Gita 01.41 When the family is disrupted, the faith of the children is also devastated

Bhagavad Gita 1.41 saṅkaro narakāyaiva kula-jnānāṁ kulasya ca patanty pitaro ya īśāṁ lupta-pindodaka-kriyā saṅkaro narakāyaiva Krishna is now being told by Arjuna the consequences of the disturbance of dharma and the arising of adharmic people. saṅkaro narakāyaiva Varada Sankar was mentioned in the previous verse that when dharma is disrupted because the protectors of dharma have been killed, thereafter all that remains is for the people, for the conquerors to exploit the weak and when women are thus exploited, the result again of such exploitation is that there is unwanted progeny. Nowadays of course people try to stop having unwanted children through birth control, through abortion or whatever else.

In the past this was not that common and thus if there was forced intercourse, there would be children which would result from it. These children, it is understood in the broad Vedic tradition that those who are born of union that is adharmic, a union that happens in conditions of fear and animal emotion, animal lust, fear and terror on the part of the victim and animal lust on the part of the victimizer, animal lust, animal power, and then in that situation there is an enormous amount of distress that comes about and the children are born who also may frequently increase the stress. That means children are born who focus primarily on, whose consciousness may be low because the kind of consciousness of the partners, when they unite determines according to the Vedic understanding, the kind of soul that will be attracted and moreover when dharma is disrupted, at that time for the mothers to raise the child properly, to give the child proper impressions, samskaras, proper upbringing is extremely difficult.

When such women, violated women have to, even if they live, often they are stigmatized and their children are looked down upon and for such children to ever have a respectable position in society, to be able to even have healthy respect for themselves becomes difficult. Because of the negative way that society looks upon them, because of the resulting self-esteem issues, they fall prey to addictive habits, addictive and destructive habits and thus they end up becoming victims of their situations. So thus a tragedy of victimization continues, a tragic tradition of victimization continues from generation to generation.

And this is horribly unfortunate. To prevent such an eventuality, it is vital to recognize that none of us has the power on our own to restrain ourselves for a very long time unless the restraints are complemented by dharma. Dharma alone can't restrain us, but if our conscience is complemented by dharma, then restraining ourselves becomes easier.

But those who have never learnt dharma in their childhoods, when the family is disrupted, then for the single mothers, just taking care of their children itself is a herculean task. More than to speak of actually giving religious impressions to the children. It's not easy at all.

A fragmented home is a greater cause of godlessness than atheistic education. And thus the result in the long run is that people stay polarized. People stay polarized in the sense that they grow up inside their defensive shells, trying somehow or the other to find something to feel good about themselves and always living in fear that people will look down upon them and thereby not having the security to keep moving forward in their lives no matter whatever comes their way.

And actually such insecure people, they become adharmic because nobody has really given them a positive impression, perception of dharma. And when they become adharmic, the tradition of dharmic rituals such as offering worship to one's ancestors gets discontinued. And in some situations, the ancestors require subsequent offering of pious rituals done for their sake so that the ancestors can maintain their position in the heavens.

That is also a fear that Arjuna expresses over here that he is concerned about those who have gone before him, the ancestors towards whom he has responsibilities. He is meant to take care of their well-being by doing the regular rites for them and thus the rites will stop. And when society becomes filled with such irreligious children who are products of irreligious reunions, then they become, they make life hellish for both those who are destroyed families, the dynasties that are destroyed and even the destroyers of the dynasty.

Because the overall quality of society affects inevitably, inescapably the quality of our lives too. And unless we recognize this reality, we will not ourselves be able to move forwards in doing what needs to be done for our as well as others' well-being.