To Support the Vision of
Mulund Institute
First Stage of Life
This is the stage that basically occupies human beings from conception to seven years of age . . . It is the period in which one must adapt to one’s physical individuality and basic physical capability. Thus, it is not only a period of physical adaptation, but of physical individuation.
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When you see a baby, it is obvious that it is a physically independent personality, but the baby is not consciously aware of precisely what this physical individuation is about and how he or she is different from the mother and others. This sense of physical individuation develops through a learning process that occurs during infancy and in the early years of childhood. This learning process eventually results in a clear sense of individuation, physical capability, and a sense of relatedness to others—including the parents, other adults, and the “world” in general.
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That is, one must gradually adapt to fully functional physical existence, but one must achieve physical individuation, or physical (and, thus, mental, emotional, psychic, and psychological) independence from the mother and all others. When this stage is complete, one will not exist in isolation but in a state of conscious relatedness to all others and the “world” of nature.
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First Stage of Life
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Avatar Adi Da Samraj: This is the stage that basically occupies human beings from conception to seven years of age . . .
It is the period in which one must adapt to one’s physical individuality and basic physical capability. Thus, it is not
only a period of physical adaptation, but of physical individuation.
When you see a baby, it is obvious that it is a physically independent personality, but the baby is not consciously aware of precisely what this physical individuation is about and how he or she is different from the mother and others. This sense of physical individuation develops through a learning process that occurs during infancy and in the early years of childhood. This learning process eventually results in a clear sense of individuation, physical capability, and a sense of relatedness to others—including the parents, other adults, and the “world” in general.
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That is, one must gradually adapt to fully functional physical existence, but one must achieve physical individuation, or physical (and, thus, mental, emotional, psychic, and psychological) independence from the mother and all others. When this stage is complete, one will not exist in isolation but in a state of conscious relatedness to all others and the “world” of nature.
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It is only on the basis of individuation from this one-on-one bond—or, more to the point, this “two-who-are-one” bond [with the mother]—that the individual can move out socially, into the entire field of relationships. The first stage is complete when you can see the beginnings of a movement toward a more complex socialization with adults and peers, and toward cooperation with others, and sensitivity to the total “world” of nature.
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I should also Indicate that the first three stages of life overlap one another. There are three distinct stages, yes, but there is a period of time at the end of each of the first three stages of life wherein some characteristics and capabilities of the next stage begin to appear. Thus, toward the end of the first stage of life you should expect to see the signs of individuation, socialization, cooperation, sensitivity to nature, and so forth. When these signs show themselves stably and significantly, then the schooling of the second stage of life becomes appropriate and inevitable.
— from “Early-Life Education, or My Seventh Stage Way of Schooling In The First Three Stages of Life”
​Growth Challenges in the First Stage of Life
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Individuation:
--Individuating from the mother (or other primary caregiver), which includes going
beyond fear about being separated and establishing conscious relatedness with
the mother figure and all others
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--Adapting to food-taking, which includes going beyond anxiety about food
and sustenance in general
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Physical adaptation:
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--Acquiring gross motor skills, including sitting, crawling, walking, running, jumping
and more
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--Acquiring fine motor skills, such as eating with a fork and spoon, getting dressed,
and using tools for coloring and writing
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--Developing basic mental skills, like giving attention, as well as being able to make observations and then draw conclusions
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--Acquiring language skills
To learn more about the first stage of life, including guidance for newborns, infants, toddlers, and kids from four to seven, see The First Three Stages of Life and The Scale of the Very Small