Family are formed in two ways—1. through blood relation, in other words by children being born to parents and 2. by people interested in some particular thoughts, principles or philosophy coming together.The family consisting of parents and their children is regarded as a household or a family in a conventional sense. People who share similar feelings, thoughts and aspirations too come close together and become just like a family. When even people like thieves, dacoits,gamblers, addicts, etc. can develop a bond of comradeship between one another owing to their similar likings, nature, traits and pursuits,there should be no reason why people influenced by spirituals feelings, ideas and activities wouldn’t develop a family kind of affinity with each other. The family unit formed of blood relatives is a hereditary family while a family formed as a result of people having similar feelings is called a knowledge family or a guru family i.e. a family affiliated to a spiritual teacher.
In ancient times, gotra i.e. clans or ancestry were formed by way of both the above modes—on the basis of people being born in the same lineage as well as people getting affiliated to a particular guru traditions. The renowned rishi clans (gotra) of Kashyap, Bhardwaj,Garga, Vashishta, and so on can be found in all four castes, i.e. Brahmin, Kshatria, Vaishya, Shudra. This may make one wonder how the descendants of each rishi happen to exist in all four castes (when the original rishi would have belonged to only one of the four castes).The reason being, those clans not only have the descendants of the same lineage by birth but also have those who happened to join in as disciples (irrespective of their race or caste). That is why the clans of rishis can be found in all four castes. The bottom line is that we shouldn’t think only about developing our hereditary family but should also take care of developing and expanding our guru family and its traditions.
✍🏻 Pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya
📖 Yug Nirman Yojna – philosophy, format and program -66 (3.51)
ॐभर्भुव: स्व: तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यंभर्गोदेवस्यधीमहिधियोयोन:प्रचोदयात्।।