Bhagavagd Gita - Session 24- Track 2406

…Actually speaking, as I said most of the quarrels arise because of the lack of the state of equilibrium. Therefore, in education you should always train a child to arrive at a state of equilibrium.

Question: It is so difficult for me an adult to arrive at that state and a child is so restless, it is far more difficult to educate a child on that line.

There is one very enabling factor in the children. The children, when they are still pliable, they are more obedient than we are, if not immediately, but after sometime…you see, you try on any adult, advise him, he will not like an advice. You advise a child, he will take it more easily: it is the advantage of the childhood.

Question: But what about his nature?

It is cañcala, but it is fluctuating. Therefore a moment comes, in that very movement, when equilibrium can be easily introduced, if you are very careful. A good teacher is one who goes on observing the movement of the child. The very fact that it is cañcala, he does not remain fixed to one position. In adulthood, once you take a position, you become very fixed on it. In the case of children, because there is a constant fluctuation, he takes a position, but he is cañcala: that position gets moved after sometime.

And another situation arises, more quickly; if you are very observant and if you rare very good, a good teacher does not immediately negate the child’s movement: he waits. When there is an equilibrium, even for a short time, he makes use of it. We know for example, when the children are about to sleep, there is not so much of Rajas; gradually you tell a good story, in the good story you give a good advice, and through that story you inject into the child a new attitude, which during the day time was not so easy. Therefore, the education of children is a continuous process.

Our present system of education is not good because our education starts at 10 o’clock and ends at 5 o’clock; or starts in the morning and ends in the afternoon; but that is not education, properly speaking. Education process is a continuous process, in which the teacher and the parents, both of them are partners in education; and they should see when the child is more pliable, and you will find that the occasions of the child are more pliable, are more frequent than in the case of an adult.

Take for example learning of a language: as an adult it is so difficult to learn a language; as a child it is so easy for me to learn a language, why? Although the child is cañcala, why is the child more capable of learning a language? Because of this very movement, it is very easy for him to forget the past, and to become quite free in the new.

Question: But you have two kinds of children: one child’s home environment is completely different from another?

There are differences. I was just talking in general.

Oh! Yes, you have many problems actually. What I am saying is in a general way. In the childhood, it is easier to plant a good seed than at a higher level. It is a general proposition, it does not mean that in a higher level you cannot; there is a sense in which in a higher level, certain things are learnt powerfully. But I am not talking about exceptional situations, or more pronounced situations; I am talking in general terms, that in general, if you want to give good education to children, then creates situations in which the children can forget the wrong things more easily; put them into a new situation, in which equilibrium can be brought about more easily, and inject into the child, in the state of equilibrium more and more. In any case if you make an experiment with children, you will find that children give you many more occasions for arriving at equilibrium than many adults can.

In fact, you know that adults, when they fight they don’t forget the fight; but children when they fight, they forget next moment. Children may be fighting now, after 5, 10 minutes they must be hugging each other, and you wander what it is, what has happen. It is because precisely of cañcala; there is so much of liquidity in the child psychology; it is much more easy: that is why we are told that much depends upon the educational system.

You spoke also about the different homes, the different environments. Every home should create a condition basically that the Sattwic qualities predominate in the atmosphere of the home. For example you should not allow quarrel to take place in the presence of children; because quarrels always create a des-equilibrium in the minds of the children. Some children begin to cry as soon as there is a quarrel among adults. You must have seen many times. They are not affected, mere witnessing other people quarrelling they begin to cry because they cannot bear it. Therefore, one condition that you should put down in your home is: do not allow quarrels to take place in the presence of children.