8. O BROTHER, THINK OF THAT TRUTH HERE:-

1.Who is your wife? 2. Who is your son? 3.Of whom are you? 4.From where have you come?

There is no denying the fact that the institution of home, the bonds of family relations, etc., have all a beneficial influence on individuals, and they can certainly liberate man from his egocentric selfishness. And yet, they are themselves, even at their best, very limited. They can never be an end in themselves. Man and woman living together in mutual love and respect as a couple, and growing to the dignified status of av father and a mother, have much to learn from each other. 

Both get well trained by their mutual association if they live in a true spirit of togetherness. Bot, ordinarily, in their folly, they grow into such an unhealthy state  of attachment to each other that the very balm becomes a poison. According to Hindu sastras, man and woman in wedlock must live, no doubt, in a spirit of togetherness, but Acharya insists: "Let there be a space between the two"-- let there be no clinging attachment to each other, which is unhealthy for both.

Family is the field of trial and test, wherein the individuals can grow into healthier personalities - but it is not in itself  the final destination. Live life with detachment at home: it is but life's college. Mistake it not as life's main field of achievement.

If all philosophical declarations cannot be practically lived, philosophy itself become Utopian idealism, preached by a poetic visionary, and therefore, must  fail to influence life or culture. To live in attachment and to sink the family mire seems to be natural for man and woman. Mind takes to it  as readily as the duck of water. Therefore, the philosophy must prescribe a technique by which one can grow into the required state of detachment. This technique is described here.

Wife:-

Acharya Sankara asks us to enquire : who is your wife? who is your son?  On analysis, we shall find that the beloved wife was a simple daughter of her father, until in marriage  you were tied to her. Life being so uncertain, nobody can foresee who is to part first, and in case it is your lot to precede her in death, there again she will be living as a widow. Thus in life man and woman are born independently, and each one must die and depart alone. In the pilgrimage from birth to death, in the travel from life to death, at a certain junction each met with each other, and thereafter travelled  together, no doubt, serving each other---as all good-hearted  travellers always do. The companionship parts when the destination is reached. By this analysis, one shall realise the right attitude one should have in maintaining a healthy relationship with the world.   

Son:-

So too is the son. When you analyse your real relationship, you shall  see that the son has become yours only after his birth. Before that it was foetus. Before that it was a seed in your loins, and that itself came from the food you assimilated. The food came from the earth. Thus a 'clod-of-earth' in its various manifestations became the fruit, the food, the seed, the f of a clod-of-mud.of another period of time and place, and the child, and, therefore, is nothing but the product of a clod-of mud.One piece of mud then gets attached to another piece of mud! How strange! how powerful is delusion --maya!

To whom do I belong? :-

The deluded fool, in his extreme attachment to things of the world outside when he lives, expressing an incapacity to think rightly and act properly, is also a mad one in life.