All are the children of the same parents. So, without blaming and accusing each other, without wishing evil for one’s kith and kin, understand that your other brothers have the same attachment to the objects they love that you have towards things that you love. (Prema Vahini, p. 37)

It is not enough if children learn something by which they can make a living. The manner of living is more important than the standard of living. Children must also have reverence towards their religion, their culture, their educational institutions and their country. (DA, p. Inside cover)

‘I insist on regulated food and play. Regulate the food habits of the children; food determines to a large extent health and intelligence, emotions, and impulses. Set limits on the quality and quantity of food, as well as to the number of times it is consumed and the timings. Recreation too, has to be moral and elevating and in the company of die righteous and God-fearing. (VS, p. 209)

Children must grow up in the atmosphere of reverence, devotion, mutual service and co-operation. They must be taught respect for parents, teachers and elders. (FDD, pp. C-3)

Children have unselfish love; they are innocent onlookers; they observe the actions of the elders and they learn their lessons from the home much earlier than from school. So parents have to be very careful in their behaviour with the children and between themselves. (SSS Vol.2, p. 117)

Children should grow in the awareness of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. If no provision is made for this atmosphere and this teaching, we are denying them their due. Faith in man involves Faith in God; Faith in God creates Faith in man. Without faith, man is a creature bereft of roots; and he dries and withers, quickly. (SSS Vol.7, p. 44)

We have got to realise the value of our culture. Even today, the children do not try to read the Ramayana or the Bhagavatam. They read all sorts of trash and take to the bad path from young age. If the little sapling grows well, it becomes a big tree. If it becomes a little crooked, the whole tree becomes crooked. Love the child but correct him when necessary. They are very timid and feel if they give the children severe punishment, the child may run away from home and end its life. Such children better they die than live. What is the use of living with a bad name? Better die.

It is enough if you live like a swan for two years instead of living like a crow for 100 years. We want children who will get a good name in society. The father and mother will have to follow the right path if such a child has to be fostered. Prahlada’s mother tried to tell him ‘you should not go against your father. Try to please him’. She tried to tell him in many pleasing ways. So the mother also gives advice. Today’s mother should have very pure thoughts and ideals. (DTB Vol.4, pp. 13-14)

Children are the crops growing in the fields, to yield the harvest on which the nation has to sustain itself. They are the pillars on which the foundation of the nation’s future is built. They are the roots of the national tree, which has to give the fruits of work, worship and wisdom to the next generation. (NNSG Vol.5, p. 88)

Parents toil to leave their children a pile of riches; but they do not teach them the proper sense of values by which they can know how little the riches are worth, or how best to utilise the riches for the genuine advancement. Children should be taught to live like lotuses in the lake of worldly life, being in water but unaffected by it. Lotuses cannot live when out of water; yet they will not allow water to enter! Be in worldly life but see that worldly life is not in you. (NNSG Vol.5, p. 88)

I will be very happy, if all of you can become children once again. A child will never have the bad qualities of anger, passion, jealousy, conceit and ego. Jesus Christ was always appreciative of the quality of innocence in children. Once, he lifted a small child from the lap of her mother in the crowd and said ‘I like this small child very much; she has all the qualities of divinity. She is pure, selfless and is in perfect bliss’. Children in general are divine in nature. As they grow up they develop bad qualities like excessive desires, attachments, anger, jealousy, etc. Along with advancing age, sorrows and difficulties will also increase. Therefore, one should strive for attaining control over one’s desires. That is ceiling on desires. If you can develop this control, you will come under the influence of divine power. Otherwise, you will be deluded by the power of desires and get into that vortex from which you can never come out. A child like simplicity, purity and innocence, is the road to divinity.

I wish you should become children at least for one minute a day. You should emulate those noble qualities, which are characteristic of children. Supposing you are troubled with desires, chase them away as unbecoming of your noble personality. Only then can you hold your head high. (SSS Vol.37, pp. 194-195)

Children must learn thrift and proper use of money. When children learn how to use money with care and without waste, the future will be bright. (SSP p.36)