--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "suziezuzie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > My dad was an alcoholic. Naturally, I didn't realize this as a young > kid growing up but I knew he was different from other fathers. It was > about the age of 12 that I began to associate the bottle of liquor he > consumed every night and the transformation that took place that > became his drunk personality. He was the angry silent drunk who after > dinner would go around slamming doors and arguing with anyone who > said the wrong thing. I remember my mom asking me if I wanted to go > for a drive just to get out of the house. The funny thing is though, > that in the morning he never was hung over even after consuming his > normal half bottle of Vodka the night before. He was perfectly > normal, open and articulate as he prepared himself for work. He owned > and ran an electronic wholesale business and successfully bought up > cheap southern California property when it was cheap back in the > sixties. No one knew he was an alcoholic, no one except our family. > He kicked my brother out of the house when he was 21 and continued to > emotionally abuse my mother until that fateful day when I came home > from school and was greeted by my aunt who informed me that, "you're > dad has died of a heart attack". He was only 59 but I suppose the > fast order food, drinking and smoking eventually caught up with him. > I remember the strange feeling of walking into my house and seeing > all the people who worked for him along with friends. They all seemed > to be enjoying a cocktail party. I went into my room, laid down on > the bed and pretended to be sad. My brother came in and gave me a hug > but I didn't feel anything possibly because there had been no > feelings between a son and a drunk. I've never felt anything since > about him. My brother feels the same. My mother sometimes asks me if > I ever have any good memories of dad and I reply, "No, how can I, he > was a drunk". >
************* It's important to understand that anybody who had an abusive father or mother got that unfortunate circumstance because that was the karma one sent out in previous lives returning to oneself. There's a famous story in the Vedic lit about Prahlada, whose father was way- over-the-top abusive: "Hiranyakasipu could not kill his son by throwing him beneath the feet of big elephants, throwing him among huge, fearful snakes, employing destructive spells, hurling him from the top of a hill, conjuring up illusory tricks, administering poison, starving him, exposing him to severe cold, winds, fire and water, or throwing heavy stones to crush him. When Hiranyakasipu found that he could not in any way harm Prahlada, who was completely sinless, he was in great anxiety about what to do next." Even though Hiranyakasipu was such an evil father, Prahlada felt compassion for him, and recognized that his abuse was just Prahlada's karma returning to him (Prahlada: Bound down with the fetters in the form of my past actions, I am thrown in the midst of ferocious ones, demons) and expressed the desire that his father be forgiven, but Vishnu informs him that an enlightened son frees a father from hell: "Prahlada Maharaja said: O Supreme Lord, because You are so merciful to the fallen souls, I ask You for only one benediction. I know that my father, at the time of his death, had already been purified by Your glance upon him, but because of his ignorance of Your beautiful power and supremacy, he was unnecessarily angry at You, falsely thinking that You were the killer of his brother. Thus he directly blasphemed Your Lordship, the spiritual master of all living beings, and committed heavily sinful activities directed against me, Your devotee. I wish that he be excused for these sinful activities. SB 7.10.18: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Prahlada, O most pure, O great saintly person, your father has been purified, along with twenty-one forefathers in your family. Because you were born in this family, the entire dynasty has been purified. SB 7.10.19: Whenever and wherever there are peaceful, equipoised devotees who are well behaved and decorated with all good qualities, that place and the dynasties there, even if condemned, are purified. http://srimadbhagavatam.com/7/10/en1
