Talks Excerpt 521. Swamiji says children are like soft clay that can still be moulded.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
The moon in Shiva’s locks is never a full moon, it is always a streak, a new moon; which means it has infinite potentiality to live – infinite potentiality to manifest – infinite time. It is ever young, ever the first day.
[Holy Mother] Sri Sarada Devi said, ‘The flower that is best offered at the lotus feet of God, is a flower that has not yet been smelled.’ The meaning is: The child who has not been touched by sensuality, by pleasure or maya, that is the best child to offer to God – because the world has not enjoyed it. Prahlada, a boy saint was one of these.
The story of [Bhakta] Prahlada is part of the traditional history of the Hindus. You can draw your own conclusions. The saying, ‘Man proposes, God disposes,’ is clearly shown to be true in this story. Hiranyakashipu [Prahlada’s demonic father] thought of [devised] a terrible plan and yet something else happened.
You find that though the child, Prahlada, belonged to a demonic man, yet that child was brought up by the devas and good people. He manifested, first of all, the good qualities that were his from a previous birth, and then the good qualities of the devas and his guru.
Does this not sound like Sri Ramakrishna’s saying, ‘The real time to learn something is in childhood or youth’? In his simple way he showed us that whatever collects in the child’s mind during those formative years, goes on to form his character later on.
The father then took Prahlada away from the good teachers and brought him home. There the boy displayed the same ethical and moral characteristics that had been taught to him by the devas and the Rishis. As if trying to erase the first impressions, the first writings on the heart and mind of this great bhakta, the father sent him to other teachers, in order to mould his life according to the father’s liking. The motive of the father was to overcome good.
Hiranyakashipu tried again and again to change the mind of his son, but he failed. Why did he fail? He failed because as Sri Ramakrishna said, when the clay is cast into the shape of a brick and baked till hard, it is difficult to break it or to change its shape. Similarly, in the mind and heart of Prahlada, the shape and form of dharma was already baked hard.
The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.
These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.