FULFILLING MARRIED LIFE

Among all the streams of yoga, grahastha Yoga (yoga of married life) is also one. If one gives a serious thought to it, one would realize that raising a family is indeed a very important, and yet relatively simple yoga. Accomplishing this yoga renders enormous joy and illumines the path of worldly fulfillment and spiritual progress. Here we cite some tips for adept practice of this unique yoga.

Fundamental Tenets of Grahastha Yoga

A child learns several primary activities at home. More than half of the skills that are needed in life are also learnt at home. Our sadhana of inner-refinement must also begin at home. The best laboratory to train life to attain greatness, self control and selflessness and to become cultured and service oriented is home itself. It becomes very convenient to do all this at home because in family life there is natural love, sense of duty, mutual dependence and cooperation. Home is a stable place and is secure from the prying eyes of strangers.

A disciple of Grahastha yoga must always contemplate in the following way:

·         My family is my hermitage - the most holy place for my sadhana.

·         The rituals prescribed to me are - devote my energies and best efforts always to develop my home like a beautiful, fragrant, fertile garden.

·         My devotion to God is to fulfill the responsibility entrusted to me by God for watering, and maintaining this garden and help it flourish.

·         I do not consider any member of my family small and unworthy of deserving of my service, and I do not take undue pride in being the owner, master, leader or the breadwinner of my family.

·         My benevolence and selflessness is in devoting my service to the upbringing and personality development of each member of my family.

·         My self-surrender is to serve others with absolutely pure feeling of dutifulness, without expecting anything in return.

·         My penance is to provide happiness and comforts to my family members even at the expense of my personal happiness and comfort.

·         My yagya is to enhance peace and happiness in this world by making each and every member of my family a refined, truthful, honest and responsible individual.

·         My religious vow is to make my conduct and behavior so pure and idealistic that it would silently inspire everyone to follow me and become virtuous.

·         My self-restraint is to raise my family within the rightfully earned means of income.

·         My aradhana (service to society) is to be always filled with love, benevolence and compassion, and to enhance happiness, joy and unity in the family and my neighborhood.

·         My worship is to have complete devotion towards living idols of God in the temple of my home and to adorn them with ornaments of virtues, noble nature and good conduct.

·         My sadhana is true, my feelings towards my sadhana are genuine and sincere, and my soul knows that I am truthful.

·         Like a true unattached karmayogi I draw my happiness and satisfaction from the sincere efforts I put into my sadhana without worrying about their success or failure.

·         I have taken an oath to be truthful and righteous, and I would forever try to uphold it with all sincerity.