Recently a small girl on sinhagadh road, Pune committed suicide because her mother scolded her…….Why should a little girl end her life like this? Can a mother not scold her child ?

I remember my mother running after me with a stick, shouting and saying things like " Are you alive just to trouble me ? or ‘ I don`t know why I gave birth to you ? But never did the words hurt, as I knew and understood the love behind them. Many books, poems and essays have been written about ‘Mother’ and her ‘love’. Parents need to be strict with children on some occasions. But maintaining balance is essential.

Sometimes, in the name of the child`s future good parents and teachers do go to extremes, beating and penalising them. Recently we all heard of a school teacher in Nashik throwing a duster at a student. The child was so scared that he started getting convulsions and had to be hospitalized. It was all over the news channels.

Ultimately due to the recurrence of such events the government has made a provision for an year of imprisonment, the first time, to the person responsible for such violence, and a fine of Rs. 25000/– and 3 year imprisonment, the second time such a thing happens. This will becomes law only after the parliament approves it, but will such a law really bring about any deep rooted change in the attitudes of parents, teachers and students?

In todays competitive world, only if we are able to give our little ones, the right value system, then the dream of our former president Shri Abdul Kalam to make India the future. Superpower will come true. Mahatma Gandhi said that education which is not accompanied by moral values leads to degradation. Sane Guruji saw God in children and stressed the need to place before them examples of positive thinking and noble conduct. Todays child is tomorrows citizen, and every parent must be aware of the need to nurture and support them for the bright future of the country.

Today, India has the manpower to suffice the world. In a recent study India was declared as the youngest nation, which meant that almost 70% of our population is young. The youth of India today has the power to rule the world. It has the power to do, and the need is to understand and be understood. With the right guidance and direction to the youth, the world will be ours to take.

Management guru Shiv Khera says " You can Win " and yes , ‘we can’ should be the confident answer of our youth . They must realize that ‘ We are the makers of our own destiny ‘ and ‘ our destiny is in our hands ‘. One must remember that a child is born, but a man is made. We have to change ourselves before we can change the world. We need to first wake up and have the confidence to show the world that we are capable of making India the superpower. The youth needs to prove all of them wrong who say that the youth today has gone astray .

To achieve these goals, the young ones need to be fit physically and mentally. Regular exercise is the key to physical health Swami Vivekanand use to say " My dear friends go to the play ground daily, play, jump like a lamb, exercise. A healthy body has a healthy mind".

Everywhere we see failing health now–a–days. Diseases like blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems, stress, hypertension have become common in the youth. Increasing competition, materialistic living, lace of strong value system, disagreements and stress at home, restlessness, fear, anxiety, synthetic food coupled with non–performance in exams and increasing load of studies are responsible for pushing children to the brink of depression and fear of failure.

In the first one month of 2010 alone, apporox. 66 students committed suicide. The main culprit here is a " Weak Mind". To make the mind strong and pure, meditation is essential, ‘ Anapansati ’ is one such meditation technique.

With the help of the breath, mind becomes concentrated, pure and strong. Fear and restlessness reduces children’s grasping power increases and life of morality becomes easy. Gautam Buddha discovered this technique 2500 years ago. Venerable Guruji Shri Satyanarayan Goenka brought this technique, which had vanished from India, back to India in 1969.

Many students are benefiting from it today. In Pune, for children in the age group of 9–16 years, the Vipassana centre near Swargate ( In front of Nehru stadium ) holds one days courses on the first Sunday of every month. . These meditation camps are completely free of charge and are run with the help of voluntary service and donation given by old students. Breakfast and lunch are also provided by the centre.

The whole technique is based on pure breath and so students of any caste, creed, religion or country can use it to make their minds pure and strong and live a life free of stress and anxiety.

For more information you can call at 020– 24468903 or 020 – 24436250 or check the website www. children.dhamma.org

The human brain can register more than 800 things in one second. It can work non–stop for 70–75 years without tiring. It has huge potential, which needs to be utilized Thomas Edison was sent back from school when he was 4 yrs old, with a letter from the teacher saying " Thomas is very weak in studies , he will not learn anything at school. " The same Thomas Edison lighted the fire of his mind to give light to the world. Thousands of his early experiments failed but he did not give up. This was the result of his mental strength.

Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to his son’s school principal requesting him to teach his son to live as a social being and survive in adverse times. This kind of education with a social perspective is the need today.

We burden the kids with expectations. This tires them out, and they try to escape through wrong ways. We conveniently blame movies and such for the wave of suicides and think our job done. But if a movie can touch the hearts of our children in 3 hours why do we fail to understand their feelings after having given birth to them, shouldn’t the question bother us ?

To make them study we at home and at school never hesitate to hit them. In India out of 3 school going children one is physically punished. A thought from Gautama Buddha come to my mind " A stick cannot bring about reform ". Violence and fear cannot bring lasting reform. The kingdom of sword is gone, the moment the sword is gone, but the kingdom of love is there to stay.

To learn to survive in adversity, to strengthen the mind and to really live a stress free life, meditation is the golden key. So, parents, do scold the child when he goes wrong but with love in your heart. Balance the punishment with equal amount of love and understanding. This way they will definitely learn to respect you.

There is nothing like love. Its God’s gift to mankind ! This is an eternal, truth. In life there are 3 noble actions ‘to love, to help, to serve’. Give place to these in your daily life and make your family happy and peaceful. Try to understand a child’s perspective and help build a progressive society. In the end I ‘ do only say……..

" Joth se joth jalayate chalo !
Prem ki ganga bahate chalo"!

Yoga Teacher
Writer : Datta Kohinkar (Patil)
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