Why should we respect the elders

 “Every person in this world deserves a story of their very own.”

This quote is true, everyone in this world deserves a story written down about them. This quote means that the experiences that someone has got, have something really important and useful for the other people around them.

In India, Elderly people are always and have always been given priority and respect. Even at the times when the Vedas were written, aged people were respected, protected, and prioritized as if they were a treasure. And ever since then, we have in our culture, that the elderly are respect-deserving. The story of Shravan Kumar in Ramayana is an excellent example. Shravan Kumar took his blind parents all through India to fulfil their wish of travelling to all the Tirth Sthans of India. The whole book of Ramayana, Ram’s exile, is totally based on the fact that Ram respected his elders and motivated others also to do so. Other literary marvels of India, also teach us the same virtue.

We are taught to respect elders not because they have done something for us. We are taught to respect elders because they have more experience than us. Their experience is what makes them respectable, not their age or their doings. They can teach us something that only they know about, and they know best about it. Then come their deeds, and then comes our humbleness towards them that makes them honourable for us. 

Many children, leave their old parents alone at home or in an old age home. Some have a valid reason for that, that they cannot handle the expenses of themselves together with their parents. But some, only think of their old parents who are incapable of doing anything at home, as a burden on themselves and decide to put them away from the rest of the family. I don’t think that this is a right decision of those people. When we were young, then our parents took care of us, at the best of their capability. So it’s our duty to atleast serve them in their old age so that the can also be happy about their children.