When we came to this human world, we had no one to help us except our parents. They are the first people who greeted us in this world, and they nurtured us, fed us, and they took care of us. Moreover, they sacrificed a part of their life on behalf of us. Parents are extraordinary people that we find in our lives. But we live in a society where parents are neglected, and they are not considered special people.

Our great teacher, the Supreme Buddha, taught us: parents are special people to our life. We have to consider those two people, our mother and our father as special people. The Supreme Buddha said: Brahmāti mātāpitaro- Our mother and father are like Brahmas. Who is Brahma? Brahma consists of four divine qualities. What are those qualities? Number one metta– kindness, karuna– compassion, mudita- appreciative joyfulness, upekkha- equanimity. These four divine qualities are consistent with the Brahma as well as our parents. They have metta- the kindness towards their children, karuna, mudita and upekkha. Our parents have all these divine qualities towards their children.

We need to give a special place in our life to them. The Supreme Buddha taught: 

Brahmāti mātāpitaro – They are like Brahmas. 

Pubbācariyāti vuccare- Parents are the first teachers in our life. 

They taught us how to walk, how to live our lives. They were our first teachers that we met in our life. We learned how to talk thanks to our parents, by listening to their words. Can we remember how our parents held us while walking? They hold us by the hands and they teach us how to walk. We learned to walk thanks to our parents.

Āhuneyyā ca puttānaṁ – They are worthy of gifts and offerings and veneration by their children. 

Even they come from a long, long distance, far away to see their parents. Ahuneyyā ca puttānaṁ- they are worthy of offerings. 

Pajāya anukampakā – Parents do have compassion, and they wish for the well-being of their children. 

They are the ones who love us the most in our life. They are the ones who always think about our development, our benefits, our well-being.

We have to respect those people until the end of their life. We have to respect them and look after them because we are in debt. Parents gave us our life and they took care of our life when we could do anything. When we were little babies, we could do anything in our life. What we have to do when they can do anything in their life, when they become old, we have to take care of them. We have to give respect to them. When we live with them, we should always respect them, look after them, take care of them and make them happy and proud by doing so many good deeds and helping them. If we give a big concern to them and if we help them and if we make them happy, we can live a wonderful and happy life by helping our parents.

Help your parents, take care of them, and live a happy life!