Right now things are not too good with the World around us. This gets aggravated by social media. AI adds its own (in) judicious bit. So let’s look at what can be done to maintain a sense of equilibrium. Let us seek solutions in the science and wisdom of the ancients. Start with the youngest form of human life on Earth, the infant. Technology is so highly developed that most handheld mobile phones have the ever popular YouTube. This site is a veritable treasure house of music, dance, talks and an unbelievable amount of information and entertainment.
There are Twenty Seven stars or Nakshathras in our astrological system. It starts with Ashwathi and ends with Revathi. The cycle starts all over again with Ashwathi. All of us are born under a specific asterism. The tying of a black thread to ward off the evil eye, putting kohl in the infant›s eyes, putting on gold etc are rituals associated with the 28th day of birth. This coincides with the repeat of the star the child is born under. Some merciful parents and caregivers pierce the child›s earlobes that very day, when the flesh is very tender and the hands of the infant too uncoordinated to touch the earlobes.
Piercing various parts of the body has become high fashion. Earlier there was just one hole per earlobe. It is said that the shape of our ears resemble us as foetuses in the womb. A normally delivered baby enters headfirst into this world. Our earlobe denotes our head. Piercing this is believed to open up a potential to the Brahmarandhra point. This is located right on top of our head. We are born with a soft skull. The Four quarters of the fontanels fuse together roughly three months after birth to form the hard skull. A human soul can potentially exit from many parts of the body at death. Nirvana or salvation is likelier when the Soul escapes through the top of the head. Interestingly the crown of the head being a downward inverted thousand petalled lotus is common in the ancient lore of both India and China. Shakti, the female energy, lies coiled at the base of the spine.
When spiritually awakened, this energy travels up and up, piercing the Chakras to unite with the still and steady Shiva, steady at the top of the head. This energy is the Kundalini Shakthi. The snake is a symbol of being the guardian of wealth and knowledge. Our ancients probably used the words interchangeably! So from the Twenty Eighth day, it makes sense to scroll through that Youtube menu and put on shlokas like the Shri Vishnu Sahasranamam and the Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam. There are ample choices. This infant is not in a position to switch off the audio track to Eminem, just then. By the time the infant is Two years old, it would have become proficient in many Manthras. Care should be taken to avoid Beeja Manthras which are best taught by a genuine Guru or Teacher. We have a tendency to go towards what we are exposed to in childhood.Â
This is applicable to food, language, culture and many other aspects. It is of great interest to note the similarities between Sama Veda, the most musical of the Four Vedas, the Gregorian chants and the call of the mezzuine. However we are currently looking at the propagation of Sanatana Dharma. It is interesting for adults to observe the inclusiveness of this great Dharma. The next step is food. Breast milk is the best food for a child. Just as the mother laboriously bears and delivers the child, nourishing the kid becomes equally crucial. The good health of the mother has to be ensured to transmit it to the child. It would be a good idea for three or four families to pool together and buy a cow or goat to get uncontaminated milk for their children. It is only now that the West acknowledges the worth of Ghee or clarified butter rather than yell themselves hoarse about cholesterol. Planting a few indigenous crops will also ensure fresh produce for the kid.
A kid fed on pizza at Nine months is very unlikely to prefer spinach from the garden when it grows up. Having a child is a huge responsibility and one that should be entered to after a lot of introspection. Intercourse and childbirth sounds simple. The market is flooded with cute baby pictures, which obliterates the effort behind it! Children have a very short attention span. The trick is to tempt them into engaging with a single thing for some time. It starts out with jingly toys with bright lights. Nowadays it has graduated dangerously and alarmingly into TV shows and mobile phones. Earlier it was a soft, sweet, patient grandmother or great uncle telling the children stories.
This fired up their imagination and caught and held their attention. Stories of Krishna are a very good introduction to Sanatana Dharma. There is something amiss about a Two year old reciting the Bhagavad Geeta by rote. This applies to every child being indoctrinated into any system of worship. It is crucial to understand and evaluate options before delving deeper into the Faith. From Bhagavatham, one can graduate to Ramayanam and Mahabharatham. As the child›s perceptions and consequently it›s world expands, more and more complex nuances can be added. Then comes the age of schooling. Whatever be the grouse of purists, while it is quite okay to ditch Macaulay, English as a language is going to be a huge advantage for th e child. The best brought up kids are those who are fluent in their mother tongue and English.
Many children in India speak two or three languages with great ease. Compare this to the USA where only English is used, with Spanish being a distant second or the UK which is predominantly English speaking. With all its great advancements, China is struggling with its lack of knowledge of English, the only area where we have an advantage over them. Learning Sanskrit is an asset which is sadly not easily available here! It is ironic that people in the West are greedily learning this beautiful language. However familiarity with the shlokas will make it easier to kids to learn Sanskrit. It is well documented that human beings use a fraction of their inherent potential, throughout life. It is equally important for the child to be physically fit. Training in kalari, or Chinese martial arts does wonders for both physical and mental discipline.
There are aficionados of some religions who think nothing of spreading it with violence. A whole generation of well prepared and well trained kids, will make them think twice before their cowardly acts. Fear of retaliation is a great deterrent to attacks. To initiate violence is terrible. Not to retaliate to it is heinous. Every human being has a birth right to protect it. It is high time that the word «sacrifice» is removed from the Sanatani lexicon. Sacrifice means to give up something for the sake of something inferior. Studying hard and missing TV time is not a sacrifice when you are doing it for better scores in the classroom. Skipping hot chocolate fudges when trying to lose weight is the same! We have to convince ourselves that we are equal to the best. Equal. Not better than the best, which some people insist on.
The difference between «Ahamkaaram» (being oneself) and «Ahambhaavam» ( being egoistic ) is vast as well as subtle! It is so easy to have a kneejerk reaction which will make us equivalent to those fringe groups which we hate. It is good for kids to be exposed to animals and plants. This will give them grounding crucial to their complete development. As kids grow it is very important for them to have a completely non- judgemental adult they can confide in. This person has to be warm, kind, wise, patient, in short a mini – God! This will give them a certain insulation from unsavory relationships, lurking around in every society. A child who lacks love and understanding is an easy prey for human predators. A clean and clear sense of making money has to inculcate in the child from a very young age.
Dharma Ardha Kama Moksha is the set of values Sanatanis seem to have forgotten. Desires and wealth earned in the righteous way is definitely the path to Moksha or Salvation. Turning away from the world is just one way to realizing Divinity. Remember this is the land where Maharshi Vatsayan wrote a treatise about physical love, the celebrated Kama Sutra. Convertions seem to be based largely on a misplaced sense of love or economic improvement. Rather than blame the perpetrators, it is better to see that the reason to fall prey to this is diminished. There is a beautiful Zen story. Two monks were standing on one side of a river in spate during a thunderstorm. They saw a beautiful, wet female who asked them for help in crossing the river. After a brief discussion, they carried her across the river, though the younger monk was reluctant to touch the female.Â
After crossing the river, the girl and the monks made their separate ways. Late at night the young monk asked the older one, “Was it right for us monks to carry a female across the river even though we were helping her?» The senior monk replied, « I just carried the female across the river. Why are you carrying her still in your mind?» There is a lesson for us all in this parable. It is important to know what to keep. It is more important to know what to discard. In our mad rush to be “with it «, we adults are guilty of betraying a young generation. To have a country full of worthy citizens, it›s high time that we got off our «virtual» life. Yes building new places of worship are good. It is also important to light a lamp in one›s own house and meditate for Ten minutes, not with kids resenting it, but happily participating in it. For that Sanatana Dharma has to be studied and properly taught. Unless Divinity is rooted deeply in oneself first and then our surroundings we are going to be that rootless generation spawning another one of drifters, close to floatsam and jetsam, contaminating the vast body of pristine water, which is our natural habitat.
Thiruvathira Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi was born the XII Princess of the erstwhile royal family of Travancore.Â
