Question: In the childhood we were told to do a few things. In the childhood, I was told that I should not hit someone. But now my mother says that I should hit someone. Now, I have myself found that hitting someone is not a good thing. Has my intelligence grown or I have submitted to that growth?
Speaker: His question is that in the childhood all of us are told to do a lot of things which are useful. What was that all about? First of all let us understand that the brain which we talk about, is the product of evolution. This brain itself is the seat of intelligence. Unless the brain is ripe enough, there won’t be the action of intelligence and the human brain is not ripe enough till the age of ten, twelve, and fourteen. A kid cannot understand on its own. Six months old, two years old, six years old, he will have to be helped. He will have to be dependent on others. He cannot do anything. The brain, the cells, have yet not grown. So, it is alright that the kid is given information. Someone has beautifully said, “To born is the Ego”. Because when you are born, you are very small. When you are small, you have to take things from outside, that itself is the Ego. That itself is the dependence. So it is good in the case of a small child.
Listener 1: Sir, generally in that age we consult our parents because we do not know anything about the world. That also helps me. Why do we take it as an external element?
Speaker: Yes, because, once you have crossed that particular age, when the mind ripens, then it is your obligation to act intelligently. You were helplessly dependent when you were six years old. You aren’t six month old right now. Why must we behave as a six month old today? There is a point when you must get up and walk up on your feet. And by feet I mean your intelligence. It is alright to take few things when you are small, but not today. Not at all today.
Then there is the question, the larger question, about the ethics. So many good things were told to me in childhood, ‘Don’t hit someone, don’t do this and don’t do that’. I ask you that is there anyone here who was not taught good things, is there anyone in the entire world who was not taught a few good things? ‘Don’t hate, don’t lie to others, be respectful to elders’ and that is what parents all over the world have been telling their kids but the world is still full of violent people and liars. Why it is so? In spite of being told, why is it that so? Because you have been just told to do so, because this has not come from your understanding and hence it never translates fully into your life.
There are certain kids who are sharp, they turn around and ask their Daddy, ‘Why must I not steal, why must I not lie?’ And Daddy usually has no answer to give because Daddy himself has been handed over this from his own Daddy. Daddy never discovered these truths on his own. Daddy read it in some religious scripture, or heard it from some family member, or heard it from the society. Hence, these remain just empty preachings. And who likes to be preached? They remain empty code of ethics and the world remains violent, destructive, greedy, ambitious, bored, frustrated, dull, divided. And every kid is being told to speak the truth. All this is happening because what comes to you from outside will always cause conflict. It will never show you the way. Do you understand that?
Listener 1: Why even small kids are so violent?
Speaker: He is asking that why even small kids are so violent? It is because of social conditioning and physical conditioning. It is contained in your physical conditioning, your DNA. Your DNA is the product of your evolution. From a single-celled organism, you are evolved into a small organism, then you are a big organism. As per Darwin’s theory, we were monkeys first. And all those animals instincts are contained in our basic physical structure. That violence will be there in the child. That is why a child is violent. That animal instinct is very much a part of our conditioning.
Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.