In plain words
‘I am married, Swami. I want a son,’ he asked. So two years later a son, too, was born. When the son was born she gave up her job. The expenses at home kept growing. In the third year he came to Me. ‘Swami! It is six years now since I joined the job. I have had no promotion. I want a promotion,’ and with that he came. Now, though this boy was foolish in the affairs of the world, in all that concerned Swami he was full of Bhakti and śraddhā. ‘My boy, you are going through troubles. Be sure you go on conducting yourself well. I will bless you,’ I said. The moment he left, the promotion came, poor fellow. After that, for some five years, none came. For some time after the promotion came he stayed happy. As much promotion as came in this office, at home too the promotion of children went up. There came to be five children. Well. Again, after six years, he came. ‘Swami! I want no family life at all; if You give me a small job in Your āśrama, I will do that work. Family life is very hard; I cannot bear the children's pestering. This wife lays all sorts of blame on me, and there is no happiness at all for the two of us,’ he wept bitterly. ‘Family life has seized me like a great serpent,’ he said. Then I said, ‘My boy! Was it you yourself who chose to seize that serpent, or did the serpent come and seize you? Tell Me,’ I said. At this young age, with no discernment between good and bad, our Viveka gone void, we fall into a foolishness that cannot weigh the eternal and the passing, and become prey to many kinds of hardship and sorrow. So, never falling prey at all to such foolishness, putting faith in the divine to some extent, recognising the responsibility owed to our parents, we must take up our learning so as to reach the state where we keep our honour and dignity; but thinking ‘learning, learning’, we must not merely defy our parents, cast off every rule of morality, burn our honour and dignity to ashes, and by our own selfishness set about throwing our life into the fire. We must live our life on morality and honesty. So let life come, let it fall away; let money be got, or not be got: money comes and goes, morality comes and grows.