THE TIMES OF INDIA-21-JAN-2011 The role of a good arenthood is a very funny thing. You are trying to do something that nobody has ever known how to do well. Even if you have 12 children, you are still learning. You may raise the first 11 properly, but the twelfth one can give you the works. So what's the best thing you can do? The foremost thing is to spend SADHGURU parent are. If you just bring this into your child’s mind that he can question anything, including you — the way you are, if you allow that in a healthy way, the child will constantly exercise his intel- ligence. If you put him through the necessary physical paces to give him a healthy body and an active intelligence and of course some level of education accord- ing to what you can afford, and if you bring him up without any sense of identity - if you do not entangle his intelligence by being identified with this or that, so that he is willing and open to everything, he will make the best out of his life. He may not become like somebody else but he ra grow to his maximum poten- A large part of parenthood lies in creating the right kind of atmosphere — a certain sense of joy, love; care and discipline with- sufficient time and work a little bit upon yourself, Look at your- self carefully — how you are, how you sit, how you stand, haw you speak, what you do, what you don’t do because children pick up everything rapidly and they will exaggerate everything that you are doing. So at least make your- self in such a way that you like the way you are because if even you don’t like yourself, then defi- nitely your child — one more human being need not go that way. So becoming conscious of what we are doing is extremely One important thing that you should teach your children is that they learn to question every- thing; not with suspicion but with a genuine wanting to know. If people question because they suspect that ‘everything is evil,” this is a sickness. A question is an instrument which helps you dig a little deeper than where you in yourself and in your home. If every day in_your house, tension, anger, fear, anxiety and jealousy are the only things being demon- strated to your child, he will obvi- ously learn only these. If you really have the intention of bringing up your child well, you should change yourself to be a loving, joyous and peaceful being. If you don't know how to keep yourself in this manner. what can you do for your child? A parent should not implant fear, prejudice or hatred in a child; this is an unpardonable crime. A basic responsibility that humani- ty has to fulfil is to ensure that the next generation should live a little more joyfully, with less fear, less prejudice, less entanglement, less hatred, less misery, Your con- tribution to the next generation should be that you don’t leave a brat in the world; you should leave a human being who is at least a little better than you.