In plain words
‘Educare’ – ‘Education’
Rāvaṇa was no ordinary man. Rāvaṇa too studied as much as Rāma studied. But because there were bad qualities in him, he could not put that learning into practice; it turned into ‘indigestion’. Rāma digested what he had learnt, put it into practice and uplifted the world. Education is of two kinds. One is education that faces outward, the other education that faces inward. To learn by heart what is in books and write it out in examinations is the education that faces outward. What lets you taste the Ānanda of the heart and the sweetness of the heart is the education that faces inward. This has been called ‘Educare’. If you have only ‘Education’, it is of no use; you need ‘Educare’ as well.
The three kinds of Dharma the Rāmāyaṇa teaches
In the Rāmāyaṇa, Rāma taught three kinds of Dharma. The first is the Dharma of the individual, the second the Dharma of the family, the third the Dharma of society. The individual does not mean the outward form alone. In the world people usually take a man's form to be the individual. But the Dharma of the individual that the Rāmāyaṇa teaches has nothing to do with form. The Rāmāyaṇa is the very principle of humanness, unmanifest, hidden and held within.
Individuality is what brings out the Satya held within. Individuality is what brings out the divinity that dwells at the level of the heart. The individual means not an individual of form but an individual of conduct. Rāma is the one who proclaimed this Dharma of the individual to the world. To keep his father's word he went to the forests and endured many hardships. But he did not regard them as hardships. He upheld the fame of the Ikṣvāku line, that they never go back on their word, and so kept up the Dharma of the family. Before setting out for the forest, he put on garments of bark and came to his mother Kausalyā to take her leave. Kausalyā was astonished to see her son, who was to have been crowned king, come in garments of bark. Rāma smiled: “Mother! Today my father has made me king of the forest. From today I must rule the forest.