Home of Light

A friend who recently returned from visiting close relatives shared a touching story with me. In the mind of most people, when old age arrives, it is the children who should take good care of the parents. But what happened to this family is the reverse, the parents who grew old, they even have problems taking good care of themselves, but touchingly they must also take care of their daughter who is suffering from mental illness.

If the parent can grow in such a difficult life, in a sincere and genuine way, this suffering can be transformed into a deep spiritual journey. But what happened to the above mentioned parent, they experience anger everyday towards the daughter. They keep thinking and yelling that the daughter has brought a heavy burden in their old age.

The spiritual question that arises after knowing this, where does the soul go after death, if someone has such a dark old age? And it is not the task of this article to judge the others. The task of this text is simple, to present some spiritual reflections in order to save as many souls as possible.

After studying from a number of unlucky families who have problematic old age, it can be said, in old age they have turned far away from the light because someone was not skillful enough when they were young. Some of problematic parents use the children as a garbage can where they throw away all of the stress and dissatisfaction. When the child's mental garbage is full, by then soul children grow in a very dangerous journey.

Deeply learning from here, it is very important to think again and again to treat children as psychological garbage can. The world of work might be hard, the world of social interaction might be rare of light, the world of competition might be dark, but never throw away your psychological wastes to the kids. Especially because it will only send dangerous disaster to the old age.

That is the reason why some of the friends whose children are still young, they are often shared a message like this: "it is much easier to take good care of the children when our body is still healthy, compared to take good care of  the damaged old children when our body grow old and weak". It is a kind of spiritual preparation to the old age.

Having realized this, it is worth rethinking again and again to grow in the too competitive environment. The excessive competition makes someone bring a lot of psychological garbage to the house. At the same time, deeply understanding that children are soul gardens where we will take shelter in old age. Like taking good care of small trees, if children can grow in a healthy way, they can be a safe and healthy soul tree in old age.

For that reason, having high ambitions for the children is good, having a hope that the mistakes of the parents will not happen to the children is also good, but do not ever use children as garbage cans. Never force children to be totally the same as their parents. It's like preparing for the burning old age.

The most recommended step in this case, learned as early as possible to treat children as children. Not to force them to conform totally to the tastes of the parents. When they want to play, let them to play. When your children like to draw, let them draw. When the kids love sport, give them time to do what they like.

In a simple but deep language, children are not the property of the parents. Children are seeds of light sent by the future. The task of parents is simple, to water the seeds of light, to give them a conducive environment, to let them blossom in their own way. As a result of it, old age can be transformed into a home of light. It is a kind of old age which is full of blessings and singing. As water in the river naturally flow into the infinite ocean, those who meet home of light in old age will naturally meet the infinite light after death.

Author: Gede Prama.

Photo Courtesy: Twitter @Drc_19.

Proofread by: Kirsty Spence.