Mata, Pita, Guru, Deva

In traditional Indian way of life, from birth till death, the mother, father, Guru, and God play different roles. The mother takes care of the initial growth of the child. The child's growth is her responsibility. A stage comes when the responsibility is handed over to the father. There ceases her control over the child, and has literally nothing to do with the child anymore. Henceforth, it is the responsibility of the father to aid in the mental growth of the child. The father is now both father and mother. This he does by providing for the elementary education of the child. The person learns all the temporal knowledge. Next comes the Guru. The father's duty is over once he hands over his child to the Guru. For one who has been passed to the Guru, the Guru then becomes father, mother and Guru. Guru is responsible for the atman, the soul. The spiritual evolution of the disciple is his responsibility. The Guru now takes care of all material needs of the disciple as well. He becomes everything for the disciple. This continues till the time the disciple gets spirital enlightenment. At this stage, the Guru introduces the disciple to God, who is nothing but the very essence of the Guru himself, or the Guru-tatwa. After this, the person is now under the responsibility of the tatwa, which takes care of him, forever. This Guru-tatwa is now the father, mother, Guru, as well as itself, sitting in the heart of the person, and guiding him, taking care of him, every moment.

Thus, we see a few things: 1. Clear demarcation of responsibilities, 2. How one introduces the person to another who can take care of further development of the individual. The mother introduces the father once her role is over; the father introduces the Guru once his role is over; and the Guru introduces the God, or Guru-tatwa once his role is also over.

In all this, the cooperation of the individual is a must for his own development. If the child refuses to eat, he cannot physically grow. If he refuses to study, he gets no education. If he refuses to obey what his Guru says, there is no spiritual evolution. Co-operation in the form of obedience is of greatest importance. In this sense, our growth is in our own hands. Unless we offer our co-operation in the form of obedience, we cannot grow. It is for us to realise that the one who is responsible for our growth knows what is good for us, and what is not, and therefore, what they say is in the best of our interests. Such a faith makes it easy for us to co-operate and make use of them as much as possible for our growth.