"Children are not vessels to be filled, but lamps to be lit.
The seed of spiritual values should be sown in young hearts, and the conditions made favourable for sprouting and steady growth through proper control and discipline. It must be cared for with the warmth of love and affection, and such a tree shall blossom forth flowers of brotherhood, universal love, peace, bliss, beauty, and perfection".


- Swami Chinmayananda

“Love is to the human heart what sunshine is to flowers,” said the visionary spiritual master, Swami Chinmayananda. Anticipating the need of the modern world for both sunshine and love, he formulated and developed every loving, inspiring, and nurturing facet of what stands today as the world's most renowned and systematic Vedantic learning forum for children: Chinmaya Bala Vihar.

Swami Chinmayananda believed that just as the strength of a wall depends on the quality of each brick, so too, the health of a society depends on its individual citizens. If the individuals are healthy, the society is healthy. Bala Vihar children are encouraged to be responsible, alert and sensitive

His strategy for building a new society was to "catch them young."