Paramhansa Yogananda compared the householder path and monastic renunciation in the early editions of Autobiography of a Yogi. In accordance with his writing, “fulfilling one’s earthly obligations is truly the higher way, provided the yogi maintains a mental detachment from egotistical wants and plays his part as a willing instrument of God.”
Of course, Jesus did not imply that marriage is “the greater road” in and of itself. If considering marriage as a way to God, the earnest seeker must be prepared resolutely to abandon the well-traveled path of ego-gratification. In I Corinthians, St. Paul writes, “He who is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord, while he who is married cares for the things that belong to him, how he may please the Lord.
The biggest barrier to leading a more spiritual life, for many housewives, is the simple thinking, “But what can I do that is all that spiritual?” The challenge is the idea that practicing spirituality necessitates engaging in activities that are frequently referred to as “spiritual.”
What about picking up straws meant so much to him specifically? None, of course. His devoted attitude was what gave the deed its significance. A person who has internalized his or her thoughts sees God as being present everywhere and in everything.
In relation to one another, husbands and wives need to strive to perfect the divine aspect of their own masculinity and femininity, and for this, they need role models. The ideal couple for all time was depicted in The Ramayana, a great Indian epic written thousands of years ago. Rama epitomized the ideal husband; Sita, the ideal wife. Their examples are still valid today.
Rama displayed the masculine nature developed to perfection. He was high-minded, magnanimous, unhesitatingly truthful, strong in himself, committed at all times to what was right and true, ever ready to protect and defend the weak, forgiving of weakness in others, generous in victory, firmly committed to virtue, demanding of no one, fair-minded, reasonable, and wise.
Sita was divine perfection manifested as femininity: loving, compassionate, utterly loyal, supportive, motherly sacrificing; the counterpart of Rama in every virtue, but with softness and all-inclusive understanding rather than with outward strength. Each saw in the other, not the human personality merely, but a manifestation of the Divine, and each delighted in that manifestation in the other. Never did they observe one another for deficiencies in themselves.
One facet of the relationship between Rama and Sita will hold little appeal for modern men and women. Sita served her husband, and was obedient to him. Rama, for his part, accepted her service as ennobling both to himself and to her. For him, her obedience was a reminder to himself to live always in the truth. For it was to his expression of the truth that she gave her obedience, not to his human personality.
(Indeed, when Rama told her to remain in the palace, instead of following him in his exile in the forest, Sita reminded him lovingly but firmly that her place was by his side
