Children’s Land

Be like children.

Jesus Christ

On Tuesday, I was visiting my sister-in-law Lyuba and her 10-month old son. All the three hours when I was there, we were “communicating” with Svetik (my nephew) with smiles, mimics and imitation of sounds and from time to time exchanging ideas on life with Lyuba.

Very often, you start realizing the things you have heard or read before only meeting them once again when they are expressed in other words by another person. At some point of time, our discussion with Lyuba approached the idea that you should strive for your thoughts to be always pure and then you (both your physical and energy bodies, health and vibrations) will be in purity and harmony and no negativity will be able to attack you. But it is not an easy matter taking into consideration that your chakras and, consequently, their reflection – thoughts, are often far from balance. And Lyuba told me the words of one of her acquaintances: “When you feel that there is no purity in your thoughts any more, ask God to place your consciousness into His consciousness”…

Before I went home, we had meditated. And the vibrations before, during and after it were such as usually one has at collective Sahaja events. Three hours spent with a child, with purity and innocence, three hours spent, mostly, in a thoughtless state, in the centre, had obviously contributed to it.

This sweet story reminded me of a time years back, when I used to help organise Sahaja Yoga meetings in Caxton Hall in the early 70’s. The hall was packed and Shri Mataji had just finished Her program and people were clamouring around Her… I suddenly viewed from the stage the crowd separating just like the parting of the waters, letting through a woman in rags who obviously just wandered in from the streets; well, the scene was surreal, no one dare go near her …when suddenly Shri Mataji came down and headed straight for this woman and hugged her as if she was a long-lost relative. Needless to say the rest of us kept a distance….then as fast as it started it ended, and the woman just left without a word, with a satisfied look on her face!

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, “Hi.” He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment. I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map. We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists.

“Hi there, baby; hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster,” the man said to Erik. My husband and I exchanged looks, “What do we do?”Erik continued to laugh and answer, “Hi.”

Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. Read the rest of this entry »

…there was a son and a father…. they both regularly went to seashore everyday and silently stared at the sea probably to watch the tides at the sea and returned home. One day the father asked the son, “What makes you so happy after you come here and what exactly do you see for so long in the sea and enjoy so much?”

The son replied, “Father, I try to see what the other see in the sea …but I wonder if others could see what I am trying to see in the sea”. The waves and tides in the sea we do watch, but what do we exactly try to seek in the waves only a kid can tell you.

Similarly these images speaking of God from kid’s corner may seem to be another kiddy stuff… but, if one looks deeper, the kids’ words are much deeper. They not only help us understand children’s inner world but also make us look at the real value of things and judge what this values means to us.

Dear God,

If you give me genia lamp like Alladin, I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set.

Raphael

***

Dear God,

Please send Dennis Clark to a different camp this year.

Peter

***

Dear God,

I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that OK?

Neil

***

Dear God,

I think about you sometimes even when I am not praying.

Elliott

***

Dear God, Read the rest of this entry »

OPINIONS

On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, “The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents.

KETCHUP

A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. “Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now. She’s hitting the bottle.”

POLICE # 1

While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, “Are you a cop?” “Yes,” I answered and continued writing the report. “My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police.
Is that right?” “Yes, that’s right,” I told her. “Well, then,” she said as she extended her foot toward me, “would you please tie my shoe?”

POLICE # 2

It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me. Read the rest of this entry »

What is your sweetest impression of the previous week? The psychologist in one American college used to say: “Every evening try to remember ten nice things which have happened to you during the day”. And this recommendation really helped many students overcome stress and homesickness, helped them look at life in a positive way.

So, do you remember?.. I will tell you about my memory of the last week - the situation which is still before my eyes.

Three weeks ago a 10-year old son of our friends (realized) was knocked down by a bus when he was running across the road together with some other boys from the neighbourhood. His head got such a strong blow that the boy lost his consciousness and was in coma for a week. During this week the doctors could not predict how the process would develop.

We sent e-mails to several Sahaja Yogis in different parts of the world asking them to keep their attention at the boy’s physical and spiritual health and make a bandhan for him to recover sooner. These people do not even know Andrei and his parents but they know that we all are a big family, all the people are one, and if someone is suffering all the rest should and are willing to help him. On Friday, we got several nice e-mails from some yogis which were full of love and vibrations. An extract from one of them: “My heart was filled as I made a bandhan for Andrei today. May the Divine Mother establish Her all bliss on him and Shri Ganesha and Shri Hanumana help the boy recover faster than we human can ever anticipate. May Her love and bliss fill the boy to get well soon…” The same Friday Andrei recovered from coma.

He did come to his senses exactly in 7 days after the accident had happened. I visited the boy and his mother in the hospital on the third day after Andrei had recovered consciousness. I brought fruits and some other tasty things. At one point when I was there Andrei asked for a peach and his father started cutting slices from the peach I had brought and gave them to his son. The boy ate two or three slices and said, “Tasty!” When the father gave him one more slice, Andrei asked, “Treat mum to it”. The boys’ mother took the piece. Then, when his father cut a fifth slice, the boy asked him, Read the rest of this entry »

When a child is born, the first thing that it responds to is the Spirit of its mother. At the moment of his birth he is not aware of his body or that of this mother, but he is aware of the Spirit. The moment he comes out of the womb he suffers a shock, and his first reaction is to get back to the womb. At this stage his mind, conditionings and ego aspects are not developed. He is pure Spirit, and it is this pure Spirit that finds comfort in the Spirit of this mother and through that comfort, sustenance in the new alien environment. This response is true love or unconditional love; it is not a conditioned response, but the sheer joy of the fusion of two Spirits.

In the picture: Shri Mataji with Her daughter Kalpana

“My wife called, ‘How long will you be with that newspaper? Will youcome here and make your darling daughter eat her food?’ I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene.

My only daughter, Sindu looked frightened.Tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with Curd Rice. Sindu is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age.She has just turned eight. She particularly detested Curd Rice. I cleared my throat, and picked up the bowl. ‘Sindu, darling, why don’t you take a few mouthful of this Curd Rice? Just for Dad’s sake, dear.

Sindu softened a bit, and wiped her tears with the back of her hands. ‘OK, Dad. I will eat - not just a fewmouthfuls, but the whole lot of this. But, you should…’ Sindu hesitated. ‘Dad, if I eat this entire curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?’………..Oh sure,darling’….’Promise?’……………..’Promise’. I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal.’Ask Mom also to give a similar promise’, my daughter insisted.My wife put her hand on Sindu’s, muttering ‘Promise’.

Now I became a bit anxious. ‘Sindu dear, you shouldn’t insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of money right now. OK?’ ‘No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive’. Slowly and painfully,she finished eating the whole quantity. After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her………….

‘Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!’ was her demand. ‘Atrocious!’ shouted my wife, ‘A girl child having her head shaved off? Impossible!’ ‘Never in our family!’ my mother rasped. ‘She has been watching too much of television. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!’ ‘Sindu darling, why don’t you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.’ ‘No, Dad. I do not want anything else’, Sindu said with finality.’Please, Sindu, why don’t you try to understand our feelings?’ I tried to plead with her. ‘Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice’. Read the rest of this entry »

A little boy was overheard praying:

“Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it.

I’m having a real good time like I am.”

***

One particular four-year-old prayed,

“And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.”

***

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service,

“And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?”

One bright little girl replied, “Because people are sleeping.”

***

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.

Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.

“If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,

‘Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’

Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,

“Ryan, you be Jesus!”

***
A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him,
grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand.

“Daddy, what happened to him?” the son asked.

“He died and went to Heaven,” the Dad replied.

The boy thought a moment and then said,

“Did God throw him back down?”

***

A wife invited some people to dinner.

At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,

“Would you like to say the blessing?”

“I wouldn’t know what to say,” the girl replied.

“Just say what you hear Mommy say,” the wife answered.

The daughter bowed her head and said,

“Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?”

When pain seems to choke you
Be a child

When you feel attacked and dominated
Be a child

When you are not understood
Be a child

When nothing seems to make you happy
Be a child

And then,
When you see yourself not being nice to others
Be a child

When anger comes into your voice
Be a child

When sweetness deserts your eyes
Be a child

Freed from all illusions’ bonds
Be a child, running up to his Mother

And there, in the warmth of our Mother’s lap
Sheltered by our Mother’s love and care
Be a child

by Meenakshi Pujari

in the picture - Shri Mataji

Once there was a scientist who lived worried about the problems in the world, and was decided to find the ways in which these could be less. He would spend days and days in his lab searching for answers with no results. Then one day, his seven year old son invaded his sanctuary, set upon helping him in his task. The scientist, nervous about his son’ s interruption, asked him to go play outside. Seeing that it was impossible to get him out, the father thought of something to give his child to distract his attention. Suddenly he found a magazine in which there was a map of the world! With scissors, he cut in several pieces the map, grabbed some duck tape and gave all that to his son and said: “Since I know how much you like jigsaw puzzles, I am going to give you the world all cut into pieces so that you repair it all by yourself”. The scientist thought that it would take the child at least 10 days to repair the map, but it didn’t happen that way……

Just after a few hours, he heard his child’s voice calling him in a
serene way.

“Dad, Dad, I finished repairing the whole map.” At first the father didn’t believe his son. He thought that it was impossible that at his young age, he could repair it without ever seeing it before. Sceptical, looking away from his scientific writings, he directed his sight towards the map that his son had repaired. He was certain to find a job made byjust a kid. Surprisingly, he noticed that the map was very well put together, with all the pieces placed in the correct place. How was that possible? . How was the child capable of doing such a good work? The father with much amazement asked his son: “My child, you didn’t know how the world was , how did you do it? And the child answered:

“Dad I didn’t know how the world was…but when you took out the map from the magazine to cut it into pieces, I noticed that in the other side, there was the shape of a man. So I turned each little piece and started to repair the man. When I was able to repair the man, I turned it to the other side and saw that I had repaired the world.”

picture by Jean-Luc Michel