There has been an age old problem named ‘Generation Gap’. What exactly is it?
Osho used to say that the level of growth of an average human is never able to cross the age limit of 14 years. He says nature completes its work by that age by making one capable of reproduction and after that only the size of body goes on increasing and hair become grey but the mind gets stuck at the age 14! I agree. Looking around me and at myself I can vouch for this!

In hindsight, I tried to find out what basically has been the difference between me as a child or an adolescent and as a grown up adult. To my surprise there wasn’t much! In childhood I used to crave for toys and toffees and now for cars and money; or for that matter God, if that is going to give me some approval from the society. But craving remains there, then and now.

Then I used to fight with friends and mates over simple issues like which seat to grab in the class and now these fights are a bit sophisticated because they are over serious issues like parking lot, property, relationships etc!

All in all I have not been able to find any major difference, except biological, that differentiates what I was in childhood from what I am now. Talking about evolution, if the ability to make children, money and other materialistic things, earn a degree and run a family and the business can pass for evolution then yes I have evolved but otherwise not.

And there appears to happen no further change in the situation in years to come unless I decide to do so.

It may, therefore, be deduced that if I do not take any action now then even when I will be fifty or sixty I would still be at the same level of evolution as I am now or as I was at the age of say 14 or 15. Basically an animal!

Coming back to the topic of our discussion, imagine a father 50 years old and his son of age 20. Now the situation is that the father ‘thinks’ that he is matured enough at age 50 to take decision for his apparently immature son of age 20. On the other hand the son ‘thinks’ that he has grown up now and he is not 14 or 15 when his father used to tell him something and he used to agree over that. Now he thinks that he has grown up and he needs space!

Fact of the matter however remains that both the father and the son are nothing but 14 years old children. Had they realised this fact then there would have been no issue because both would know their limitations and no difference of opinion, fighting etc. would take place.

But the problem is psychological. Father thinks he is much older than the son and the son thinks that he has grown up now and needs independence. When both are actually 14 years old! Evolution of both actually stopped at the age of 14. After that both have achieved nothing by themselves other than what was given by the nature till a certain age that is 14 or max. 15, last being sexual maturity, which itself has been hard for both to contain, understand and handle!

This difference between the actual and psychological, wrongly called generation gap, creates an unending gap which can never be filled unless both the father/mother and the son/daughter try to evolve further than what nature has automatically given to them, through the only available means of meditation, and come out of their slumber and greet and relish life to its fullest potential.