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Sriram, Manjula V • June 2, 1997 


 Once again I post with an ignorant mind.  I hope you will all
 forgive me if I have made any mistakes.  Please do correct
 me, as I know that this post will have things that don't
 make sense are incorrect.

However, it takes a great deal of spiritual and emotional maturity to
recognize the importance of faith and bhakti and the temporal nature of   
this
world.  Most of us, especially as teenagers or young adults in the US,   
have
a number of other thoughts in our naive minds that can take us onto all
different kinds of tangents, which are not only contradistinctive to our
spiritual nature but indeed can be dangerous from a worldy perspective,   
as
well.

  In my opinion, more than maturity, it takes strong will and family
 support to be able to handle such contradictions.  Lets take for   
example,
 a lot of children growing up in US or for that matter in India away from   
the
 mother land ie for telugus Andhra, tamils TN etc .. are not attempting   
to
 learn their mother tongue.  I know of a lot of families in Chicago that   
we
 are in touch with, the kids are about 9 or 10 years of age and are well
 versed not only in their mother tongue but also hindi.  I bring this   
point
 up because, as I was growing up, maybe when I was 8 or 9, I used to
 think that I don't need to know the mother tongue, but as I have grown
 older I have come to realize that (I correct myself from the last post
 of saying Indians) being ethnically from India, we should not only know   
our
 mother tongue but may be a few other Indian Languages in order to
 learn more of the culture.

 Maturity, whether its emotional, social, or spiritual as we grow older.   
 Even at
 the age of 23, I feel I am not mature enough in any of these areas.  I   
agree as
 young adults a lot goes in our minds.  One of the most important thought   
in
 our minds during the ages of 14 through 18 is the thought of seeing our
 friends in schools socializing in a way not likely approved by our   
parents.  I
 faced this problem, growing up in a very orthodox family, where my   
parents
 have always taught us kids that no matter where you go, don't forget   
your
 culture and always try and stay close to it.  I recall, many evenings   
with my
 parents when I used to argue the importance of socializing and getting
 together with friends.  What I did not realize then and realize now is I   
probably
 will say the same things to my kids that my parents told me.  Atleast   
the
 next generation will have the facilities of the internet to be able to   
share their
 thoughts and experience.


Parents often try talking with their children about these matters, but   
such
discussions can only lead to arguement.  In my view, what is needed is   
some
sort of objective mediary who can present ideas based on our spiritual
      teachings that can re-direct an individual

 Honestly, I don't think when teenagers think any mediators will help.
 I can say from my own experience, that for teenagers grass is greener
 the other side.  I know this for a fact because 4 years ago I was a
 teenager myself having an identity crisis.  Now I talk to my cousins
 in India about my experiences and try to help them out in their thought
 process, but I get the same reply that I once gave "We will learn
 from our own experiences."

back to the correct path by showing him/her that our strength and purpose   
are in
Perumal alone.

 For this to happen it will take a long time, reason being that until the   
Americans
 here understand the hindu way of living, the teenagers will not want to   
live
 by our cultural norms.. this for them may not be normal.

While it is true that priests are dedicated to Bhagavad Kainkarya, we   
should
also recognize that they too have spouses, children and probably also
undergo wome of the ups and downs of life that we do.  Be that as it may,
however, their priestly duties and training justifiably keep them away   
from
taking on the added burden of serving as counselors.  That is the reason   
I
suggested that some of the veterans in our community serve in such a
capacity, being mentors and role models for the younger generation.

 I would like to disagree here, because the catholic priests are not   
married.  If they
 are able to give advise to the common people without experience, why can   
it not
 be possible that even though our priests are married and have children,   
they may
 not go through these thoughts, as they believe in leading a simple life   
and the
 children at a very young age devote themselves to Bhagvad Kainkarya.
 A very simple example is my husbands cousins and uncles, still live like   
they
 did in olden days.  They still have kudumi etc, and during my talks with   
them
 in the last one year, I have realized they don't go through the thought   
process,
 that we did when we were their age.  My inlaws are not priests or   
anything, they
 are normal educated citizens of India, but have devoted their life from   
a very
 young age to bhagvad kainkarya.  I agree that the younger generation   
needs  mentors,
 but to be very honest..  I would not be comfortable if my children went   
and spoke
 to an outsider and have them come as a mediator between us and them.   
 This is
 because believe it or not .. we as Indians(may be as hindus, I am not   
sure)
 believe that family matters should stay in the family, as the family is   
the foremost
 thing that will come to ones aid when in need, our future generations   
will have
 parents who grew up here, who have gone through the process.  Which   
brings
 me to say that we as parents will be in a better position to answer our   
kids
 queries, than our parents were, since they grew up in India amongst our
 people, who understood their way of life.  I repeat myself by saying   
that
 by giving ourselves to Sriman Narayan we will be happier.
 
 I would like to quote from an email I received yesterday :

 "The purpose of life in any form and in any world is to serve Sriman
 Narayana commonly known as God.  That is the only purpose of our
 existence because we "belong" to Them i.e. Sriman Narayana and Maha
 Lakshmi."
 
 "We are controlled by Ishwara and we control achetana to some extent
 to fulfill the purpose of Ishwara."

 " If all catholics relied on the pope to practice their religion, then   
how many
 people can he alone preach to?"

 Manjula V. Sriram
 Programmer Analyst
 Rockwell Automation
 414-382-0530