15 quotes from Indian spiritual gurus on parenting

Parenting is the most challenging yet rewarding journey you will ever undertake. Raising a child with a healthy self esteem and guiding them through the ways of life often comes with a lot of pressure and confusion. One of the trickiest parts of the parenting journey is to understand what's right for the child. With information overload, the advices are often conflicting which could add to the stress.

"It takes a village to raise a child," it is said, and rightly so. Inculcating the right values in the child is the process that involves not just parents but several members of the society they interact with. It is also important to see parenting from the lens of spirituality, intuition, and what feels right, instead of just believing what you read. Many Indian spiritual gurus have emphasized the need to teach children integrity, patience, empathy and moral values while others have highlighted the importance of giving children space to become their own person.

Here are some parenting gems from the Indian spiritual gurus to follow:
1. If you have children, first of all, you have to establish integrity. Your words and your action should match.
- Sadhguru

2. The role of a parent is to guide the child affectionately about right ways of thinking, being and living, so as to protect him from wrong influences.
- Sister Shivani

3. The first thing parents should attend to is the character of their children. They should teach them good behaviour, and this means instructing them in spiritual matters. The parents should tell their children stories that teach moral principles, and they should train them to do japa and meditation.
- Mata Amritanandamayi

4. If you set an example as someone worth looking up to, you do not have to do much parenting.
- Sadhguru

5. Do you think you can teach even a child? You cannot. The child teaches himself. Your duty is to afford opportunities and to remove obstacles.
- Swami Vivekananda


6. Education should not be about molding children the way you want them, but about supporting their natural longing to know and blossom.
- Sadhguru

7. Questions arise in different phases of child growth about what he needs and what to provide. In those moments, a parent needs to consult Instincts and Intuition rather than other sources for answers.
- Sister Shivani

8. All know their own Self, all know, “I am”, even animals. All we know is the projection of the Self. Teach this to the children, they can grasp it.
- Swami Vivekananda

9. A child carries a special and deep karmic account with parents. So love without attachment helps parents cherish the experience rather than treating it as a responsibility to shoulder.
- Sister Shivani

10. If you are a parent, you will need enough courage not to interfere. Open doors of unknown directions to the child, so he can explore. He does not know what he has in him, nobody knows. 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 on 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.
― Osho

11. The worship of living parents is difficult, but it is the best Sadhana.
- Neem Karoli Baba

12. We all want our children to succeed. But putting too much pressure on them can be counter productive.
- Sri Sri Ravishankar

13. Giving kids everything in abundance limits their ability to look for things they need to grow. Parents should allow their kids also to face some adversities.
- Gaur Gopal Das

14. A mother's love is not given to us to spoil us with indulgence, but to soften our hearts that we may in turn soften others with kindness.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

15. Just as a gardener tends to a sapling with care, so too must parents cultivate their children’s hearts and minds.
- Ramkrishna Paramahansa

Parenting goes beyond teaching your children the right and wrong about the world, it is also about letting them reach their full potential and allow them to pursue their desires and dreams.