Listening To Earthly Parents And To Heavenly Parents

Once a boy wanted to accept the spiritual life, and the boy's mother did not want this at all. She was protesting and protesting. But the son was not listening at all to his mother. The boy came to a very good and very sincere seeker with the hope that the seeker would give him some advice. The seeker said, "You must keep your mother happy." This seeker had himself displeased his own mother by entering into the spiritual life.

Then the boy's mother came to the seeker and said to him, "You are such a good man. I am seeing you and I am getting such joy. But my son is so bad! He is not listening to me at all. Can you not give him some advice and tell him that it is good to listen to his mother and father?"

The seeker said, "I am the wrong person."

"Why?" the mother asked.

"I am following the spiritual life against the wishes of my father and mother. How can I give your son the advice you wish when I am doing just the opposite?"

The mother asked, "Is there anybody who can help me?"

"Yes," replied the seeker. "Please come to my teacher. He will be able to help you."

The seeker brought the mother and her son to his spiritual Master. He told the Master what she had requested and added that she was suffering very much.

The Master said, "I am the wrong person to advise your son. My parents were against my accepting the spiritual life, and I did not listen to them. What can I do? How can I tell your son, 'You must listen to your parents,' when I did not listen to my own parents?"

This spiritual Master had an old lady as a disciple. She was about ninety years old. She said, "I am the right person to help you."

The mother asked, "How can you think that you are the right person?"

"At the age of seventy, I joined the spiritual life, so then I did not need my parents' permission."

Everybody started laughing. She was such an old lady! Why would she need the permission of her parents to join the spiritual life?

She said, "I am so lucky that I did not need my parents' permission. In fact, they were not even alive."

Then the spiritual Master said, "All right. I am telling you that we have earthly parents and we also have Heavenly Parents. Often we have to make a choice between the earthly parents and the Heavenly Parents.

"Father can say, 'Do this!' Mother can say, 'Do not do this!' Then you have to make a choice. You cannot please both at the same time. Similarly, our inner Father is telling us to do something. But here on earth, our mother may be saying just the opposite. Then, unfortunately, we will not be able to please both at the same time.

"The inner Father is your son's inner voice telling him to accept the spiritual life. You, his outer mother, are telling him, 'No! You must not accept the spiritual life!'

"Your son is definitely pleasing his inner voice, which is God the Father. You have to give him the freedom to choose. He is helplessly lost between you and his inner Father."

The spiritual Master added, "When I accepted spirituality, I consciously chose the divine Father within me. My disciple who brought you here today did the same. His parents also did not want him to accept the spiritual life. But inwardly he was constantly getting messages from the divine Father within him, so he disobeyed his parents, and chose his inner voice, God.

"Your complaint is that your son is not listening to you. This is true. If you feel you are right, then you must pray to God and let God change your son's mind. This is the only way. After praying to God, you will see that your son's disobedience is no disobedience. Your son has been all along listening to his inner voice, which is God Himself. Believe me, one day you will be extremely proud of your son."