• In :
• Personal Growth

December 2009

By Life Positive

The wisdom the adult learns through hard lessons comes naturally to children who appear to be born perfect

What has the world come to?” is a common lament we hear frequently. It is not surprising given the state in which we find ourselves – surrounded as we are by issues such as natural calamities, economic meltdowns, global warming and terrorism, to name a few. It is as a result of these difficult times that we have intensified our search for spiritual awakening and enlightenment. Perhaps we are afraid that God has finally given up on humanity and therefore we need to search for every possible means, which can bring us closer to him once more. However, in our spiritual quest, we seem to have overlooked one little hint that God has been giving us every minute. Only a privileged few have discovered this message, so beautifully summed up by Guru Rabindranath Tagore, in the line “Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.”

A lifetime of learning

“As far back as I can remember I have unconsciously referred to the experiences of a previous state of existence.”
– Henry David Thoreau

Man has forever been searching for the magic potion, which will grant him the gift of immortality. Little does he realise that he already has it. It is our genes, which make us immortal. We live through our children and therefore have forever been in existence and shall continue to do so even in the future. The concept of reincarnation is based on the belief that every soul, which is part of the Divine, chooses to return to the human form to learn a crucial lesson in each lifetime. It is the experience of each lifetime that advances the soul’s journey. Hence, it would be natural to assume that every child who is born already comes empowered with many lifetimes of learning.

The philosophical doctrine of innatism, as claimed by eminent philosophers like John Locke, states that the mind is born with ideas and knowledge, and therefore the mind is not a ‘blank slate’ at birth. Even the convergent philosophy of Plato and Descartes assumed that innate ideas and principles are placed in the human mind by a god or an equivalent being or process.

In infancy, we are closest to the spiritual self since we are so fresh with the memory and experience of blending with the physical world as we progress from conception to birth. Children are miracles simply by the virtue of being born, since nobody other than God has the power of giving life.

“Of childbirth, a maternity nurse was heard to say, ‘It’s a feat of magic I’ve seen a thousand times, and I still don’t know the trick.’”
– Robert Brault.

Children and auras

The human aura is the energy field, which surrounds the physical body. Our thoughts and energy vibrations lend various colours to our auras at different points of time. In her workshops on aura scanning, Ashmita (name changed) observes that most of the time, children (usually up to five years of age), have been proven to have a violet aura. It is generally believed that the aura colour violet relates to the crown, pineal gland, and nervous system. It is the most sensitive and wisest of colours and represents a strong power of intuition, psychic power of attunement with self, visionary, futuristic, idealistic, artistic, and spiritually evolved beings.

The gift of being able to see and decipher auras is much sought-after but not many among us can claim to have it. Advanced technology and the desire to logically prove the existence of auras has led to the invention of machines that can capture the human aura. However, children need no such machines, as they are naturally blessed with the ability to see auras.

Infants frequently look over the head of a person in front of them. If they do not like the colour of the aura or if this colour is much different from their parent’s aura, they cry, no matter how much the person seeks to pacify the infant. Even as they grow older and are better able to express themselves, we can find examples of their special abilities in the regular things they do. For instance, you may have noticed that children shade people and objects in unusual colours in a drawing and often, the colours extend outside the borders. The colours may well be the subtle energy patterns noticed by the child in the objects of his drawing. Psychologists claim that a child who paints outside the border will usually turn out to be a creative individual with ‘out of the box’ thinking capabilities. It is only the elders who monitor and enforce the need to stay within the boundary lines, and curb the freedom of the child.

Ayesha Hussain, a writer and a seeker, recalls her childhood memories. “As a child, I remember seeing colours around people. I believed everyone else saw it too and thought it was a natural phenomenon until I found out others did not. I was then convinced that perhaps I was suffering from some strange affliction of the eyes. Gradually I learnt to stop mentioning it and over the years my eyesight became ‘normal’ – only people, no colours! It is only now that I am aware of the concept of auras that I realise what a gift I had as a child which I sacrificed as a price of growing up.”
 

God as they know him

Eyes closed and tiny hands joined in prayers, Lakshita reverentially chants the Gayatri mantra, “Om bhur bhuvah svah, tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.” Only after she has chanted the mantra will she start eating her food. She is thanking God for the meal on her table. And she does it for every meal she eats. A simple, heartfelt gesture of gratitude of a six-year-old! Lakshita’s God is benevolent and he is her protector. When she finds out that I have a phobia about sleeping in the dark alone, she confidently states, “Keep God with you (in a locket). He will protect you and then you will never be afraid again.”

To seven-year-old Dhruv Tyagi, “God is the great guy with a white beard who gifted him a bicycle for Christmas.” Five-year-old Sreedhar visualises God as the guardian who will look after his beloved grandfather who recently passed away.

No matter what their age or background, children unconditionally accept the existence of God and his goodness. It is only as they grow older that doubts begin to raise their ugly heads. And when they reach their apex, the spiritual search commences. The farther we are from our childhood the greater our quest to learn what we have unlearnt and come a full circle as we die and merge with our spiritual existence.

Little masters “While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.”
– Angela Schwindt

Lessons, which we had once learnt as the experienced soul and remembered as children, we have learnt to forget as adults. The secret of a happy and enlightened existence therefore lies in accepting the child as the teacher and leading life accordingly. Some of the most profound lessons on spirituality and wellness, which can be learned from the little masters, are:

Right breathing

Breath is the essence of life and the very act of breathing stands witness to our existence. Yet, we have forgotten the right ‘technique’ of breathing which we knew instinctively from the moment we were born. We now resort to pranayama to ‘learn’ the act of breathing. A child could have taught you that! Simply observe the rise and fall of a child’s stomach as he breathes in and releases air. The child knows the correct form of breathing is by filling out the stomach when we inhale and compressing it when we exhale. It is only the adults who need to learn it.

Live in the moment

Seeker Rajesh Gupta quotes on Facebook, a popular networking site: “Can you see the guru in children? I asked my son if he had any memories from his past life … He suggested that I be in my present instead of digging the past!”

Only a child truly lives in the moment experiencing each day one at a time. Adults more often than not spoil the present by worrying about the future. In The Read-Aloud Handbook (1985), Jim Trelease writes, “The prime purpose of being four is to enjoy being four – of secondary importance is to prepare for being five.”

Go with the flow

v “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”
– Matthew 18:3

In a workshop on the healing power of emotions, Pratibha Agarwal (name changed) a hypnotherapist, recalled an incident she witnessed at a park. A group of children were playing, while an old gentleman sat on a nearby bench forlornly. Suddenly a child, hardly three years of age, tottered up to the man and climbed on to the bench. Gently she rubbed her palms across the cheeks of the gentleman. Unbidden tears came to his eyes. After a few moments, the child got off the bench and joined the other children in their game. The old man got up and started to walk away, a smile glimmering across his face.

Intuitive actions such as that displayed by the little girl in the park come naturally to children. Instinctively they realise and feel the emotions of others and act accordingly. Most adults would be too inhibited to freely offer their love and empathy to a stranger.

Carefree laughter, giving vent to rage or grief, expressing love or any such strong emotions are suppressed right from our childhood. However, the truly spiritual ones are those who have managed to shatter the façade and experience true emotions and accept them without conditions. It is this state that every seeker must reach and who better to guide them other than a guileless child?

Unconditional acceptance

A child will never ask for the caste, creed, or race of a person before extending a hand of friendship. He or she has no prejudice against a religion, colour of your skin, your social status and economic background. It is only a child who can love a person for who they are instead of what they pose to be for society. Only God is known to be so impartial in his love for all his children.

If society becomes even half as tolerant towards every community, caste and race as a child is naturally inclined to be – terrorism, wars, or petty fights about religion can truly become a thing of the past.

Strengthening the bond

As the world wakes up to a rise in consciousness, the circumstances life offers are becoming more challenging by the day. Stuck in between these dualities are the children. In this chaos-induced world, it would abode well for the future if only we would remember a quote by Frederick Douglass – “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

Let them have their space to experience, learn, and grow while you stand by with a guiding light. If we place our trust in a child, he or she seldom breaks it. If we can see God in children, then let us not curb the independence of this divine form. At times, it would help to remember that listening is more important than teaching. Hear out your child, recognise, and appreciate any special abilities he or she may possess.