What do you tell a 5 year old where babies come from?

[krsna 3]

A very inquisitive and thoughtful 5 year old.

Do I tell him the truth?

Will he understand it?

Or do I tell him the stork or Garuda brought him from heaven?

 

Is it like telling a novice devotee that jiva souls 'fall' from the spiritual world?

[vanamali 1]

When a man and a woman love each other very much...

 

But seriously, perhaps you can tell the truth. The soul is constantly moving from body to body, birth to birth. You can tell your five year old, darling, you have been around for a very, very long time. There was never a time when you didn't exist. You were born in our family because we are the best parents for you. So you see, you and I are a perfect match! I love you sweetie...

 

And that's a wrap!

[theist 1]

Can't miss with the truth. The stork brings babies to asuras and Garuda delivers to the bhaktas. The gruesome details on the mechanics can come later.

[gHari 0]

Krsna puts the baby in the father. And then the father puts it in the mother. The baby grows and then it is born. Luckily he didn't want to get too technical about just how this all happens.

 

[Guest guest]

The Upanishads openly describe the passage of the individual soul, stage by stage, after its shedding of the physical body. It may be mentioned here that, after death, the soul bound by Karma may (1) return to this earth, (2) take birth in some other plane than the earth, (3) hang on as a discarnate spirit in any intermediary region (a condition called Preta), (4) go to the region of Pitris (Pitriloka), (5) reach heaven (Svarga), (6) fall into hell (Naraka), or, if it is a highly advanced spiritual seeker, (7) pass through the region of the Sun (Suryadvara), to Brahmaloka, and then attain Moksha. This last mentioned way of attainment is called Krama-Mukti (progressive salvation by stages). Only the absolutely desireless soul (Akama or Nishkama) attains Brahman here itself, without moving to any place, says the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. This attainment is called Sadyo-Mukti (immediate salvation).

 

The soul with desire of some kind or the other departs through the various nerve-passages of the subtle body, while the spiritually illumined soul passes through the Sushumna nerve-current and reaches Brahmaloka, via the shining region of the Sun. The Chhandogya Upanishad describes the stages of the passage of the soul on its way to Brahmaloka. The statements on this subject scattered over through the Upanishads, when grouped in an order, amount to the following description of the path, called Devayana or the path of the gods. The soul reaches the deity of flame (fire or light) and then rises gradually to the deities of the day, the bright half of the lunar month, the six months when the Sun moves to the north, the year, the region of the celestials, Air, Sun, Moon, lightning, the region of Varuna, the region of Indra, the region of Prajapati, and finally Brahmaloka. At the stage of the region of the deity of lightning, the soul is said to be received by a superhuman being (who it is the Upanishad does not say), and he leads the soul to the four higher regions. These gradations are difficult to understand, except as possible stages or grades of the manifestation of the Supreme Being in the individualised contents of the various relative planes of existence.

 

The soul that is not destined to reach Brahmaloka and has merits enough to go to Pitriloka alone, is said to rise by stages to the deities of smoke, night, the dark half of the lunar month, the six months when the Sun moves to the south, the sky (it does not go to the deity of the year), and the Moon. From here the soul returns through the sky, wind, smoke, mist, cloud, rain and enters grains, herbs, trees, etc., which are consumed by individuals on earth.

 

The Upanishads hold that the future of a person is determined by his actions, the actions by his volitions and the volitions by his desires. Thus it is evident that on one’s desires depends the nature of one’s future life. The ignorant are said to reach dark regions devoid of all happiness. Those who are ignorant of the true nature of the Self go to sunless realms covered over with darkness. The doers of good deeds enter into birth in nobler species, while the doers of bad deeds may fall into the wombs of animals or depraved characters. Karma, then, decides one’s future life. But, as mentioned already, those who are free from Karma, due to realisation of the Atman, have no rebirth; their Pranas do not depart into space; they become Brahman, here and now.

 

 

[Avinash 0]

At least as far as I remember, I did not worry about where babies come from by the age of five. But I did think over this when I was (I think) 8 or 9 year old. This is what I and my siblings used to think: -

 

There is one God in sky and another in Earth. The God in sky throws a baby. The God in Earth catches the baby and puts the baby very secretly in some house. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[livingentity 0]

I like that.

 

I don't remember ever even wondering about it. I thought we just appeared. Poof...and there we were!

 

I was raised as an only child by my father and paternal grandparents so there was not the typical mommy and daddy scene with siblings. Hence, I guess nothing around me ever sparked that curiousity.

[livingentity 0]

this is how it is! Good honest answer without un-needed details for a young child.

[theist 1]

"Heads up, another one coming down."

 

 

There is one God in sky and another in Earth. The God in sky throws a baby. The God in Earth catches the baby and puts the baby very secretly in some house.

 

 

[krsna 3]

A little more advanced explanation for older kids I suppose:

 

Actually God is everyone's father. We are all his sons. But the living

entity (the soul) takes shelter within the semen of the man and whe he

has sex with his wife the seed is planted within the womb of the mother

and the child gradually develops. First a pea-like form is there and

gradually the different holes of the body develop and the body forms.

After seven months the child becomes conscious within the womb and after

9/10 months he takes birth...

 

[Kulapavana 0]

...then they are absorbed with water into grains, get eaten and lie asleep waiting....and they start growing in mommy's body when the right time comes...

 

(notice that it is all true? /images/graemlins/smile.gif )

 

[theist 1]

I wonder.

[Kulapavana 0]

if you substitute the words "living entities" for "babies". this process is mentioned in several Puranas, including Srimad Bhagavatam.

[theist 1]

to saying "maybe" to alot in the Puranas. I just can't take a lot of it literally though I see no need in vigorously contesting it either.

 

The rain to grain to be eaten by a man so the soul can enter a sperm to enter a woman is one such idea.

 

So I shrug and say maybe.

[theist 1]

 

A very inquisitive and thoughtful 5 year old.

Do I tell him the truth?

Will he understand it?

 

 

Tell him mommies make them in their belly and let it go at that. That's weird enough for a five year old. I still find it weird.

 

Then give him an ice cream cone and hope he becomes too distracted to ask anymore on the subject for a few years.

[vanamali 1]

That sounds just right... /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Kulapavana 0]

the falling in the rain entities are the ones that come back from the higher planets. there are other mechanisms of entry for the other living entities. but as far as I know they all involve ingestion /images/graemlins/smile.gif our bodies are full of dormant (he he... and some fully awake too) living entities...

[livingentity 0]

I am still baffled by the whole thing and I was involved in the process once myself....actually twice if you include your own birth into these bodies.

 

The ingesting thing might be a little scary for a five year to comprehend. I know I had this weird fear at that time of cannibals and the like.

 

 

Tell him mommies make them in their belly and let it go at that. That's weird enough for a five year old. I still find it weird.