"End Of Education Is Character" - BABA

Cultivating Good Habits in Children - Part II (In words of Sri Sathya Sai Baba)(Home
Atmosphere, Parent's Example)
18. Between the ages of 2 and 5, the child's mind is profoundly affected by the behavior of those
nearest to him, so the parents must take care to set a good example. (Sathya Sai Speaks X)
19. The things learnt during those early years stick in the memory and act subtly and silently on the
growing mind to modify and purify the conduct of later years.... if a thing deserves to be done, the
sooner we set about it the better. (Sathya sai Speaks IX)
20. The earlier years of life are the most crucial, and so the mother and father have to share the
responsibility for the proper upbringing. The skills, the attitudes, the prejudices, and the emotions
that make or mar the future are all built into the foundation of character during those crucial years.
The parents must lay the foundation strong and straight...Children must grow up in the atmosphere
of reverence, devotion, mutual service and cooperation. They must be taught respect for parents,
teachers and elders... Parents first, teachers next, playmates and companions later. (Sathya Sai
Speaks VII)
21. They (the parents) must be seen worshipping at the family altar, meditatinng in silence,
forgiving the lapses of others, sympathizing with pain and grief. They should not make the children
to be worried, helpless, discontented and distressed, as if they have no God to lean on, no inner
reserves of strength and courage to fall back upon.
22. The mother and father are the first examples in social behavior that the child sees before it and
learns to imitate. They teach adoration of God and surrender to the Highest; they represent
equanimity (being undisturbed in pain and pleasure) and love before the watchful and receptive
eyes of the child. So they have to be inspired to take their share in the spiritual awakening that this
(Sai) organization is embarking upon.
23. The center of every home must be the shrine room; the fragrance of flower and incense
emanating from there must pervade the home and purify it. The mother must set the example in
holding out the shrine as the heart of the houshold. She must enforce discipline over the children in
personal cleanliness, in humility and hospitality, in good manners and acts of service. She must
persuade the children, by example and precept, to revere the elders and spend some time both in
mornings and evenings for prayer, and for silent meditation. The shrine room must be kept clean
and consecrated; special festival days marked out in each religion must be observed, so that
significance will impress itself on the young minds. However self-centered and haughty the husband
is, by systematic regulation of the domestic timetable, with worship of God as its focal point, the
man can be made to realize how a God-centered home is a home of peace and joy. He too will soon
fall in and be a pillar of faith. (Discourse '69)
24. The home is a temple where each member of the family is a moving temple and is nurtured and
nourished. The mother is the high priestess of this House of God. Humility is the incense with which
the house is filled. Reverence is the lamp that is lit, with love as the oil and faith as the wick. Spend
the years of your life dedicating them for such worship in the homes that you have and will found.
(Discourse '69)
25. Establish the status of the mother in the home, as the upholder of spiritual ideals and therefore,
the Guru of the children. Every mother must share this effort - the expansion and steady
manifestation of the God-consciousness latent in every child.
26. Tolerance and humility have to be promoted in the rising generation through the promotion of
spiritual discipline among the mothers.... Mothers have to be repositories of detachment, discipline
and devotion. Their activity must be based on these three urges.
27. Mothers should know the secret of mental peace and inner silence, of spiritual courage, of
contentment, which is the greatest wealth, and of spiritual discipline, which gives lasting joy. (Bal
Vikas Monthly '97)
28. Do not set bad examples for these children to follow. If you are truthful, calm under
provocation, and full of love in all your dealings with others, these children too will grow up in Truth
and Righteousness, Peace and Love. If you tell your son when you are actually at home and
someone is calling on the telephone, to reply that you are not at home, you are sowing a poisonous
seed which will become a large tree.
29. Children are truthful, but the elders teach them the art of lying. They set children to spy and
report and thus they become interested in the faults and errors of others.
30. Parents also must not find fault with others in the hearing of children, or show their hatred or
envy of others before these tender minds.