Another teaching from Swami Veda

This is from his continued series on the education of children, posted to the e-mail group for his teacher training association:

I teach children from the age of 2 or 3. That is the most interesting part. I can teach meditation to a 2-year-old. They do not need to grasp the concept. The states of mind are not taught; the states of mind are caught. Their minds are not filled with all the cobwebs. All you have to do, what I do is, with a little child is I take meditation shawl and I hold the child like this . . . and s/he "catches" the state of mind. Mothers can teach that. The best time to teach a meditation to a child is during 9 months of pregnancy. Whatever state of mind the mother maintains, passes into the child and then after that, what they have not completed, the work they have not completed during the 9 months, they can complete when they have the child suckling on the breasts. What does the mother do with her breathing during that time, what does she do with her mind at that time? The child catches that sentiment, that emotion. If the mother is breathing shallow, the child learns to breathe shallow. We teach the mothers to breathe deep and relax and pass on that state of mind to the child.