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Right
Parenting
The following
talk was given by David Jevons at the 1999 Western Canada Sai
Retreat which was held at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan over the weekend
of July 31st/August 1st 1999. It has been
edited but only for the purpose of reproducing it in this
Newsletter.
How am I qualified to talk to you about right
parenting? Well, I have behind me the experience of helping my
wife in the raising of our three children but, more importantly, I
have read what Sai Baba has to say about right parenting. Now Sai
Baba says “First be, next do and only finally say”, so by
this standard I really should not be talking to you at all! I
must, therefore, preface my talk to you today by confessing that I
have had my successes and my failures when it comes to parenting.
I cannot say that I have always got it right. So my talk is not
so much based on my own experiences, on my own understandings, but
on what Sai Baba has taught me about parenting.
Isn’t it strange that when you want to drive a
car you have to pass a driving test. If you want to fly a plane
you have to pass a flying test. However if you want to raise
children all you have to do is to give birth to them and then you
are free to do whatever you like with them provided, of course,
that you don’t break the laws of the land. No guidance is given
to you on how to raise your children. You don’t have to pass an
exam on child care before having children. You just do it. So
what experience do you actually draw upon? You rely on your own
experiences and feelings. You rely on what your parents did to
you and surveys show that in most cases you either do exactly what
your parents did to you or else you do exactly the opposite. I
remember that many years ago I counselled a teenager who was
having problems with her mother over the house rules that the
mother was imposing on her. Years later, when that teenager
became a mother herself, guess what she did. She raised her
children exactly as her mother had raised her and she imposed the
very same rules! All children need boundaries and they will
always test the boundaries that you set for them.
I would like to begin by looking at the true
nature of our relationship with our children. Most of us tend to
view this relationship in a body conscious way. We forget that
they are spiritual beings just like us, that they are atma, divine
spirit, just like us and that the only real difference between us
is that they happen to be in younger physical bodies.
Nevertheless they are still God, they are still no different from
God. They have all the knowledge, all the perfection and all the
wisdom of God within them. Indeed our children may be more
evolved than us, more advanced along the path to liberation than
us. They might even have come into incarnation to teach us
rather than for us to teach them. Do we remember our past lives
when we were children and parents? Do we know our future lives
when we will be children and parents again? The answer is
definitely “No” and why should this be the case? It is because
all human relationships are transitory and finite and, as such,
are not important in the infinite scheme of things. Sai Baba
points out that we did not worry about our wife or our husband
before we met them in this life. We only become concerned about
them when we established a relationship with them. Why were we
not concerned about them before we knew them? Why will we not be
concerned about them if we divorce them or if they die? It is
because our egos will not be touched by them.
It is just the same with our children. Before
our children were born we were not in the least bit concerned
about them and when they grow up and leave home our concern soon
diminishes. The spiritual relationship is always the same and is
infinite but the physical relationship waxes and wanes and is
finite. The soul relationship is something entirely different and
separate from the physical relationship. I remember being told
the story of Sai Baba calling his interpreter, the late Professor
Kasturi, into the interview room one morning and introducing a
young boy to him saying “Kasturi, meet your husband!”. It took
Kasturi some time to work it out, but Sai Baba was introducing him
to his partner in his next life. At that time he would incarnate
as a woman and would marry this boy when they had both grown to
adulthood. Does this not make a complete nonsense of our
relationships to which we attach so much importance? A man in one
life, a woman in the next, our parents in this life become our
children in the next, which all goes to prove that life is just a
game in which we play many differing roles and face many differing
relationships.
So we really are, as the Latin expression goes,
in loco parentis for our children, that is to say that we
are parents standing in for the one true parent which is God. God
is our only true parent. He is the Divine Mother and Father. We
are only playing the role of parents in this life. We are
guardians for God. God has given us His seed and we are
responsible for raising His children. What is the basic role of
the parent? Sai Baba says “Children are precious
treasures given to you. Yours is the great task of rearing them
to become devoted servants of God and sincere spiritual
aspirants.” That is the primary role of a parent although, as
we well know, many other duties are involved. The primary duty of
a parent is to oversee their child’s spiritual development, is to
awaken in them the divine knowledge that they already possess,
namely, that they are God, that they are no different from God.
We also have to recognise that children come into incarnation with
a divine garland around their neck, a garland of all their past
karma. My wife often comments wryly, when Sai Baba devotes all
his attention to our children in an interview rather than to us,
showering them with rings and watches, “As far as I am concerned
they have done nothing so far in this life to deserve such
attention!” Nevertheless, by her very words, she is saying that
it is their past deeds that attracts Sai Baba’s attention, that he
is rewarding them for what they have done in their past
incarnations. Truly our children are not our children and to
illustrate this point I want to read to you a wonderful poem from
a book called ‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran, which was first
published in 1923.
And
a woman who held a babe against her bosom said
“Master, speak to us of Children”
And he said:
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give
them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot
visit,
not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows
from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite and He
bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.”
Your children come through you but are not from
you. One of the great lessons that we, as parents, have to learn
is that our children are not our possessions, are not extensions
of our egos. Men have to learn the lesson of ego. Women have to
learn the lesson of attachment. Men should not see their children
as carriers of the family name, as upholders of the family’s
social status, as successors to a family business or a family
fortune. Children should not be seen as a source of family pride,
with their achievements and successes bringing kudos to the
parents. Women should not live their lives vicariously through
their daughters and should not make them into wives before their
time. They should not expect their daughters to conform to their
concepts of love and marriage and should not hang on to them as
companions if the relationship of their own marriage has broken
down. Above all, though, parents should not try to fulfil their
destiny through their children. When we look at our children we
should always try to see the atma, not the body, for we are not
our bodies. Our bodies are forever changing, are forever
decaying. They are not permanent and will be gone in seventy
years or so, but the atma is eternal, so let us relate to the atma.
The children coming into incarnation at this time are very special
souls for they have come to witness the birth of the Golden
Age that will soon be with us. These special souls need to be
raised and educated correctly, to have their minds filled with
human values not bookish knowledge. That is why Sai Baba has
founded his schools and is so insistent about teaching EHV - the
Education in Human Values programme.
As you look around the Western World today it
does not need an observant eye to recognise that marriage and
family life is in a very precarious state. Educational systems
have become political footballs and are simply failing many of our
children. We have children murdering and raping, emerging from
the school system illiterate and ill prepared for life. We have
an ever increasing number of family break ups, with the divorce
rate rocketing. In England, for the very first time in its
history, last year more children were born illegitimately than
were born in marriage. Single parent families are on the
increase. There are few role models for children, but this is to
be expected! Why? It is because we are at the very end of Kali
Yuga. This is the darkest time for Humanity, just before the dawn
of the Golden Age. This is the time of karmic settlement. Our
karmic account must be balanced if we are to enter the New Age.
Let us recognise, above all, that the birth of children is
associated very closely with karma. We attract children to
ourselves according to the nature of the seeds that we have sown
both in this life and in past lives.
I well remember an acquaintance of mine who
drank and smoked very heavily, not only whilst conceiving his
child, but also whilst the child was being carried in his wife’s
womb. His child was born autistic and I believe that this
deformity had a great deal to do with his lifestyle. Of course
only a few people would accept that a deformed or a sick child is
not an act of blind fate, but is a direct result either of a
karmic settlement from a past life or of what the parents have
sown in thought, word and deed in this life. Medical science is
slowly proving that what the parents do during the pregnancy does
affect the unborn baby. The same thing applies to conception.
Sai Baba once told someone that he should follow a sathwic diet,
should remain pure in thought, word and deed and should abstain
from sexual intercourse with his wife for thirty days before
conceiving his child.
How many of us conceive our children
consciously? How many of us even know the moment when we
conceived our children? How many of us consciously dedicate the
act of procreation to our Creator before we engage in it? This
should be the birthright of every child and from such a conception
comes a true child of God, one that knows its divine inheritance.
However if a child is conceived out of drunkenness, out of lust,
out of drugs, out of a brief affair, then that energy must be
reflected in the nature of the child. We are, of course, in Kali
Yuga and this is the time of great karmic settlement and so we
must expect marriages to break up and children to have less than
perfect upbringings. I remember Isaac Tigrett, the founder of the
Hard Rock Café chain, who gave millions of dollars to help build
the Super Speciality Hospital in Puttaparthi, saying that he had
had a very unhappy and abusive childhood. In an interview with
Sai Baba he asked Swami why he had had to undergo such
suffering. Sai Baba replied “It was to soften your
heart and to make you more compassionate.” So there is a
purpose to suffering, many lessons are learned by all concerned
and souls choose to incarnate into imperfect relationships for
their own growth and evolution.
Nevertheless, as devotees of Sai Baba, we
should be very concerned about raising our children correctly,
about preparing them for the Golden Age to come. Some old souls
have been entrusted into our hands, some of whom have not been on
the Earth for thousands of years. They have come back for this
great moment of spiritual initiation. These children will be the
foundation stones of the Golden Age. They are the seeds from
which the Golden Age will sprout. I can look into the eyes of
these children and see a wisdom and a spiritual maturity way
beyond their years. I have heard spiritual truths coming from the
mouths of these children that leave me in a state of wonderment.
Some great souls are back on the Earth at this time and they need
to be parented properly. Such children have chosen to incarnate
into pure families all around the world who, as Sai Baba says, are
concerned that their children become devoted servants of God and
sincere spiritual aspirants. How fortunate we are to have an
example of right parenting on the Earth today in the form of Sai
Baba’s schools and universities. I think we were all impressed by
Neilank Jha’s talk yesterday and by what this young man is doing
to help the underprivileged children of Toronto even though he is
still a student at Toronto University. Here is a product of Sai
Baba’s school demonstrating what comes from right parenting and
right education. In one sense, of course, we are all Sai Baba’s
children and he is parenting us, the more so when we go on visits
to Puttaparthi in search of that personal contact with him. I
once said to Sai Baba when I was about to leave the ashram “Swami,
when can I come back again?” to which he replied “You don’t
have to ask me. This is your home. I am your father and your
mother. You are always welcome here.”
Now my path towards Sai Baba has not been an
easy one. Swami once said “Matter I can transform with a wave
of my hand, but to transform a Western man’s mind is very
difficult.” The transformation of my mind has indeed been a
slow process and my dear wife will bear testament to this. I was
very suspicious of Sai Baba in the early days of my relationship
with him. However over the course of many visits I began to see
that he did indeed practise what he preached, that he truly did
‘Love all and Serve all’ as he continually teaches. The
quality that ultimately impressed me the most about Sai Baba is
his continual seva or service to everyone that comes to him
regardless of race, colour or creed. No matter what the time of
day, he is always serving somebody, the more so on the days of the
great spiritual festivals when tens of thousands of devotees
converge on Puttaparthi seeking his attention. However the
incident that impressed me the most happened during an interview
with him in Kodaikanal. One of Sai Baba’s students was called for
an interview with us. This student was looking very unhappy, I
think because he had done something wrong and he knew that Sai
Baba was going to reprimand him. The boy eventually went in for
his private interview and duly emerged looking even more
unhappy. He was then dismissed to go back to his class. Then
Sai Baba said something quite amazing and it has stuck in my mind
to this very day. He said “It is I who have failed that
boy, not the boy who has failed me. I am to blame because my
example has not been strong enough to make him behave
correctly!”. How many of us, when our children do wrong, ever
think of saying that it is our fault, that our example has not
been strong enough? What a teacher, what a Master, what a parent
is Sai Baba. He clearly shows us as parents that our example is
paramount.
I would now like to read to you some of Sai
Baba’s own words on this subject.
Children have unselfish love; they
are innocent onlookers; they observe the actions of the elders and
they learn from the home much earlier than from school. So
parents have to be very careful in their behaviour with the
children and between themselves. The children should grow with the
mother for the first five years of life. Many children do not
know what the prema (love) of a mother is like. The mother should
not hand over the responsibility during those years to someone
else and be called simply ‘Mummy’ as if she is some doll with
which the children like to play. So the children of rich and
educated parents can be severely handicapped, if they are deprived
of the care and the love of parents. They are handed over to the
care of servants and nannies and they grow up in their company and
learn their vocabulary and habits and styles of thought. This is
very undesirable.’
In support of this statement I would add that
it is a well known fact that in England, in Victorian times, the
children of the rich and educated, of the so called upper class,
were raised mostly by nannies or servants of the so-called working
class. When these children grew up, however, they often married
working class girls or boys, in defiance of their families,
because that was the company to which they were accustomed. I
believe that there is a valuable lesson here for all the working
mothers of today. If, as Sai Baba says, a child is so susceptible
to outside influences, is like a sponge up to the age of five
years, what other influence would you want your precious child to
have other than that of its parents? If a child chooses its
mother before coming down into incarnation, which it most
certainly does, if it chooses its mother for the wisdom and for
the example that it knows its mother will impart to it, how can
you possibly deny that child its birthright. What is important is
not the standard of living in a home but the standard of life.
Sai Baba is always saying that women are the
keepers of the hearth, the keepers of the home. He is on record
as saying that women have seven divine qualities or values and
that men only have three. That is why women are mothers. He also
says that women exhibit far more devotion to God than men and that
they will teach this devotion to their child. It is an observable
fact that Sai Baba tends to spend more time with the men than with
the women in darshan. He once jokingly said to me “If I did not
talk to the men they would all go away!” As at most satsangs, so
here today, there are twice as many women as men attending. Women
have more devotion than men and that is why they are mothers and
the keepers of the hearth. Sai Baba has also said that to be a
good mother in this time of Kali Yuga is the greatest seva
you can perform, is the royal road to liberation. If you can
raise your child amongst the minefields of modern society and
teach it to be a servant of God and a devoted spiritual aspirant
then you have performed a great service for your community, for
your country and for the planet as a whole. That is the real
nature of the responsibility that we parents have all been given.
In the home it is very important that the
mother and the father always set a good example, because what the
child sees, what the child experiences in thought, word and deed,
the lifestyle to which it is exposed, the diet it is fed, becomes
its bench mark in life. Listen to Sai Baba’s words on this
subject.
‘Many people think that a sathwic diet consists
of milk, curd and other things. We must try to know the real
nature of sathwic food. A sathwic diet does not mean simply the
food that we take through our mouth, which is only one among our
five senses, but it also means the pure air that we breathe, the
pure vision that we see through our eyes, the pure sound that we
listen to and the pure objects that we touch through our feet.
All that we take in through the doors of our five senses may be
described as a sathwic diet. All the five senses must be pure and
immaculate. We must endeavour to gain mastery over our senses.’
And
‘All households should be vegetarian. There
should be no smoking. There should be no drinking. There should
be no gambling. It should only be sweet talk between the
parents. There must be respect between the parents. There must
be love between the parents. It must be shared.’
And
‘Condemn the wrong and extol the right, as soon
as you notice either, in your children; that will settle them on
the straight path. There are many parents who, by their behaviour
and habits, in full view of their children, eat meat, drink,
gamble and utter blatant lies, thus poisoning the tender minds of
their progeny. When the father requests the son to tell the
caller at the door that he is not at home, the seed of dishonesty
is planted.’
In buying or selling a house a Realtor will
tell you that there are three factors that affect its desirability
and value, namely, position, position and position. So, in the
household, there are three factors that influence the character of
a child, namely, example, example and example. Those little eyes
are watching you and are storing away in their memories everything
that they witness, every action that takes place between husband
and wife, between parents and children, between the family and
society at large. These are the most formative influence in a
child’s life, especially up to the age of five, because until the
child goes away to school and is exposed to other influences, the
mother and the father and the family unit are its whole world. If
the parents do not establish an effective relationship with their
child during this time, if they do not establish a pattern of
discipline, then, when the child begins to move outside the family
and to establish other relationships, it becomes more difficult to
exercise any form of control over it. After a child has passed
the age of twelve it becomes very difficult to influence the
course on which it is set, to discipline it, to control its
lifestyle. Using the analogy of a ship, you cannot greatly alter
the course on which the ship is set, all that you can do is to
tweak the rudder a few degrees. A child must know and respect
discipline. The trouble with most children these days is that
they are totally undisciplined and here in the West we are reaping
the harvest for that undiscipline. Listen to Sai Baba’s words.
‘To-day the parents give unlimited freedom to
their children which is highly disastrous. If the children are
not controlled at the tender age, they can never be controlled. A
child to a large extent controls the family. Therefore it is
imperative that a child learns self control.’
and
‘Children must
grow up in an atmosphere of reverence, devotion, mutual respect
and co-operation. They must be taught respect for parents,
teachers and elders. Now they learn only copybook maxims, devoid
of any sincere urge to put them into practice.’
When the child enters the educational system of
its country some of the parents’ position as a role model
transfers to the school teachers. It is therefore self-evident
that the values of the teachers will be inculcated in the child.
Do you know what values are being taught to your child? Do you
know the character of the teachers? You should. Education moulds
a child’s attitude towards the world in which it is to live and to
make a living. The value of current educational systems is being
called into question all over the world but it is difficult,
especially here in the West, to bring about change in what is a
very conservative aspect of society. Many teachers, however,
deplore the current situation where the teaching of any form of
spirituality, of morality and of human values is banned from the
classroom under the banner of political correctness. That is why
Sai Baba has created the EHV programme, the Education in
Human Values programme, which is being introduced in
various countries with very positive results. I believe that the
children of the Golden Age will be taught human values as a
natural part of the school curriculum. The few schools already in
existence that teach this programme have achieved near miraculous
results. Education, as Sai Baba says, is for life not for making
a living. There is a tendency here in the West to see the purpose
of education as getting a well-paid job rather than as grounding
the individual in human values and right living. So if the public
schools are not teaching this programme it is essential that Sai
devotees ensure that their children attend the classes offered by
their local Sai Baba Centre. In this way they will attain an
understanding of human values and will have the knowledge and the
power to resist any undesirable peer group pressure.
I would now like to touch briefly on three
topics that arise in the natural course of events in every family
and which should be addressed. Firstly, here in the West, we have
a remarkable ambivalence towards death. Rarely do we discuss
death with our children or think it right that we should expose
them to death. We think that they are too young to understand
it. This is not so. Children should be made aware of the reality
of death. Their questions should be answered truthfully and use
should be made of animals and pets to demonstrate this reality.
Having only recently come from the higher planes of life they are
probably closer to the reality of life and death than us adults.
The mortality of the human body and the immortality of the spirit
should be explained whenever an opportunity presents itself. Sai
Baba once said to me “It is amazing how Man believes that death
is something that happens to someone else. None of you prepare
for your own death." Do you prepare your children for
their death? Death is as natural as birth and is integral to
life. It is not something to be swept under the carpet and
ignored as if it did not exist.
Secondly, Sai Baba has some very sharp comments
to make about television, which he calls telepoison. There is
obviously a good side to television, but for every good side there
are, unfortunately, twice as many bad sides. Television comes
right into the home environment. You would not open your front
door to a murderer, a rapist, a thief, to a monster, to anyone who
would abuse or frighten your children and yet you turn on the
television and let these negative aspects of life come right into
your living rooms. Children’s minds absorb everything that they
see. I firmly believe that the violence that is now surfacing in
our schools is due in no small way to the fact that many children
have been exposed to too much violence on television. It is
because of this that they recognise violence rather than
non-violence as the natural expression of a human being. I read
recently that some psychologist once watched television all day
and counted the number of killings that they witnessed in that
time period. It came to over a hundred. That is not
representational of life. Television distorts life for its own
financial ends. Even children’s games are violent now. Have you
played one of your son’s video games recently? Most of them
involve killing in some form or other. It is just the same with
children’s books and comics. I was amazed to read in the
newspapers recently about a young boy in America who built some
bombs that blew up his school. He did this because of some
grievance. Now his parents were totally unaware of what he was
doing, yet he was in their home, in their garage, in their
workshop, with all the manuals in front of him, making these
bombs. They did not know what he was doing. That is simply
unacceptable. A responsible and caring parent should be aware of
everything that their child is doing, especially in their own
home. Never turn a blind eye to wrong-doing, be it drugs,
alcohol, sex or the company that they are keeping.
Finally we come to good company. This, I find,
as a parent, is the most difficult aspect of parenting. Your
child strikes up a relationship with another child at school.
They want to become close friends, they want to stay over with
each other at nights, they want to go out and experience life
together, but for some reason you do not feel in harmony with the
values of this child’s family and their lifestyle. You feel that
this friend exerts a bad influence on your child and its family
most certainly does not uphold the human values on which you base
your life. This situation inevitably creates great conflict
between you and your child, but it is a conflict that you have to
win. You have to explain to your child the importance in life of
keeping good company. I used to repeat to my children Einstein’s
words “Show me the company you keep and I will tell you what you
are.” Let us listen to Sai Baba’s words on this subject.
“Man is put to
suffering because of bad company and even mentally he suffers with
bad thoughts. Any spiritual aspirant is in danger because of bad
company. So run away from bad company. What is bad company?
Selfishness, intense jealousy, ego, no human qualities. All these
will take you away from the Divine. We lose the human qualities
because of bad company, and even good thoughts and feelings will
turn bad. A man in the company of thieves will turn into a
thief. A man of virtue loses his virtues in the company of those
with vices. The sacred heart turns unsacred. Therefore run from
bad company.”
Recognise, though, that you can only control
your child if you have already established a channel of
communication with it, if there is true and open sharing between
parent and child. The trouble with many families today is that
that communication has broken down. Parents are busy earning a
living and so children are allowed to watch television and to play
for long hours on computers, thus relating to nobody but the
television and the computer. As a result of this many children
are losing social skills, are losing the ability to communicate
thoughts and feelings, to relate to society as a whole, to
discover the diversity and complexity of human incarnation. They
have little grasp of the principle of service, of helping those
less well off than themselves. Sai Baba has said that the health
of the family is controlled by the health of the parents. The
other day I read an article in the Vancouver Sun which stated that
strong marriages produce healthier children. Research has shown
that the health of the family is directly related to the health of
the father/mother relationship. Weak, conflict-ridden unions
often produce troubled children, whilst strong unions make
children feel secure and enables them to relate well to others.
If the health of the family is strong, if the marriage is strong,
if there is love expressed and shared, then, the children have a
model to follow in their own lives.
I feel that we are all going to have a testing
time in the next few years. There are changes coming in the world
which will challenge us all. Therefore it is important that we
have established lines of communication with our children, that an
atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding prevails in the
home. We should be able to discuss openly and freely the problems
facing the world, what is causing these problems and what are the
solutions. We should listen respectfully to what our children
have to say. They are going to inherit our world and the problems
that our generation has created. Our children are the seeds of
the next generation and they represent the future of the Human
Race. The atoms in their bodies dance to a different tune to
ours. They have a different vision to us. They are the future.
Many of them are old souls with great wisdom and spiritual
understanding. My daughter comes up with the most amazing
concepts and visions. She has more dreams about Sai Baba than I
do. Swami comes to her in her dreams and tells her the most
amazing things. We must respect their point of view and listen to
their insights on our world. We must forget body consciousness
and be open to spiritual consciousness.
I would like to close with one final quotation
from Sai Baba which I hope will put this talk in its right
perspective.
"I
have come to give you the key of the treasure of bliss, to tell
you how to tap that spring, for you have forgotten the way to
blessedness. If you waste this chance of saving yourselves, it is
just your fate. You have come to get from me tinsel and trash,
the petty little cures and promotions, worldly joys and comforts.
Very few of you desire to get from me the very thing I have come
to give you, namely, liberation itself and even among those of you
who do, those who stick to the path of spiritual practice and
succeed will only be a handful. This is a great chance. This
chance will not come your way again. Be aware of that. If you
cannot and do not cross this sea of grief now, taking hold of this
chance, when again will you get such a chance? Be confident that
you will be liberated. Know that you will be saved. Go and tell
all that you went to Puttaparthi and that you got there the secret
of liberation. Many hesitate to believe that things will improve,
that life will be happy for all and full of joy and that the
Golden Age will recur. Let me assure you that this avatar, this
divine body, has not come in vain. It will succeed in averting
the crisis that has come upon Humanity.”
If we do nothing else in life, may we raise our
children to recognise the truth of that statement and to be aware
of the life and the teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Let us
remember the many blessings that Sai Baba showers upon us and
recognise that we too should bless our children at every
opportunity because, as Sai Baba says, a child that is blessed by
its parents will always succeed in life.
Source: Ramala Centre Newsletter,
March 2000,
http://www.ramalacentre.com/newsletter03_00_05.htm
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