The institution of family, a group of related people living under one roof, has changed with time. But it is our responsibility to keep it. as the center of our happiness.

The Institution of Family
The home should be the happiest place we can ever know on earth, and a place that is a constant source of strength and inspiration. In it we have the closest and dearest relationships, which sustain us all our lives. But to create and preserve the happiness of the home requires certain qualities and attitudes.
 
Family is an institution of love, care, compassion and kindness. It brings progress, prosperity, peace and tranquility in the society. It nurtures values and makes human beings civilized. A family comes into existence by the coming together of a man and a woman in marriage. Their union creates a new family and a new generation. This family produces the tie of kinship and community, which develops into a large society. Family is the institution through which one generation prepares another, in line with general human desire that those who replace them should be better than themselves. Parents want to see their child, healthier, more educated, and better human beings than their own selves. All religions place great emphasis on the family and family values.
 
As societies have shifted economically from agriculture to industry, extended families have largely given way to nuclear families. Family values, also, do not remain fixed and they change in response to economic, political and cultural developments. They vary from country to country, and even among different households.
 
Before the twentieth century, for example, in most places and at most times, the idea of a married woman seeking status and recognition independent of her husband would have constituted a breach of family values. Many societies expected women to focus exclusively on household duties. Indeed the family is a sort of societal laboratory. Both research and experiments are carried out here.
 
While family values remain a rather vague concept, sociologists usually understand the term to include a combination of at least four principles:
  • Support for marriage as a lasting bond between one man and one woman; 
  • Family organization that has the husband as the head of the household and the wife primarily as homemaker
  • Parental responsibility for and control over children's education and discipline;
  • Responsibility for aged parents and interaction with other relatives. While in a typical Indian family none of the four principles is violated outright, the compliance is no more natural and voluntary. There lies the cause of stress. 
The crux of the institution of family is the blossoming of oneness in diversity. If there are ten members in a family, they will have their ten different modes of thinking and varying styles of working. Their emotions and emotional intensities may also be of various types. A family is all about living amicably in such a diverse environment and coexisting peacefully. We are happy with who we are. We respect others by accepting their race, religion, culture, opinions, hobbies or other interests as valuable to them. As we develop and express our various talents, we enrich each other’s lives peacefully. Variety brings connectivity to the family.
 
An important principle of identity or oneness is love. It may be illustrated by a tree having many fruits. One of the fruits of the tree of love is humility and another is gratitude. These two fruits are the reverential gifts of the younger members of the family to the elders. Another fruit of the tree is affection. This is a gift that the elders in the family give to the younger ones. It is only in a family where the younger members have a deep feeling of humility and gratitude toward the older members that the aged get honour and respect. In such an environment of mutual humility, gratitude and affection, a person lives a life of joy. On the other hand, life becomes a burden in a family bereft of these values, and ultimately the sweetness of life evaporates.
 
The seed of a family is the feeling of mineness (mamatva). Without it, a family does not come into existence, or even if it does, it doesn’t last long. We all belong to a family. Our family bonds give us our identity, a way to recognize ourselves with a culture and heritage of our own. We support each other, depend on each other, respect each other and comfort each other. We are also members of larger families -- our community, the human family, and the family of life on Earth. We accept the responsibilities of being a part of these families, only receiving what we need so that others may have their share, and helping to strengthen the family through our service.
 
Mamatva is a psychic instinct, linked to its opposite, the feeling of self-assertion. Everyone loves freedom. Even a child likes freedom, leave alone the grownups. If either the feeling of self-assertion becomes unlimited or dependence too long, we cannot create a healthy family. In order to get rid of the feeling of self-assertion or tendency of dependence, one has to make oneself free from mamatva. The feeling of self-assertion should not be allowed to become limitless.
 
The twin aphorisms of freedom and mamatva are: (1) The feeling of self-assertion should not take the form of unrestrained freedom; (2) Respect others’ freedom. The human tendency to enslave others is linked to a feeling of self-assertion and the feeling of self-assertion is linked to mamatva. The solution to this complicated problem is relinquishing the feeling of mamatva or possessiveness, or at least placing a limit on it. A healthy person is one who considers both mamatva and the relinquishment of mamatva from a relative standpoint.
 
The first step of our action plan is to build a healthy individual and the next step is to build a healthy family and a beautiful home using healthy individuals as its building blocks. Each person thinks differently and has diverse interests. Conciliation and coordination among different members of a family is indeed a tough task. The individual is not alone in reality. He carries within him a family of myriad ideas and thoughts. Ideas too never remain uniform but change constantly.