Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
23 January 2018
Sisters-in-law
“Makers or Breakers”
A brother’s wife is a sister-in-law to his sister. This implies that a brother’s wife could have a brother as well living with her parents. The significance is that sisters-in-law could have brothers.
Sisters-in-law will live daily life if the wisdom of prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa is understood by them. They may behave as if they have understood the wisdom in living daily life.
If they have understood the wisdom of prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa in daily life, they will, every moment of daily life, be in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa.
If they behave as though they understand the wisdom of prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa in daily life, their behaviour of prema, shanti, satya, dharma and ahimsa is unreal in the eyes of God or Satya Sai Baba.
If they have understood the wisdom of prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa in daily life, the sisters-in-law will treat each other as sisters. They will be in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa with each other.
If sisters-in-law do not speak to each other for some reason, it implies that they do not live in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa, but only behave as if they do live in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa. This behaviour is unreal in the eyes of God.
If a sister-in-law lives in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa, she will advise her husband to treat her sister-in-law as he would treat his own sister. If a sister-in-law lives in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa, she will treat her brother’s wife in the same way that she would like to be treated in her husband’s house.
If a sister-in-law lives in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa, she will make every effort to make her brother’s wife feel important in her brother’s house, just as she likes to feel important in her own house.
If a sister-in-law lives in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa, she will love her brother’s children as her own children. She will make every effort that her own children speak to her brother’s children with prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa.
If sisters-in-law live in the same house under the same roof, they will cook together in the same kitchen and live like a big family in prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa.
If sisters-in-law living under the same roof live in prema, shanti, satya, dharma and ahimsa, they are makers of a family. If sisters-in-law living under the same roof do not live in prema, shanti, satya, dharma and ahimsa, but only behave as if they do, they are breakers of a family.
The scriptures indicate prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa as values to be lived and cherished. The values of prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa are not cherished in the eyes of God if they are only behaved, but not lived.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
Editor’s Note:
Every human birth takes place within a family. There are no strangers to the living entity of a family, even in the most straitened circumstances. Few also are they who do not cherish the presence of their own family and would not wish for its well-being. In their deep understanding of the scriptures and regard for the wisdom therein, the wise offer each one of us this rare insight into the sanctity of family and its guardianship.
Julian Capper, UK.
German Translator’s Note:
Dr. Shankar points out in this wise article how, illusory it may be, the five values prema, satya, shanti, dharma and ahimsa point to enlightenment, though their behaviour is not enlightenment. The attempt to live those values makes the conditioning of the mind obvious. Instead of unconditional love or prema, the mind loves conditions. Instead of truth, satya, the mind is constantly trying to appear good and not bad, intelligent and not stupid etc. Instead of being in peacefulness, shanti, the mind is full of preferences and aversions which makes the ego restless, being lost in ups and downs. Instead of right conduct, dharma, the mind tends to do whatever needs to be done in order to profit the most of any situation. And finally nonviolence, ahimsa, is not what the ego naturally tends to be, because duality means conflict between opposites. However, the five values if kept in mind, reveal the ego and make man or woman understand the mind as illusory as it is.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.