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You must provide to the members of your family, the necessary food, the necessary clothes and the necessary residence. You must satisfy these basic wants of the members of your family.
*If you have enough money you must take up the responsibility of helping your friends in poverty, your sister who is a childless widow, old and enlightened people and noble people who are in destitution. If you do not have the means to provide assistance to all these people, you have to support your parents, your wife and your children whatever may be your condition.
*Is not service to family a kind of social service? Is your family separate from the society or the nation? Why do people neglect their families and desire to render social service? If they render social service, they will secure honour and prestige. At home, they cannot get these things.
* Never neglect those who seek your refuge and protection. You must try to instil into them the principles of noble conduct. Be cautious in respect of their culture and conduct.
DISCOURSE 68
The Supreme ocean of compassion, the great scriptural scholar, Acharyashri Haribhadrasooriji expounds in his work Dharmabindu, the eighteenth ordinary principle of the grihasthadharma namely, "Taking care of those who seek our refuge and protection".
You have to take care of those people whose well-being is your responsibility. You have to give protection to your parents your friends and relatives who seek your protection. In case, you are incapable of giving protection to all these kinds of people then at least you have to give protection to your parents, your obedient wife and your children who cannot stand on their own feet.
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