Hi friends, in this article I would to share about DOWRY MENACE with you all.

In most of the houses, the pain we inflict upon our family members and the sins, we are getting out of that is much.  Sons, daughters, daughters in law etc who neglect and humiliate their elderly parents; parents who indulge in their own pleasures and pastimes neglecting their duty of looking after their children; drunken husbands who torture their wives daily; brothers and sisters who do inflict pain on each other. Above all there are the husbands and their parents who torture young wives demanding unreasonable dowry. Let us at least reduce these sins if at all not possible to completely stop it.  Not only to human beings, even if you cause pain to animals that is also a sin.  Non- vegetarians-please think it over.

Among the selfless people, there are some who torture their wives and force them to get more gold and cash from their parents.  How highly sinful they would become through such mean acts like these? If the parents are rich and give voluntarily to their daughters there is no harm in receiving them.  But to pressurizing the poor parents and inflicting pain on them, who had with great difficulty and with much borrowed money performed their daughters’ marriage is really a big sin. In the marriage function, you pledge in the name of God that you would protect your wife from all mishaps difficulties and misfortunes, that you would share the joys and sorrows of the woman you marry  (This is the meaning of the mantras  chanted by the priest who  performs the marriage)  You make this promise in front of God Agni, in the presence of hundreds of your friends and relatives, and with Arundhathi and other holy planets blessing your union, you make her a part of yourself and of your life. But what happens within a short time?

You forget your promises; you forget that she is part and parcel of your life.  Your greed and insatiable desire come to the surface.  You demand your wife to get you money and materials; or your parents and sisters do it.  You sometimes join  them, and sometimes just let them tease her and pretend not to be aware of these things.  What happened to your promise made at the time of the marriage in front of Lord Agni?  But now you have forgotten it.  You cheat God by breaching your promise you torture your wife and her parents.  Are you not treacherous? Do you think, from the accumulation of these sins, you can escape God’s punishment? Never. Never.

In the society, some sections of people are weak and they are to be protected.  They are women, children and elders. It is our duty to protect them.  Even during war time, in the olden days, these sections of people were spared.  If anybody harmed these three categories, they will accumulate more sin.  In the same way, if anybody does well to them, they will accumulate more virtues. There is a saying “Even the ghost will show mercy to women”.  Will you not accumulate more sin by causing pain to this category? Please think.

The story of Emperor Sibi is familiar to all of us.  A hunter was in pursuit of a dove, wounded by him; the dove sought refuge with the Emperor.  Taking pity on the dove’s plight, the emperor promised to help it.  Later when the hunter found the dove in the hands of the Emperor, he demanded his bird back or an equal amount of flesh from the Emperor’s body.

The Emperor offered to give his flesh, rather than the bird back to the hunter.  Such an act of the Emperor Sibi is most laudable and unparalleled in history, considering the facts that the refuge is sought only by a bird (Not even a human being) and it was chased after only by a hunter who is no match to the status of an Emperor; one wonders whether the above incident is real or fictitious.

But you are cutting slowly the flesh of your wife who has taken refuge with you, leaving behind her brother’s sisters and also her parents whom she treats as equal to God.  Where do you stand? Cutting your wifes flesh – in contrast to the Emperor Sibi who sacrificed his own flesh for the sake of a simple bird! Can you escape the punishment from God for your treacherous act?

In Ramayana, in the final battle with Ravana  Rama was noble and magnanimous.  At the end of a day’s battle, Rama found Ravana without arms, with nothing to defend himself, with having lost all his weapons. Rama was not willing to kill his enemy who was unarmed.  Even though killing the enemy in the battle field is not a sin, and inspite of the fact that in the morning when the battle started Ravana was in possession of all the weapons Rama told Ravana to go and come back the next day to resume the war.  But the young brides who have come to live in a strange house  with strange in laws without having any protection and not even some consoling words, from anybody in the house are tortured by you and your parents.  How cruel?

That too what kind of wife? The wife who treats you like a God the wife  who feels  very much hurt and sheds more tears than your own parents  when you are in an hospital for treatment for an accident.  The wife, who will not hesitate even a second to give her life, to protect your life from death, if such the situation so warrants.  You are torturing such a good wife!

The best relationship in this world is the relationship between the mother and the child.  Even this relationship is sometimes secondary to the relationship between husband and wife. Your wife is the first person in this world to get affected very much with the news of a debacle to you.  Then only your mother comes.  When you are torturing such a good wife could there be a more treacherous act in this world than this?  You are doing this after all, for the sake of money.  Even a prostitute earns a few thousands in a night.  For that money you are torturing your wife, the wife whom you have married in front of Lord Agni, the wife to whom you have promised at the time of marriage in front of God, to protect her until your death, the wife  whom even the ghosts will forgive, the wife who has taken refuge with you treating you as God, the wife who stands before you without any sort of protection, the wife who is prepared to sacrifice her life for the sake of your’s .
Don’t you realise your treachery?
Don’t you realise your atrocity?
Don’t you realise how much sin you are committing?

After doing all this, can you imagine you can escape the punishments from God for these acts? You can’t escape where ever and to whichever corner of the world you go.
In the Western countries, there is absolutely no dowry menace.  Hence there is no sin committed in this manner.  But only in the third world countries like India, the people commit sin through dowry menace. Is it any wonder that India starves and stagnates? You cannot escape the punishments for the sins committed against young brides.
Those who indulge in dowry menace should realise that they are committing great sins. Why are you accumulating bags and bags of sins?  Is there any fool like you?

So lets decide or take a pledge that we will not encourage the dowry culture.