God has Handed Wife for me.

Meaning: According to the line of Athervaved 14/1/52 —, O wife! God has handed you over to me. The responsibility of maintaining you lies with me. Let us both have children and live up to hundred years.

Message: The responsibility of a happy home-life lies with both husband and wife, although of course, the responsibility of the husband is more because the wife leaves her family to join the husband's family. God the Supreme Father has created the opportunity for the union of two souls and the conduct of both must be excellent. By doing this, happiness in family and good luck are achieved. Good luck of married life does not lie merely in getting married, but there should be loving adjustment between the husband and wife and only by that type of behavior, permanent happiness is achieved. Good luck remains stable where there is mutual sharing of love and happiness or sorrow between the two. To maintain this happiness of married life, it is necessary to maintain this tradition and to have healthy children. In this way both remain happy and achieve longevity with good luck.

For a happy future of the bride-to-be, it becomes necessary to evaluate the qualities of the husband-to-be. A worthy, learned and addiction-free man can carry the burden of a successful and happy family. He should not only be highly knowledgeable and with good qualities, but simultaneously physically strong and free from bad tendencies, bas activities and addictions. Addictions are like poison in a family. A man trapped in liquor, gambling, etc destroys the family's happiness and peace, and gets insults and bad name, and along with him his wife also undergoes mental pain.

From a practical view-point, the wife's area of work is within the home and the husband's area of work is outside the home. His responsibility is to look after the family with a proper display of his worthiness, learning etc. The woman's work area lies in properly organizing the home. It is the woman's duty to make proper use of money earned honestly by the husband to maintain house, cleanliness etc and to feed the family. Both must make proper adjustments in their above duties and make arrangements to run the family satisfactorily within limited means. It is the wife's duty to maintain a cheerful atmosphere within the family even by bearing hardships. A man is not as skilful as a woman in organizing the home. A heavenly atmosphere prevails in a neat home

A man must be prosperous as far as food-grains and other means of comfort are concerned. He should be bright and cheerful. Only such husband can fully satisfy his wife and keep her cheerful.

Good Health Comes First

The recently concluded FIFA World Cup football in South Africa caused worldwide excitement. Indians were over taken by the passion of the game even though India was not participating in the event.

It is easy to get infected with the spirit of the game in a globalize world with its vast media networks that enable people to watch the game even at odd hours. Often such infectious spirit drives us to indulge ourselves on the material plane and remain immersed in superficial aspects of life. Drinking beer and watching football in Germany might have temporarily taken its people away from the humdrum business of life and made them feel elated for some time. But every sphere of life, including the sphere of sports and games, must explore the infinite dimensions which impact human existence and about which we are not adequately aware.

When Swami Vivekananda returned to India in 1897 after his historic trip to America where he addressed the Parliament of the world's Religions in Chicago in 1893, he delivered a series of lectures. In one of them he linked the attainment of spirituality to football. He said to the youth: "You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Bhagavad Gita." Good health is the first step to strive for perfection. It involves overcoming weakness and acquiring confidence and spiritual dignity. It means cultivating self esteem.

Scripture reading is not sufficient if we re driven by frailties and temptations. Exercise is the key to achieve higher and finer objectives. Vivekananda was giving precedence to the individual's right to quality health which can provide access to many other wonderful realms. He said that Indians remained lazy because they were deprived of strength and energy. He explained our inability to work in terms of our physical weakness. He even painfully noted that the root cause of selfishness and disunity among Indian was our weakness manifested in fragile body and spirit. He earnestly pleaded for measures to strengthen our physical and mental health.

A scholar saint of worldwide fame, he advocated that health considerations must precede the quest for religion. "Our young men must be strong, religion will come afterwards. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman when your body stands firm upon your feet, and you feel yourselves as men," he said.

Passion for football must promote good health and purity of mind. The pursuit of sports and games will truly help us realize the essence of life which often gets overwhelmed by existential compulsions and loses its meaning and significance. Utkalmni Gopabandhu Das, a close associate of MK Gandhi, had said that mere excellence in the field of football and cricket will not make a nation. He meant that nation building involves building of character and cultivation of values. When Swami Vivekananda linked spirituality with football he was stressing as much on the ability to play that game as the capacity to realize divinity, a far more exalted goal than that of mere nation building. What is required is the balanced blending of physical and spiritual dimensions. It is indeed a coincidence that on the sesquicentennial years of swami Vivekananda's birth the world cup was held in South Africa.

Heavenly Atmosphere from the Family

Meaning: According the line of Athervaved 7/36/1 — let us husband and wife, look at each other with the gaze of love, always speak sweet words and reside in each other's heart. Let us be two bodies but with one mind only.

Message: What is the aim and ideal of marriage? Right from the beginning of civilization, why is this institution of marriage still continuing? If satisfying only the sexual desire is the reason for marriage, then this deal is very costly and troublesome. In this deal both sides seem to be heavy losers. Like the oil-miller's bullock tied to the grinder's beam and moving round and round throughout 8 to 10 hours, man also is crushed under the drudgery of earning for the family and the woman ruins not only her health and personality but also her life in the vicious circle of producing children. The aim of marriage is never like this. If that was the aim, the organization of the human society would have been completely destroyed and had been at a level lower than that of animals.

Marriage is a spiritual endeavor. This is a union of love which is nourished on the high ideals of self-denial and generosity. This is for men of goodwill and men who are brave. For a happy home-life, the life of the would-be groom and the bride-to-be should be of a high level, and both should be persons with quality and virtue. The groom should know the Vedas, properly educated, cultured and tolerant. The bride-to-be should be pure and impressive. With internal cleanliness of the body, the mind and intellect become pure. If the mind is clean, then the intellect and the mental tendencies too would be pure. With the body's inner and outer cleanliness comes the purity of conduct, good qualities develop and the light of knowledge and determination spreads around. The test of man's life is based on knowledge and character. Bright men and learned women, proven true on the above test, can achieve spiritual progress by joining in marriage and by living a 'yagyiya-life'. If the bond of marriage is making on the basis of capacity, learning and worthiness, then the life of husband and wife becomes happy.

The situation in the present times is indeed very strange. Maximum importance is given to pomp and wealth, but inner beauty (i.e. virtues) and personality in the form of qualities are ignored. As a result generally dissatisfaction and distrust are seen. In the absence of real sympathy, warmth and unity, despite living together, they live like lifeless strangers. They remain deprived of the inner joy and enthusiasm of the happiness, naturalness and tolerance of married life. A woman attuned to modality turns the peace of home into restlessness.

Husband and wife are complementary to each other. The objective of a successful family-life will be achieved if both consider each other venerable and work diligently for the success of marriage with mutual faithfulness, closeness, service, honor, cooperation, goodwill and generosity. For this holy objective, the husband and wife must be completely loyal to each other, and not think of any other woman or man.

By doing this, a heavenly atmosphere will be created in the family.

Heavenly Atmosphere from the Family

Meaning: According the line of Athervaved 7/36/1 — let us husband and wife, look at each other with the gaze of love, always speak sweet words and reside in each other's heart. Let us be two bodies but with one mind only.

Message: What is the aim and ideal of marriage? Right from the beginning of civilization, why is this institution of marriage still continuing? If satisfying only the sexual desire is the reason for marriage, then this deal is very costly and troublesome. In this deal both sides seem to be heavy losers. Like the oil-miller's bullock tied to the grinder's beam and moving round and round throughout 8 to 10 hours, man also is crushed under the drudgery of earning for the family and the woman ruins not only her health and personality but also her life in the vicious circle of producing children. The aim of marriage is never like this. If that was the aim, the organization of the human society would have been completely destroyed and had been at a level lower than that of animals.

Marriage is a spiritual endeavor. This is a union of love which is nourished on the high ideals of self-denial and generosity. This is for men of goodwill and men who are brave. For a happy home-life, the life of the would-be groom and the bride-to-be should be of a high level, and both should be persons with quality and virtue. The groom should know the Vedas, properly educated, cultured and tolerant. The bride-to-be should be pure and impressive. With internal cleanliness of the body, the mind and intellect become pure. If the mind is clean, then the intellect and the mental tendencies too would be pure. With the body's inner and outer cleanliness comes the purity of conduct, good qualities develop and the light of knowledge and determination spreads around. The test of man's life is based on knowledge and character. Bright men and learned women, proven true on the above test, can achieve spiritual progress by joining in marriage and by living a 'yagyiya-life'. If the bond of marriage is making on the basis of capacity, learning and worthiness, then the life of husband and wife becomes happy.

The situation in the present times is indeed very strange. Maximum importance is given to pomp and wealth, but inner beauty (i.e. virtues) and personality in the form of qualities are ignored. As a result generally dissatisfaction and distrust are seen. In the absence of real sympathy, warmth and unity, despite living together, they live like lifeless strangers. They remain deprived of the inner joy and enthusiasm of the happiness, naturalness and tolerance of married life. A woman attuned to modality turns the peace of home into restlessness.

Husband and wife are complementary to each other. The objective of a successful family-life will be achieved if both consider each other venerable and work diligently for the success of marriage with mutual faithfulness, closeness, service, honor, cooperation, goodwill and generosity. For this holy objective, the husband and wife must be completely loyal to each other, and not think of any other woman or man.

By doing this, a heavenly atmosphere will be created in the family.

Ideal Family

Meaning: According the line of Athervaved 3/30/2 — in an ideal home, children are obedient to their parents. The parents are well-wishers of their children. The husband and wife's mutual relationship is sweet and happy. Only such families always thrive and are happy.

Message: On the basis of the Vedas, the rishis (sages) have divided the human-life into 4 'ashrams'. The four ashrams are - brahmacharya ashram, gruhastha ashram, vanprastha ashram, and sanyas ashram. Considering a life-spam of a hundred years, these ashrams have been specified. Only in the Vedic religion, these ashrams of 25 years each have been categorized and this is the specialty of the Vedic streams of thought. The word brahmacharya is made of two words i.e. 'Brahma' or God and 'aacharan' means conduct. Thus it implies the conduct as followed by God. The second meaning of brahmacharya is celibacy. Thus the combination of two meanings implies the attainment of physical, mental intellectual and spiritual strengths, through celibate living up to attainment of 25 year for a successful material and spiritual life. During gruhastha ashram which means the life of a householder, the above powers are used and the man employs his earnings in deeds connected to a householder's duties and to fulfill to his wife's and children's needs. Then he reinforces his powers in the 3rd phase i.e. vanaprastha ashram through 'brahmacharya' (i.e. celibacy), self-study, japa (i.e. recitations) and tapa (or(austerities). In the sanyas-ashram he distributes to the society his acquired knowledge, wisdom and experience. This organization of a man's life into four ashrams is a very great specialty of Vedic religion.

If brahmacharya ashram is the foundation of life, then gruhastha ashram is a beautiful building constructed on it. Gruhastha ashram has its own importance, usefulness and achievements. In gruhastha ashram, the sentiment of self denial gets strengthened. The family members with love and cooperation for each other are eager to bear hardships for the sake of other members of the family. And in what words to describe the great sacrifice of a woman? She is the very incarnation of self denial. As wife, sister, and daughter or as mother her self denial contributes to the divine joy in the family. A restrained life contributes to excellent health. The householder making a living through pure means maintains sweet relationship with his relatives, associates to get the facilities for making his life happy, peaceful prosperous, and so also the society.

A family is made up of more than one person living together. Thus besides the husband and wife, there are; son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, aunt, uncle, grand-father, grand-mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law etc. The sweetness and purity of relationships between them creates an atmosphere of a special cheerfulness, happiness, joy and lively bustle. If there is a closeness of love and trust between the husband and wife, then the feelings of love, affection, faith and service for each other will be created. All will think of the interest of each other and will do beneficial work, and the situation of giving importance to money above everyone else, including family members, will not arise. With a sense of belonging, generosity and cooperation, all will serve each other and there will be joy and happiness in the family.

Only love and friendliness are the foundation of an ideal family.