Sathya Sai Baba said, ‘Recognize the vast potential lying dormant in the child; help it to express itself.’

For this reason, Baba suggested that the name of the classes for children should be changed from Bala Vihars; for more than play and recreation, what has to be done is to encourage the good, the true, the beautiful in the child to blossom, to express and expand. ‘Bala Vikas,’ Baba said, ‘is the more correct name.’ He wanted that the little children must be trained and encouraged to speak before gatherings of devotees and even others, so that elders might learn from the lips of children what they refuse now to learn from those entitled to advise them. He appreciated the short speech given by a little pupil on ‘Film posters, and the horrors they inflict.’ It was an eye-opener to the elders who are tolerating such insults on the innocence and purity of home life.

All over the country now, the tiny tots of the Bal Vikas sing Bhajans, draw pictures, paint, write stories and relate them, about heroes of the spirit, and the great mothers of the land, and enact plays depicting elevating incidents from the Upanishads, Itihasa and Purana, as well as the religious literature of all faiths. (SSSm Vol.3, p. 146)

Every child in Bal Vikas should cultivate fear of doing wrong, have humility before elders, teachers and parents; and imbibe faith in God, in their own strength and in their victory. (SBA, p. Preface)

A snake-gourd will grow straight and well only if a stone of a suitable size is suspended from it from time to time as it develops. Otherwise it will become twisted and stunted in growth. Similarly children will become good adults only if they are subjected to discipline when they are of an impressionable age. (NNSG Vol.2, pp. 144-145)