Question: What is the best way to convey to a child what God represents? Should we tell a child that God is love or omniscience or what?

Sri Chinmoy: We know that God is everything, God is inside everything and God is beyond everything. This is our philosophical understanding and our psychic understanding. But I wish to speak about God from a child's pure, innocent and soulful point of view — according to a child's understanding.

What is God from the point of view of a child? God is concern. A mother will try to show her concern for her child day in and day out. But out of twenty-four hours, the mother can consciously offer her concern for only two or three hours in spite of her best intentions. She wants to show him all her affection all the time. But during the day she has to study or work, do her own meditation and do quite a few other things apart from taking care of him — even though he is her dearest child. When he is sick, perhaps she will offer her concern for fifteen or sixteen or even twenty-four hours. Ordinarily she can give him her concern for only a few hours. In God's case, it is different. He constantly gives us His inner and outer Concern.

We stay on earth for fifty, sixty, seventy or even one hundred years, but this is not our real span of life. Our real life is endless. We came from the beginningless past and we are entering into the endless future. We have had previous incarnations and we will have many future incarnations. In our past incarnations we had different parents. In this incarnation we get concern from one mother and father; in our previous incarnation we got concern from other parents and in the future also we will receive concern from different parents. But we received God's Concern from the very beginning and forever it will remain the same. The moment He created our soul, His Concern started, and it will always remain constant and eternal.

Everything has a source, and the source of concern is oneness. When my finger is hurt or bleeding, immediately I am concerned for my finger. Why? Because I am one with my finger. When something is wrong with your child, you show your concern because of your oneness with him. Right now, there are many people who are suffering and dying in the hospital, but even if you knew them you might not offer them your concern. Why? Because you are not completely identified with them and you don't feel your oneness with them. But you do feel your oneness with your child and your child feels his oneness with you. So we see that the source of concern is oneness. It is to your near and dear ones, those who you feel are part and parcel of your life, that you offer your concern. Since God is the all-pervading One, His Concern comes from His all-pervading Oneness. Since He is everywhere and in everything, He has to have oneness with everything. So He offers everything His Concern.