What Makes A Genius: Acquired Or Inherent Talent?

Every now and then we come across creative or scholarly abilities in certain children whom we acknowledge as child geniuses. They are geniuses at one skill or another. A 4-year old child skilfully plays long notes on the piano, a 7-year old writes complex software code while another recites shlokas from the scriptures at age 5. When and from whom did they learn these skills, especially when nobody in their family is inclined or trained in the same. Also, famous artists, musicians, engineers, sportsmen often display their talent at a very young age and most of them do not inherit it from their parents or family.

Spiritual wisdom teaches us that every action done by a soul after taking a physical body is registered in the soul as a sanskar or habit. Our sanskars are a sum total of our nature, talents and inclinations. These sanskars are then carried into the next births and are brought into action in the new births. Applying this understanding, the talent in a genius was learned, nurtured and mastered in his or her previous birth. Being registered on the soul, the talent is carried forward. The soul replays or reproduces the talent in this birth, in some cases in childhood itself. In short, genius is an experience. We think it is a gift or talent but it is a fruit of deep and long experience over many births. Some of us are older souls than others because we have been on the world stage for a longer duration and hence covered a journey of more number of births. Such souls carry forward experiences that are far deeper and longer than others. This understanding helps parents to encourage inherent talent in children instead of expecting them to be the way they want them to be.