The four traditional Hindu goals of life are duty (dharma), wealth

(artha), love (kama) and liberation (moksha). The Hindu has the

same ambitions as do others. He or she wants to experience love,

family and children, as well as a profession, wealth and respect.

Dharma enjoins the Hindu to fulfill these ambitions in an honest,

virtuous, dutiful way. Although dharma, artha and kama are often

seen as ends in themselves, their greatest value is in providing

the environment and experiences which help the embodied soul

mature over many lives into an ever deepening God consciousness–

culminating in moksha, the fourth and final goal: liberation

from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

Teach that, among humans, there are

young souls and old souls.

Each soul is emanated from God, as a spark from a fire, and thus

begins a spiritual journey which eventually leads it back to God.

All human beings are on this journey, whether they realize it or

not; and, of course, the journey spans many lives. One might ask,

if all are on the same journey, why then is there such a disparity

among men? Clearly some act like saints and others act like sinners.

Some take delight in helping their fellow man while others

delight in harming him. The Hindu explanation is that each of us

started the journey at a different time, and thus some are young

souls, at the beginning of the spiritual path, while others are old

souls, near the end. Our paramaguru, Jnanaguru Siva Yogaswami,

in speaking to his devotees, described life as a school, with some

in the M.A. class and others in kindergarten. Knowing the differences

in spiritual maturity, he gave to each accordingly. Hindus

do not condemn some men as evil and extol others as good but

rather see all as divine beings, some young, some old and some in

the intermediary stages. If children are taught this central Hindu

principle, they will be able to understand and accept the otherwise

confoundingly wide range of differences among people as

part of God’s cosmic plan of spiritual evolution.

Teach about man’s threefold nature.

Man’s nature can be described as three-fold: spiritual, intellectual

and instinctive. One or more of these aspects predominate uniquely

in each of us according to our maturity and evolution. The spiritual

nature is the pure, superconscious, intuitive mind of the soul.

The intellect is the thinking, reasoning nature. The instinctive

aspect of our being is the animal-like nature which governs the

physical body and brings forth strong desires and lower emotions

such as anger, jealousy and fear. The goal is to learn to control

these animal instincts as well as the ramifications of the intellect

and the pride of the ego and to manifest one’s spiritual nature.

It is the instinctive nature in man that contains the tendencies

to harm others, disregard the prudent laws of society and stir up

negativity within the home, the nation and beyond. Those who are

expressing such tendencies are young souls who have yet to learn

why and how to harness the instinctive forces. It may take such a

person many lives to rise to a higher consciousness and live in his

spiritual nature. Thus the Hindu approach to such a man, which

children can be taught from an early age, is not to label him as evil,

but rather to focus on restraining his hurtfulness and helping him

learn to control these instincts and improve his behavior.

Gurudeva describes this in an insightful way: “People act in evil

ways who are not yet in touch with their soul nature and live to

tally in the outer, instinctive mind. What the ignorant see as evil,

the enlightened see as the actions of low-minded and immature

individuals.”

teach of hinduism’s greatness

Instill in your children a pride in Hinduism

based upon its wise precepts for living.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, Hindu teachings have

become more widely understood throughout the world. As a result,

cardinal aspects of the Hindu approach to living have been

taken up by many thoughtful individuals of diverse religions and

ethnicities far beyond India. This is because they find them to be

wise and effective ways of living. Hindu precepts that are being

universally adopted in the 21st century include:

Following a vegetarian diet

 A reverence toward and desire to

protect the environment

 Solving conflicts through nonviolent means

 Tolerance towards others

 Teaching that the whole world is one family

 The belief in karma as a system of divine justice

 The belief in reincarnation

 The practice of yoga and meditation

 Seeking to personally experience Divinity

Teach your children how the unique wisdom of their born faith,

especially in the principles listed above, is being more appreciated

and adopted by spiritual seekers than ever before. Swami Chinmayananda,

in his first public talk in 1951, made a powerful statement

about the effectiveness of Hinduism: “The true Hinduism

is a science of perfection. There is, in this true Hinduism, a solution

to every individual, social, national and international problem.

True Hinduism is the Sanatana Dharma of the Upanishads.”

Children whose peers do not value Hinduism

will take heart in Swami’s pride-instilling words.

The traditional Hindu vegetarian

diet has many benefits, both

personal and planetary.

More and more individuals are switching from the

meat-eating diet of their parents to a vegetarian

diet as a matter of conscience based upon their

personal realization of the suffering that animals

undergo when they are fettered and slaughtered.

This is, of course, also the Hindu rationale for a

vegetarian diet. It is based on the virtue of ahimsa:

refraining from injuring, physically mentally or

emotionally, anyone or any living creature. The

Hindu who wishes to strictly follow the path of

noninjury naturally adopts a vegetarian diet. A

common saying that conveys this principle to even

the smallest child is, “I won’t eat anything that has

eyes, unless it’s a potato.”

A second rationale for vegetarianism has to do

with our state of consciousness. When we eat

meat, fish, fowl and eggs, we absorb the vibration

of these instinctive creatures into our nerve system.

This chemically alters our consciousness and

amplifies our own instinctive nature, which is the

part of us prone to fear, anger, jealousy, confusion,

resentment and the like. Therefore, being vegetarian

is a great help in attaining and maintaining a spiritual state of

consciousness, and some individuals take up vegetarianism for this

reason alone.

A third rationale for vegetarianism is that it uses the planet’s

natural resources in a much wiser way. In large measure, the escalating

loss of species, destruction of ancient rain forests to create

pasture lands for livestock, loss of topsoil and the consequent

increase of water impurities and air pollution have all been traced

to the single fact of meat in the human diet. No one decision that

we can make as individuals or as a race can have such a dramatic

effect on the improvement of our planetary ecology as the decision

to not eat meat. Many seeking to save the planet for future generations

have become vegetarians for this reason.

By teaching the value of a vegetarian diet to our youth, we protect

their health, lengthen their lives, elevate their consciousness

and preserve the Earth that is their home.

Hindus hold a deep reverence toward planet Earth

and toward all living beings that dwell on it.

Many thoughtful people share the Hindu view that it is not right

for man to kill or harm animals for food or sport. They

believe that animals have a right to enjoy living on this

planet as much as humans do. There is a Vedic verse

in this regard that says: “Ahimsa is not causing pain

to any living being at any time through the actions

of one’s mind, speech or body.” Another Vedic verse

states, “You must not use your God-given body for killing

God’s creatures, whether they are human, animal

or whatever.”

Hindus regard all living creatures as sacred—mammals,

fishes, birds and more. They are stewards of trees

and plants, fish and birds, bees and reptiles, animals

and creatures of every shape and kind. We acknowledge

this reverence for life in our special affection for

the cow. Mahatma Gandhi once said about the cow,

“One can measure the greatness of a nation and its moral

progress by the way it treats its animals. Cow protection

to me is not mere protection of the cow. It means

protection of all that lives and is helpless and weak in

the world. The cow means the entire subhuman world.”

Many individuals are concerned about our environment

and properly preserving it for future generations.

Hindus share this concern and honor and revere the

world around them as God’s creation. They work for

the protection of the Earth’s diversity and resources to

achieve the goal of a secure, sustainable and lasting environment.

Children today, as never before, have a native

understanding of the place of mankind as part of

the Earth, and it is our duty to reinforce this in their young minds.

Hinduism is respected for solving conflicts

through nonviolent means.

Mahatma Gandhi’s strong belief in the Hindu principle of ahimsa

and his nonviolent methods for opposing British rule are well

known throughout the world. The nonviolent approach has consciously

been used by others as well. Certainly one of the bestknown

exponents of nonviolence was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..

Dr. King, after decades of careful thought on the problem of racial

discrimination in the United States, selected the Hindu principle of

ahimsa, as exemplified by Mahatma Gandhi’s tactic of nonviolent

resistance, as the most effective method for overcoming the unjust

laws that existed in America at the time. In 1959 Dr. King even

spent five weeks in India personally discussing with Gandhi’s followers

the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence to deepen his

understanding of them before putting them into actual use.

Children learn conflict resolution at an early age, establishing

patterns that will serve them throughout life. Some learn that fists,

force and angry words are the way to work things out. Others are

taught that diplomacy and kindly speech serve the same purpose

more effectively and yield longer-lasting results. Children pick up

these things largely through example in the home, by witnessing

how mom and dad work out their differences.

Hinduism has great tolerance and considers

the whole world to be a family.

In the world of the twenty-first century, a prime concern is the

many wars and clashes between peoples of different religions, nationalities

and ethnicities based on hatred on one or both sides. The

opposite of hatred is tolerance, and in that Hinduism excels. The

Hindu belief that gives rise to tolerance of differences in race and

nationality is that all of mankind is good, we are all divine beings,

souls created by God. Therefore, we respect and embrace the entire

human race. The Hindu practice of greeting one another with

“namaskara,” worshiping God within the other person, is a way this

philosophical truth is practiced on a daily basis.

Hindus do not believe that some individuals will be saved and

others damned, nor in a chosen people, nor in a starkly divided

world of good and evil filled only with the faithful and the infidels.

Hinduism respects and defends the rights of humans of every caste,

creed, color and sex, and it asks that those same rights be accorded

its billion followers. Hindus think globally and act locally as interracial,

international citizens of the Earth. They honor and value all

human cultures, faiths, languages and peoples, never offending one

to promote another.

This is taken one step further in the ancient verse “The whole

world is one family.” Everyone is family oriented. All our efforts are

focused on benefiting the members of our family. We want them

all to be happy, successful and religiously fulfilled. And when we

define family as the whole world, it is clear that we wish everyone

in the world happiness, success and religious fulfillment. The Vedic

verse that captures this sentiment is “May all people be happy.”

By teaching our children this broad acceptance of peoples, even

those who are very different from ourselves, we nurture in them

a love for all and a compassionate tolerance that will serve them

well throughout their lives.

Many people throughout the world firmly

believe in karma and reincarnation.

In the second half of the twentieth century Hindu concepts became

more and more popular and influential in the West. For

example, every year thousands of Westerners take up the belief

in karma and reincarnation as a logical explanation of what they

observe in life. A contemporary expression of the law of karma is

“What goes around comes around.” Karma is the universal principle

of cause and effect. Our actions, both good and bad, come

back to us in the future, helping us to learn from life’s lessons and

become better people. Reincarnation is the belief that the soul

is immortal and takes birth time and time again. Through this

process, we have experiences, learn lessons and evolve spiritually.

Finally, we graduate from physical birth and continue learning

and evolving on inner planes of consciousness without the need

for a physical body until, ultimately, we merge in God. The belief

in karma and reincarnation gives children a logical explanation to

what otherwise may seem an unjust, indifferent or Godless world.

They can be taught that challenging questions such as the following

all have logical explanations when viewed through the beliefs

of karma and reincarnation.

 Why do some innocent children die so young?

 Why are some people so much more talented than others?

 Why do some people act in evil ways?

 Why is it that a mean-spirited person may succeed

and a good-hearted person fail?

Belief in a single life makes it hard to reconcile such things, causing

one to question how a just, benevolent God could allow them to

happen. But an understanding of karma as God’s divine law which

transcends this one incarnation and brings to bear our actions

from many past lives on Earth offers profound insight. That innocent

child may have been a child murderer. That musical genius

may have so perfected his art in a past life that he inherits a rare

talent at birth and becomes a child prodigy.

The beliefs of karma and reincarnation give a spiritual purpose

to our life. We know that the reason we are here on Earth is to mature

spiritually and that this process extends over many lives. We

know that karma is our teacher in this process, teaching us both

what to do and what not to do through the reactions it brings back

to us in the future. So, our current incarnation—the nature of our

body, family, inclinations, talents, strengths and weaknesses—is specifically

designed by us to help us face the fruits of our past actions,

both positive and negative, and thus learn and evolve spiritually.

Hinduism boldly proclaims that man can experience God.

Throughout the world today, many who are on the mystical path

want to have a personal spiritual experience. They want to see God.

Hinduism not only gives them the hope that they can achieve their

goal in this lifetime, but it gives them the practical tools, such as

the disciplines of yoga and meditation, through which this goal

eventually becomes a reality.

The focus of many religions is on helping those who do not believe

in God to believe in God. Belief in God, in such faiths, is the

beginning and the end of the process. Once you believe in God

there is nothing more to do. However, in Hinduism belief is only

the first step. Hindus want to move beyond believing in God to

experiencing God. To the Hindu, belief is but a preparatory step to

divine, daily communion and life-transforming personal realization.

There is a classic story from the life of Swami Vivekananda, one

of Hinduism’s best-known modern teachers, that illustrates the

Hindu perspective of experiencing God. When Vivekananda was

still a university student, he asked many of the foremost religious

leaders in the Calcutta area where he lived if they had seen God.

However, he never got a clear and authoritative answer from any

 one of them until he met Sri Ramakrishna. During his second

meeting with Sri Ramakrishna he asked the great sage, “Sir, have

you seen God?” Calmly Sri Ramakrishna replied, “Yes, I see Him

as clearly as one sees an apple in the palm of the hand; nay, even

more intently. And not only this, you can also see Him.” This deeply

impressed the young Vivekananda, who soon after accepted Sri

Ramakrishna as his guru.

By teaching children about Hinduism’s stress on personal Godly

experience, we set them on a path of self-understanding, self-perfection

and discovery of the Divine that does not rely on the beliefs

or reports of others. This gives them an appreciation of each

step in life—be it pleasant or unpleasant—as an integral part of a

joyous spiritual journey

 

(The Blog  is reverently for all the seekers of truth, lovers of wisdom and   to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the spiritual path and also this is purely  a non-commercial)