Importance of spiritual education for children is an excerpt from the article titled Religious Education from the editorial of Prabuddha Bharata magazine March 2017.
An education that focuses only on the external would invariably lead to a discontented personality and a disturbed society. Without an anchoring in a plane of one’s personality that is unaffected by the mundane realities of the world, the slightest tremor in one’s happy world would shatter one’s very being. While it is undoubtedly necessary to educate oneself in the art of creating, acquiring, and developing, human experience of millennia is testimony to the fact that the wisdom of refrain, relinquishment, and silence has brought more satisfaction to the human mind than anything else. A balanced personality is one that has the ability to accommodate like a sponge, the ever-increasing voluminous outpourings of suffering the world has to offer.
Religion or spirituality teaches us to be prepared for the uncertain. Instead of being a search for the definite, it takes us on a journey to grapple with the indefinite. This is more in line with the realities that we encounter in our lives. And so, the need for religious education cannot be over emphasized. This need has become more pronounced in our age of distraught selves.
Ignorance leads to fear. The lack of knowledge of religion and spirituality leads to misunderstanding of faith traditions. Religious education can show the path to peace and fulfilment. When a person is dissatisfied with material pursuits and achievements, one can travel the varied and often adventurous religious or spiritual road. For this the seeds have to be sown much earlier, right from childhood, so that one can appreciate the value of such insights later when a mature mindset is achieved.
We need to impart some universal values contained in every faith tradition that would enable a person to better understand and cherish the oneness amongst beings.
We need to equip the future generations of humanity with all possible tools to counter the emptiness that is the characteristic of modern development. Religious or spiritual education is the best tool to this end.