Train up a Child
Tradition and training of children in the Oriental custom and cultures including the grandfather's role. Train up a Child The education of a child in the East is quite different from that of a Western child. When the child is a baby, he is "salted and swaddled", the ancient rite of dedication for newborn children. A Hindu mother often says to the child, "You were salted to pray seven times a day; you were swaddled not to be crooked." These mothers truly believe the saying, Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. At the age of five, some Hindu boys are taken to the temple for dedication to God, according to their caste. The ceremony includes piercing the lobe of the ear with a hot needle; the child is now "earmarked" to serve God in the role to which his caste is assigned by tradition. Now the boy is given to the grandfather of the family for religious training. The grandfather acts as the family priest and part of his duties are to teach the young children. Each night another grandson and I went to bed with Grandfather, one on each side, and we were taught before we went to sleep. The next morning when we woke up, about five o'clock, we were required to repeat the lesson. There was a cane on Grandfather's pillow for use in case we did not remember the lesson (I remember the cane VERY well). This custom of teaching children in bed is mentioned in Luke 11:7, when the friend comes at midnight asking the loan of three loaves for the unexpected guest, and the man says, Luke 11:7 Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. After the lessons, Grandfather bathed us, and as we washed, we sang a song from the Vedas which entreats God to wash away our sins while we are washing the body. Next we sat cross-legged on the carpet, said our prayers, and had breakfast. The grandfather also accompanies the Hindu children to school, watching carefully that they do n
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still aligned with the Eastern, Biblical culture. For over twenty years, Bishop Pillai taught these Orientalisms, bringing great enlightenment to the Christian world. His crusade of imparting this light of the Eastern Culture carried him to numerous universities and seminaries, as well as every major denomination throughout the United States, England and Canada. Still today, his teachings remain the foremost authority on the rare gems of Biblical customs and culture. Bishop K.C. Pillai’s conversion to Christianity is a witness of God’s heart, as well as a lesson in one of the most significant Eastern customs found in the Bible. The Bishop was raised as a Hindu. When a Hindu child of the ruling class is born, a little salt is rubbed on the baby who is then wrapped in swaddling cloth. This custom invoked one of the oldest and strongest covenants in the Eastern world, the “salt covenant.” I