Parents, apologize to your children!

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Acharya Ji, if a child goes and asks his parents, because of his suffering, that — “Why did you both give me birth?” — then should the parents answer?

Taking birth for the child is easy, but dying and Mukti (liberation) is difficult.

Acharya Prashant (AP): First of all, if the child says, “Why did you bring me in this world?” the parents must straightaway apologize.

(laughter)

It’s not a matter of laughing, it’s a thing of basic honesty.

And it is because parents have, first of all, committed the mistake of bringing another person into this world of agony, longing, and suffering, that they compensate by investing themselves in raising the kid. That is why it is imperative for the parents to bring education to the kid, give food to the kid, spend money on the kid.

It is compensation.

Have you seen how much of the parents’ time, especially the mother’s time, gets spent on the kid? It has to be done. It is a thing of justice. It is not a favor to the kid, the parents owe it to the kid.

And the kid is very justified in asking, “Did I really plead to you to bring me in this world? Did I send a formal application? You, in your moment of personal wisdom, and planned indiscretion, or unplanned lust, gave birth to me. Now I sue you. Now I demand damages.”

And all the money that gets spent on the kid, is actually a compensation — compensation, for that moment of indiscretion. It could be a conscious indiscretion, by way of a planned birth, Or it could be an unconscious indiscretion, when you say, “O! The child just came. We didn’t plan it.”

Whether conscious or unconscious, the fact is that it is an indiscretion. Because it is an indiscretion, so you pay for it.

Now you know why you have to pay so much for the kid’s school fees? It is fine. It is fine that you are paying. You are being penalized by existence. Now you know why the mother has to carry the kid for nine months? The mother is being severely penalized.