Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
2 November 2019
Children (6)
“Eyes of God”
In every generation the freedom and happiness of children as they are in any moment is not known by parents. Parents assume that if the children’s behaviour is what they accept of them, then the children will be happy and free in their lives.
The intentions of every parent for their children’s happiness and freedom are good, but the intentions do not guarantee happiness or freedom for their children. This is because the lives of the parent are sometimes a mess and neither happiness nor freedom is present in every moment of their daily life.
This means that their children’s lives will sometimes be a mess when they become parents too. The children have no say in the matter for they are dependent on their parents for their survival.
Expecting the children’s behaviour to be what it cannot be is parental demand, plain and simple. Wisdom reveals that life cannot be demanded because life will evolve the way it is meant to evolve.
Wisdom reveals that life evolves spontaneously, uncontrollably and unpredictably. Life has meant it to be this way, but why? It has manifested this parental behaviour, no matter how illusory, so that man may understand children beyond the beliefs of the parental mind that has evolved as knowledge.
The beliefs of the parental mind are superficial, relative and temporary. It is filled with logic and reason in knowledge. Logic and reason in knowledge accepts that a person is responsible for his or her action.
Wisdom of logic and reason reveals that reason and logic in knowledge imply that parents are responsible for the children’s behaviour which is not accepted by them nor by society. This is because parents’ actions create children.
Life, on the other hand, is not bound by human logic. Wisdom reveals it is not wise to judge life.
Wisdom reveals that life every moment is a mystery because life is a process of sophistication. Wisdom reveals that behaviour of children will sophisticate as it is meant to sophisticate by the intelligence in life and not by parents.
You need to understand that the past, present and future is in the timeless ‘now’. The past is in the now and man sees the past in the now. A look into the sky will prove this point.
The stars that man sees are not present in the now, but they are billions of miles away and what he sees is a star that was. You cannot see the star that is as it is because your vision does not reach the distance where the star is present.
Even the man next to you whom you think about is in the past, but he appears to be in the ‘now’. The mind with thoughts cannot see the timeless ‘now’ in life because the mind with thoughts is not present in the timeless ‘now’ in life.
The mind cannot recognise the moment that is. The mind can just think and recall illusory words with meanings of the moment that was, which is the memory.
Wisdom reveals that the behaviour of the children in any moment is what it is and cannot be other than what the behaviour is in any moment. You accept the star that you see in the sky which is not what the star is as it is.
Wisdom reveals that children’s behaviour in any moment is like the star as it is in any moment in the sky and which you cannot see. Wisdom reveals that parents believe what the star is, which is not the star is as it is. Parents’ belief of what a child’s behaviour should be is not the behaviour in life as it is.
The enlightened embrace the behaviour of children as it is in any moment.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
Generations of parental control and shaping of children’s lives are under the microscope in this article. Generations of parents and children have not questioned the social and moral diktats of society and religion and ensuing enforcement, if required. Many children have rebelled against this and have been punished for their efforts. Life is sophisticating meanwhile bringing a dawning of understanding through the wisdom of enlightened men and women. Thus, the conditioned attitude of parents may gradually give way to the realisation that the child’s behaviour is what it is in any moment. It is not dependent on behavioural norms or disciplines. Understanding this paves the way for freedom and happiness in children’s lives – and also as adults and in parents and other adults as well.
Julian Capper
German Translator‘s Note:
We all want freedom and peace in life. But what about freedom and peace in the family with children, parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and cousins? Behaviour seems to be visible to all, therefore it is judged, condemned, evaluated. This has nothing to do with freedom and peace. Dr. Shankar's article here opens readers' eyes to this obvious contradiction in everyday thinking. This can lead to a renewal, to real peace and true freedom, of which the conditioned ego, if it is honest, has great fear. The understanding readers of this wisdom here and on www.academy-advaita.com need courage to bring what they have read into their daily lives, even if this too just happens to them if it is meant to happen.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.