Durban, South Africa
Something About Family
After four days of intense devotional output at this 26th annual Festival of Chariots in Durban, there was happy fatigue. The attendance at the temple’s morning program was skimpy for that reason, and more. Some of the visiting monks from Europe, the US and India, had already departed for other destinations. You can say things are back to normal. The party’s over. Members of the spiritual family have gone to their respective areas of what they call home.
The few of us lingering folks sat down for listening to a recording of our guru, Srila Prabhupada, speaking about the concept of family from the Vedic perspective. Imagine stretching out to beyond extended family. “It is not just a man with wife and children, it is generations,” Srila Prabhupada explained from a pravachan (talk) he delivered on October 5th, 1976, Vrindavan, India. He went on to say that the family consideration was so important in Vedic culture. If there was some misbehaviour on the part of a member of the family, it would leave a great scar on the dynasty.
This is a major issue raised at the inception of the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna in the “Bhagavad Gita”. Arjuna was concerned about improper action impacting the family. From his standpoint, the proper action was no action, in the case of the Kurukshetra war. From Krishna’s point of view, failure to perform meant cowardliness and irresponsibility. Krishna’s constant reminder to Arjuna, being of a dignified clan, was saying that there was an obligation to act in their defense, making it honourable.
While some Krishna followers I know have little or sometimes no tie with biological family, there is, however, a strong allegiance to their spiritual family. Another case, family in the broad sense, needs protection from ill repute. You want to try to avoid doing that which is embarrassing to yourself, and above all, your allegiances.
May the Source be with you!
3 KM
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