Matru Devo Bhava
Pitru Devo Bhava
Acharya Devo Bhava
Athithi Devo Bhava
The above verse is from
Taittiriya Upanishad. It reveals the importance of Mother, Father, Guru in
one’s life. A mother carries the child in her womb for nine months and delivers
the child to the physical plane of existence, nurtures the child in the initial
phase. A father carries the child in his mind, mentors and delivers the child
in the mental plane of existence and the child becomes a grown up individual. A
guru carries the grown up individual and delivers them in the spiritual plane
of existence.
Marriage, as a social
institution, was instrumental in providing a safe and positive environment for
the growth of the children. Children need the presence and support from both
the Mother and Father. Children look up to the Father as a role model. Sons
will eventually become like the father and Daughters, when the time comes will
look for a companion like their father as Fathers are their first Hero.
India
has been aping the west, taking in the worst and is on track to overtake the
Western nations. Politicians are banking on the youth, a valuable asset, but
with an eye on women votes have been treading a dangerous path. Biased laws
have been framed on the basis of biased surveys (which don’t take inputs from
men) or even on the basis of a single incident, blown out of proportion by a
well-orchestrated machinery of Media and foreign funded women NGOs. Family, the
basic building block of a society and in turn the nation is being wrecked,
resulting in homes becoming battlegrounds.
USA
and other feminist leaning nations have allowed the break-down of marriages in
the belief that economy will improve due to split of the nuclear family. Single
mothers get more benefits from the Government, resulting in further
incentivizing of not having Fathers around the children. Media too has shown
fathers in poor light as incompetent or incapable and who need their wives to
take care of them as an additional child in the family.
The
family courts have discounted the importance of fathers and have given custody
to the mothers and financial responsibility, visitation rights to father,
reducing him to a provider and a stranger to their children. Children instead
of having the loving support of both their parents find themselves as being
used as pawns by their Mothers in the custody battles. The emotional bond
between the children and their father too gets broken in time.
Effect of fatherlessness has
been studied in the United States and in brief, the US statistics are: children from fatherless homes
are more likely to be poor, become involved in drug and alcohol abuse, drop out
of school, and suffer from health and emotional problems. Boys are more likely to become involved in crime, and
girls are more likely to become pregnant as teens.
A
society wherein Men will not marry as the risks outweigh the benefits and Women
will find it difficult to get married as they aren’t inclined to marry down is
not very far off. One can only hope that a course correction will take place.
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