Generation Gap

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

Page 19

Dadashri: That is all right. It is quite normal. The reason why you have to explain to them is because you yourself do not understand. An understanding person needs to be explained only once. But do they understand when you do a lot of explaining?
Questioner: Yes.
Dadashri: That is the best way. You want to make them understand in whatever way you can. When you use force or authority, you are acting as though you are the only father in this world. (P.73)
How should a father behave towards his children? A father should never exercise the fear of power over his children or be overly strict.
Questioner: What if the children keep troubling him? Should he be lenient with them even then?
Dadashri: It is the father's fault that his children are troublesome. They only bother him because he is uncertified. The law of the world is that unless a father is unfit, the children would not bother him. (P.74)
Questioner: What if the son does not listen to his father?
Dadashri: The father should realize that the fault lies within
him only, and leave it at that. If you knew how to be a good father, your child would listen to you, but you really have no idea about how to be one.
Questioner: Once a man becomes a father, will his children ever leave him alone?
Dadashri: How can that be? That would be impossible. Just look at how puppies scrutinize their parents for the rest of their lives. They watch their father going around barking while their mother is the one that does the biting.
The father is always the one who is blamed because he is always the one who is vocal. The children will always tend to side with their mother. So I warned a man that unless he treated his wife well, his children would take him to task when they are grown up. This has been the experience of many fathers. Children observe their father when they are young and helpless and as soon as they grow up, they will repay him, no matter what it entails. (P.74)
Questioner: Does that mean the fault lies entirely with the father?
Dadashri: Yes, the father alone. When a father is not worthy of fatherhood, even his own wife will oppose him. He will learn his lesson the hard way. She may remain silent for the sake of appearances, but for how long will she succumb to