In plain words
Embodiments of the divine Ātma!
For children to become virtuous, for them to be shaped into people of right saṃskāra, the mother and father must first become virtuous and people of right saṃskāra. Only when the mother and father are virtuous and lead a right life do the children become virtuous. Śaṅkarācārya, a great jñāni, was born to Āryāmba and Śivaguru. Whether Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa or Vivekānanda, the chief cause of their fame spreading through the whole country was their own parents.
The root cause of children leading a holy life is the parents themselves
All the great souls of the world have risen to such heights only by building on their parents' culture and good qualities. Gandhi, though no more than an ordinary man, won the name of Father of the Nation, a great man, a Mahātma. It was the fruit of his mother's grace and of her culture that shaped Gandhi in that way. His mother had a vow. Every day it was her custom to take her food only after the cuckoo had called. One day, when Gandhi was a boy, his mother had been waiting a long time for the cuckoo's call. Believing that the time she was waiting for the cuckoo's call was growing too long, he went outside and gave a call like a cuckoo. ‘Mother! The cuckoo has called, so now you may eat,’ said Gandhi, telling a lie. His mother, who saw clearly what had happened, caught hold of her son and slapped him twice on the cheeks: “Wicked boy! Because such a son was born from my womb, what a sinner I must be! That such a son should be born to me is my misfortune,” she lamented. ‘That a son who speaks untruth should be born to me: what sin did I commit, in what birth?’ she thought, and was deeply pained. That grief of hers took root in Gandhi's heart. From then on Gandhi made a firm resolve that he must not speak untruth. As a child Gandhi was very fearful.