our forefathers were brought up with strong family values but with passing time and ever changing scenarios, today those core values have been left behind to adopt new so-called modern values.
It’s so unfortunate that today very few of us know the importance of living or growing up in a family. One must understand a fact that a family is the first school where the literate and the illiterate received their first lessons in the art of living in values, traditions, customs and conventions. Everyone feels strong because of the strength of the family. Everyone feels a kind of support, sustenance and encouragement. There is some kind of a magnetic force that holds members of a family together. This feeling of acceptance is based on mutual love, loyalty, trust, understanding and accommodation.
Today we see families splitting because values like mutual affection, love and genuine caring that make a family work are vanishing because everyone wants to live an independent life without any kind of family interference. However, if the younger ones continue regard the elders and the elders continue to give love to the younger ones, the family life would continue to be undisturbed and everyone will act in a responsible manner. But if each one gives up his responsibility and the feeling of concern for others, then cracks would appear and get deeper. Hence in order to preserve the family structure and tradition, one needs to have tolerance, sobriety and humility because family is very essential to civilised life. Hence we should consider family as a place where we can work for physical, mental, moral and spiritual growth and can create an environment where others can grow.
A family can change a person into a great leader, disciplinarian, soldier, criminal or scholar by encouraging or discouraging, supporting or condemning certain positive or negative traits in him. We must, therefore, pay attention in transformation of families because families are the breeding grounds of good or bad human beings. So, let us awaken people to observe family values such as mutual love, trust, acceptance, accommodation, consideration and care for the well-being of others, spirit of adjustment, tolerance, responsibility and cooperation, because if these family values flourish, the nation and mankind will flourish, too.