A NARROW OUTLOOK

Many people—and this is particularly so in the East—know only

one sort of culture. This is what can be called ‘family culture’. This ‘culture’ is all about earning money and meeting the insatiable demands of family members. For many people, this is their only purpose in life.

The greatest damage that this ‘family culture’ causes is that it severely

narrows people’s vision. Their interest and concern is limited just to

their families. The only thing that they think about is how to satisfy the

material desires of their families. They don’t ever consider it necessary

to think beyond this. Not many of them will, for instance, spend time

reading or meeting people other than their relatives and learning and

intellectually benefiting from them. If they step out of their homes, it’s generally to go to their workplaces or to entertain themselves or to go out shopping. They have no interest in doing much else. Intellectual development is the farthest thing from their minds.

From the materialistic point of view, people stuck in the morass of this narrow ‘family culture’ might appear to lead a comfortable life, but they are victims of intellectual backwardness. If you try talking to them on any serious topic, you will immediately discover that they have no intellectual depth.

They know little, if anything at all, of the realities of the world and the

fundamental problems of life. They may look like humans, but they are

actually just well-dressed animals.

Ideally, family life should be structured in such a way that it helps people

in their intellectual development, and not be a continuous obstacle in

this regard, as is often the case.