Spiritual Parenting
Parenting is a daunting task. It is a full-time job. It is the duty of a parent to raise a child to become a good human being
Good parenting is teaching a child, moral values and virtues of compassion, sympathy, empathy, love for all, an attitude of sharing and caring and pleasant behaviour among many other things. What is spiritual parenting? Nowadays, we hear this term, ‘spiritual parenting’, so often but have we ever pondered, what it really means? Spiritual parenting is raising a child with spiritual education and inculcating spiritual values in a child.
Spiritual parenting is not easy and almost impossible for children, who are still young, immature and in the learning stage. Parents may be able to teach their children, ethics, values, positive behaviour, compassion, forgiveness, care, love, etc. but these are not truly spiritual parenting. Spiritual parenting comes into being only when the child becomes a young adult. Trying to make a child understand Spirituality is like trying to teach a toddler to drive a car. One doesn’t get a licence to drive a car until they complete about two decades of life. Similarly, only matured individuals get something that you can call, a spiritual licence, to understand and follow Spirituality.
One can raise their children with values of care, compassion, love and forgiveness but this can’t be called spiritual upbringing. Spirituality is the science of the spirit. Parents can give their child, a good spiritual foundation by not teaching them myths and lies like, God lives in the skies. They can give them a base of religion but help them understand the basics of Spirituality because if the child becomes over-religious, it will be difficult for the child to evolve from the kindergarten of religion to the university of Spirituality.
There are challenges in spiritual parenting. The biggest challenge is that parents themselves are rarely in a state of Spirituality. It is said that in mankind, 1 per cent of people are visually blind and 99 per cent are spiritually blind. How then can we expect such spiritually blind people to give their children, a good spiritual upbringing? This is one of the greatest hurdle and there is only one solution to this problem. In spiritual parenting and teaching, a child must be told about God, Soul and oneself. A child must be taught that God does not live in the sky or only in temples or other places of worship, rather, the kingdom of God is within. A child must be taught that he/she is a Divine Soul, that comes from God and will go back to God after death. A child must be taught that he/she will never die, only the body will die. A child must be taught the way to transcend the mind and live in Consciousness. How can this be even remotely
possible, unless the parents are themselves in the enlightened and in an awakened state? Just like only the one, who is knowledgeable in a subject, can educate others on it, only parents who are spiritually awakened themselves can give a good spiritual upbringing to their children. Children can have a spiritual upbringing only when their parents realize the truth of – ‘Who am I and why am I here?’ Such enlightened parents can become beacons of spiritual light and their children can evolve and grow, transcending all the ignorance and myths. Without spiritual awakening, to call an upbringing, a spiritual upbringing, is a myth.
In the ancient days, there used to be Gurukuls, where the Guru was an enlightened being and children used to live in these Gurukuls to get spiritual education with other forms of education. The children were taught the Vedas and the Upanishads. And the whole concept of the Upanishads was children sitting at the feet of their Guru and reaching a state of awakening.
Is this possible in today’s world? It is remotely possible. Unless parents are themselves committed to Self-Realization and God-Realization, it will be difficult and nearly impossible for them to teach spiritual truth to their children. Anyone can raise their children with compassion, empathy and mindfulness. Anyone can raise their children, teaching them about meditation and silence. But how can one teach their children, the true meaning of meditation and the true meaning of Yoga? How can one teach the children to realize that this world is Maya, an illusion and a Leela, a show, where we come and go? How can one teach their children to overcome greed and live only fulfilling the need? How can one teach their children that success is not achievement but true achievement is Enlightenment?
If we truly want to give a good spiritual upbringing to our children and raise them with values like compassion, empathy and mindfulness along with spiritual values, let us take a step towards evolving ourselves spiritually, realizing the truth and then, passing it on to our future generations.
