Bringing up children

Every child has the necessary intelligence to live his or her life fully. As a parent, you just have to create an atmosphere for them to grow into their intelligence; just encourage them to be intelligent and aware. Every being has been given the necessary intelligence to fulfill his life. Study an ant and see, it has all the intelligence to live an ant's life fully. It may not be able to do what you are doing, but as an ant, the necessary intelligence for being an ant is there for it. The same goes for every creature.

The problem is you want your child to be intelligent your way, not his. Your idea of intelligence is that your child should become a doctor or some such thing. Maybe he would have made a wonderful carpenter, but you want him to become a doctor – not because doctors are needed in the world or because you want your child to dedicate himself as a doctor, but simply because you have an idea in your head that in the social structure, a doctor or an engineer means some kind of prestige: "My child is a doctor!" You want to live your life through your children. This is a sure way to destroy children.

The first thing to do when bringing up children is: not to influence their minds with your minds. That is the first step you need to take. If you have this idea that when a child is born it is time to teach, then you will ruin the child. When a child comes into your life, it is a time to learn because you have missed much in your life and so much of you has become distorted. But a child is just looking at life. Sit with him and look at life afresh. The only thing you need to do for your child is to give him love and support, and his intelligence will grow.

Yes, the child can get exposed to many other rotten minds, the possibility is very much there, because they are everywhere in the world. You cannot isolate him totally from that. When it comes to influencing him, teachers, friends and other sections of society will have some influence on him. You can't help it. You cannot build a sanatorium for your child, but still, as a parent, you can play a very important role in allowing the child's intelligence to bloom. Create a loving atmosphere for him where intelligence will naturally flower.

Your child need not do what you did in life. Your child should do something that you did not even dare to think of in your life. Your child should do that which you did not have the courage to even nurture a thought of. Only then this world will progress.

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the "Padma Vibhushan", India's highest annual civilian award, by the Government of India in 2017, for exceptional and distinguished service.Every child has the necessary intelligence to live his or her life fully. As a parent, you just have to create an atmosphere for them to grow into their intelligence; just encourage them to be intelligent and aware