New Delhi

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has pitched for including knowledge about Hindu gods in textbooks, saying parents too should be equipped to answer children's questions about their faith.

Addressing an event on ‘Yuganukul Matrutva’ (contemporary motherhood ) on Friday, Bhagwat said children often return with questions about Hindu deities, but parents are frequently unable to answer them.

“Children often come back and ask questions that need answers. Questions like ‘why does this god have a monkey's face? Why does this god has an elephant's face?’ But often the father does not know the answers, and neither does the mother,” he said.

“These things should be there in textbooks from the very beginning. They should be available at hand. Whatever we teach children is the knowledge they will acquire. In the first 12 years, their upbringing is in our hands. We must inform them and, for that, we should also learn,” Bhagwat said.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief also said that the present generation requires a different approach to parenting, with greater emphasis on dialogue than dictation.

“When we were children, if our mother said something or our father said ‘no argument’, we simply accepted it. There was no questioning or arguing because we knew they had seen life and understood things better.

“Today, it is no longer like that. You cannot be rigid. You have to explain things to children. They grow up in an environment shaped by material influences and constant publicity from every direction. We have to help them find their way out of this maze,” Bhagwat said.

“They need a great deal of affection. They need our time. And they need dialogue. Not dictation, but discussion. Not orders, but consensus,” he added.

Expressing concern over declining interaction within families, Bhagwat said mobile phones have replaced conversations at home.

“Today, people have stopped talking in families. Every member of the family has a mobile phone. Both husband and wife return from work, the children return from school, everyone eats, and then each person is absorbed in their own mobile. They come home, yet they don’t really meet one another. This is something all of you must have experienced,” he said.

“We have to understand that if we make time, there will be conversation. And when there is conversation, children will open up. On that foundation, we will be able to resolve their curiosities,” he added.

Bhagwat also said that children closely observe the conduct of their parents and are quick to notice any gap between what they are taught and what they see at home.

“What we tell them should also be visible in our own lives. Otherwise they will not believe us. Children observe very carefully. If they see something different from what we preach, they conclude, 'Father is lying’. They even tell their mother, 'Why are you saying this when he himself doesn't do it?' Their IQ is sharp, and their emotional quotients are strong. Therefore, we have to correct our own conduct,” he said.

“Values are transmitted through affection, through dialogue, and through personal examples. These three are indispensable. This is true everywhere in the world. If this foundation is strong, it becomes much easier for children to come out of the trap of technology.

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“Even if they get caught in it for a while, they will be able to find their way back. But we have to prepare them in that manner and remain closely connected,” Bhagwat added.