"But you are not to interfere in their growth, in their potential. You are not to impose yourself upon them. They are not going to live in the same times, they are not going to face the same problems; they will be part of another world. Don't prepare them for this world, this society, this time, because then you will be creating troubles for them. They will find themselves unfit, unqualified.

"You have to help them to grow beyond you; you have to help them not to imitate you. That is really the duty of the parents – to help the children not to fall into imitation. Children are imitative, and naturally, who are they going to imitate? The parents are the closest people. Up to now parents have enjoyed it very much that their children are just like them. The father feels proud because his son is just like him. He should be ashamed that his son is just like him. Then one life is wasted; then his son is not needed – he was enough. Because of this wrong conception of pride in children imitating you, we have created a society of imitators.

"One of the most famous Christian books was written by Kempis: Imitation of Christ. It is almost second to the Holy Bible. One great Christian theologian and a world-famous author of many, many treatises, Stanley Jones, used to stay with me whenever he used to come to my city. He was continuously going around the world, and he always kept the book, Imitation of Christ. Once I told him, 'If you really understand, then this book should be burned.'

"To teach anybody to imitate Christ is to destroy that person. One Christ is enough, more than enough. Many, many Christs carrying their crosses on their shoulders would make a very hilarious sceneand everybody proclaiming himself to be the only begotten son of God!

"The word imitation has never been condemned, but it should be condemned. The religious founders have been wanting people to imitate them, the parents have been wanting their children to imitate them; the teachers, the professors, the priests – everybody is wanting children to imitate them. The children become a mass phenomenon; carbon copies of many peoplemuch ado about nothing!

"I remember, I must have been seven years old and a friend of my father's who had not seen me, who had not come for seven yearshe had gone for a long pilgrimage around the Ganges."