Question: Do children have a more spontaneous love for their country than adults?

Sri Chinmoy: No. Children have spontaneous love only for their mother and father and their brothers and sisters. Children do not and cannot know what their country looks like, what their country has to offer. It is the parents who inject the idea of patriotism and love of country. But children do not always remain children. When they are children it is the parents who teach them. It may happen that the patriotism that the parents teach is not enough, and when the children grow up, they have infinitely more love for their country than their parents. It is like someone who teaches in kindergarten. He can teach there, but he cannot teach in the primary school. But when you go on to get your highest degree, naturally you surpass your kindergarten teacher. Here, also, the parents may not have the deepest form of patriotic feeling, but whatever the parents give to their children is of paramount importance. If parents didn't teach the ABC's, how could children learn to read books? When the children grow up, they realise that what their parents said was absolutely right, but it was not enough. They have a more sincere hunger and their hunger now has to be fulfilled by their own aspiring life. The parents also had hunger, but their hunger was not as intense. But now that the children have a tremendous hunger, they have to feed themselves with their aspiration and sacrifice to their country.

From:Sri Chinmoy,I love my country: Purity's Body, Agni Press, 1975
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