Priority

Priority

Being a single man, I have great respect for family life. I always insist that family is the first priority in God’s idealism for humanity. So, I too promote the importance of responsibility and commitment towards one’s own family first. However, like a single person, a family too cannot exist and function independently. Like all other human beings and institutions, its very identity depends upon its interaction and involvement with the outer society. So, however committed family people are to their own home first, they still have a wider responsibility to the outer society as well.

So, while taking care of all the responsibilities in a family, one blessing of family life is that an individual is not indispensable for the smooth functioning of the family. What I mean by this is that a person in a family can find another replacement when he/she has to choose between two equally important commitments. Whereas in a single person’s life, he/she has no such choice.

Of course, PRIORITY decides even in this. If two commitments demand the same attention, then the family person should decide based on priority. But when he/she excuses other commitments and responsibilities in the name of family responsibility and commitment, where he/she can be replaced by someone else, then it is mere laziness or a lack of responsibility towards the other commitment. Though we can accept other choices and priorities, if it is going to disturb others who are also involved, then no family person should use their family as a scapegoat to get rid of their responsibility to which they have already committed.

Dayanand Bharati 

Mathigiri, July 23, 2007.