Talks Excerpt 548. Swamiji says he wants guileless spontaneity – not calculated pre-thinking.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

You may not know how much I love children; but I love children even more than their parents can love them. I want to give children the best, especially that which I never had.

If Master [Sri Ramakrishna] did not love children what would have happened to Swami Vivekananda [then Naren] and the others [young disciples]? If Jesus did not love children why did they play with him? If Sri Krishna did not love children, then why did the shepherd boys and girls [gopis and gopas] play with him? The Holy Ones taught us by example.

Children are guileless. It is this kind of guilelessness that I want. The Paramahamsas love children because children are spontaneous [not calculated]. You must become spontaneous in your action, in your thought, in your word, and in your deed. Only then are you being practical. But you [as an adult] think first and then talk. Therefore you are crafty; and craftiness has got no place in spirituality.

Do not push spirituality and religion on a child so much that it starts revolting against it. Include spiritual teachings together with fun and joy. It’s like when we see many dishes of food, we do not know which one to look at or which one to eat. So, like a child, be content with a small variety.

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.