Urmila Devi Dasi (Dr. Edith Best), an initiated disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, feels very blessed that multiple generations of her family have taken up Vaishnava bhakti. As a practitioner and teacher of Bhakti Yoga since 1973, she regularly visits temples and holy places worldwide to hold discourses on topics of yoga, mantra meditation, and living in spiritual consciousness within the world. She also publishes articles and books for adults and children on the science of bhakti. We explored with Urmila her vision and best practices for educating our children.
Urmila has deep conviction in the conclusions of the scriptures that children are persons first. Therefore, these souls must be nurtured and developed to become good people with a deep sense of purpose. To raise Krishna-conscious children, parents or guardians do well to genuinely care about their children’s welfare as spiritual beings and build veritable connections toward realizing the meaning of human life. This commitment involves a deep sense of understanding, empathy, and intuition to know how to cultivate the children’s unique nature, personality, and intelligence toward transcendence.
“One important way to help a child’s spiritual welfare is through inspiring stories. Our stories are how we make sense of the world,” says Urmila. “Stories give us a chance to practice being somebody. When we’re hearing, reading, or watching a story, we are, in a genuine sense, practicing being the characters in that story. And stories are how we establish a model of the good and bad guys. Stories are one of the primary ways a person’s character and values are built, and it’s a crucial way in which every human society communicates values and cultures to its members, especially children. You’re much more likely to be honest by hearing stories about honest people that you can identify with than just being told to be honest.”
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/great-grandmother-successfully-passes-down-bhakti-to-multiple-generations/
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