Sadhguru speaks about one of the most important duties a child has towards their parents: to remind them to turn inward, and strive to access something beyond the physical. He explains how even the process of having a son in India was to ensure one’s ultimate wellbeing.

Full Transcript:

Sadhguru: You are evolving. (Laughter) You are evolving, you must help your parents to evolve because for an Indian person, I want you understand, the only reason why parents desperately want to have a son is because they believed that you’ll facilitate their liberation. You know this? Do you know this? Why? You don't know this? Why they want to have a son is, when you die, only your son will be there to set fire to you. He will do the karmas, he will do the kriyas. It's important because the girl gets married and goes away somewhere. See, today it's different, wherever she is, she will come back today if she… if you die. (Laughter) I didn’t mean… (Laughs) At least if you die, she’ll come back, but in those days if the girl got married and went to a faraway place, that’s literally the end of it. You rarely see her, okay? She is not going to come because you die because you can't keep the body if she’s going to walk two hundred kilometers from somewhere and walk and come, she’ll take five days and she will not come. She will… There’ll nobody to do the things that are necessary.

So always having a son was most important. He will be around; if you die he will do the necessary things so that your liberation will happen. So in pursuit of liberation unknowingly they bore you. Now it's time you remind them. This is an important duty for a child. As your parents are aging and if they don’t have the sense to come to their senses you must bring sense to them. You must remind them like I just now reminded you, you’re one year closer to the grave – your parents are much closer than you, isn't it? I mean it's a fact of life. If you miss this one fact, you’ll live a silly life, isn't it? Yes or no? If you miss this one fact, you are going to live an extremely stupid life.

So, as your birthday gift, you must remind them it's time they looked inward. They want you to… They don’t mind you being drunk, they don’t mind you being lost but they are afraid if you take a spiritual step you may not turn back, but they’re right on that. (Laughter) They know if you get drunk and if you fall on the street, you’ll come home. They know if you do whatever rubbish in the world, when you get hurt you’ll come home. They know if you walk the spiritual path you will never come home because there’s no turning back. You want to go somewhere. It is not that you won't go home. You will go home but they won't have the same bondage from you as they knew. They don’t have their hooks on you, suddenly you’re free. That’s something that nobody can tolerate. Please understand this. (Laughs) When I am bound you are free, I cannot tolerate this. When I am bound you should also be bound because I’m bound to you; why you’re not bound to me? So this is the whole game.

So as a son, this is one of your most important duties, to remind your parents that in their life it is important - they’ve done whatever they knew best till now – it is time that they turn inward, it is time they invested some time and energy upon their own inner well-being because if they don’t do this one thing, they will die miserably for sure. Yes. If you have not found anything beyond the physical, when the moment of death comes, terror is the only way; you have no other choice, isn't it? You don’t want your parents to die in terror; you want them to die gracefully, isn't it? No? So, you must turn inward. They must… You must make sure they turn inward.