1. Family members as thieves

    …family means rogues and thieves. Whatever you want, they'll take away. The pickpocket takes from your pocket and he becomes a criminal, and when the wife takes thousand dollars from your pocket, you do not consider her to be criminal. You laugh, "Oh, you have taken the money?" "Yes, I've taken." The business is a pickpocket. But in one case we say "criminal," and one case we say "friend." The business is the same. Svajanakhya-dasyu. Actually thieves and rogues, but we have named them "relatives." Jnanagamya: They are just like us, they are related to us. We are also thieves and rogues, and they are related to us. This is family relation. Their only business is that you earn money with hard labor, and they'll take away. Their business is to take away.

    >>> Ref. VedaBase => Morning Walk at Niavaran Park — Tehran, August 8, 1976