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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
Namdeva and others got aversion for worldly affairs and devoted themselves to God in childhood.
When one is initiated into religious mode of life in childhood then one can properly practise vows of self-restraint and penances. In families of righteous culture children abstain from food and water after sunset, join their parents in Samayika (self-study), regularly visit temples for the holy sight of gods, and even fast on sacred days. Instances are recorded that children below ten have practised austere penances like (ATHAI). From this account, people who deny children's ability to understand the concept of religion should derive a lesson. They are those who never strived to create amity with religion, who never overpowered a single object victimising the senses, and who never manifested affinity for self-restraint or penance. Their denial amounts to a fisherman's denial of possibility of mercy or a lascivious man's denial of celebacy. The wise and the prudent would scarcely rely on the speculative opinions of such persons.
If you are confident of the fact that religion is a sincere companion then allow your children to contract intimacy with religion since their infancy, get them in touch with religion and let them practise it to their capacity. When a child born in a family cherishing fondness and love for religion does not practise religion then it resembles a man unable to quench his thirst despite the vicinity of a lake overflowing with clear and cold water. Such soul's worldly existence is futile.
Gentlemen, we do not know when and how the icy hands of death shall pounce upon us. Under the circumstances, it is not wise and reasonable to postpone the practice of religion.
If you cordially love your child then it is not enough that you should merely bathe it, feed it and ornament it. You teach it also to practise religion to rectify its fate and render its existence purposeful.
In youth, you mostly indulge in passions and fully plunge yourself in acquiring wealth-the chief means to satisfy your passions. Then you find no leisure to think of religion as you are fully engrosed in affairs concerning your wife, children and other material welfare. Then you think : "let us enjoy for the present, we shall
