Finding God through respect

These days, it is quite common to celebrate and express our love and gratitude to our dear ones by sending them cards or gifts on special days. Father’s Day, Mother’s Day or Teacher’s Day cards are always appreciated by the receiver and by the sender too. As life is too busy these days, so even these loving gestures have a lot of value to all. Though in India and many other Asian countries, this particular way of celebration is not very common. Yet showing respect to elders and extending a helping hand to the needy is a common practice in daily life. In India, even an unknown elderly people on the street or in buses will be addressed with reverence and will be helped by others. I was surprised to hear that, in many western countries, parents and elders are often addressed by their names by their children. This is a functional matter in the west, but would be culturally shocking for many from Asian countries and seen as a sign of disrespect. I remember one incident, which I experienced in U.S.A . I was not keeping well and my son, Prodeep was escorting me back to New York from the west coast. When we reached New York, he quickly got a taxi, helped me to sit inside comfortably and then got busy in arranging things and doing other formalities. It was a new experience for our cab driver. He was surprised to see the loving concern of my son for his mother, and asked me,” originally from which country you come?”. When I said "we are from India", he just uttered two words “that explains". I was feeling happy and sad both. His two words were enough to explain the situation of elderly in the richest country of the world. I was silent, but started thinking how we can make life liveable and loveable for all. In today’s Global world, we are all connected, and can make life better by learning from each other. Inner richness which is expressed through respect, unconditional love and service, which is definitely not less important than outer material gains. Rich countries can be happier by integrating some values from some other parts of the world that are not so rich, but have deep cultural values that have kept these societies stable for hundreds if not thousands of years. Cultures where the individual is not supreme and the divine spirit is part of the collective consciousness. Where, from early childhood, love to respect for elders and a desire to learn from their wisdom are values passed on from generation to generation. Our ancient Vedic Scripture says, “Honour thy mother as God, honour thy father as God, honour thy teacher as God, and honour thy guest as God “