The Spiritual Lessons We Can Learn From Childhood

When we were children, we were much closer to God. Our hearts were naturally clean, simple, and full of joy. As children, we did not carry the heavy, painful burden of memories or the anxiety of the future. We did not care who was rich or who was poor. All we cared about was living our life to the fullest.

That beautiful innocence is our true nature. A small baby is very close to the source because he is not distracted by worldly duties. He hasn’t yet learned to say, “This is my family, this is my house, this is mine. I’m different from you.” And so on. If you let this divine child live deep inside your heart, even when you’re an adult, then you’ll be able to see the world for what it really is without any filters, with fresh, innocent eyes.

As a child, your life force was quite peaceful. You were governed more by the intelligence of your soul instead of your mind. You didn’t struggle to find peace. But as we grew up into adulthood, a lot of things changed. Desires have taken their effect, which were as if sleeping in the seeds of our past-life karma. And slowly and slowly, our desires take full control of our senses, our mind, and our body.

What are the struggles of a small child? Well, you can say it’s playing in the sand or sitting down to study. That’s basically what his battle of life is. But as we become older, the battle becomes larger. Do you know why that is? That’s because, as young children, we possess the sort of wisdom to fight all the invading enemies, which are greed, desire, expectations, etc.

Our childhood should teach us that our mind is like a mirror. When we were small, the mirror was quite new. It was clean. As we grew older, the mirror started to get stains. And eventually, cleaning the mirror became a task. But it’s not impossible to clean the mirror. We can yet again clean the mirror and get the same shine back through the practice of meditation, awareness, and retrospection of our habits, thoughts, and expectations.

Lesson from the story of Queen Madalasa

Have you heard the story of the saintly Queen Madalasa? In ancient times, she was regarded as a wise mother. She had beautiful little babies who would cry in the cradles. And she would sing beautiful spiritual lullabies. She would not tell them stories of greed or fear. She would not sing them any ordinary songs. She chose to sing only spiritual lullabies.

A typical lullaby would sound something like: “You are pure, my child. You are stainless and free from all limits of this world. You do not have a name. And this physical body is just a temporary dress. You need to wake up from this dream, my child.”

Imagine listening to this truth of life as a lullaby when you were just a baby. What happens is, when we keep hearing the truth about our presence on this planet, when our parents teach us these beautiful lessons of life, we grow up to be wonderful human beings. Even three of her sons grew up to become great sages. They were free from worldly attachments. And all thanks to their mother. Her lessons as a teacher made a significant impact on their lives later on.

Young mind is like a blank sheet of paper

The thoughts and habits that we put into a child’s mind are like writing on a blank sheet of paper. Once you write something on a blank sheet of paper, it stays there until you rub it off or try to clean it.

Because if we do not receive spiritual lessons as a child, we find ourselves easily distracted by worldly affairs when we become adults. As an adult, we face a lot of responsibilities, whether it’s our jobs, careers, families, or even our own ambitions. Basically, it becomes a tougher job, as if we are trying to swim a river without knowing how to swim. So it’s very important to learn how to swim in childhood if you want to swim across a river as an adult. Similarly, it’s very important to receive spiritual education as a child if we want to live a blessed life as an adult.

One of the most important lessons as a child that you could learn is restraint and self-control. If you can master this simple aspect of life, it can become one of your biggest shields in adulthood. Think of it like this: a small plant will need a fence to protect it from animals eating it. But once that small plant grows into a huge tree, it no longer needs any fence. Instead, it’s big enough to give shade to hundreds of animals.

In simple words, the rules and disciplines that we learn in our early life, like being honest, being kind, and always speaking our mind, are not just moral lessons that we need to learn to be good human beings. The same lessons will help us grow into an adult who can withstand the traumas and difficulties of adult life without making it sound like life is too hard.

The sand castles

You must remember a simple game that you must have played when you were little. Do you remember playing in the sand with your friends? Building small castles? At such a young age, our hearts were free of any calculations. But as we grow up, we move into different towns. We get busy with our jobs and with different people. And we forget our sweet little days.

When we suddenly meet our childhood friends on a busy street, at first we might feel a little shy, like strangers. Because we are playing different roles, which we call “adult games.” But then, once your friend looks at you with a big warm smile and says, “You remember me? We used to play in the sand,” instantly that distance between two adults disappears. And something fills your heart that brings you close. Because now you both share the same childhood joy.

This is exactly what happens on our spiritual journey as an adult. We have wandered so far and forgotten our true home and our eternal relationship with the divine that sometimes we feel that we are strangers to God and we are alone, with nobody to share our pain and emotions. But when you begin to look back, probably through prayers or meditation, we find that our oldest and dearest friend, God, was always there for us. God was always close to us, even though we couldn’t see it. And once you realize how close you used to be with God before you were born, it takes just an instant to realize that same feeling of meeting an old friend from your childhood. It’s called the moment of awakening.

The girls with jingling bracelets

Let me tell you a beautiful story of some forest sages who lived long ago in ancient times.

There was a girl of around 19 or 20 years old. Earlier, girls used to get married sooner. So there were some guests who came to talk about marriage. When her parents had gone out, she welcomed the guests to her home and went to prepare some food. She used to wear glass bracelets. When she started cooking, she felt the glass bracelets were making noise as they clashed with one another. So she thought, “Let me take them off while I’m doing my work.” So she started removing the bracelets one by one and kept two, and went back to work. Still, she could feel the same noise when the two glass bracelets clashed with one another. So she removed another bracelet from each arm, leaving just one bracelet behind. And finally, there was no noise. Everything was quiet. And there was this beautiful silence.

Now, what does this story tell us? The story teaches us a simple lesson that whenever there are many people around us, they will have different opinions. And these opinions are nothing but noise. There will be arguments. There will be gossip. And if you want to get rid of the noise, then we have to get rid of the crowd. We have to learn to stay by ourselves. We need to practice deep meditation and find our true self. We must learn how to spend time alone, in solitude.

Most people confuse solitude with loneliness. There’s a big difference. Solitude is utmost essential for every human being. Solitude is a fuel for your tired soul. When we are tired from our day-to-day work as adults, we need some time off for ourselves. Some people decide to watch TV or Netflix. Others will take a walk. Some people meditate. Some people cook. Everyone has their own coping mechanism. But it’s very important that you find yourself a peaceful corner where you sit in silence, in true bliss, and build a connection to the divine.