[Points: What we owe to our parents—their affection and care and sacrifice for us—the normal feelings of a child for his parents how one should behave towards one's parents, especially when they are old and infirm.]
There is hardly a blessing in life which we do not owe to our parents.In our Indian way of life, they are held in the highest regard. One of the greatest of Indians, Pandit Iswar Chandra looked upon his parents as a living god and goddess. This is typical of the Indian spirit.
The parents, between themselves, make the home what it is. They make it a nest of love where we grow up. The father is the bread earner. The mother is a ministering angel feeding the children, looking after their comforts, watching by their sick-beds. There is no limit to their self-sacrifice so that the children may fare well in life. The father spends his last penny to give his children a good education. He denies himself anything so that his children may make a better start in life than he did. The mother does not mind selling her ornaments, if it comes to finding a good match for her daughter or to meet the medical expenses of a sick child.
Naturally, so much love and sacrifice cannot be lost on a child. Nobody is dearer to a child than his father and mother. He takes all his troubles to them. He looks to them for shelter. He feels a sense of security so long as he has his parents to watch over him. That, in fact, is a child's greatest need. Left to himself, he is pitifully weak and small in this big world.
When the child grows up into a man, it is up to him to do as much for his parents as they did for him. A son should be the prop of his family. He should lighten his father's burden as much as possible. When the parents grow old and infirm, he should offer them whatever ease and comfort he can. In western countries, the old people live apart. Their grown-up sons live in homes of their own. But that is not the Indian practice. So long as the son has a roof over his head, he does not shirk the duty of looking after his old parents. These ties of love and duty make the family life wonderfully pure and sweet and charming.
