God once gave this commandment to mankind through Moses. But it has caused unspeakable struggles of the soul. How many a child, how many an adult, has struggled hard not to violate this commandment in the gravest way. How can a child honour a father who degrades himself to a drunkard, or a mother who, through her moods, unbridled temper, lack of self-control and so much more make the hours very bitter for the father and the whole house by her whims, and make it impossible for a calm mood to arise? Can there be any honour in a child honour for parents when it hears them harshly insulting, deceiving, or even beating each other? Many a marital conflict has often made the commandment a torment to the children, making it impossible for them to fulfil it. After all, it would only be hypocrisy for a child to claim to honour a mother who behaves much more kindly towards strangers than towards her own husband, the child's father. If it notices in her the tendency to superficiality, if it sees her sink in the most ridiculous vanity to the spineless slave of every fashionable folly, which so often can no longer be reconciled with the concept of serious, high motherhood, which robs all beauty and sublimity of motherly dignity ... whereupon must a child then still find voluntary reverence for the mother? What is there in the one word: "Mother! "What does it demand. A child who is not yet poisoned must unconsciously perceive within himself that a human being with a mature, serious spirit will never come to the decision to expose his or her physical body merely for the sake of fashion. How then can there be any sacredness in the mother for the child! Natural reverence for the mother sinks impulsively to the empty form of a customary duty, or, depending on the upbringing, to the self-evident social politeness, thus to hypocrisy, which lacks any stirring of the soul. It is precisely this soul-stirring that contain warm life! Which is indispensable to a child and accompanies it like a safe shield as it grows up and steps out into life, protecting it from all kinds of temptations, and remaining inwardly a strong refuge for it if, it ever encounters any doubts. Even in old age! The word “mother” or “father” should always awaken a warm, intimate feeling, from which the image, in full purity, stands worthy before the soul, warning or approving, as a guiding star in the entire existence on earth!
And what a treasure is now taken from every child if it cannot honour its father or mother with all its soul!
But this torment of the soul, however, is again only caused by the incorrect conception of the commandment on the part of human beings. Incorrect was the previous view because it limited the meaning and made it one-sided, whereas nothing that God sends can be one-sided. But what was even more incorrect was to have distorted this commandment by supposing to improve it according to human understanding, and to have made it even more precise by adding: "Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother!" This made it personal. This was bound to lead to error, for the commandment in its proper form is only: “You shall honour your father and mother!"
It does not mean individual, specific persons, whose nature cannot be determined or foreseen from the outset. Such absurdities never occur in the Divine Laws. Under no circumstances does God demand to honour something that does not necessarily deserve to be honoured!
On the contrary, this commandment comprises a concept of fatherhood and motherhood instead of personality. It does not, therefore, address the children first, but the parents themselves, demanding of them that they honour fatherhood and motherhood! The commandment imposes an unconditional duty on parents to be fully aware of their high task at all times, and thus also to keep in mind the responsibility that lies therein.
In the beyond and in the Light, one does not live with words but in concepts.
For this reason, it may happen that when these words are reproduced, a restriction of these concepts occurs, as is visible in this case. But woe to those who do not respect this commandment, who do not make the effort to know it correctly. It is no excuse that it has been so often misinterpreted and misperceived. The consequences of not obeying the commandment were already apparent at the time of conception and the entry of the soul. Things would be quite different on this earth if people had understood and fulfilled this crucial commandment. Completely different souls could then be incarnated, for whom it would not have been possible to allow a decline in morality and ethics to such a degree as it is today! Look at the murders, look at the wild dances, look at the orgies into which everything wants to escalate today. As if it were the crowning of the triumph of sultry currents of darkness. And behold the uncomprehending equanimity with which one accepts and even promotes the decline as something right or something that has always existed.
Where is the person who strives to recognize the Will of God correctly, who seeks to grasp the extensive greatness while soaring high, instead of stubbornly forcing this great Will over and over again into the miserable limitation of the earthly brain, which he made the temple of the intellect. He thus forces his own gaze to the ground like a slave walking in chains, instead of raising it upward with the gleam of joy to meet the ray of knowledge.
Do you not see how poorly you place yourselves in every conception of all that comes to you from the Light? Whether it be the commandments, the promises, the Message of Christ, or even the whole of Creation! You want to see nothing, recognize nothing! You do not seek to really understand anything! You do not take it as it is, but try desperately to reshape everything again and again into the lower views to which you have surrendered for millennia. Free yourselves at last from these traditions. The force to do so is at your disposal. At any moment. And without you having to make sacrifices. But with a jerk, with an act of will, it must be thrown from you! Without holding anything back any of it in an amorous glance. As soon as you try to make an intermediary connection, you will never become free from what has been up to now, but rather it will draw you back again and again tenaciously. It can only be easy for you if you separate everything old with one cut and thus step in front the new without the old burden. Only then will the gate open for you, otherwise it will remain firmly closed. And that only requires a really serious volition. It happens in a moment. Just like awakening from sleep. If you do not immediately rise from your bed, you will become tired again, and the joy of the new day's work will slacken, if it is not completely lost.
You should honour father and mother! Let this now be a holy command to you. Honour fatherhood and motherhood! Who realizes today what great dignity lies in this. And what force to ennoble humanity! People who unite here on earth should be clear about this for once, then every marriage will really be marriage, anchored in the spiritual! And all fathers and mothers will be honourable according to the Divine Laws!
For children, however, this commandment will become sacred and alive through their parents. They will not be able to do otherwise than to honour the father and mother from the soul, no matter the nature of these children. The very nature of their parents will compel them to do so. And woe then to the children who do not completely fulfil the commandment. A heavy karma would be laid upon them; for the reason for it is then also fully given. But in the reciprocal action, observance will soon become a matter of course, joy and necessity! Go therefore and observe the commandments of God more seriously than you have done so far! That means, observe and fulfil them! So that you may be happy!
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