Wild Imagination Is Not Good for a Child

Creativity is a very valuable quality. Imagination or visualization is an important element in creativity. Creative people are appreciated everywhere. But you must ensure that the limits of honesty and truthfulness are not breached while being creative.

Creativity is meant for the benefit of others. The beneficiaries of your creativity are others, who are entertained or derive benefit from something that you create. Your reward is the appreciation you get. 

What happens to a lamp, an oil lamp? It spreads light in the world, but in the end, it is left charred and lonely. In an effort to entertain and benefit others, you should not end up like the lamp.

For this, you should understand how imagination works. Thinking about something that doesn’t exist in reality, visualizing such a thing, sketching it, writing it down, or talking about it as if it is real is dishonest imagination. Basically, all fiction is dishonest. Fiction originates from the West. We never had any literature that was purely a creation of the mind. All our Puranas, Itihasas—they are not stories of imagination. They were real incidents that took place. Our rich literature is full of poetic and artistic descriptions of these real incidents. They are not myths; we don’t have mythology. They are all real incidents.

Painting a lifelike portrait of someone is totally honest. Enhancing certain features that your keen eyes as an artist have identified is acceptable. But making a muscular man in royal clothing out of a feeble ordinary man in a painting is dishonest. Nobody will prosecute you if you do this; it is not illegal. But it can harm you.

If you observe great poets and great painters, you will see that they don’t really visualize; they perceive in real objects more than what a normal person would see. They are not imagining—they are seeing deeper, seeing clearer, seeing better. When we see a lotus petal as rose in color, an artist might see not one color but many colors in varying gradients. This is their sharpness. 

When you and I hear only the sound of a river flowing, a musician might be able to discern musical notes within it—music within it. It is not imagination; it is deeper, clearer perception. This is not wrong; this is a quality.

When it comes to a child, make sure that the child doesn’t develop wild imagination. Deeper perception is good, but not wild imagination. Wild imaginations develop when, for example, another child in school says, 'We have a big car,' and your child feels the need to say, 'We have a car as big as an airplane,' or 'We have a hundred big cars.' Whenever you hear this, don’t encourage it. You might even tell the child, 'No, that is not correct. Don’t say that.' 

If you appreciate this harmless lie, or if the child thinks they are getting your attention through this innocent boast, it can become a problem. The child will do it more and more and will not understand the difference between truth and a lie. Don’t think it is harmless or innocent; it can turn harmful later.

Always encourage the child to align with reality.

Knowledge Bank

What are Shastras?

Shastras in Hinduism are teachings to help people live righteously and grow spiritually. These texts can be found in a variety of forms, such as Vedas, Smritis, Puranas, and Itihasas, and Dharmashastras.

Who were Shishupala and Dantavakra?

Shishupala was the king of Chedi. Dantavakra was the king of Karusha. They were incarnations of Jaya-Vijaya on earth towards the end of Dwapara yuga. Both were killed by Sri Krishna.