For generations, parenting has largely meant guiding and controlling. Parents decide what their child should study, how they should behave, which hobbies are worth pursuing and sometimes even what kind of person they should grow up to be. Sadhguru’s concern is with what happens when parents already have a fixed picture of who their child should become before the child has even had a chance to figure that out themselves. “Raising means you’ve already fixed what they should become,” he explains. And when that happens, a child’s individuality can quietly get lost before it ever gets a chance to emerge. Sadhguru adds, “This is a real crime against humanity that you’ve already fixed what your child should become, not only in terms of profession, this, that, in every way, you should not raise.” Children are not projects to be completed. When parents become too focused on moulding them into a pre-decided version of success, children may slowly stop exploring who they genuinely are.
