In plain words
Embodiments of Prema!
Many people are troubled over the problems flaring up in the field of education. But it is still in a state of confusion. The course of education, which could serve daily life usefully and amply, is heading downhill today. Among students passions have run riot, and every ideal has gone lame. Morality and honesty, humility and obedience, respect and courtesy: it is as though all of them had been thrown into the fire. Lacking the strength and ability to carry the highest ideals, the schools and places of learning, which should be dwellings of Sarasvatī, have turned into dwellings of Lakṣmī. Education has taken on a distorted form. The training ground meant for good qualities has let its ties to money grow, and gone to ruin. In the way learning is acquired, not even a trace can be seen of the growth in good qualities that humanness needs. This is a situation that endangers the human race itself. Life itself today is like lying on a rug overrun by caterpillars.
Life is like a railway journey. Some get down at the first station. Others get down at the second station. Even if they have to put up with unrest, discomforts and unpleasant things on the train, it is only for a while! That is no great hardship. But the students' journey is a long one. A very hard journey. So you must look after them gently, with care, with patience and with Prema. Teachers must come to know the divinity within humanness and make it known to them. Humanness today is taking strange paths. It is easy to wake those who are asleep, and easy to alert those who are awake. But how do you wake those who just lie there pretending to sleep? Those whose Buddhi has turned inert through tamoguṇa are easy to rouse through good counsel. Those who shout in turmoil as though gripped by madness, you can admit to some mental hospital, nurse them and cure their madness. How do you set right those who, with no cause at all and with no madness on them, keep swelling their desires and suffer from envy and Ahaṅkāra? Such people are growing in number day by day now.
‘Sā vidyā yā vimuktaye.’ Education must set man free from sorrow, from desire, anger and the rest. Yet today's educated have neither peace nor security. They have neither comfort nor contentment. In the Kali age there are facilities of many kinds for gaining learning. Has Viveka grown through them? The number of students and the number of teachers have grown enormously. Then there is the earning of money. Ways to it have sprung up by the crore. Yet in every country people are not blessed with Śānti and happiness. What is the reason for this? There is no right path in man's conduct. There is no trace of good qualities in their behaviour.
‘By learning and tapas the self is made pure,’ says the Upaniṣad. Education has two parts. The worldly education one must gain to earn a living. The spiritual education, or Brahmavidyā, which makes known the highest goal of life and carries one across. Worldly education is essential for daily life. But in keeping with it one must study spiritual education as well. Students must turn out to be exemplary people. In this movement the part the gurus play is very important. Of all callings, theirs is the noblest. The contentment and prosperity of the country rest on their dedication to service. Through their own noble teaching they lift the country to the highest level. If a student goes bad, he alone is ruined. But if a teacher goes bad, thousands of children are ruined. For children to grow up virtuous and given to sacrifice, free of the delusion that they are the body and free of the cares of attachment, the guidance of students and teaching drawn from experience are vital.
Schools are being looked on as something altogether ordinary. This is not good. Education is precisely what brings purity of citta. Education is what develops moral values and the values of Dharma. Education is what nurtures humility and obedience and keeps them safe. Schools are the centres that teach such education. Today schools believe the growth of science to be their only goal, and they receive the encouragement that goes with it. Science, for its part, has grown. But humanness does not seem to have grown. They boast that they have been to the distant moon and back, but they give no thought to the state of man, plainly visible close at hand. They pay no heed to how the man next door is faring. The learned of the world spend time and money without rest on seminars and meetings, but no good comes of them to the people. A state of affairs has come about: a hero on the platform, and once he steps down, a zero among the people. You must decide on a sound way to remedy this.
The Education Minister has called this meeting, resolved to raise the course of education to a high level and to plant high ideals in the hearts of boys and girls, so as to give the zeal and encouragement this needs. This is a fortunate thing. This is a most holy day. What the foundation is to a building and the root to a tree, the mind is to life; and the feelings in that mind must be pure, steady and selfless.