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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 21 March 2016

‘Without saying a word, Dev can speak volumes about love and goodness’ Children are truth personified, feels Parul Kala as she talks about Dev, her son with Down's syndrome

Last year I had to fill out in Dev’s school notebook " what I love about Dev".
I wrote the following adjectives:
Happy
Loving
Human
Athletic
Determined
Artistic
Persistent
Cute
Cuddly
Warm
Affectionate
Full of life
But we are .....Alike

Yes, Dev was born with Down’s Syndrome 10 years ago. But as he grew up, his essential being, who he is and his inner luminescence completely removed all our deepest doubts and insecurities.

Read more about: Dev, our surprise package.

When I see Dev today, I can see what a long way he has come with love and support from us as well as of those around him, his caregivers, teachers, friends. His paediatrician thinks Dev is almost equivalent to God as he is truth personified. He does not know how to lie or deceive. How many of us can claim to have this virtue? What does it say about the purity of his soul ?

I have always questioned myself, "Do I really know what is the right way to learn and live? Who am I to teach him anything?".

Dev sits naturally and comfortably in the half lotus with total inner peace reflected on his countenance. He seems always happy and secretly amused at things only he can see. He lives only in the present. He does not dwell in the past or worry about the future. If this is not meditation at its best, then what is ?

According to the basic tenets of yoga, one should ideally leave all thoughts and intellectual faculties aside in order to fully understand one’s true nature or even achieve the superconscious state. As typically developing humans, we have to work very hard on first the body and then the mind to raise our spiritual level. Then, too, there are only a handful who manage to acquire absolute bliss.

I see God in my son. Just being near him fills me with peace. His touch makes me happy and calm. I see God in his paintings. It seems like he can see something extraordinary in the most ordinary of things.

Going by the karma theory, he is probably a highly evolved soul already. How lucky we are as his parents to have him in our lives. He makes us focus on things that matter -- lead a moral life, believe in one’s own self, believe in God, serve others and be kind and helpful as a person.

Dev loves to listen to meditation music at all hours of the day, specially before sleeping or in the morning. He also loves to listen to the great K. L .Saigal. Now, how many 10- year-olds do that?

Now if you tell me to ignore all these signs and force my child to be like everyone else, confused and ignorant just like myself, I just cannot do that.

I think as parents, our job is to facilitate him to be able to be self-reliant and independent and be able to contribute to society.

So that is what our focus is : to make him capable of communicating and reading and mastering self-help skills; live with others happily and comfortably; and be a good learner  ( which he already is).

Without saying a word, Dev can speak volumes about love and goodness and we can feel everyone around him fall into the circle of his charm.

By staying positive, only good things have happened and will continue to happen to us as a family.

God bless Dev.

If you are looking for more stories on children with Down's Syndrome 

Down's is the new UP in my life

I want her to lead life on her own terms

 

 

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