Question: How do we best help our children to know God?

Babaji:

First we need to induce a confidence in them. While we try to teach them that God is like a friend, a parent, affectionate and kind, would always be helpful to them in their endeavors through their life. If they practice the methods like meditation their minds can become best concentrated to achieve the things in their life that they need. They can become like a genius and their prayers can reach God in a better way so their lives will be more peaceful, more meaningful, more effective. We will have to try to become like a child ourselves to make it understand.

Also try to get the child good company. Sometimes my Guru used to advise, “Beware, your children will be watching your behavior. More than what you say to your children, you need to behave well in front of your children so they can pick up some message from you, some manners from you”. So thus we can try to help the children and try to bring them onto this path.

I understand it will not be as easy for present day parents as it would have been for the parents of fifty years ago. The advances in science and technology have given an overexposure to the outward things to the children of the present day. The same exposure has given them confusion, dragging them into different things. Very often the youngsters are unable to appreciate the need for a proper culture, proper manners. I have come across youngsters who misunderstand words like discipline. They consider discipline to be bondage, whereas we were taught, ”If I keep myself disciplined I can achieve, I can enhance my character and personality”. For five years I sat in a room. My Guru told me, “You should be sitting here; you should not get up or come out. Either your dead body should come out or you must come out as a Yogi.” What He meant was, I needed to be disciplined. Because I remained disciplined I could remain and become a Yogi. If I had thought, “Remaining in a room is a bondage, I must get out of this room, I should not be doing this”, I would not have achieved. We must try to tell them about the need for discipline, dedication to achieve any particular thing.

Whenever I come across youngsters, I try to explain it can be helpful in your day to day life to live better more effectively, your concentration power, your mind’s stamina, your memory power, your application of knowledge and wisdom, all will increase, so thus you can become a better person.
 
That is the idea of giving an anchor like God to the people. I also try to explain to them the basic meaning of religion, because this is one question that the youngsters always ask me, “What is its help in our day to day life? Why was this given to us by our ancestors, our forefathers or whoever were the founders of religion. Why do we need to be religious?” The simple explanation I try to give them is that it is a phenomenon where various exercises are prescribed so you can keep the body under control, keep it as healthy as possible. Some exercises are always prescribed like yoga postures and some other things are prescribed like worship, prayers, remembering God, meditation, all these things are to control the mind. If the mind is under control, your personality, character, everything gets enhanced. Your concentration, your ability to consider others, all gets enhanced. Your ability to consider others means your ability to uphold moral values to the best of your ability.

Finally, the physical health, moral health and mental health, if you are practicing to uphold all these values then you are the best religious person. By telling them this, I then ask them, ‘Now, you think, whether you want to remember God or not? Do you want to be a religious person or not?’ Then they will be able to think. We need to make them think and ponder over. Then maybe they will be able to understand the things a little bit.