Parenting & Family Quote by Swami Sivananda

Swami Sivananda’s line is less about being naive than about refusing to turn memory into a weapon. “Forget like a child” borrows the child as a moral technology: quick emotional weather, no long-term hoarding of grievance, no identity built around being wronged. That’s a pointed correction to adult prestige, where “never forget” is often treated as dignity, and resentment as proof that you mattered.

The intent is practical, almost clinical. Injury, in this view, is not merely an event; it’s a spark. If you “keep it in the heart,” you’re not preserving truth, you’re incubating a reaction. “It kindles hatred” frames hatred as combustion, not conviction: it spreads because it’s fed, and what feeds it is rehearsal. The subtext is that resentment is self-harm disguised as moral accounting. You can insist you’re holding someone responsible while your inner life becomes organized around their offense.

Context matters: Sivananda is writing out of a yogic, devotional tradition where the mind’s habits are the battleground. The ethical instruction is also a psychological one: don’t let the past rent space in your attention. The line quietly separates forgiveness from reconciliation; it doesn’t say “trust them again” or “deny what happened.” It says don’t curate the wound.

The sharpness is in the final clause. Hatred isn’t portrayed as a righteous response but as the predictable end-product of storage. Keep the ember, get the fire.