Question: When children reach adolescence, should they still follow their parents' "law"?

Sri Chinmoy: In various countries, especially in India, when children reach the age of thirteen or so, the parents see and feel the functioning of the mind in their children. Before that they saw only the vital impulse and the children made no regular, concentrated effort towards any particular project. But now, although the mind has begun to function in their children, these parents right to the end try to advise, shape and mould their children's lives. They feel that just because they are parents, they have more earthly knowledge than their children. Again, when the children obey their parents, in most cases they don't lose their freedom, for freedom in the ultimate sense is joy. If by obeying their parents they get satisfaction, then that joy is infinitely more valuable than the so-called freedom that is enjoyed by the juvenile world in the West. Here the parents give their children license to do whatever they want to do. But the freedom-joy that some juveniles enjoy is bound to be followed by frustration, which is a common story.