🧑🍼Parent Study Circle
Sister Madhavi shared so many inspirational stories about Swami's guidance through her life as well as her parents' strong model. Her personal journey brought her from reluctance to embrace parenthood through Swami's support and teachings, Swami emphasizes that parents are trustees, not owners, of their children.
Other participants contribute insights on the importance of discipline, firmness without anger, and the profound lessons children teach parents, such as patience, forgiveness, and self-awareness.
The overarching theme highlights the transformative power of spiritual principles, leading by example, and surrendering to divine will in navigating the challenges and joys of raising children.
🎯 Parents are trustees, not owners, of their children
Swami taught that parents are caretakers, not owners, of their children, who are ultimately a divine gift.
🎯 Discipline requires firmness without internal anger, viewing it as an act for their growth
Firmness in discipline is necessary, but it must be devoid of anger or frustration, as this indicates a failure in the parent's role.
🎯 A parent's life is a message, teaching more powerfully through example than words
Exemplary living, characterized by work ethic, honesty, and integrity, is a more powerful teaching method than verbal instruction.
🎯 Children teach parents patience and the ability to give and forgive
Parenting cultivates patience and the capacity for giving and forgiving, embodying Swami's teaching to "give and forgive".
🎯 Surrendering to divine guidance brings profound gratitude and support in parenting
Surrendering to the Divine with gratitude ensures support and direction through every stage of parenting.
Quotes from Swami
✋🏽“Children learn through their mistakes and misbehaviors. It is the natural way they learn. It is the duty of parents to help their children learn through the consequences of their mistakes and misbehaviors… Parents must guide their children with love to discover about themselves, teach them how to discriminate right from wrong, and help them grow into a fine human being. This is the important task of every parent, teacher, and elders.”
✋🏽“Regulate the food habits of the children; food determines, to a large extent, health and intelligence, emotion and impulse. Set limits to the quality and quantity of food, as well as to the number of times it is consumed and the timings. Recreation too has to be moral and elevating, in the company of the righteous and God-fearing…
✋🏽“One may ask, are rules and discipline necessary even in a spiritual path? Yes, it is very essential. So long as the plant is tender, it is necessary to protect it by putting a fence around it. The same tender plant when it grows big, the animals and cattle are not going to attack this big tree. In the same manner, so long as our spiritual nature is still in the tender stage it becomes necessary to have a fence around it. Without discipline, man will not be a man. So we have to accept discipline as our primary spiritual practice.”
The minds of children and of youth too are apt to grow crooked, under the influence of the sensuous films, the hollow hypocritical atmosphere created by the elders, the lure of glitter and glamor and of a false sense of adventure and fame. So, schools have to attach the stone of discipline and make them grow straight and true.”
No class next Sunday, March 29th. I'll send out a poll to see if you want to meet on April 5 (I will be out of town for Spring break). Otherwise, we will definitely meet on April 12. Have a great week!