Children As Parents Caregivers Or Wife As In-laws Caregiver According To Sanatana Dharma

I had posted a while back about whether a married daughter is responsible for caregiving of her parent(s) as well as to care for her in laws in the role of a wife.

Today I was listening to a spiritual discourse where the scholar says that our Vedas and shaatras say that the responsibility of caregiving for parents is not just the son's but the daughter has an equal duty to partake the role as a caregiver to her parent(s).

Just because a daughter is married doesn't mean that the sole responsibility for parents caregiving should fall on the son's shoulders.

At the end of it, it is the agreement that the siblings reach of course, but a daughter cannot simply wash her hands off her parents just because she is married. Similarly the son cannot pawn off his responsibility towards his parents on his wife unless she willingly and lovingly accepts it and does it.

The scholar further elaborated that a son may be a caregiver to his mother and daughter, to her father. The ancient scriptures give freedom of caregiving based on any gender.

However, only the son has the right to perform the last rites for his parents.

Now who decided at what point that it is the "duty" of daughter-in-law to take care of her in-laws? While I agree that if the Dil -ils relationship is good and she wishes to care for them of her own accord, then great. However no one and most definitely not the husband should force a woman to care for his parents. This is bondage and not love.

While I do not proclaim to be a vedic expert, the more I hear talks about our Sanatana Dharma, Vedas and shaatras, the more I am fascinated by how progressive are our ancient texts.

 

100% true Sir. The younger generation has always thought that even though we do worship Goddesses in the form of Shakti, the role of a woman has always been anything but idolized in real life. However even skimming the top of the sacred scriptures is eye opening!

 

Hari Sir

No one should force anyone to do anything. If kids want to take care of their parents or should come from their heart and the scriptures like @Viswamitra sir rightly said is only a guide. Every human being is given viveka by Him which indeed makes us so unique. We are the only species capable of making informed decisions. We know what scriptures say but the rest is up to us, making a decision using our buddhis and viveka.

 

I have to agree with @Viswamitra sir here that we live in a patriarchal society today because due to some reason the Vedas and shaatras are not disseminated knowledge. If we were empowered with this knowledge as kids, a woman will get the power, respect, appreciation, gratitude and everything else she deserves. We will all be living a much enriched life overall.