Mother's Day Talk, Asteya; Non Stealing and Ashtanga Yoga

I think I got to see clearly just how difficult the Yamas are today. At SRF Lake Shrine a nun led for Mother's Day, in celebration of the Divine Mother that features large in Paramahansa Yogananda's story.
But today she spoke from from Paramahansaji's younger brother's book, and told a story about stealing. It all seemed pretty innocent on the surface of things.
As a child, their family was at a party, and a little girl was playing with a stack of picture cards. (This was in India over one hundred years ago.) He became very desirous to obtain one. Just as the girl was leaving, she happened to drop one on the floor. He quickly picked it up and put it in his pocket.
Later in bed that night, he cringed remembering the card he had left in his pocket. Whereupon, his is mother who was preparing their clothes for the morning found it.
She waited until Father left the room, and quietly, softly called his name. Reminding him that taking something without the owners permission is stealing, she asked him, did he not remember the lessons taught him about not taking what was not his? Would he remember in the future to not take what did not rightfully belong to him?
Then she took the picture card, wrote an amends letter that seemed to my western mind to be disproportionate to the injury. She returned the card and sent sweets to the mother of the girl along with a note, siting that her son had stolen and begged their forgiveness.
The nun's talk began with the profound, moving idea that the parents' real role is to instill a relationship with god in their children, and help them develop and become confident through that connection. That the mother always intuits and fulfills the needs of her children.
Although the punishment seemed severe to me, it was exactly what that child at that time, in that family needed to set his dharma, his way. The success of his life, he himself a Guru, was based on being rooted from an early age in Asetya, non-stealing: the forth Yama of Ashtanga Yoga.