Swami Shivapadananda on avoiding conflict in front of children

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 549

[Pictured: A ground floor room of the Udbodhan House, where the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi lived on the first floor,following the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna]

 
 

Swamiji continues speaking about children

Every senior person should be respected. To a spiritual man everyone is a senior, even the smallest child, even an ant. One's father and mother should be respected with all one's heart and soul. But I plead to the fathers and mothers to become worthy of the respect that the children give them, because they themselves have a duty towards those children, to show them how to live a righteous life.

If the father and mother are fighting, they must not fight in front of the children. Do not have any argument at all in front of the children. Send your children out or send them here [to the ashram] if possible. Then you can sit down, close your door, and say whatever you like. But never talk roughly in front of them because example is the best teacher.

Never speak ill about other people in front of your own child because the child will pick it up and later understand what a hypocrite you are. One moment you are saying how bad that man is and the next moment you are joining him. Instead of dropping the other person's image down, your own image has gone down in the eyes of your child.

What is the best thing to do if you do not agree with anybody? Keep silent. 'I am mouna [the Silent One, or Silence],' Sri Krishna says in the [Bhagavad] Gita. That is the best way to beat it.

When you leave this Yoga Camp remember that this ashram [monastery, hermitage] belongs to you, we are just the caretakers. Just as you have a duty, we also have a duty. Each one of us has his or her duty. Let us perform our duties.

1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's
words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave
was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.

2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in
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