Pay Rent

Yesterday i went to Swamy's Ashram for Darshan. Bhajans were going on when we entered the Ashram. It was a pleasant experience. We waited for a couple of hours singing bhajans. A person next to me was singing whatever he could make sense of what he heard composing his own lyrics with a passion. Though at first i felt a little tinge of scorn for killing such beautiful words but then it dawned to me that he was immersed in the bhajan and was better than few other people who werent singing anything at all. Swamy came and i could catch a very distant glimpse of Divine Incarnate(i dont care what you people think or not). Well then a former Vice Chancellor of the excellent Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning gave a discourse. One thing he mentioned was in today's world people dont care about their parents while they ought to because they owe their existence to them. Well then he goes on to say you should rever your mother. "She provided you accomodation for 9 months. And you are obliged to pay the rent". Thats why they are called parents. Amusing observation but with deep significance. Your mother bore you while your limbs and body was taking shape and brought you in this world with life. And now here you are reading what I have written with your eyes and your whole body sitting in front of a computer and thinking with your brain. We should be indeed indebted to our parents for giving us life and bringing us up as to what we are today. We ought to take care of them and be loving to them. The word indebted is too soft a word, to describe the feeling one should have towards his/her parents.
The Vice Chancellor who delivered the discourse is an alumni of IISC.

One more thing he talked about was "Knowledge without compassion is inhuman and compassion without knowledge is ineffective". We see the world moving forward with many technological advances. Well they are making us lives easier but killing humanity in return. Just making our death easier. He talked about how todays technology without a human touch has led to impending calamities like global warming and environmental destruction. Its not enuf to a good engineer. Technical know how is required while Love for your fellow beings is necessary. The atom bomb is one of the cliched examples and you can find many more around you. Coming to compassion without knowledge is ineffective. Look around yourself and show compassion towards people or beings who deserve it. We should have the knowledge and intellect to choose where to chanellize our compassion. I may be too vauge in my statements but still looking for the deeper significance.