If there is to be any higher civilization in the world, it will start from family life. The family institution is higher than all temples, churches, and synagogues. Householders are the real foundation of society. If you are a householder, do not feel that your role is inferior. Your role in society is not only to express your biological needs or emotional needs, but also to establish the fundamentals of society so that the whole of society attains a state of peace and happiness. The world will attain the next civilization of enlightenment when all of humanity understands that the home is meant to radiate love to other families. The home should never radiate hatred, jealousy, or other bad feelings. The home is meant to establish and maintain peace, so that one can enjoy love and radiate love to others. When all human beings become aware of this reality, there will be joy everywhere. And when there will be joy everywhere, there will be nothing to disturb your mind. Then your mind will automatically travel upward to the center of consciousness from where consciousness flows on various degrees and grades.
Let us try our best to reconstruct our society. We are the custodians of our culture; we have to build this culture; we have to be examples. If one person is liberated, society does not gain anything; if one person becomes a monk and attains liberation, it does not benefit society. No matter how many great leaders and gods come, no one can help us if we are not prepared to help ourselves. What we need is liberation of the masses. Everyone has to become liberated. This can be done if you accept your duties and learn to do your duties with love. Then you will not be a slave to your duties and you will enjoy doing them. You are a slave to your duties when you feel you have to do them. You frequently say, “I really don’t want to do it, but I have to.” This is not the right way to live. To enjoy life means to learn to love your duties so those duties give you freedom and a sense of joy and happiness. You can start by loving your children. As you love your children, you can slowly learn to expand and extend that love to other people in your society.
The orthodox way of raising a child is based on a sense of false identity, and the Western way is based on psychological and biological curiosity. Both methods are imperfect. Mothers should sit together and devise something new, neither forgetting the ancient nor ignoring modern scientific discoveries, but adding something more vital so that the child’s upbringing becomes a joy for both the child and the mother.
Children are the real gods, and they should be revered with full attention, love, and adoration. We have to impart good education to all children because they are the fathers and mothers of the next generation of our society. Parents have to be especially careful with the education they impart to their children in the home, for society is an expansion of family life. Parents should give single-pointed devotion and attention to every child they have. If parents would pay full attention to their children in early childhood, give them tender loving care, and allow them to grow according to their inborn tendencies, our society would be full of creative geniuses who have the capacity to love, to share, and to be aware of the reality of coexistence—the philosophy of “Live and let live.” If we transmit this philosophy to our children, they will hear the cry of peace, and there will be actual peace here, there, and everywhere.
Childhood is the best of all periods in life, and it never returns. Children are the most beautiful flowers; they can make our society bloom. Without children no nation can survive. We need the help of children who have been loved, well cared for, and wisely educated, if we really want to improve society. There is no better foundation for a happy life than a happy childhood.
Reprinted from “Let the Bud of Life Bloom,” an HIHT publication.