A
child is like a sapling. In the
beginning, as he establishes a
foothold in this world of adults
he spreads his branches out
wide in all directions. He
questions about and everything.
‘Why this?’
‘How does that work?’, ‘What is
over there?’. He does so hoping
to reach the sky which of course,
is the answer to everything.
In his innocence he doesn’t
realise that the sky is still well
beyond his reach. If his questions
are not answered with love and
patience, we make break his
tiny, fragile branches, and his
eagerness to learn about life and
understand ‘Why?’.
With a broken spirit the
child grows up to be a man with
little eagerness in life. He has no
branches, thus disabling him
from reaching out to others, and
most important, he has no shade
to protect the next generation of
saplings from the scorching sun
which is the bad in our society.
Swamishri always has time for
children. Not just to play with
them, but also to guide them
and teach them. His answers
reflect patience and concern.
He takes them seriously
because he takes thefuture
seriously. And so, through his
answers we can see him -
‘Sowing the seeds of our future...’
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Swamishri
With Children |
Seven year old Nilkanth Parekh asked the following questions whilst
Swamishri was walking on the terrace of the Bombay temple...
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Question
1 |
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Nilkanth : Swami Bapa! Can I ask you a question?
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Swamishri : Of course! You are very clever.
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No, Swami! I want to be mad! Because Gunatitanand Swami says in
his talks that only those who are mad worship God! My question is
- which is bigger, the sun or the moon?
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Swamishri : How should I know?
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Why shouldn’t you know? You know everything!”
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Swamishri : God is the biggest. Even bigger than the sun and the
moon. We should follow His agna and do bhajan.
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But aren’t the sun and moon forms of God?
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Swamishri : No. They are His servants. They are great but only
because they obey His agna. Shriji Maharaj is greater than all
the devas. By His agna they give us light. The sun is greater
than the moon, but God is greater than both. So what should we
learn from this?
‘O Ishwar bhajiye tane...’
If we worship God we become great too. Shriji Maharaj is the uplifter
of all. If we realise this, He’ll make us great too! If someone
does a good deed we bow at their feet. Similarly we bow before the
devas because they do good deeds. Because they served God they became
great and that’s why we give them a place in our temples and
honour them. If we can please God as they have done, we too will
become great.
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Swami Bapa! You mentioned that if we do this we become great. But
you also said that God is the greatest of all. So if I become great
that means that I become God! But I am not God. In fact I’m
smaller than you and these sadhus.
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Swamishri : That’s it! Well done! You should always remain
small. Look, because you are small everyone looks after you. We
can never become God so we might as well be His servant.
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(17 May 1986, Bombay)
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