The early childhood of saints, sages, rishis & seers has always fascinated me. I love hearing & reading about these stories. Often even the slightest glimpse of spirit early on in the child's life is all it takes to encourage the soul to take flight. I can't remember which self-realised saint it was but her parents were atheists, & tucked away, hidden in her bottom drawer, this young girl had a picture of Jesus & the Virgin Mary. These powerful images lit her spirit into the Divine Life.
With exceptions, I have noticed though that the Catholic Saints were described as angels & the Hindis nothing less than 'ratbags.' Krishna was apparently a nightmare. Jesus, 'no crying he made.' But are these memories, anecdotes & stories accurate? I know for myself that I remember only the good times & mother's bias - well, you know.
(Yashoda chasing her baby - Krishna. It is said in the Bhagavad-Gita that "Whatever one does for Krishna–at any time, at any place, under any circumstance–is to one’s eternal benefit." So in otherwords our children, in any belief system, give us the opportunity to practice!)
I think that all children are much more connected to God & their past-life because they are chronologically closer to it. I've also heard that children under 5 are much more likely to be in tune with their intuition, angels, faeries & the like. It would make sense too that over the age of five children are less likely to remember because people suggest it out of them. For example, the grandfather has died, the grandchild is told this & immediately asks, "When is he coming back?" Often the answer repeatedly told is, "He is not coming back. He is dead. He is in heaven now." In a Buddhist family however, the answer might be, "His soul will be in the bardo for 49 days. We need to think positively about him. He will come back again as a child, a baby."
How do we develop a child's intuition & spirit & what can we do to keep this connection to God close? (a little about that is addressed here).
For me, there are two crucial elements of developing intuition. Firstly listening to the child & secondly, honouring what the child says as truth.
Asking questions reveals insight into the child's mind. I asked Indira, aged three & a half, at the time "What is God?" She replied, "God is singing." The quote from Swami Sivananda immediately came to mind, "Singing the names of God (kirtan) is the quickest, safest, cheapest, surest and best way to reach God." Seriously, I did not think she would have been even able to answer this question &let alone answer it so profoundly & simply.
(Indira aged 6 months playing kirtan ~ the Drunken Sufi)
Developing intuition can be done in a number of meaningful ways, a crystal clear diet, a quartz or rose quartz crystal near the head at night-time & pure water. Prayer is essential with the emphasis being on listening to the response with stillness, quiet, calm, joy. Intuition can also be developed in fun ways too; before answering the ringing telephone ask your child, "Who's on the phone?" Keep an eye out for children's literature. A beautifully subtle & sweet story is "Amy & Louis" (also known as Half A World Away) by the wonderful Libby Gleeson. It is a story about children listening to messages from afar in their dreams.
Create beautiful meditations for your child, record them as a podcast or simply record on to a cassette. Often at the library, books are available on meditation for children.
"Meditation leads to knowledge of the self which brings about eternal peace. Regular meditation opens the avenues of intuitional knowledge and makes the mind calm and steady. Meditation develops strong and pure thoughts. Mental images are clear-cut and well defined. Good thoughts are well grounded. Through clarification of ideas, confusion vanishes, doubts are cleared. Nothing can disturb your mind. The whole system will be charged with spiritual vibrations. Meditation is a powerful tonic. The holy vibrations penetrate all the cells of the body and cure its diseases. The powerful soothing waves that rise during meditation exercise a benign influence over the mind and the nerves. If you can meditate for half an hour daily, you will be able to engage with peace and spiritual strength in the daily battle of life. As you have to move with different minds of peculiar natures in your daily life, get the strength and peace from meditation and you have no trouble and worry." Swami Sivananda Saraswati.
I like to read to my children about childhood saints. There are many wonderful books, stories & information to be found on this subject - more about that later. Around our home are lots of pictures of great masters as children & presently a beautiful picture on the fridge of Swami Nirananjan as a baby held by his guru, the realised master Swami Satyananda.
