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THE WAY OF LIFE
accordance with this Acharyasamhita (codes of conduct) you make your lives sacred and sublime. You will attain the worthiness for carrying out special spiritual austerities.
The sixteenth ordinary principle is "the worship of the father and mother". This ordinary principle is relative. If parents are virtuous and if they do their duties towards their children properly, then they are worthy of worship and adoration. Respecting and adoring such noble parents and rendering service to them are the sacred duties of children.
Parents should think not only of the welfare and happiness of their children in this life but also of the welfare and felicity of their children in the other world. That is, parents should also think of the spiritual welfare of their children. They should guide and organize the lives of their children from the point of view of their other-worldly welfare. Such an organization is possible only if there is an awareness of the fruit of every action. "If I perform this action it will bring me such a fruit". Our mental propensities, our words and our actions bring their respective fruits in the other world. The fruits are of two kinds; they may be good or evil. People should have a knowledge of both the kinds of fruits. While they are doing some action they should not allow the light of that knowledge to go out. Only then can people perform actions that bring worldly as well as the other-worldly welfare.
Parents should first of all think of the health of the members of their family and their own health. They should see that food-habits, residence and the standards of living are such that they do not affect the health of the family. Food-habits should be adapted to the various seasons. At the same time, they should eat the food that agrees with their constitution. The father and the mother in the family must always give their guidance to the family in these matters.
BE CAUTIOUS LEST YOUR MIND SHOULD GET POLLUTED
Secondly, parents should think of the mental welfare of the members of their family and their own mental welfare. They
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