Child is divine manifestation

Avdhoot Baba Shivanandji

I often wonder why do people run after sons. ? Why so much priority for sons? Some part of it is related to customs and rituals. Take the custom of last rites or funeral rites. Many people feel unless there is a male heir to perform last rites they would not get Moksha.

Let me be very blunt and tell you that you would get Moksha only through your Karmas and nothing else. How does it matter who is performing your last rites, or even if they are performed or not. If your karmas are good and you have lived your life like a human being, the Almighty will definitely make sure that your souls rests in peace. And that Moksha and the next birth is very comfortable. But this kind of karmadosh would definitely not take that entire family anywhere – boy or girl, it’s a divine soul that is coming to the house. You must welcome him or her without having any shred of gender bias in your mind.

All of you worship Goddess Lakshmi and all of you need a mother to be born on this planet earth. Tell me if these things are not important and I’ll say that you don’t require a girl child! A child is reflection of divinity. By saying child I mean boy and girl. The consciousness of a child and his entire being is as pure and impeccable as the Holy Scriptures. There is no doubt about that. The myth about boys being superior to girls and hence more amenable is utterly baseless. The fact is that both are equal in all terms, by all the yardsticks whether divine or worldly.

All through the ages right from the inception of mankind to the present age, women have enjoyed special status in the annals of history. They were regarded as the de factio pioneers of all the progress achieved by the mankind. Same goes for the religious side too. Every religion has accorded a special status for women. Whether it is Mother Mary in Christianity, Rabia and Bibi Hajra in Islam, Mata Sita in Hinduism and in more recent past Mother Teresa. All these ladies belonged to the common strata of society and through their deeds and virtuous conduct, rose to the exalted pedestals of divinity.

All of them came to this world medieval and ancient periods when there was no great progress as such when compared to the present age. Yet they were never discriminated for being women, on the contrary they were the toast of their times. Highly revered and respected. Just imagine that was the state of the society hundreds of years ago. When, as we say, the society was in its formative shape, so it becomes all the more pertinent to ask, what has gone wrong with the society in the jet age? Why this archaic and retrogressive fetish for the male child?

Why this cold and ruthless apathy towards the girl child? The answer perhaps lies in the materialistic cravings of the society today. A boy is regarded as a money-spinner and a girl is regarded as liability, at times to be disposed off even before she is born. This notion gains credence in the face of growing instances of female infanticide. Witnessed throughout the country. Recent demographic surveys carried out in some parts of the country have revealed disproportionate male-female ratios, with female birth rate falling to alarming levels. This is the outcome of gross societal indifference towards the female child. And if this is the precursor to the impending times, society is heading for a calamitous situation.

The way out is very simple. Stop tinkering with the laws of nature. Respect the manifestation of divinity that is the girl child. Remove the irrational and misplaced fallacies about the girl child from the society. Daughters are as good as sons, if not better. Birth of a child is the will of God, don’t fiddle with that. Your love and affection towards children should give them equal love and equal opportunity in life to grow. Remember if you educate a boy you educate an individual, when you educate a girl you educate a generation.Even marriages have become a business deal. Girl’s parents are forced to fork out lot of money and give their child. Even then there is no surety whether their child would be properly looked after by her in-laws. If there are ten members in the family all of them would expect her to behave in ten different ways. In this confused state of mind when the young girl conceives, this turmoil has a direct bearing on the fetus she is carrying. On top of it, if the environment around her is not congenial, the fetus growing in her womb becomes susceptible to all the negativity surrounding the mother. That is the reason why we see so many children with congenital deformity or children born with terminal diseases. Whose fault is this? Certainly not God’s.... Certainly not nature’s... The fault squarely lies with the masses. The ones who are perpetrators of such kind of injustice.

We all will have to accept our responsibilities and change the way things are because none of us wants to be unhappy. Happiness is directly proportional to karmas that you do. So think about it. If ten percent of total crowd sitting out here change their thinking in this direction, I am sure the society will change subsequently.

Bless you with lot of happiness peace and clear vision.