Prahlad turns 6

Posted On: Tue, 2008-06-24 05:07 by sitapati

Our son, Prahlad Narasingha Wulf Felix, turned 6 on June 17th, while we were in Cairns. Here he is with his new t-shirt and a statue of Hanuman that Acyuta Bhava gave him.

We flew back to Brisbane that day so he had two celebrations, breakfast in Cairns, and dinner at Atma Yoga. Adina-lila took some photos in the evening. Here's the morning's breakfast - all sweet...

From the age of 0-5 is called kaumaram, or childhood, in Sanskrit. From 6 onwards is called yauvanam or youth. Prahlad has gone from being a child to being a young boy.

The change in him happened overnight. Just like his first birthday, which was in the ISKCON temple in Lima, Peru, where we lived at the time. At the birthday party itself he got up and started walking, right in front of all the guests.

Similarly, he went from one day where he couldn't sleep without snuggling up to me to becoming more independent and self determining.

This is an interesting period of transition now. Up to this point he has not been responsible for what he does. From this point on he takes more responsibility for his actions and the outcomes.

I miss him as a child, but I am excited about the opportunity to help him to grow as a youth. It is helping me to become more conscious and responsible for my actions and the outcomes.

All things in this world must pass, but while they are here before us we have the duty to steward them responsibly. This world is temporary, and it is real.

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No more biting :)

-wMz- | Sat, 2008-06-28 23:15

Happy Birthday Prahlad :) I will miss your biting ... l o l ;)

~Sita Pati ... I enjoyed the post and the ending text:

'All things in this world must pass, but while they are here before us we have the duty to steward them responsibly. This world is temporary, and it is real'

Hari bol
lee

Re: Prahlad turns 6

Amara dasa | Tue, 2008-06-24 20:42

Happy Birthday, Prahlad! What a fortunate birth to have such nice devotee parents! I can only dream about how nice it would be to have devotee parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives, etc.

According to "The Nectar of Devotion" (p. 329): "the age up through five years is called 'kaumara,' the age from the sixth through the tenth year is called 'pauganda,' and the age from the eleventh through fifteenth year is 'kaisora.'" After fifteen (or at sixteen) a boy reaches full-fledged adolescence or youthfulness ('yauvana'). Maybe there are different versions of this scale but that's the way I was always taught.

Thanks for the birthday

sitapati | Wed, 2008-06-25 06:45

Thanks for the birthday wishes Amara prabhu, and the clarification.

I knew that it was somewhere in the Nectar of Devotion, but couldn't find it. I was using my memory and the general progression as given in Bhagavad-gita: dehino 'smin yatha dehe / kaumaram yauvanam jara.

Pauganda - so we can expect to see another major sea change in 4 years.