AT THE FEET OF THE MOTHER
Ask Alok da

I would like to know how being an only child or having siblings helps in our Spiritual growth. Since I am an only child, I have been judged for it before. A teacher once told me that I was probably spoiled because I am an only child, which is not true. 🌱👦🏼👨🏻‍👩🏻‍👧🏻‍👦🏻🌼[…]

Is having siblings really better, or is it just another social construct? What experience does a Soul get from having no siblings?

Don’t listen to these self-styled psychologists. The main advantage of having a sibling is that one learns sharing at home itself. But the same lesson can be learnt in school and with friends. On the other hand, having a sibling does sometime brings in sibling rivalry which distracts one from the path intended. Having siblings also brings in subtle competition for resources which is not very healthy. There is absolutely nothing wrong in being a single child. Human beings have an inbuilt software of nature and whatever is to be learnt through siblings, such as caring and sharing, can be learnt much better through a few good friends.

In earlier times, a larger family was also part of a narrow view of life, where one looked at the world as a place of strife. Children of the same family were automatically considered as a common group against other competing groups. But now the world is moving towards vastness and the family is mainly as a base support during the early phase of life, the nest before the bird flies to the vast skies. For insecure, unsure natures, it can act as a support, but for natures meant to grow vast, it may be and usually is an encumbrance restricting the horizons of the great adventure of life. 

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Here is the passage from the Synthesis of Yoga to which you are referring.

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