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Do you believe in Garbh Sanskar (Pregnancy Blessings or Prenatal education)? If so can you enlighten me on the subject and what ways one can achieve it? I have little knowledge about it- just that during the pregnancy anything taught to the baby remains in him/her forever. There are so many things to be taught, from where to begin is my question and how much and what kind of knowledge to be imparted to the little brain. I am very curious about this topic.
Lalita (Name changed), USA |
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What is Garbh Sanskar and Benefits of Garbh Sanskar?
The meaning of garbh sanskar is educating the fetus in the womb. In Indian culture and especially in Hinduism it is believed that education of material, traditional and spiritual values starts right from the time the fetus is formed in the womb. Science has proved that baby in the womb can learn from initial stages. Mother’s bond with the child starts right from the time of conception. It is not after the child is born. The baby listens to the mother and feels her feelings even when it is developing in the womb. This is why it is important to transfer positive thoughts, positive energies and the emotions to the baby (and to the pregnant woman herself). The mother can shape up baby’s first impressions by listening to good music, reading material that stimulates positive thinking, meditating, doing yoga and much more. The positive thinking and attitude promotes physical wellbeing of the mother and the baby throughout the pregnancy and after. The advantages of garbh sanskar are not only that you educate your child but there is development of a bond between the mother and the child.
Garbh Sanskar in spiritual view:
Having said the above, I personally look at the garbh sanskar as an opportunity to impart spiritual thoughts in the baby right from the time of conception. In this view, the garbh sanskar should be directed towards raising the sattva guna (or good qualities and positive thinking in the material sense) to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the desires within an individual (thinning of the "vasanamay sharir" to zero is the final goal). In simple words garbh sanskar should be used to impart the seed of future spiritual knowledge and interests in the baby.
What kind of knowledge to be imparted to the little brain:
Again my answer would be in the spiritual sense rather than the material sense. In my view there is nothing specific about what should be done, but in simplistic way the mother should do anything and everything (according to her interests) that will pass on the "guna" (collection of qualities) that she wants the baby to have more (obviously that can only be Sattva gun for any mother or parents)...Examples of what can be done - Religious reading, meditation, yoga, seva (service) at religious places, charity work and everything else that can be done to pass on the spiritual (religious) thoughts to the baby.
Most of the people want the baby to be intelligent and materialistically prosperous etc...In that case the mother can do the things that can help improve the qualities like positive thinking, inspiration and more...but in my personal view material thing are ultimately im-material (matter very little in the long run)...so my view is more on the religious lines towards every individual facing the God in the long run.
Also, while doing these efforts we need to be within practical limits and not do excess of one type of thought...because excess of anything can be ultimately harmful....and many times can not change the course of life (in fact it can create imbalances). All Sanskars are like Vastushastra (they individually carry not more than 10 % to 15% of the strength in the life)...It is the consistency of the efforts and thinking/actions over several lives that will open the door to the God for the human life. In case of Vastushastra, it is said that, even if you build a perfect home with all vastu rules, still the happiness mostly depends on the thoughts, actions (karma) and qualities (gunas) of the individuals living inside...If they are Tamasik or Rajasik, the perfect vastu cannot change the course of the life of the people living within. So vastu can change only 10-15% of the overall course of the way life progresses (but that is not a small achievement though), hence the need for balance of actions and thoughts in the life. Ultimate success comes when all such small actions come together and lead an individual to the higher goal in the life - highest level of sattva guna.
Hope this helps.
Thank you.
Mahendra Joshi
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