EWS #149 Raising and Educating Children – II (Early Childhood) + Q&A

February 4, 2023

Alina (0:00:00):
Namaste and good evening everyone. Welcome to our continuing series, Evenings with Sraddhalu. Namaste, Sraddhalu.

[Sraddhalu] Namaste. Happy to be with all of you.

[Alina] We are happy to continue this series today on Raising and Educating the Children, Part 2. Our current theme is raising and educating children. Last time we discussed pregnancy and childhood. Today we will pick up some more questions from the chat box, and then we will continue with early childhood. You may post questions on the chat box during our conversation, or you may send your questions beforehand at our email id integralstudies.in at gmail.com.

We received some questions on this topic from Tara, she said, “this is amazing”, a comment on the previous discussion, “Please talk about consuming the placenta and the health benefits to the mother's body”.

Sraddhalu (0:01:45):

Yes, So last time we went in some depth on the phase of, first of all why one can, one should have one can choose to have children, whatever may be external appearances of the world circumstances. And then we went in some depth on the period of pregnancy and briefly touched upon childbirth.

And in the chat box, this question from Tara was about placenta, which is consumed in the animals and among humans this is not normally done, at least in the modern education and the modern hospital culture. But medical science confirms that eating the placenta can actually be extremely nourishing which is what you see in the instinct in the animal world. I'll touch upon certain aspects of this and then later we will go in depth with deeper aspects of nourishment which will complement with this.

From a purely biological perspective, and this is the way physical science tries to present it, that the animal needs to eat the placenta and the umbilical cord because of the safety, because after childbirth there is all this material which is going to be left behind and it may attract other animals who will detect where you are. And so what you see among most animals is that first they will bite and cut the umbilical cord on their own without any specific external training. They just know to do it and then they continue after cutting to eat the umbilical cord and the placenta and lick the entire space clean to the extent the animal can, in the case of dogs obviously. You can come let's say a few an hour later after the childbirth, you will find no sign at all and the baby itself the mother will lick it clean. All the material which came from the liquid in which the child grew all that also will be licked clean. You will just see mother and child perfectly clean, actually even free of bacterial infection also.

Now at a very superficial level, the physical science is, that's for safety and for the cleanliness. But subsequently modern science has caught up a little bit with the recognition that in fact, in the umbilical and in the placenta, there is a huge amount of nutritional content; there is a lot of energetic content. Literally it is the same substance with which the child’s body is made, which is now held to protect the body. And so it's also made, you will recall I mentioned last time, the placenta is one of the most amazing tissues that nature has constructed. But this, when it is eaten by the mother, actually gives her a huge content of nutrition because of what she has just lost in the effort of giving birth to, in building a child and giving birth to a child and it complements that.

But also something even more interesting, as we are finding out more recently with modern technologies that the umbilical cord and the placenta are full of stem cells in such high concentration that in fact one of the simplest ways for modern medicine to gather stem cells rather than growing them in a Petri dish is to take them from the umbilical cord or the placenta. In the umbilical cord particularly there is, I think, it is called mesenchymal or something, stem cells which are completely neutral of the biology type. They are not specific to a certain requirement. They are so essential, so common, so universal that you could take the extraction from the umbilical cords themselves and after whatever requirement of purification, inject them straight into the bloodstream and it will assist the body in self-healing and self-regeneration. When the mother animal now eats this, it is also going into her body in whatever way, internally in the digestive tract there are huge changes also during the pregnancy, and all this goes to regenerate the mother's body for the effort that it had to make to produce another life.

(00:06:52):
On a very superficial level you could say, this is amazing benefit that nature gives as a reward to the mother for having taken that trouble to give a child birth. But there is another thing which also we see now and this is a recent discovery, I believe, 10 or 15 years ago, that they found that as a result of the pregnancy, while the child is growing in the womb, there is of course within the fetus, the stem cells which are hugely multiplying in number. Through the placental barrier, through the blood which is being exchanged with the child, the stem cells of the child come into the bloodstream of the mother and actually act like a stem cell regeneration therapy in the mother.

In principle this can be seen in many parts of the body, but particularly the research that I read about was on the heart. The entire heart muscle of the mother whatever her age may be undergoes a very concentrated stem cell therapy and what you get subsequent to pregnancy is an almost new formed heart. Of course, there is a large part which is of the old, but the stem cell therapy regenerates large parts of the heart muscle tissue to a degree that it's almost like a healthy young person's heart. Now the mother could be in her 40s. The result of the post-pregnancy, the result of this, is that she gets a heart which is almost like a 25 year old.

So there are very interesting connections of the biological linkage between the child and the mother in a way that in producing a child who is fresh, new, young in body, the mother also is given a similar lease of fresh youth on a cellular regenerative level. And this we could say is part of nature. But there is something much more to it. From a symbolic, from a consciousness perspective, we will say in giving birth, the mother is participating in the creative consciousness and the youth of the consciousness she is giving birth to and therefore acquires or reawakens to her own youth to some degree. So this is as far as I wanted to say about placenta and umbilical cord.

We could go to the next question from Sudhir. Sudhir asked last time, we were discussing something about the influence of the child that the child receives in the womb. Sudhir asked, “what effect would reading Savitri have on a child in the womb and later in its life?”

This comes to us instinctively and quite a large part of the discussion last time was to appreciate the instinctive knowledge that nature has infused in us all human beings, but especially in the mother and the father during the period of pregnancy and post childbirth. And so this is something which the mother automatically feels she needs to do is to give the best to her child and then it's about gathering what is the best that she can gather and give. And part of that instinct is even to communicate with the child and to express, give affection and love, even while the child is in the womb.

And to the extent that we are more mentalized than animals, we have a rich mental life, we draw and share something of that mental life with the child. And with it, of course, then, if you have a spiritual opening, that naturally must follow. So this question really is, I first take it on a more general level, that whatever you read, whatever you imbibe, whatever you listen to, whatever environmental consciousness you create and expose yourself to and absorb, all this is going into the child's formative substance of consciousness and body and therefore has a profound impact in the long run. If the mother is in a sattvic state of consciousness with high refined aspiring, spiritual aspiration, all that as if seeps into the tissue of her body and therefore into the child's body.

(0:11:41):
So yes, all depends on how you would read Savitri or any other inspiring, uplifting or spiritually fulfilling text, narration, story, space. All depends on how you take it. At a very superficial level, you could take it in a more religious way. Now that I am pregnant, I am going to read all the sacred texts for protection, for well-being, so that my child may be healthy, wealthy, wise, all the usual goals. Or you could take it to a much higher level as a spiritual aspirant, that you become a vehicle for receiving, embodying the Divine Presence and also infusing into the child the same thing that you receive. And if you read Savitri or other texts or meditate with that intention, it can give to the very substance and tissue and consciousness of the child a huge benefit, a huge advantage and support.

Now much will also depend on the quality of consciousness that the soul brings and the aspiration that it has. But more often than not, a soul comes with a higher aspiration than the support it gets from the environment. And most often, whatever little it may have of the higher aspiration is lost because of lack of that support. On the other hand, we can say that the consciousness being infused in the child not only would shape it, but also if the soul so aspires for the higher spiritual life, would be a kind of nourishment or food for the soul.. Or even one could take it further and say creating such a space, such an environment would actually invoke and invite a higher consciousness and a higher soul.

So again we come to this as a very important guideline which is often there in the more ancient at least in the spiritual cultures and traditions in India. It used to be, it's one of those things which is probably lost in the transmission that they would say the mother should only be surrounded by high nourishing idealistic beautiful environment but also thoughts and as also experiences; do not expose her to the cruder and coarser interactions of life, including, even, you don't go to the marketplace, where the environment in consciousness would be coarse and crude. And then there are things which could maybe catch at that moment and want to unite with the fetus or the child to want to incarnate, because at that point your consciousness is also of the same grade almost. But maintaining this poise and even holding a higher aspiration that a conscious being, a conscious soul with a spiritual aspiration should incarnate in a protected space would allow for that to happen more easily.

I have mentioned relatively recently, a few sessions ago, the story of Abhimanyu's mother, while he was still in the womb, Sri Krishna was explaining how to enter the science or the technique for entering through the maze on the battlefield. But by the time he got to the technique of how to scape from the maze, she had fallen asleep. And so Abhimanyu had the knowledge of how to enter, but did not have the knowledge of how to come out, which becomes critical in the story later on, and he dies because of that. But this gives you a hint that the state of consciousness of receptivity in the mother has a direct impact on the child. When she goes to sleep, the child goes to sleep; when she wakes up, he wakes up. And at some point, again depending on the child's growth stage as well as maturity in consciousness, when the child wakes up, he can wake up the mother also. It's a kind of a mutual relationship.

(0:16:11):
There is another story which is also in the yoga tradition of Ashtavakra. He was the son of a very great Rishi and a great Rishi in power in greatness and was also great in his self-importance, but with the great power he had incarnated in his wife, an exceptional soul, conscious, evolved. And so once when this great Rishi is expounding and the wife is sitting next to him and the child in the womb is listening to this exposition, from within the womb the child calls out and says, my father, ‘that is wrong what you said, the correct thing is this’. The great Rishi gets angry in the moment with his greatness and curses that the child will be born with warped distorted limbs. Subsequently, the curse is withdrawn. But you have such stories where a child can in the womb not only be conscious but communicate, and this is not impossible. So much depends on the maturity of the soul and the degree to which it infuses its consciousness.

Now what practically happens is, a more mature soul does not infuse too much into the foetus because it is still in formation. It infuses a part of its consciousness, energy and conceptual imprint to shape and form the foetus and make it ready to receive this larger consciousness. So there's a period, a gradual time and sometimes even after birth the full infusion has not taken place. It may take a few weeks or months down. But if, and this is a problem of the human evolution, if the biology can be sufficiently pushed in its development then even then can be a greater infusion of the consciousness to the point of even a clear awareness in the fetal stage and the soul can recall what it was like to be in the fetal stage. And so potentially, okay, in this case I do not know how it was, whether it was a literal speech or it was a telepathic consciousness projection, but the principle is valid in the story of Ashtavakra and these are historical events actually.

And finally, I make this comment as you are listening to Savitri or such, with that concentration you will be absorbing or the child will be absorbing the vibrations, the familiarity with the spiritual presence, with the consciousness that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have incarnated and in that familiarity, in that absorption, the substance of that consciousness would infuse into the child to the extent the mother accepts or infuses and protects in her own body, that substance.

It won't be enough to do it as a ritual. Of course, that would be good, but it's not enough. If the mother holds a different consciousness, you have made the child listen to fancy music, yes there is an influence. But when the mother incarnates, then the full transmission can take place and the full infusion. Often it can happen when the soul is sufficiently conscious, it will awaken in the mother also, if she is so ready, an alignment of that aspiration. But it requires for the mother to be sufficiently receptive.

So, I think this covers the question sufficiently that you recognize the form is not the key. It is the shaping of consciousness in the mother and the potential for the child to absorb and shape, which is the key. And the form is only a means for that.

(0:20:19):
Quickly look at the chat box. Yes, I correctly used the mesenchymal stem cells, that's the word. So Revathi is asking, “other than physical causes, are there any spiritual causes for congenital defects and can these be minimized consciously?”.  

One could conceive of, for example, karmic associations or causes even for congenital defects. And the tendency which I find in people is to blame any problem on karma. It doesn't work like that. Karma is not all-encompassing. It is not master of things. Soul is freedom. Self is freedom. The divine consciousness is freedom. Karma is a secondary, even we will say, tertiary force, because there are many higher ranges of consciousness which have their own freedom even if they are not entirely spiritual and the karma comes at a very low grade relatively, merely as a rhythmic flow of ripples of consciousness.

From the perspective of the self, these ripples are either to be allowed or they can consciously be changed, redirected or even neutralized. Or a negative ripple can be so modified as to become a positive ripple. Now all these I could give you physical analogies since we are talking so much of physical influences and karma is almost a mechanical physical effect. You see, if you have a wave coming and you have an object which is floating in the water, depending on the phase with which the wave hits and the natural rhythm of oscillation of the object, the wave would end up pushing it or simply making it bob. But by tuning the wave slightly, you can make the object pull or push. As an analogy, you see, whatever force comes, the self can modify the relationship with the force, apart from neutralizing it totally, but it can modify the relationship as to turn it to positive use or allow it its negative use.

So, karma we should not take too seriously in such matters. Recognize at least to the extent possible we have the freedom, we should exercise it. And in this case, which comes to the second part of the question, ‘can these be minimized consciously?’ – Yes, exactly, by a higher opening, by a higher influence.

So the soul's consciousness may detect problems which are rooted in biology. It may attempt to overcome, succeed or fail. If after birth it finds the body is unable to support what it wants to do it may also choose to live, to leave, rarely. Otherwise it may say, ‘all right this is what I have inherited for whatever reasons and now let's see what I can make good use from it’ and it treats it as part of the price to pay for that environment or the other reasons why it chose to take birth in that family or in that person.

On the other hand, the mother's influence can be huge. If the mother conceives of something more beautiful and is able to maintain this consciousness, then distortions or tendencies for distortions are effectively neutralized or held at bay. You will recall this incident that the Mother narrates where she saw a mother with two twins, girls and she said, these children resemble so much that famous painting by a French artist. And the mother confirmed, she said, yes, when I was carrying these children, I had the painting in front of my bed and every day I would look at the painting and pray or hope or imagine that my children would would be as beautiful as these. And so the imaging she had transferred into the biology. That's why pregnancy is such a vulnerable passage because it's the most vulnerable period of formation of the biological and psychological basis. I would even use the word spiritual base, but to the extent that the spiritual consciousness infuses in the biology. And because it is so vulnerable, that protection becomes so important. So if she can shape even through such conception, the image of the face of the children, the shape of their bodies would be naturally an outcome of such a shaping.

(0:25:14):
You will see also in the instinct of the mother, there's a tendency and we'll speak about this shortly, that she will want to massage her child, hug her child and if there is because we are mental beings, we have some knowledge, you will do an oil massage perhaps on the child, gently but when doing that if you infuse this intention, here this body will grow strong and healthy and intend, aspire, even visualize, all these have a shaping effect. And it would be a horrible thing to do, to give the child to a nurse and say, okay, now you massage him or you feed him, because you cannot have that quality of transmission. Unless in the rare case, the nurse is of a superior grade of consciousness than the mother, then it would be worthwhile perhaps. That also sometimes has happened in history, but normally not.

But let us catch the principle and we can see how this applies. We will also see shortly why that vulnerable period should be protected and how. There is one more comment which came in the questions or in the comments in the video listing which so far I had not been seeing. I hope to be able to look at these more in the future.

Tapasya has written, “I would like you to talk about birth as in the deliberate design of the medical industrial complex of robbing birth experiences”, and she says, “Birth is over medicalized. Women are told in every prenatal appointment not to trust their instincts and to trust the doctors and to trust a bunch of tests, synthetic supplements and synthetic hormones to make their pregnancies and births so called healthy and ultimately pushing them to surgical births and traumatic birth experiences.” She continues saying, “I am not writing this as a commoner, although on one level we all know this, but as a childbirth educator and a traditional birth attendant”. And so from her experience, she writes, “The amazing miracle we midwives witness in undisturbed births is robbed from women in medical settings. It's time women realize this and demand respectful care. The fear of birth that has been put out by the modern obstetrics in the last hundred years has also contributed to delaying the evolution in my opinion.”

I've read the entire comment and it's full because I think I would agree with most of what she has said. All of human existence, except until maybe last 50 years ago, all women have given birth in their home setting. I even know of a case and this was a lady in the ashram, she had given birth to nine children in all, all of them at home and she said one of the children once she had a few, she was so used to it now, her husband had gone out to work, she's all alone at home, she gives birth to the child, cleans him up, prepares him and when the husband comes home she says here is the child and welcome our new guest in the family. So this is very much possible, you see this happening in nature everywhere. All animals do it. Complications are very very rare.

So there is this whole medical mafia, machinery, which puts fear of complication, which might be, I don't know, 1 in 10,000. But now everybody has to go through all this and unnecessary exaggerated testing in artificial environments. And at the time of birth, if you see, and we see this in cinema generally, that's how we are presented with that whole thing. It is such an artificial setting. Somebody else is looking at your body. You are put with a cloth in between, you do not have an occasion to be able to meet your child or give birth in a natural way. And then all these strange lights and sounds and things poking into your body, it's not for your body a comfortable state to give birth in.

If on the other hand your body is allowed to feel its comfort and this is the instinct you will see in nature, the nesting instinct, you build that nest and then in that comfort where you feel secure and protected the body movements and contractions take place smoothly, spontaneously because it feels safe, at a moment when it is most vulnerable.

(0:30:12):
Now vulnerability, we will expand on it a little later, but the vulnerability is not just because the mother is in that state that animals could attack. It is a psycho-spiritual vulnerability. Because at that time, in that period of birth, all kinds of influences could be present, which may attempt to infuse or connect with the fetus. If a sufficient spiritually protected atmosphere is created, then a grade of soul or consciousness of that evolution would be able to enter but other levels would not be able to enter. And this is extremely important. Very often, in a large number of children or women, the point of contact is just before, during or just after the childbirth. And so the beings who assist the soul to incarnate, they bring the soul around that time as the childbirth process is happening and then that's when the consciousness or the person is ready and then joins with the child. The protective environment spiritually is critical.

There's also a light to this whole artificial birthing, the very weird industrialized influence, which I personally think is a violence to the newborn baby. That the moment the baby is born, even before the mother can look at the child, the nurse takes the child away for observation. At least that's the explanation given to you. And this child which has just been separated from its mother, now is exposed to this harsh light, sound, vibration, nurse, sometimes some of them are very coarse in consciousness. And then taken into this room where all the babies are in separate beds and here he is given a separate bed and he is feeling cold because he has been in a warm space all these nine months and suddenly he is feeling cold, bare, exposed, vulnerable, starts crying, hears other babies crying and the trauma is horrible.

The first entry into the physical world, suddenly you're separated from your mother violently, put into this very uncomfortable state, strange smells of the… you know, the child is extremely sensitive, as I said, almost as sensitive as a dog, strange smells of the hospital, even as adults we don't find it very comfortable and all the rest of the clutter that comes in consciousness. Meanwhile, the mother whose part of her body has just been separated, postpartum we call it, is suddenly finding this huge gap in her consciousness which normally would be filled by holding the child close and she is going through this trauma of separation.

Now all this is so artificial and I would say so perverse. In the industrial education, it is intended to shock the child, to force him to not bond and to break the family unit and to force the child to become insular, insensitive, exaggerated in a false hardened individualization. It is intended. It is very sad to say this. Fortunately in some of the more I would say, mature hospitals, they have started changing this, but it's not everywhere. It's not the medical norm, where immediately after birth the mother is allowed to hold the child and then after a while they take him away for this 24 hours observation. I don't know how long, sometimes longer. What is this weird thing about observation? Can't you observe the child while with the mother?

But anyway, understanding the natural rhythm and need, we can correct for this very easily. We can feel and however much you may try to distort nature's instinct, that's the reason why nature makes these instincts so strong. As soon as possible, we will be able to bounce back out of these distortions. Allow the natural bonding that takes place immediately after childbirth, where the child having been inside the womb now is outside, but in the protective womb of its mother's consciousness. And so bit by bit, gradations of separation take place. It's also the time when the child starts suckling and if at that time the transition is made smoothly, the child doesn't need to cry. Especially a more conscious soul can actually take birth, open its eyes and look around without needing to cry and start breathing and relate directly to its mother and when it is feeding at that moment, it is the equivalent of being in the womb, in close protection. And the mother's consciousness wraps around automatically. All these are deep-rooted instincts for that purpose. And the most important part of it from the mother's side is also the joy of giving birth, which has been completely torn out by this very distorted process. Even it is made painful and shocking, that could come back and the joyfulness of that experience, which is what nature intends, is present, however much you may be tired. And you see this and I again take the example of the dogs because that's the only case that I have actually seen more closely in this kind of an environment, at least in this incarnation.

The dog after having given birth, she is completed, she knows the body feels, oh there is one more child, she has completed this now and then the dog rests. And when you approach her, she looks at you with this joy, I have accomplished something so great, so wonderful. And she knows she has created, she has created life. If we can use that word, but this is the deeper truth. Having given birth, having created life, this satisfaction, deep satisfaction and joy of having accomplished, you have to allow for that to take place. And for the child, the first experience of entering the material world as an independent being must be a welcoming experience and then he can actually say, yes, the soul's aspiration and the psychic aspiration when wanting to take birth is, I want to explore this wonderful world and develop my capacities and learn and grow and create and manifest all the wonders possible. And here it's entering, instead of getting a whack on the face or in the body, you're allowing it to enter this this with curiosity and the bright aspiration. So I think this is as far as Tapasya's comment.

(0:37:19):
And one more comment I wanted to read from, although it's not so much a question, it's a comment. Gracie wrote in the chat box last time, “A warm, sweet, beautiful talk, reminds me of the beautiful times and the presence of the Divine Mother during my pregnancy.”

And I want to highlight this because there are several women who have had, who have this experience, especially when they have a spiritual background in their aspiration and life in the practice, that the period of pregnancy if it has not been distorted by the industrial influence, I will say. Because it's a time of automatic introversion with full focus on awareness of your child, it's nature's vehicle, mechanism which we spoke of last time. It's also a time spontaneously for deep concentration and meditation on the Divine, on the Divine Mother to feel the Divine Presence and to feel the Divine Mother. It can happen very easily because the whole consciousness is inwardly turned. Of course biologically, physiologically, but still in psychology also there is an inward turn as a result.

So in the mechanism of nature to force this inward turn is also a potential which is spiritual, if so utilized. And for those who have this natural spiritual turn, they can make that a period of intense, deep immersion and concentration in their spiritual aspiration, which of course would influence and impact on the child. And I said, if it is not affected by the industrial influence, and what is that? As it happens today, you may be pregnant, but you only get 15 days holiday during childbirth or one month holiday, if you're lucky. So you keep working until you're, as long as you can. You have to go to office and expose yourself to all that clutter and junk and the state of consciousness required by your job and because of economic compulsions. Many women view that as, because of the programming from the industry, they view that as their liberation or their freedom or their right to assert their independence, which is fine also up to a point. But from the point nature begins this introversion of movement, maybe third month, fourth month, whenever it happens, if you follow that, the benefit is far greater. If you oppose that, you end up with a kind of a half-hearted, mixed experience, but also the potential, which I want to point here, the spiritual potential of the period of pregnancy and the childbirth and even later the nurturing of the child, that is lost. So if you have the possibility, even if you're working, use that time, withdraw from all those things, build this space of deep immersion in your aspiration and in the divine presence. As in all activities of life, there is a spiritual potential that we could turn it to. The period of pregnancy and childbirth can be in this way made a period that is beautiful with the presence of the Divine Mother during the pregnancy and even during the childbirth.

So I think this would cover the questions from last time, from the chat box as well as a few other, and I want to continue now the theme. So last time it was pregnancy, childbirth, we elaborated on it a little bit today but I still go back to Nitin's question which is now broadened to all this discussion. “How to raise a child when you know that you know nothing and are yourself starting on a conscious evolution?” And I said last time, nature has infused this instinct within you which carries all the potential and if you open to the deeper and higher intuition, which aligns to the instinct, its possible to raise that whole thing, open to the higher guidance, use the support of nature's instinct and the whole thing can be made so spontaneous and effortless, that you find you grow, you learn, you're taught by the child, by Nature, by the higher intuition and led, it happens. We covered that a lot last time.

Today I want to take it from that into the next step. Pregnancy, birth has taken place and now we have the early childhood. Observe now the instincts in the mother. I'll also touch upon the instincts in the father a little later but first much more on the mother. You find you have one of the most compelling instincts will be to feed the child. From the moment the child is born, if you are allowed to hold the child in your arms, looking at the child, feeling, and the child evokes in you this deep, compelling love, which has a strong emotional, biological content that forces in the mother the release of her milk, which the child starts drinking. It's one of the very first experiences in the bonding of the mother and child. So the instinct to feed your child and what happens at that moment, you want to infuse the best of yourself into the child.

Again, it's an instinct in the mother. You do nothing about it. It's done for you. Nature awakes it in you. But if instead of stopping with the mere instinct, you lift that instinct and join it to your higher spiritual aspiration, you want to infuse the best that you have, but the best that you can invoke and pour through, as you feed, as you nourish the child. That it's not just the substance that you give but all your higher aspirations and what flows into you from above flows in the feeding. So you try to give the best of yourself, but also later as the child grows, you want to give the best that you can bring from the world, which is the form it will be also from the father's side. And then from here comes the instinct to feel the child as the most important and the most precious thing in the world. Not just yours, but literally in the whole world for everyone it is the most precious thing. At least as a mother you will feel that. My child is so amazing and you will narrate you the most wonderful stories, “he opened his eyes and then he looked”, and it's as if everybody else in the world should be able to say, “oh, wow what a wonderful thing he did”.

Of course here somewhere you know that well everybody else has had similar experiences and yet at that moment the beauty and the freshness, newness, uniqueness of this experience. It's so special, it feels as if it has never happened before in all of history of time in the universe and here is the most important thing, the most precious thing, the most wonderful experience. And your mind can reduce it to, for me, I know it's not the same for all. Or you can rise to the deeper truth and say for the whole universe because in fact this child's birth is unique in the whole history of space and time isn't it? And this child is the most unique child for the Divine Mother who has such a special relationship with this child that she gives herself entirely to him to her and there's nobody else like it anywhere this is world. And it is also a deep spiritual truth.

(0:45:39):
So the instinct is reflecting that in the limited psychology of the mother's experience but you can also link it to that deeper truth of the psychic being that has taken birth being entirely unique and the most special as is every other psychic being the most special and the most unique and entirely embraced by the Divine Mother. You can align yourself to this deep truth and thereby fulfill what this instinct is trying to realize. So if you look at these instincts, the instinct to feed, the instinct to infuse the best of yourself and the best from the world and give everything that is the best that you can and the father will then start thinking and you see the role nature has instilled in both. The father provides the protective space which the mother at that time being vulnerable cannot, in which she feels being protected, she can freely flow and give herself without fear, without concern for anything else in a one-pointed concentration and then he provides, supports, brings the nourishment for the mother and the child and so on.

So there's a dual play which we will discuss a little more later. But in this, the first form in which it takes place is this feeding of yourself to the child. The period where at first the mother wants to literally feed the child out of her own body is then transitioned into a period where automatically, instinctively she feels now I must bring something from outside. It's very interesting to observe how Nature works this out. At a biological level the child is born without teeth so he can feed freely, no discomfort to the mother. But after a point when the teeth begin to grow it becomes uncomfortable for the mother. But also at the same time, the child also now begins to reach out independently and the mother feels the need to bring external nourishment of some kind, but making it soft, pasty like the child would need, which she feels, she knows what it needs. Even in some animals, the parent, the mother will chew the food, half digest with the saliva and then place it in the child's mouth to soften it to the texture and level required for the child and she knows exactly how much and what the child is capable of, from which there is again a further transition where the mother can now take it directly and put it in the child's mouth, maybe with the hand crushing and so on. And it goes like that.

For the child, interestingly, that experience is very special. So you are receiving literally the one who is your mother, you are drawing nourishment from her and then after some time she is choosing the nourishment for you, but it's she who feeds you. And it goes quite far. At certain stage, the child is even quite aged, can eat on his own but wants to be fed by its mother, just to feel that love and affection which comes. And this points to something profound, that it's not just food that is being fed, it is literally the love and affection that is being fed. It is psychological nourishment that is being fed. And for the child in that growing phase of the biology, of course you get what you need, but the psychologically formative period of the first three years, I will say. The most critical is also receiving that nourishment.

If this you can do well, the child will have formed in such a healthy way, by the age of six the child would be reasonably independent to be able to even engage with the world and learn on its own. And the self-confidence that I can, I'm able to, and I can stand on my own, would have already formed if this nourishment was properly done. If into this you do not take care and do not protect enough or expose the child's vulnerability to negative experiences, the child learns ‘I am not safe in this world’, hesitates, withdraws, fears engagement and that developmental processes can be delayed or damaged.

How does this happen? Again I'm comparing from the instinctive natural way you would do with the modern artificial industrialized way that we are trained, brainwashed to do. And I give a few examples. Of course what you find in the propaganda of the medical system is you start giving baby replacement food. It's called baby foods which are made in a factory. Zero love, only greed of how to make money, extract money from the vulnerable parents who want the best, they are willing to pay for the best, charge them more. And what will we give? Okay, the child needs this list of components of vitamins. We're going to assemble the chemicals which represent those vitamins, crush them into a powder. All right, because you have the illusion that you want to feed your milk, we will give you milk. We'll call it milk and we take powdered milk which is just industrial milk from the cow taken, aerated, turned into powder, mix into it all these chemicals. And by the way, this has to have a shelf life of three or four years right, we can't afford to waste we need our profits, so fill in with all kinds of preservatives. Oh yeah, they're poisonous no?, but this the government has approved because we paid them to approve these chemicals which are poisonous as preservatives as long as we do not exceed such a quantity per day so it's like saying you can eat all the poison you want as long as it is within that approved limit, although it is poisonous.

(0:51:45):
It's the most ridiculous thing. And then you are told, so earlier the advertisements would go straight to the mother, ‘This food is better than your mother's milk’. Subsequently, because of popular pressure, the medical system had to withdraw. The evidence was overwhelming- this was damaging the children. So they say, ‘Okay, from so many months on’. It varies according to how much the pharma industry controls your government, they will say, two months, three months or whatever six months you can start supplementing mother's milk with this superior formula, and of course you have pretty pictures of babies to attract and deceive you. The fact is, the actual evidence of studies is children fed with formula food and that's formula, they call it formula because they made it out of a formula of mix of chemicals, that's all there is to it.

The fact is the evidence is those babies who are brought up with formula food become or tend to be obese in later life and this correlation has been mapped. Obesity is provoked by the very things which were there in that formula food, the chemicals, hormones and other stimulants, preservatives have gone into the system, disbalanced your hormonal and endocrine system in a way that there is a long term side effect going into life. It's very sad but this is the reality today. The instinct for the mother though, unless there's a very serious problem, the instinct would be not to go for these things and you have to trust that.

There's something more now. I said, the industrial programming. I'm going to touch upon this with three aspects of the experience. What happens during the feeding or in that early period when the child is still very vulnerable? You will see if you were with the child in forest space in nature, let's say, where you do not have machines which have produced prams or the little cots for children which you are taught you have to buy. You see, you are pregnant, you are going to have a child, there is a baby shop – These are all the things you need to buy. And the images placed in your mind through cinema particularly, showing you what a pregnant mother does or what you do after childbirth is you have to buy this little cot and then you hang little bells etc.

Now what you would do if you were in nature is to hold your child close. Instinctively the way you hold the child is also facing you and then you wrap your arms around. This posture is very interesting. First of all it is the natural posture for feeding but also energetically it is the natural posture for being the most protected. Instead what you do is you place this child who is now feeling cold, separate from its mother, into that little bed in the hospital, air-conditioned room, he is feeling extremely cold, isolated and abandoned it feels and so the memory of abandonment is seeped in and is totally exposed in the front.

Now this space just in front is the space which is extremely vulnerable energetically. I'm going to take a little bit of a detour about this and we'll come back to this description of the child. But understand what this vulnerability is about.

(0:55:36):
You see, in the way the fetus forms in the womb, first there is a single cell, that cell grows to become a bundle and the bundle then flattens out to become almost disc-shaped, at which point there is as if a nudge, a point like a finger pushing, a hole, a dip forms, not a hole but a dip forms, and in that dip as if forms a line, straight line, which will later become the spine. And the point of dip is the base of the spine, the place of the Kundalini. So it's as if an energy comes, enters, nudges, and then forms the spine, and then the entire disc begins to fold around the spine. And so if the spine is like this in the disc, it begins to fold around the spine and join in front. But at the same time, special five folds happen for the arms, legs and the head, which then take on the shape.

So if you think of it as a disc, which you have now shaped to form the head, arms and legs, you will notice in the front is the seam where the disc joins to create a line of joint. On the arms is the seam here and in the legs is the seam which is pretty much between the legs on the side where this folding thing now joins. Now once it has joined, biologically it has become continuous tissue, but actually that whole shaping movement energetically is never totally sealed. In fact there's a whole rationale to it but there's as if a line of vulnerability where energetically things can leak through or leak out. Now you notice what happens when we feel ourselves vulnerable as adults. Instinctively you do this [shows hands crossed covering the front chest region]. Someone comes and you feel a threat of being hit, you do like this. Why? Why don't you do like this [shows chest puffed up and hands on side]? Because you're pushing your stronger part in front? No, you go like this. You close, even as if fold in front. That's the seam, the line of joint of weakness.

Same with the arms here. This is the line where you will see even in the sensation of the arm, the outside, the back of the palm and the outside is less sensitive. From the palm which is open and from which energies can flow. You do this, energies flow, healing, they place their hand, but from this all the way through here, this part, extremely sensitive, through this part where the elbow bends, comes here into the armpit and on the side. And when you place your arms tightly on the side, you have as if blocked all the vulnerable parts of energy, influx and outflow. When you are extremely tired, you close like this, so as not to leak out. Or if something is drawing from you, you close like this or go further like this or when you feel vulnerable you go like this.

Same with the legs because the joint on the side, inside, is the more sensitive layer. When you feel vulnerable you close your legs tightly and now take it a further step. You've closed your arms, brought them forward, covered your chest, closed your legs tightly and you still feel vulnerable. What's the next thing you do? You crouch, you bring your knees up and your knees now cover your chest and your arms wrap around the knee or hold like this. – Fetal position in the womb. Interesting. Think about what that means.

In the womb, as this disc-shaped thing became the form of the child and you see how it evolves. That state of the fetal natural pose is the outer layer, the most protective in the aura, even in the substance, in the womb, in the shape and the parts which are most covered inside are the parts which are the most sensitive, the most vulnerable. And so after birth, suddenly you are exposed and the very opposite is made. And now all the influences of nature, even the biological cold, the physical cold and the energies, everything has free access. What would happen if the mother was with the child and not child put in that artificial bed, she would hold him close in the front, to her front and she would wrap her arms around him and you see the natural state for the child he puts his head on your neck looks at the back perhaps but even you see his neck, this part is extremely sensitive; his neck is covered and held here against your neck, all the vulnerable layers are closed, energetically closed, but the vulnerable part is open to the mother and the mother is to him and now free exchange energetically can take place. Continuing what was happening in the womb of nourishing through the biological link and whatever psychological content, here the psychological content continues with the added bonus right from there he can also suckle and take his biological nourishment whenever needed. You see the rationale for this.

(1:01:19):
The opposite, now you understand why the vulnerability is so great. Now the child is left alone, suddenly bared and if he senses an energy which is uncomfortable and starts crying, how does he protect himself? Even what they do sometimes, they bind the child. They wrap a cloth around so that his arms may not flail and he may not hurt himself. So the fellow cannot even bring his arms forward, he cannot take the position of the fetus to protect himself; totally exposed. And the energies may come and hit, enter, harm, anything. Nobody is there. Because the mother is in a different room, you are put in a separate room. If the child was in the same room as its mother, the mother would feel something uncomfortable and she would instinctively take the child into protection. Or he starts crying because he feels uncomfortable, she would take him in protection. He stops crying because now he's protected.

So much of the crying is because of physical, psychological or even occult discomfort. Because children sense, they see, they sense, not always with the physical sight but the subtle sight, because at that age and even up to the age of three, I will say, they are half in and out of the biology, because often the biology cannot fully contain your consciousness. So there's a part which is still hanging outside, so to say, before it can fully infuse, or simply because the consciousness is so large, there's a pit which is still open here and you sense. So this is a very strange idea which comes from the industrial training that you make a separate room and the parents have a separate room and they sleep separately. You put your child to sleep and come away for the night and then when you hear the child crying you go there and with the you know because they have to sell you things, they will now sell you a child monitor.

So you put this monitor with video camera next to his little bed, you are in the next room with your video screen and you're watching the child through a video screen. Can you imagine what a dystopian experience it is? Literally like you've put someone in jail and you're monitoring them through your video screen to create an insulation and separation. Well, if you could do that why not put them in your same room so that you can see them directly. There is another interesting angle to this. I am going into some detail because I would like to make this theme as complete as possible.

You see, in the yoga tradition, they speak of various ways in which the guru can initiate. So they say the guru initiates by touch of the consciousness, which is a kind of a transition through the touch. Or there's a three other, two other kinds of initiation and they use the analogy of animals. The fish watches its young and protects with its sight and there is the greater guru who initiates by sight and then the greatest is the tortoise which protects its young by thought and so the greatest guru is the one who like the tortoise who initiates by thought. Interesting.

But I am going to bring it into the space of the child. The mother, yes, nourishes by physical, biological substance, but nourishes by the love that flows and with the gaze and with the thought. And the experience of all mothers is, my child has gone to school but as if me, a part of me, my thought, my best and most precious part is with the child in school, isn't it? And you feel when your child is not well, you sense it. And if you trust, you will call up the school and say what's happening. But if this is the degree of identification, what is the idea of putting the child in the next room?

You will see at least in the more traditional homes even today in India and I hope this does not change. The child will sleep on the same bed as the parents between the parents. Of course you'll say but what about the parents freedom? They're happy because that's the nature of the instinct. They're happy to keep the child in their bed. And the child feels surrounded by this protective environment and automatically in the aura of their parents, the joint aura, which is the same joint aura which conceived the child. He feels protected and those other influences which it might sense otherwise is immune to them. It doesn't sense them or sensing them they are far away doesn't affect, doesn't feel fear. When so isolated next room, it doesn't feel so much,  it feels abandoned, it starts calling its mother. Now it can't speak, so it doesn't say, mom come and hug me, tell me a story or whatever it is, it starts crying.

(1:06:15):
So the textbook says, and there are two schools of textbook in this, some say you have to go and hug and pacify the child and when he's asleep you leave him and abandon him and come away. Others say, let your child cry its way to sleep. He cries until he is exhausted, then he will sleep. Eventually, he learns not to cry to call you anymore. And now he becomes independent. Now he stopped crying. So wonderful. You see how perverse it is, the hardening, coarsening of the child. He feels abandoned. And he says, well, there is no hope in this world. Mom is gone. Oh, she's come. Oh, what a relief. But there's no point crying when she goes away. She's not coming. Nobody is coming for me. I'm all alone. That's the imprint. And the vulnerability in that state.

Why did you cry in the first place? Because you felt something missing, you needed something, or you felt discomfort, threat of some influence. And these influences are everywhere. So we should respect this. Respect this.

I spoke of this vulnerability, vulnerable spaces of opening in our physical and even this subtle aura. The need to close, to protect and recognize when the child cries, you have to do what is required to correct. There is a need, whatever it may be. And the mother will know, because she feels in the child, she feels herself in the child at least during that initial period if not damaged by the external programming. So it's possible to raise a child in a way that the child almost never cries or he cries only to tell you enough, hey, I have a problem, come and look after me. You look after him he doesn't need to cry he learns that I don't need to cry because I just need to make enough sound that the parents come and I'm looked after. Isn't that so? And he knows to trust the world.

He is growing up in this protected space that as the strengthening happens, the instinct in the child will now extend his curiosity and exploration into a space which he feels now ready for and he will begin to explore with confidence, with trust and knowing that he is always protected. And eventually that sense of protection from parents, family, etc. transfers into the protection from the Divine Presence itself as he would grow up and learn to open to that and seek that protection. So just as I described the biological link, the vulnerable, let's say, aspects or parts of your consciousness, there is also something very interesting. You see the way the body is designed just enough that you can hold the child on your arm, let's say on your forearm, and the child places his head on your shoulder. And then just slightly there is also where you feed the child. Fascinating if you observe this, the principle behind that nature has used.

Let's say you look at the dog, often they have enough mammary glands to feed, let's say, three babies, so six mammary glands, two per child or assuming there are two children then up to six children, but they come in pairs. This is also symbolically very profound. But it is on the entire surface of the chest and abdomen. But as the animal evolves, the numbers become less. The typical birth is of a single child, occasionally the twins, which is the exception. And for a single child, two mammary glands. When one is exhausted, the other is available and can switch. But also the placement shifts until it comes to the center of the chest in alignment with the center of your higher emotions. Why is this important? Because at the time of feeding the mother is giving herself, she is giving with her love, with her highest available emotions. The content of the emotions is the nourishment along with the biological substance.

So what you are doing is you are feeding the child with the milk which is nothing but your body's blood with the red blood cells removed, with the filtration system. And so you are feeding with your own blood, you are literally your own life energy on a physical level but blood also is filled with the subtle physical substance, we will call ectoplasm in the occult traditions, that also is going into the child, that does not come in the baby food, that has the chemicals but not this subtle physical content. And the love, the psychological nourishment and the child feels loved while being nourished.

(1:11:12):
You feed through the bottle, there is no ectoplasm, you have the milk only, no ectoplasm, no psychological content, no love. And the child is greedily gulping, looking for that other thing, not getting it, it's missing, missing, missing. And that forms as a lair, a lack in the development. In the further possibility is the spiritual substance and vibration which can come into the content of what is transmitted. You can, now we are looking at a mother who is, who has followed the whole process with the spiritual aspiration, as she sits down to feed, she feeds the child in a state of consciousness which corresponds to what she wants to transmit. If you are asleep, you wake up fully, concentrate, meditate, invoke the Divine Presence with the aspiration that it is that which you are feeding along with all else. And then flow with the psychological, emotional, love, the substance, subtle, physical and the biological content, all flowing together in the heart center which is the seat of your highest emotions but also your deepest psychic love and presence. It is from here that we relate with love to the whole world, isn't it? And it is from there that you feed the child.

So the placement of the glands by nature is also fascinating. It shows you the deeper evolutionary purpose in the biological nourishment itself. In a different way, you will feel it is again the heart center or in the chest center where you form the bonds of your deepest affections. Those in a romantic relationship, it will be generally, if it is of a higher grade of romance, it will be here. If it is of a lower grade, more coarse in the physical attraction, the center will be lower down. But you notice the center of the link is on the grade of consciousness. And so when feeding the child, the center from which you feed, nature has made it the highest available in the human consciousness. So these are some observations I wanted to make with regard to this initial instinct of wanting to feed, wanting to infuse yourself, wanting to give the best of the world and to feel your child as the most important and the most precious thing in the whole world.

And you see how this tends to be expressed in what are initially more instinctive forms but actually representing a deeper and higher truth. I'll just take a quick look at the chat box before I move to the next part of this.

(1:14:09):
Okay, so Vaibhav makes a correction, “It was Arjuna, not Sri Krishna who was teaching Subhadra how to enter the maze and Subhadra went to sleep”. Okay, correct. Thank you.

Tutun makes an observation, “After my son was six months old, I was told to report back on duty in the Indian Navy. My uncle then advised me to keep my nightdress that I wore near my son when I was away so that he smells me”.

Very interesting, and I want to comment on this. The smell, we spoke of that last time. It's one of the senses, well perhaps the only sense in us which is already open from a physiological level to a subtle physical level. We actually in the smell sense the aura, quality of consciousness in the air, in the presence and many finer grades of perception come through that. It's also the first point of bonding between parent and child. So you see in the dogs after the birth, not all of them are able to open their eyes, but they know by smell. They recognize its mother and the mother knows them by smell also. And as they come to its mother, they want to feed. It is the smell which guides them to the right point and they know where to feed.

So smell is your first perception coming before the eyes can open, but it is also the most rich and complete in communication and sophistication of communication. I recall reading somewhere that there are at least some 5,000 different kinds of sensory registrations in the smell itself which is much more rich than sight, colors and so on. But it is also the level where the bonding and the association of the bonding with security takes place. So when the child smells the parents and particularly the mother's presence, it feels secure, it relaxes. The absence of that may gradually build up into anxiety. The same happens with the mother when she smells the child, it leads to a state of relaxation and trust and opening of the heart. When that smell is wrong or it is not there, you feel the shrinking and withdrawal.

So as an example, it was my mother's example, she said that when she was in that state, the nurse brought her, middle of the night brought the child and said, here, feed. And so she got up and the way the child came with the aggression, she said, no, but this is not my child. And she insisted the nurse recheck. And she came back apologetically saying, no, it is not yours, I am sorry. So, there is a layer which was a pure consciousness contact, no this can't be my child, the consciousness doesn't match, but also on the other side there is a smell which is telling you this is not fit. And this smell is one of the most powerful means of communication, but also because of the association with to pacify and to be relaxed and to feel open and trusting. And so yes, this also is an indication one can use.

But I would still say ideally, society itself should recognize the value of this period of the first three years and provide for the necessary support to a mother. In an economic framework where short-term profits are the highest required priority, a mother who gets pregnant would have to be thrown out of the job because you can't afford to be paying her a salary during that period of pregnancy when she is out. But perhaps we can change the law so that you don't have to pay the salary, so you don't feel you are going at a loss, but the person is still on your rolls and comes back afterwards. There are ways to do this, but unless society wakes and breaks out of this industrial programming of the pharma profit objectives, these changes won't happen. And so we have to individually take those risks, make those decisions and be uncompromising, well to the extent that we can.

(1:18:25):
So I continue with this aspect of the protection and the exposure. Instead of taking the child in your arms, yes, of course you will tire, that's where you have a second parent to share the burden. The industry makes you buy a pram and the child is placed on the pram facing outward. Now that is a state of extreme vulnerability. You are fully exposed, parents are behind you which feels odd to the child and right in front you have the big crowds that you are facing first without the protection of your parents. Not at all healthy and you will see instinctively in the more sensitive cultures, they will half cover the child in the pram so that people cannot see it. Even though you have to accept the pram because that's the only way you've been taught and carrying is now too much of a burden in your arms. But they will tend to cover in a way that you cannot see. It's interesting to see how that instinct works.

But further in, at least in India and many of the other cultures which are still continuing the earlier traditions, they put a little black spot on the cheek of the child to ward off the evil eye. Why? And the knowledge exists still that often the child cries because of somebody's gaze which brought an energy which was disturbing. Or even the mother knows the child got sick because of contact with that person and that person is not a good person. And you can feel the child's sickness comes from that contact. So the idea is, in that phase, not only during childbirth when there is extreme vulnerability, but subsequent to childbirth during that early formative period, when the child is very rapidly growing and drawing material from the universe very rapidly and internalizing it, that you protect from influences which would create the reaction of revulsion or needing to throw out. And the sickness is that, an energy that got in that you have to throw out. This vulnerability exists even as adults. When you are conscious of it, you may be aware. and when I was a child we heard the story about how there was a bunch of grapes that had been given to the mother so it went to her kitchen and they wanted to prepare juice they had washed it and left it to dry some people passed by and said oh what nice grapes. Later the juice was made and when it was given to the mother she took one sip and then set it aside but I was also told at that time, when somebody has looked like that and then you drink it, you can fall sick, which I have seen and I have also experienced. If as an adult you have that vulnerability, imagine what happens to a little child.

So we need to become conscious of that, recognize also that such things do happen and the child is vulnerable. Held in your arms, the degree of vulnerability is far less. Even you will notice when the child is confident sitting in your arms he will turn and face the world. So he is now sitting but turned facing. The moment someone comes who he does not like, whose vibration he is sensitive to, immediately he'll turn away and cling to you and come upon your chest blocking off all his vulnerable surface and cutting off contact from sight or otherwise. Or if he is just shy, he will do the same. But still that's a form of vulnerability, which later he may feel comfortable and turn around and begin to play. But notice this movement of wanting to face the world when you're comfortable and coming back to protection when you need, and going back and forth. And the child learns now to engage.

And when he builds sufficient confidence, he will push you literally and want to get off your arms. And if you observe carefully, the instinct will lead him and you to find the right balance. And again, there will be this, he will go out to play, then come running to you and hug you. And again, go out to play and running come to you. Observe that, back and forth. Equally, when the child is sick, he will simply want to be held. After a while you will feel the sickness entering you, the child is free, you have it, you digest it; as an adult you can do much more, it was a tiny energetic imbalance, you've taken care of it.

So I think this completes what I wanted to say about the protection and influences and harm. And the bottle feeding is, well when you have no choice you do what you have to do, but one of the very weird things now which is popularized by the industry and through cinema is: a mother will pump the milk from her body, store in a bottle and then give to the bottle. Or she will pump into the bottle put in into the fridge, she goes to work and the child is given from the bottle when required. You can understand how not only artificial, but also it involves the complete dissolution of the nourishment which takes place in the subtle physical, in the emotional and the spiritual content. It's a complete coarsening of the values and of the experience of reality to hard materialism, which alone would justify this kind of feeding and behavior and relationship.

(1:24:06):
So all this I will come to bring to closure. Yes, one more point in the chat box. Ah, interesting, Dolores says, ‘in Russia they give three years full pay for maternity.’ And then of course there are economic things you have to look at. ‘In Finland it's five years and in the US it's two months for natural delivery, three months for c-section’. – Which brings to also the question of c-section. There are very rarely cases where c-section becomes necessary. Very rare. And that is also only because the mother did not do what was required to make her body sufficiently flexible because she was busy at work in a desk job or the body instincts were mixed and the things which would have normally happened could not happen to make her body flexible enough. And very rarely again there is this case of where the child may have the umbilical cord entangled and so on. So yes those cases do exist and C-section was created for that.

But today what happens, first you have to go to a hospital, you don't have a choice because they have given fear. Now in the hospital there are working hours, you can't expect to go there at an odd time or to wait to an odd time and the doctor says I have to go home to my family. I can't wait for another three hours, maybe it will take six hours, maybe it will take 24 hours. I can't be here all the time and suddenly you call me. I have to go. So one hour left for me to go, let's do a C-section and we go. Plus from the hospital point of view, C-section means you earn more. So the doctors are under pressure to create an operation and a delivery artificially where the child is literally pulled out, the mother cut open and then both have to suffer the consequences of the psychological trauma and, but it is quite fascinating.

Nature actually has built in interesting balance of trigger signals. The act of physical births, the pushing out from the body triggers certain hormonal releases and starts another chain, one of which is the beginning of the release of milk. And so the child with C-section birth, first of all has not had the natural rhythm of delivery and so has not had the stimulation needed to wake up from that, so to say, semi-swoon in the womb. But the mother does not get the trigger to give the milk also, which if you followed the natural birth, you would have the benefit of both. And another interesting, all these are very complex interconnections. Whenever you feed the child, the suckling action of the child triggers within your nervous system and your biology, trigger signals, which start beginning to reverse the changes which came with pregnancy. So during pregnancy, I mentioned last time, the body undergoes a shift in the shape, the hips swell out, open out, the bone structure changes, muscle, etc. tissue becomes soft, elastic.

And now the reverse starts happening by the suckling movement which signals the body now is the time to reverse the process. When you deny that your body tends not to return to its original form because of the lack of that signal. So I'm just showing you nature has built such fascinating interconnections and the whole thing is designed to be so complete in itself.

(1:27:36):
So I will close with one very important idea. In all this, we have discussed the biology working, the relationships, the rhythms set by nature and even the deeper truth of this child is the most precious, the most special in the whole universe for you. You are mirroring the relationship of the soul with the Divine Mother, isn't it? The Divine Mother suckles the psychic being, the soul in evolution. In the Veda it is said there are two mothers which suckle. That's why I said there's a symbol to why there are two breasts. Two mothers which suckle, the dark and the light. So it is as if the experience of the forward push of evolution and then the resistance or the difficulties which are the dark side, the harder difficulty, which come to say this whatever you may have grown is not enough, there is more required. So any partial perfection is as if contradicted, opposed, resisted. And so you have positive experiences with negative experiences and you need to have both as if alternating to build the fullness of your capacity and especially for the strengthening aspect of your capacity.

So you have the two mothers or in this case the two glands from which the child draws nourishment, but from whom? From the Divine Mother who's nourishing this child in its soul evolution and she carries in her arms until this child is old enough. As he grows to be more independent, she gives him the capacity now to engage with the world more and more directly and following the symbolism in the human consciousness as the child begins to walk, the mother is supporting it from behind with less and less direct support, more and more independence and both have the joy of that transition when allowed to be done in rhythm.

When you break the rhythm and the mother starts, if she tells a six-month-old child, get up and start walking. Imagine how stupid it would be. But that's what we do once a child starts walking or speaking. Now learn your tables by heart, learn your alphabet, start writing prematurely. We'll touch upon some of these things in the developmental discussion which will follow. But this we understand now, there is a rhythm, catch the rhythm, flow with it and this entire movement and relationship is a replica, representation, metaphor, symbol of the higher truth of the spiritual relationship of our soul's evolution with the Divine Mother. I have not spoken about the father so far. You see the role the father plays is equally important but very different and not so obvious in this because this is biologically close. There is a dimension of psychology which may not be as biologically close, but is as important and complementing.

So again I will go back to my favorite dog's example. So the mother has given birth, she is happy, she has had this accomplishment. The father dog comes and says, what is this? This is so strange. But he feels protective, both to the mother and to the children, and starts doing what is needed for the protective purpose. If at that time when the children and mother are vulnerable and there is some other danger, it's the father who will turn to protect. And when the mother feels the loving protection of the father, she is relaxed and can give to the child freely. Not only a protector, the father plays the role of provider. When the mother needs, the father brings what is required, when she cannot bring. And of course nature does not bind you tightly, she also exchanges roles. In certain animals, the father will sit on the eggs while the mother brings the food. And there is a lot of flexibility. The point is there is a dual role and we recognize that.

In the way a mother holds a child, you see the imprint instinct is feed myself, feed my best, give myself and my best to the child to form him in the best possible. But when the father holds the child, it's a very different feel. The experience is a more objectivized poise, much more in the consciousness and mind and the child looks, the father looks at the child and says, my child will be the most wonderful. Depending on what is in the lineage, the great ideal, if it's a warrior lineage, they say my child will be the great warrior or the great princess or the great musician or the, but something which is for them the ideal and the natural turn from the father's side is the conception of what that form will be, what the role will be, what the ideals will be, infusing in the more mental part of the child's body, the ideals and the consciousness. The vision, the will, the aspiration in the formation in a more mental grade, while the mother does on a more physical and emotional grade. And the two together form this complete. If both have the spiritual aspiration, that makes it complete.

(1:32:54):
And here I will play upon this very interesting term. We keep using this phrase conception. And I've used the word several times today. Conception is the time when the child is conceived, right? And is growing within you after conception. What is this word conception? You conceive in mind, you conceive child. Is there a connection with this? I believe it is in the Thai tradition but I might be mixing up one of the South East Asian countries that I saw this in a documentary where they made fun of it. They said, oh these people were so primitive, modern science tells you conception takes place because of this biology. And those people they thought the child is born from the father's head and through the father's head, it passes below, transfers into the mother's head and from there the child is formed and gives birth. Something like that. And this is how silly, how crazy. No, in fact this is the deeper truth. It's not just about father-mother. It's about the conception.

There is a conception, an idea, a consciousness, which is almost at the grade of an idea, which then incarnates, materializes and using a biological process takes on the form. So in the way nature has designed the instinct of these two relationships, we are as if replicating the relationship of the Divine Mother and the Divine Lord, Father we will say. And you see in their relationship of consciousness, the divine conceives of infinite possibilities, concentrates to energize, to give birth to those possibilities, which is the whole universe and infinite possibility. And at the point of being about to give birth, pauses, but allows the energy of concentration to continue to flow and that becomes the action of the Divine Mother, who then actually conceives and forms and gives birth.

And so in every movement of play in the cosmos, there is the conception of the Father and the formation by the Mother and the two together jointly present at all moments in all things, in all processes. Consciousness dwelling on its potential, energy of consciousness forming and giving birth. Both together nourishing in their own way, one by influence of consciousness, the other by influence of energy of form. And in a sense this relationship is replicated in human biological parents.

Why am I pointing to this? Because in a sense this points to a deeper spiritual truth that we replicate instinctively from the point of the conception which is the coming together of the father and the mother, to the point of birth and thereafter, the nourishment and growth of the child, each is bringing a complimenting side. Yes, you can switch roles. It's not such a hard and rigid thing. Human beings are more than this instinct. But if you recognize this deeper truth, and actually say:

‘Here, Divine Mother, you act through us. Divine Consciousness, Lord, you act through us. Give the child what is needed. And we are vehicles as if. You may not put yourself into hard roles, but recognizing this, that we are creating in matter a basis in which this divine incarnation, the soul who is child of the divine parents, is now taking birth in our space as our child’.

You have also the sense that your child is now given to you as a responsibility, not yours, belongs to the Divine and you are there to nurture, to look after, to care for them. I recall one example, my teacher MP Pandit was approached by somebody, he said, ‘My wife has just given birth to two children, how can we live the spiritual life?’ And my teacher said, ‘Raise the children as if they are children of the Divine’. And that was it. I do not know to what extent he was able to do that, but as an indication, if you take this as a starting point, approach the child as a gift from the Divine, given to you in a responsibility.

(1:37:20):
He was not yours in your previous incarnations or others, may not be yours in the next. So, he doesn't belong to you. And yet he is given to you to be loved, to be cared, to be nourished and supported as a soul in evolution and for you it's an opportunity to not only help him grow and nourish him but also for you to grow with him and have him teach you. What if you knew that your child was this very highly evolved soul and consciousness? Would you still treat it as this fellow he knows nothing, I am going to teach him. Or would you say, I am going to learn as much as I can. Just assume every child is a soul in evolution and does not matter about high or low. We are both going to learn from each other and grow together.

So this will be the theme for next session. We will see how the play happens between the parents and the child in the nurturing and growth, but we can give to this a deeper spiritual symbol and meaning and therefore also a deeper spiritual fulfillment in our journey. Each one of us today as adults, or rather in an adult body, is still a child of the Divine Parents. And we learn, we grow to call upon them, draw the nourishment from them and be worthy of our divine inheritance to be able to realize and fulfill and express this in our lives and that makes our life so much worthwhile spiritually. We can concentrate on this in a quiet aspiration together.
<Silence>
Namaste. Thank you.