Parivaar (Family): The Art of Living Life

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“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” — “the world is my family.” Indian culture teacher us this motto, i.e. to treat all beings, animate and inanimate, in the world as our family members.

Our small family is run by a father and a mother. The father works and earns money, and with it the mother runds the household. Both look after the children in the best way possible.

In the Hindu pantheon there is a famous family or Parivaar — that of Lord Shiva comprising his consort Parvati and children Ganesh and Kartik. If we look at the vehicles or vahanas used by this family, we find each one is an enemy or prey of the other, but the composite picture shows a unified family without any sign of animosity. We should take Lord Shiva’s family as an example.

A family togetherness depends upon the role each member plays, and the members’ sacrifices, devotion to ideals and respect to family values form the ladder to success.

The Kogatas have also seen Lord Shiva’s family as the ideal, and have beautified this book with pleasing illustrations of the divine parents and children in different activities and moods, followed by charming and delightful verses.

Mr RN. Kogata and Mrs Lalita Kogata have probably the world’s biggest creation and collection of more than 9,000 types of statues/idols and paintings of Lord Ganesa. They run a Ganesa Gallery as well in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Other books authored by them are Maa — The Mother, Pita — The Father, Pati — The Husband in the Eyes of Wife, Patni — The Wife in the Eyes of Husband, Insaan and Marriage Rituals in India.

The Kogata couple have already created 1,000 different paintings of Lord Ganesa based on the 1,000 names of the elephant-faced god.

Mr Kogata is a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary by profession and Mrs Kogata is a post-graduate and a part-time Company Secretary. They have two sons, Devashish and Kushagra. Devashish is also an artist and has already made more than 700 pencil sketches on Lord Ganesa.

It is said that perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to his country and to the mankind is to bring up a good family. Remember, other things may change us, but we start and end with the family and the happiest moments of life would be the few which we all pass at home in the bosom of our family.

The family is the cornerstone of our society. More than any other force it shapes the attitude, the hopes, the ambitions, and the values of the child. And when the family collapses it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale the community itself is crippled. So, unless we work to strengthen the family, to create conditions under which most parents and children will stay together, all the rest - schools, playgrounds, public and private concern will never be enough.

In a family, we talk together, together, we laugh together, we cry together, love is shown, suffering is shared and the love for each other is never impaired.

We have plenty of examples even in our mythology when breakage or separation of family for any reason has made the family unhappy or even destroyed the whole family. We know about King Dasharatha, father of Lord Rama, whose family had suffered badly after the action of Kaikaiyee, wife of King Dasharatha. Rama and Laxmana along with Maa Sita had to leave for dwelling in the forest; King Dasharatha died remembering Lord Rama; Bharata, brother of Lord Rama never accepted to become the king in the absence of Lord Rama, Moreover, the family never returned in its original shape even after the return of Lord Rama from the forest. Ravana had to face the consequences after his brother Vibheeshana left his Kingdom, Lanka, and ultimately lost the battle to Lord Rama and even lost his life. Kauravas and Pandavas were never happy and peaceful after separation due to the ambitions of Duryodhana, the eldest amongst Kauravas and it even resulted in the death of all Kauravas and five sons o Pandavas, besides many other.

Each family has moments, happiness and emotion. Moments that show love and kindness. Family is everything family is always going to be there for you, family is the people you trust, family is the kind of people who care a lot about you, family is the first people you come to if you have a problem, just remember that family is going to be there, no matter what in tough times, in everything.

No matter what you’ve done for yourself or for humanity, if you can’t look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?

Inspired by these basics of a family, this book is a small try by us to express our thoughts and importance of having a family with the usual expectation of blessings from all of you. We prostrate before our parents, Shri Bhairav Lal and Smt Kanchan Devi Kogata, and Prof. K. M. Nuwal and Smt Kamla Devi Nuwal, for their beloved blessings for reaching this stage.