Prem Rawat Talks About the Family

Listen, if you had a son in school or a child in school that failed one year, you may still passionately look at that kid and go, OK, you know I haven't been paying enough attention to that child. I should pay more attention. Mommy, you should pay more attention. You know, da da da, let's go talk to the teacher. Maybe he can have extra tuition or whatever. Then he fails the second year. Mmmm. Maybe he's just a little slow, Then he feels the third year. Why he's a little bit slower than the rest of them? 4 years. 5 years. 6 years. After that, you're gonna start questioning whether he's actually related to you or not. (laughter) Maybe you would wanna talk to the mother and say, "Are you sure this is my DNA? Perhaps we need to have a medical blood test."

"We appease and work on appeasing so many in our family. We have our children, we have our relatives and, you know, that's a function we have to do, appease them. And if we do it right, perhaps they will try to appease us. It's a trade, (embarrassed laughter) let me scratch your back, maybe one day you'll scratch my back. But what if I have not appeased that part of me, the fundamental part of me. A gentleman once said to me, it was actually in an interview and he came home one day and as he entered his home his eldest son heard that he had walked in and he said, "Dad, I'm not going to school tomorrow unless you get me new shoes and unless you get me a new bag." And when his younger son heard the elder son make the demands, he came out with "Dad, I'm not going to school unless I've got new shoes and I've got a new bag." And when the wife heard two of the sons talking to the husband, she came out and she said "Here is the list and if you don't get the stuff, I'm not cooking for you tomorrow." - Prem Rawat Foundation Thank You CD 2005

They don't enjoy it, they can't enjoy it and nobody who else around them enjoys it either. You know it's like, you know, it becomes such a, it can become such a devastating experience and we have to recognize that opportunity in our lives which Guru Maharaj Ji gives us to have a meaning, to have a purpose."
Ashram Members Satsang Video

Cancun, Mexico, January 16, 1980
I mean, look at my children. I love them and it's beautiful. But is that really…? I know that I can't give my sincere love to them because that sincere love, that really sincere love, has already been dedicated to Guru Maharaj Ji. And that's the only thing I can be sincere about. That's the only real thing I can be sincere about. I mean, I hope not, but tomorrow they could come up to me and say "Ciao, pops," which happens to so many people.

Hans Jayanti, Kissimmee, Florida, November 8 1979, Evening
"In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer and …" I don't know what-all they say. All the things. And then comes that time when it's, "I hate your guts. Get out of the house. I hate you. You're terrible." Maybe that thing starts to happen in people's lives, like I was talking about that day: a clay mask, rollers in the hair, biting of the nails. All the things getting on each other's nerves. Husband leaves his clothes all over the place and the wife complains about it and the wife leaves her things all over the place and the husband complains about it. All that love only lasts till the honeymoon is over. After that, it's all finished and gone.

Public Program, Wembley England, 20th April 1988
Love your family, families are great, I have one, four kids, wife, house, two dogs, the works. What I don't have is a station wagon but the rest I do have both families, let's face it, can be very trying. You wake up in the morning or sometimes what happens that I've been on a tour and I come home and I'm very tired, I'm trying to sleep and the youngest one he has decided that day that he doesn't want to go to school. … It's very tough, it's very tough and it's like you're constantly in this, in this position with your family and you have to give to everyone what ever it is that they are looking for from you.
Élan Vital video

Shri Sant Yogashram, New Delhi, Hans Jayanti celebrations, November 9 1990
And this has to be borne in mind by everyone of us that if you want to have fulfillment in this life then you should begin with this Knowledge. You should be more particular about attaining the supreme happiness for your ownself and not too much concerned about your family, about the welfare of your family.
'Life Force', Volume 7, Issue 2 April-June 1991

TPRF 2005 CD, Track 2
We appease and work on appeasing so many in our family. We have our children, we have our relatives and, you know, that's a function we have to do, appease them. And if we do it right, perhaps they will try to appease us. It's a trade, (embarrassed laughter) let me scratch your back, maybe one day you'll scratch my back.
TPRF 2005 CD, Track 2