Yogi Bhajan Lecture: The Responsibility of Parenthood

Here are excerpts from a lecture given by the Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan on January 25, 1990.  Scroll down to view the full video lecture.

Man and woman have intercourse, and out of many such intercourse, woman becomes pregnant. Now there is a baby, and it has to grow. There is no readiness, there is no training, there is no teaching. There is no readiness of what a parent is, there is no profile, there are no blueprints. There is nothing. That’s why this problem is happening. They cannot relate to a child as their own future—a child is seen as a byproduct of sexual intercourse.

The institution of a child is considered as “I had my baby” and nothing more. How many mothers are psychologically ready to handle a child? How many mothers are ready to help a child to nurture and grow? Honestly tell me how many mothers have time to do this. The social structure is based on looking pretty, being sexy, and making a killing.

When woman is seen as a doormat—a childbearing factory who should work and bring in an equal amount of money and raise the children and all the food should be perfect and the house must be neat, clean and tidy—you put it all together and you need twelve women in one woman to complete it. How can one woman become a woman plus twelve women?

There is no training that life is responsibility, responsibility, and responsibility, and we have to develop the ability to face this responsibility.

Our marriages fall apart because we cannot take responsibility. As parents we fail because we cannot pay the rent (pay-rent/parent). The process to deliver is not in our training. If you are willing to become parents, then you should be in a fully trained situation to be parents.

If you treat a son as a son today, it is the biggest mistake you can commit. But if you treat your son today that by his own right and grace, he is a man of tomorrow and affectionately facilitate his development, that’s the best you can do. Psychologically it is very dangerous to be incomplete parents.

You know what Kundalini Yoga is? It is putting your own energy in the excellence of your performance and tapping into the infinite energy. When you were a child in the womb of the mother, you lived by the Kundalini energy. That is your basic development. Why not use that energy now?