51 What Is the Ideal Home?§
The home is our fortress. It keeps us safe and holds the family together. Here the mother is the Shakti Deity & the father is Siva. Children are the devas, growing stronger & more loving each day.§
SHUTTERSTOCK§
The ideal home is a place so magnetic and harmonious that it’s difficult to leave. In a true home, family members enjoy love, kindness, sharing and appreciation. They help and support one another. It’s a place of selflessness and togetherness, where each person has time for everyone else. It is the duty of the parents to turn a house into a home. They do this through their loving care of each other and the children, and their worship in the shrine room. This builds a spiritual vibration, giving the home a temple-like atmosphere. The Gods are worshiped in the home. Devas, guardian devas and ancestors are honored and invited into the home. All the rooms are kept sparkling clean. Puja is done every day in the home shrine. Whenever possible, meals are taken together, preceded by the food-blessing chant. The family observes the Hindu festivals together in the home. Devotional songs are sung and traditional music played. Saivite art and artifacts adorn the rooms. All this creates a secure, wholesome living space, a refuge from the harshness of the world. Harmony is a fragile vibration which the family protects by seeking to see one another’s point of view, finding points of agreement and avoiding argument and harsh words. All disagreements are settled before sleep. Guests are treated as God, and hospitality is given generously. Children can help their parents keep the home strong. They assist during the morning puja and annual festivals. Gurudeva recommends a weekly “family home evening,” during which all members sit together for dinner, make plans, play games, share interests, express appreciation for one another and enjoy family togetherness without TV, digital entertainment or other distractions.§
GURUDEVA: The devas can live within a home that is clean and well regulated, where the routine of breakfast, lunch and dinner is upheld, where early morning devotionals are performed and respected, a home which the family lives together within, eats together within, talks together within, worships together within.§