In plain words
You must not hurt anyone with harsh words. You can't always oblige, but you can speak always obligingly. This is what you must learn first of all. When your mother comes and says, ‘Where did you go, son?’, you must not answer harshly, ‘No, no.’ ‘Mother! I went to such-and-such a place’: say it sweetly, like this. How happy your mother will be! When your mother asks what you went and did, you must not say harshly that it is none of her business. With harsh words like these we keep hurting the minds of our parents. We must not hurt them like that.
Mātṛdevo bhava
The mother is most important. First of all, you must express gratitude to your mother. You must give your mother joy. For what? Your blood, your money, your food: all are the gift of your parents. Having received that gift of your parents, if you do not give them gratitude, to whom else will you give gratitude? You did not select your mother. She was born before you. You must give her honour. The one you selected is your wife alone. She is one born after you. The one born before you is your mother. You must give gratitude to the mother born before you. From her alone you came forth. You must accept her as Divinity itself. So you must not regard as equal the wife you selected and the mother who first protected you. In personal matters, of course, you may look after your own relationship. But in family matters, honour goes first to the mother. That mother bore hardships and made you as big as this. So in Vedānta it was said, ‘Mātṛdevo bhava, pitṛdevo bhava, ācāryadevo bhava, atithidevo bhava’. Above everyone, first of all, they placed the mother. Without that mother you would not be. So you must try to speak to your mother softly and sweetly. After you go from here, if you tell your mother the news of this place in sweet words, with humility and obedience, she will be very happy. Not only with your parents, but with your friends and relatives too, you must bring about a right change. This is the service you must do. What is service? ‘To teach the good to others is service’. To do good to others is service. This is Swami's aim. I want nothing else. But here I must speak of one more thing.
Even sannyāsīs crave foreign lands
‘Many swamis from Bhārata are coming to foreign countries. Swami! Come to our country’: so many invite Me. But I do not like it. If one cleans one's own house and sets one's own house in order and then goes to another's house, it becomes possible for them to listen. One must stay in India, give those in India the strength and capacity they need, and then go to another country. Now many swamis have no such feeling. When they want money, they take passports to foreign countries. First, are they all biggers! Or beggars! Think about it yourselves. Ammas and swamis are all going abroad. Using Swami's name, they beg for alms in many ways. This is very wrong. None of you must believe such people. Swami never had any such wish. What He wants is only one thing. You must rise to good progress. The country must become good. You too must proclaim this in those countries. If you are truly great, set your own house in order. In your country, make many people better. Ahā! Today in Bhārata there is a little oddity. When any master of a house feels a longing to eat vaḍas or pāyasa, he goes into the house and tells his wife. ‘Today is my uncle's death anniversary. Make vaḍas and pāyasa’, he says. In the same way, whenever swamis want money, then they set off for America, for Germany, for Italy. This is very wrong. This is not work swamis should do. A snake has two tongues. They call it a poisonous serpent. I have only one tongue. Give no opening at all to such people, who behave so indecently and so disgustingly. If they have sacred feelings, they need not go. They can bring others here. All of you have come and gathered here with so much Prema. Who gave you an invitation? Out of your Prema you came here. As ants gather at jaggery, you have come and gathered. In the same way, you who have known the sweetness feel no hardship in the journey. The ants must all come to the jaggery; the jaggery must not go to the ants. So, if the jaggery goes to the ants, it is not real jaggery. It is artificial jaggery. Everything has become artificial.