Swami Shivapadananda on dealing with children
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.
Day 493
[Swamiji continues: the spiritual education of children]
With children the householder [lay devotee] must understand that he has to be a psychologist. If the child is going to break a glass do not tell the child, 'Don't break it.' Rather say, 'Ah, here's a chocolate, come and take it,' or 'Bring that book for me.' You have made the child do the positive thing and avoided the negative thing. Use psychology.
Do you know what psychology is? It is that which deals with the mind. And what is the mind? Use your mind. Most of you are using your hands.
Our great Rishis [Sage-Saint-teachers] gave children the virtues of truthfulness, non-violence, and mind and sense-control by presenting these ideals. The Hindu especially, knows that memory is the greatest instrument with which to remember God, to realise God. Memory. You have forgotten that you are gods. You think you are 'sheep' but meanwhile you are Brahman [indivisible Consciousness].
How do you train the child's memory? You tell the children stories and then, next day, you ask them to repeat them back to you. Unknown to the child, it is being trained in memory. The father or mother can also put a few questions to the child to build his intellect, his discriminating powers.
A sadhaka [spiritual aspirant or practitioner] never prays to God for health or wealth.
The brahmachari or student must learn the Gayatri mantra: Om bhur bhuvah svah tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.
Like this the child is straight away taught OM [or AUM]. His first science is OM – the physical and the non-physical – with form and without form. OM has projected Itself into bhur (Earth), bhuvah (Intermediary) and svah (Heaven).
You are praying to the Most High who has created the Earth, the intermediary and the heavens. You meditate on the splendour of That which is Self-effulgent. Strength, power and light are given by Him. He who gives that light, who gives that strength, is the Self-effulgent Being. No one gives to Him. He IS.
So, you teach the child to say, "Direct my mind towards Him", or, "May He compel me to meditate on Him." Here, you are actually asking Him: "May He take me away from the unrealities and take me to the Reality, from the changeable to the unchangeable: to Himself." That is a Hindu thought and a Hindu prayer.
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