Furthermore, when the infant is beginning to utter sounds, such as ha, pa, ma, boo, goo, one should not take it as something unimportant or something which has no meaning; one must realize that each such sound is a new lesson that an infant has learnt from the world, and one should give that word great importance, because it is the first word and that is a divine word. The best way of training an infant to learn the meaning of these words and sounds is to repeat with it the same sounds, to let the child hear the same word over and over again, and become interested in what it is saying; and then to attract its attention to objects and persons of that name. It is in this way that the words ma and pa have come into being. It is not that someone else has given these names; the infant has given them to its father and mother. Others have added to those words and made them mater, mader, mother, but it began with ma and pa. It is a natural word, it has come from the depth of the mind of the infant; it is a divine word. Its origin is a divine origin.

Such a word as "mummy" is the third word, and is brought about with the help of the guardian. The first word is ma, the second word is mama, and the third word is mummy; mama is extended to mummy. As fashions come in dress, so there come fancies in words. People like to use a certain word for some time and then it becomes a fashion.

One can help an infant by repeating different words with it and by pointing out to it the meaning of the words, instead of always urging upon it another word to be repeated. One spoils the ear of an infant in that way.

The Nawab of Rampur once expressed a desire to the chief musician of his court to learn music himself, and the master said, "I will teach you music on one condition, and that is that you do not listen to every kind of music that comes your way. When bad music is heard the ear becomes spoiled; and then you cannot discriminate between bad music and good music."

So it is with an infant. The infant is saying pa, and the mother is saying leaf. The infant is saying something, and the guardian is saying something else. There is no harmony and no purpose is accomplished. The infant is unable to say leaf; it is beginning to say pa. Its own intuition has guided it, and it is better to go with nature and to let an infant be enlightened by every sound it makes, by showing it something connected with that sound. It is in this way that an infant is helped to speak. Then, if it learns to speak by nature's method, it promises one day to speak from intuition.

It is the will that has brought the child to the earth, otherwise it would not have come. It comes by its own will and it stays by its own will. The will is like the steam that makes the engine go forward. If the child wishes to go back, that depends upon its wish. It is always by the will of the soul. And therefore in the child you see the will in the form in which it has come. But often during childhood the will is broken, and then it remains broken all through life. If in childhood the parents took good care that the will was not broken, then the will would manifest itself in wonders. The child would do wonderful things in life if its will was sustained, if it was cherished.