Sadhguru: It is not necessary to believe that a child, who’s a fresh life,
is fundamentally bad and you have to teach him
various morals and values, and ideas and ideologies.
The harder we drive our economic engine, the more destruction happens.
Let us not put our children beneath the wheels of such a vehicle.
Children grow by observation and involvement,
not by teachings and philosophies that you may propound.
If you have a child, all you have to do is,
create a loving, supportive and invigorating atmosphere.
It is not necessary to believe that a child, who’s a fresh life,
is fundamentally bad, and you have to teach him various morals and values,
and ideas and ideologies to make him good.
Well, a child – whether it's him or her – all we need to understand is,
naturally is joyful and well, but his survival instinct is strong,
and he will respond to situations in a certain way.
One most important thing that every parent should do is,
you must ensure till your child becomes 18 years of age,
if you maintain your home atmosphere in such a way
that he never gets to see what is fear, what is anxiety,
what is anger, what is resentment, what is frustration,
you just maintain this atmosphere that your house is full of joy and loving atmosphere,
you can be guaranteed that they will grow up very well.
Well, there is always a possibility of external influences,
but if you maintain a very pleasant and wonderful atmosphere at home,
you will see, that will be the biggest influence on the child.
Outside, if some nasty influence comes upon him or her,
they will know how to shrug it off if the atmosphere at home is most pleasant and wonderful.
This is all you need to do with your child: ensure
that you are a constant demonstration of being a wonderful life.
So, if you have a child, the most important thing is: you need to work upon yourself.
Education should be a tool to expand human perception and consciousness,
not a tool for producing cogs for a larger machine.
Are we interested in producing wonderful human beings,
or are we just interested in making them fit into the economic engine that we have built,
which is destroying the whole planet?
The harder we drive our economic engine, the more destruction happens – all of us know this.
Our economic engine is that kind of engine that all of us have the gas pedal down,
full throttle, but nobody's holding the steering wheel.
Let us not put our children beneath the wheels of such a vehicle,
which is simply hurtling towards something
where nobody has a control over the steering wheel.
This is a very good time for us to relook at the very way we're addressing education.
Education should definitely lead to higher levels of perception,
more conscious existence, and above all,
education should allow individual human beings to overflow with their humanity.
When your humanity overflows, divinity cannot be denied to you.
If you set an example as someone worth looking up to,
you do not have to do much parenting.
Children grow by observation and involvement,
not by teachings and philosophies that you may propound.
Please set such an example, become that person that you want your children to be,
then there is hardly anything to be done.
In some way in their minds, you must become a superstar (Laughs)
then you don't have to worry where they will go, what they will do, because they will want to be like you.
That's all you need to do: make yourself in such a way, children want to be like you.
One significant thing that you can do for your children
is to invest some time in taking them out into nature.
What you cannot teach at home, what schools cannot do,
what teachers and parents cannot do, nature can do.
This is one of the simplest ways to keep children
away from various addictions which are always threatening to come into families.
And above all, a certain sense of discipline will naturally become ingrained in a child
when they're out in nature, because what works there, what doesn't work there, is very clear cut.
So, every parent, those of you who are in some way dedicated to offer
a better next generation than who we are,
if you're dedicated to that, you have to invest a certain amount of time
to take your children out into forests, into mountains, rivers, ocean – whatever is available to you.
If you think you're not somebody who can go on big vacations, it doesn't matter,
just around your city if you go somewhere, there'll be a small hillock,
a bunch of rocks, something; make them trek cross-country.
It's very, very important both for your physical health, mental health,
and above all, development of the child in the fullest possible way.