With youth: Responsibility towards parents

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

Acharya Prashant (AP): You see you’re young. Right? If you love somebody, do you want to chain him or her?

Listeners(everyone): No, Sir.

AP: Even a pet dog. Do you like to keep the dog in a closed room all the time or do you let it be free? Do you want the dog or caged bird to follow your wishes? Or would you rather have it fly, on its own? If you really love it, if you really know love, do you want to become a master, a controller? Would you say that take my permission before doing all this?

Listener 1 (L1): Sir, then why our parents do this to us?

AP: You may be a parent but you are a man or a woman first, a person first. Just because you’ve become a parent, doesn’t mean that you have suddenly gained wisdom. You are what you are. It’s your culture that has taught you that just because a man or a woman is a biological father or a mother, he becomes worthy of reverence. Look at yourself, I mean you are grown-up men and women. Accident may have it that you become a father or a mother in one year's time. Will that mean that you have suddenly become enlightened?

L1: No.