Question: Can you explain why, while babies are sleeping, sometimes they smile like angels and sometimes they cry?

Sri Chinmoy: When they smile, it is the soul expressing its joy in a visible way in the face. The psychic delight has taken full manifestation right in the face. First we feel joy which we may not even be aware of, then immediately it expresses itself right in our face. Why does a baby cry? There are various reasons. At a particular hour he may be hungry or thirsty. Another reason, from the spiritual point of view, is that the child may be having a dream. A child between the ages of four and seven will have dreams almost every night. When we have dreams that are destructive, frightening or tormenting we do not usually cry aloud. We know that we will be alarmed only for a few minutes or seconds. But in the child's case, the child feels that he has been attacked, and he does not know what the attack is or when it is over. He is as helpless as a babe in the woods, and he feels that only if he cries aloud somebody will come to save him. I know a child who used to cry almost every night. He was not hungry or thirsty; he was only having dreams. Three nights I concentrated on that particular child to see what was actually happening, and I saw that it was a dream that was the cause of his suffering. But parents cannot prevent children from having dreams. Wise parents can only come and comfort the child.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The journey of silver dreams, Agni Press, 1974
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