When we teach a child to pray, we should not be instilling fear of God, but we should be giving them a sense of wonder about God. I believe we should encourage them
to think about God and understand what they say. I have attempted to provide the meaning of a few common and simple Hindu prayers.
On the one hand the believers of hinduism believe in a myraid gods. Each of them have their own charecteristics- anger, mischief, benevolence, beauty, pride, righteousness. But all these ponit to the one and same the Great Divine.
I have taken up Hindu prayers in Sanskrit as they are the most familiar to me. I am sure every religion and language willl provide similar examples. I hope other like minded people will carry this further to explain to their children, the essence of their prayers.