Strength has many dimensions. Love has its own strength. For example, to carry a child in the womb for nine months needs strength, stamina, love. No man could manage it. An artificial womb could be placed in man – now scientific technology has come to the point where man could have a plastic womb implanted but I don’t think he could survive nine months! – they are both going to jump into the ocean.

It is difficult to give life to another soul, to give a body to another soul, to give a brain and mind to another soul. The woman shares wholeheartedly in giving to the child whatever she can manage. And even after the child is born, it is not easy to bring up children. To me, it seems to be the most difficult thing in the world.

Astronauts and Edmund Hillary…these people should first try to bring up children. Then only can we accept that they have done something by going to Everest; otherwise it is pointless. Even if you have reached the moon and walked on the moon, it does not matter. It doesn’t show that you are stronger.

A living child – so volatile, such an energy overflowing that he will tire you within hours. Nine months in the womb and then a few years…. Just try one night to sleep with a small baby in your bed. During that night, in your house, something is going to happen. Either the child will kill you or you will kill the child. Most probably, you will kill the child, because children are the nastiest people in the world. They are so fresh and they want to do so many things and you are dead tired. You want to go to sleep, and the child is fully awake and he wants to do all kinds of things and he wants your advice, and questions, and if nothing works then he wants to go to the bathroom! He’s feeling thirsty. He’s feeling hungry in the middle of the night….

It happened…A great saint was delivering a religious discourse and one of the richest women in his congregation was sitting in front of him with her small child. But the child disturbed the whole discourse – because people started laughing…and the reason was the child.

The child asked, “Mom, I want to piss.” In the middle, when he is talking about God, this idiot thinks about…. After the meeting, he took the woman aside and told her, “You should teach manners to the child. In a religious discourse, such words…and in the middle, and everybody starts laughing and I feel awkward. And you went on pushing him away and he went on again and again after two minutes – ‘Mom….’ And slowly there was no need for him to say the full sentence. Just ‘Mom’ and the whole hall was laughing. You should train him that there are situations where you cannot use such words.”

The woman said, “Then what should be done?”

He said, “Just tell him, for example, that if he wants to go to the toilet he can say, ‘Mom, I want to sing.’ You will understand…just a code word that nobody else will understand. Then you can simply take him out.”

The woman said, “I will try.”