Q: How can we protect our children from developing these kinds of problems?🔗

To be frank, you cannot fully control the process. You cannot control all of the child's interactions with society. But there are some things you can practice at home.

As I said earlier, don't suppress the child's other half. Let it freely express and experience itself in different ways. Don't teach it to be gender conscious.

Just allow the child to be its own natural self, giving it adequate opportunity to explore itself. Children when untouched by social conditioning are by nature so comfortable inside their own boundary.

You might have noticed babies playing with their genitals, or pulling their big toe to their mouth and doing similar other things. These things just show that they are so comfortable and loving inside their own boundary, exploring and enjoying. But we don't allow them to do these things. We immediately stop them and tell them that it is wrong. It is good to allow them to explore.

And when it comes to their clothing, it is always better to dress them in single-piece clothing instead of two-piece clothing. The latter gives them a sense of dividing their body into two and with time, they forget and become insensitive to the lower half of their body. It is almost a division in their consciousness. That is why today, if you are asked to visualize yourself, almost always, only your upper half will come to your mind. You simply neglect your lower half.

Just allow the child to be free in its ways, even if it means that you have to take certain risks. Children have with them a certain sense of intuition and instinct. So, you can take the necessary precautionary measures and allow them to explore.

Also, children are so total in their expressions. So don't suppress them. They don't know to bring in their mind and exhibit superficial or hypocritical behaviour. We have all mastered the art of hypocrisy by allowing our mind to exercise restraint. We never express totally.

Also, allow them to use both their hands freely. We all discourage them from using the left hand for various things. Why can't the child be ambidextrous? There is nothing wrong in it. Arjuna in the Mahabharata, the Hindu epic, was ambidextrous. When we hear of these things, we listen with awe but fail to understand that we are also perfectly capable of these things, if only we give ourselves the chance!

Also, if you have noticed, all children enjoy whirling. Whirling is their way of allowing centering of their energy to happen. You can whirl freely only when your worry center is clear. Children are so innocent and worry-free and hence they are able to whirl effortlessly. But when we see them whirl, our head starts whirling and so we stop them! We tell them, 'Sit in one place! It's not good for health,' and what not. I tell you, just allow them to whirl. Place a blanket beneath them so that even if they fall, they will not get hurt.

Never instill fear in your child! Let him be free; let him climb and fall a few times. If you constantly discourage the child, it can lead to various phobias like height phobia, darkness phobia, which can later turn into fear of climbing, of making new decisions etc. Just follow these simple things, it is enough.

Q: Swamiji, you were talking about how there is no such thing as a perfect partner. Then what is the purpose of matching horoscopes before marriage?

Now if I start speaking on this subject, I will have to pull down the whole structure of astrology! Not astrology itself, but the way we follow it today is foolish and nonsensical.

Understand that it is your life. You are living it; you should know the pros and cons. But you don't know anything about your life, and so you go around asking others! Where is your intelligence?

To surrender your life to a stranger, to let him make your life's decisions, just shows that you no longer even know how to run your own life. You have to take responsibility for your own life.

When people come to me with questions about their future, I tell them: Don't approach me to predict your future. Approach me to design your future. All these predictions are only for the weakminded, be very clear about that.

Ancient astrology was a pure science. There was truth in it.

Let me tell you how astrology evolved.

In the past, when a child was sent to the gurukul to the master to study, astrology was used to diagnose what kind of personality, what kind of attitudes and aptitudes he possessed. Accordingly, he was trained.

The master would see what his natural tendencies were. If he had brahmin tendencies where intelligence was the prime factor, he would be initiated into Veda Vidya - studying of the vedic scriptures. If his personality was that of a kshatriya, where bravery and strength were the most dominant, he would be trained in martial arts. If he showed vaishya tendencies, wherein he exhibited many skills, he would be taught business. If he seemed to possess shudra qualities, where he was happy giving his time to routine labour work, he would be initiated into service. All four roles had equal value and earned equal respect.