In an incredibly intimate and thought-provoking interview, Bollywood megastar Alia Bhatt recently met with spiritual guru Sadhguru to talk about all the intricacies of motherhood. The actress, who gave birth to daughter Raha with husband Ranbir Kapoor in 2022, discussed the emotional roller coaster of knowing how her child brings in a lot of joy and the underlying, unrelenting concern of whether she is a good parent or not.
Alia also disclosed that her father, Mahesh Bhatt, had once questioned her about the experience of motherhood and she explained that it was an undivided experience where she was both happy and anxious. I am always thinking–am I saying the right things? Am I a good mother, confessed? Sadhguru, who is pragmatic and has a very humorous view of the world, responded to her with a blunt view: a worried parent is not a good parent. He claimed that being in a state of constant anxiety brings about a tense atmosphere that is not beneficial to both the child and the parent.
The discussion went a notch higher when Alia mentioned that her three and half year old daughter has already developed an interest in being competitive and fears failure. The recommendation given by Sadhguru was very easy and deep: abandon the notion that you have to educate them. He told Alia, who of the two of them was the happier, and when the latter said it was Raha, he joked, Who was to be the advisor to life?By urging parents to be consultants, but not teachers, Sadhguru stressed the fact that children are closer to life and happiness. Parents can re-learn their spontaneity by observing and listening to them. The exchange is an eye opener to contemporary parents to swap perfectionism with presence and to leave the way to natural childly curiosity.