What is the greatest thing we can do for our children?

Sri Chinmoy: If I know that the best thing for me to do early in the morning is to pray, I will encourage my child to do this. But if I say, "No, I have come to this realisation at the age of forty, so let my son also wait until he is ready," then I am making a deplorable mistake. For forty years I did not accept the spiritual life but wallowed in life's ignorance. How much I suffered and how much suffering I caused for my dear ones! But now I know that the spiritual life is the answer. So when I have the child in front of me, I will inspire him to pray and meditate. The thing that I feel is best I will tell my child. Then, when he grows up. If he feels that what I have said is not the right thing for him, then he can accept something else. But I shall guide him along the road I have discovered to be right until he is old enough to choose his own road.
In the beginning, if the child is not instructed, if the child is not taught, how will the child learn? The child cannot be left to learn in his own way. The lesson has to be given right from the beginning. I know a truth which I will tell my children. Later, if they discover that there is a higher truth or that the truth I have taught them is wrong, then let them reject it. But unfortunately, it is not happening this way in the West. Here I see thousands of children who have been misguided by their parents in the name of freedom.