The Family in the Sai Era
All over the world today, especially in America, the sacred role of the mother in family life has reached a deplorable state, far from the ideal that God intended for all. ‘Birth control’ and ‘woman’s liberation’ (from the home) are often mentioned today. Meanwhile the family unit disintegrates and so does society. Divorces and adultery are as common as marriage, due to the disturbing lack of God-oriented homes. Children are too often raised in a haphazard non-spiritual fashion. An American psychologist warns that a nation that ignores children as its greatest natural resource has no future.
Baba says, “Good mothers make a good nation.” We must be grateful to Sai Baba, for through His all-seeing, world-rejuvenating will, a counter-movement to the disintegration of family is striking root in the world today. In America, India, and around the world, many spiritually evolved young families are practicing unity and love in their homes, and are gaining fulfillment thereby. Baba’s words are guideposts to the new pathways that lead to wholesome family life.
The home must be a haven from a world in turmoil; it must be a stronghold of culture, health, simplicity, and—above all—joy in God. The ‘Sai home’ is a refuge of love that welcomes Sai’s ‘incoming souls’ into the family circle. These newborn children are evolved spirits, destined to inaugurate the new era of peace through love. Parents must richly fertilize the soil in which our children are to grow, work, and serve.
Children must grow up in an atmosphere of reverence, devotion, mutual service, and cooperation. Even as youngsters, they must come to know the amazing handiwork of God, the most amazing being themselves. Further, these children must develop in the unparalleled security granted by the knowledge that God Himself is here on earth to love and guide them.
The mother, especially, has to be strong in mind and body with her character sanctified by holy thoughts, and steeped in love and devotion. Total fulfillment can be found within the realms of the home, the family, and God. In the Dharma Vahini [volume on righteous action], Baba has marked out the duties of the mother. It has an inspiring message for wives and mothers: “If the wife feels that the husband’s home is sacred, that home itself will endow her with every skill and qualification. There is no place anywhere that excels such a home for her. One saintly poet has sung that it is her temple, her school, her playground, her political arena, her field of sacrifice, and her hermitage.”
Motherhood is a service that one does unto the entire universe. “Women’s liberation” is a household phrase today, but women shall be genuinely liberated by the avatar of the age when they tend their husbands and children with love and care. The female soul thereby grows toward its own self-realization. When she makes sacrifices in her own personal life for the sake of her husband and children, a woman learns the great lesson of the inter-dependence of all beings. She is blessed by an inkling, a microcosmic inkling, of the way in which God ever loves and cares for His children.
Perhaps never before has an avatar brought such comfort to that weary lot called `mothers.’ I once felt disheartened by my endless tasks, and disillusioned in their purpose, but Sai Baba seemed to say, “If you, as wife and mother, do not know the art of home-making, then you know nothing! Respond vigilantly to your home, in the same way that I, the Mother of the World, cares for the earth, supplying it amply, with natural loveliness”. We may recall the line from the Psalm and act accordingly: “I will walk within any house with a perfect heart”.
We must never think of our work, of any work, as insignificant. Sai Baba allows us to see that the arts of family life were never more needed in the world than today in this crucial phase in the career of humanity. Baba says, “The dawn of peace can be brought about only by learning and practicing the art of living together in peace and amity in the home. Then, peace can be established in the world without delay and travail. Let the satsang [company of good people] start with your homes.”
The condition of the world is but a reflection of the condition of the family unit. With many Sai families springing up in joy, love, and mutual service in many parts of the globe, hope shines bright. Together, let us set out on the triumphant pilgrimage toward the golden era of the Lord. May Baba bless us all.
~K. Shultz; Tustin, California
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Dec. 1973
