Happy Parents Day!

Who is the one –

• whom we first meet when we step into this world?
• who teaches us the basic skills of living?
• who cares for us at all times, be it highs or lows?
• who stands by our side always, no matter what?

Yes! It’s none other than our parents.

Parents hold an unmatched and irreplaceable place in every person’s life

They are the reason for our existence today. And they are the reason for what we are today! Parents’ Day therefore is the day dedicated to recognize, appreciate and be grateful towards the most fundamental and pivotal role that the parents play in our life. 

Every parent constantly strives to give the best to their child

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan therefore urges us to serve our parents. He explains that serving one's parents is one's moral duty. Being their child, it is our religion to serve them. And the rule is, if you give happiness to your parents, you too will receive happiness. Those who make their parents happy will never be unhappy whereas, the one who sees faults in his/her parents will never prosper. Such a person may be materially wealthy, but s/he will never progress spiritually. So, one should never find faults in parents.

If we’ve hurt our parents, it’s time to take a U-turn through Pratikraman

And in spite of having the best intention of serving our parents sincerely and dutifully, if we happen to behave offensively with our parents sometimes, or we hurt them by being mean or rude to them someday, Param Pujya Dadashri suggests that we must do PRATIKRAMAN.

Pratikraman means apologizing for our mistake and seeking forgiveness for it with true repentance in our heart. It is best we bow down and touching their feet we seek forgiveness. But if for some reason this cannot be done, we can remember the Pure Soul residing in our parents, and pray to them, “Oh God, I have done the mistake of hurting my parents through my rude behavior. With true repentance in my heart, I seek forgiveness for the same. Please pardon me and grant me strength so that I do not ever repeat this mistake.”  

In today’s times, the thoughts and ideals have sharply declined. Hence, it may happen that in spite of resolving not to hurt our parents, we may commit the mistake of offending them yet again. If that happens, do pratikraman once again. And if we feel it has become our daily habit to misbehave before our parents, we must introduce the practice of doing pratikraman too every day. Before going to sleep, for ten minutes, we’ll close our eyes and introspect where all we hurt our parents through our thoughts, our words or actions today. And remembering every such instance, we shall whole-heartedly do pratikraman, as explained above, and wash off our daily mistakes.

Let’s express our gratitude towards parents through our resolve to keep them happy

No matter how high we rise in life, we can never overlook the fact, ‘The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world’, can we?

On contemplating the fact of how we owe our very existence to our parents and also our achievements in life so far, I’m sure we’ve all got very eager to express our endless gratitude towards our parents! So come, on the occasion of the Parent’s Day today, let’s give our parents their due share of love and appreciation in all our achievements; and resolve to sincerely serve them and keep them happy, today and everyday throughout their life. Happy Parents’ Day!