Till your child turns
seven, protect him from outside influences, says OSHO
Up to seven years, if
a child can be left innocent, uncorrupted by the ideas of others, then to
distract him from his potential growth becomes impossible. The child’s first
seven years are the most vulnerable. And they are in the hands of parents,
teachers, priests.... How to save children from parents, priests and teachers
is a question of such enormous proportion that it seems almost impossible to
find how to do it….
If you have a child, protect the child from yourself. Protect
the child from others who can influence him: at least up to seven years,
protect him. The child is just like a small plant, weak, soft: a strong wind
can destroy it…. You put a protective wiring around it, but that is not
imprisoning, you are simply protecting. When the plant is bigger, the wires
will be removed.Protect the child from every kind of influence so that he can
remain himself — and it is only a question of seven years, because then the
first circle will be complete. By seven years, he will be well-grounded,
centred, strong enough.You don’t know how strong a seven-year-old child can be
because you have not seen uncorrupted children, you have seen only corrupted
children. They carry the fears, the cowardliness, of their fathers, mothers and
their families. They are not their own selves. If a child remains uncorrupted
for seven years, you will be surprised to meet such a child. He will be as
sharp as a sword. His eyes will be clear, his insight will be clear. And you
will see a tremendous strength in him which you cannot find even in a
70-year-old adult, because the foundations are shaky. So, in fact, as the
building goes on becoming higher and higher, the more and more shaky it
becomes.
So you will see, the
older a person gets, the more afraid he becomes. When he is young, he may be an
atheist; when he becomes old, he starts believing in God. If you are a parent,
you will need this much courage — not to interfere. Open the doors of unknown
directions to the child so he can explore. He does not know what he has in
him…. He has to grope in the dark. Don’t make him afraid of darkness, don’t
make him afraid of failure, don’t make him afraid of the unknown. Give him
support. When he is going on an unknown journey, send him with all your
support, with all your love, with all your blessings. Don’t let him be affected
by your fears. You may have fears, but keep them to yourself. Don’t unload
those fears on the child because that will be interfering.
To be a parent is a difficult job, so unless
you are ready to take that difficult job, don’t become a parent. People simply
go on becoming fathers and mothers not knowing what they are doing. You are
bringing a life into existence; all the care in the world will be needed.
From Darkness to Light,
courtesy: Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com
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