In plain words
We must take as our base the principle of the Ātma that is in us. This very thing has been called ‘Educare’. Along with ‘education’, ‘Educare’ too is needed. Without ‘Educare’, ‘education’ is of no use.
True education is the opening of the doors of the mind
Embodiments of Prema! If you have any doubts, let us talk about them tomorrow. First of all, learn what education is. When you enquire well into the pañcatantra I spoke of before, everything will become easy for you to understand. Education is not something told by the mouth, nor something written on a blackboard. Only what opens the doors of the mind is true education. If you shut the doors and call, “Come in,” how is one to go inside? You desire happiness and prosperity. If they are to come within your reach, you must open the doors of your mind. It is not enough for the members of our institutions merely to wear a ‘uniform dress’; they must have a ‘uniform mind’. The mind must be pure and refined.
“Advaita darśanaṃ jñānaṃ”
Embodiments of Prema! In today's system of education there are so many things you need to know. But without knowing what you need to know, you are coming to know all that is needless. You take in only the matters that are in books. That is merely worldly ‘education’. To this ‘education’ you must add ‘Educare’ as well. Only then will Ānanda come to you. ‘Education’ may be likened to water, and ‘Educare’ to sugar. If you put sugar in a tumbler of water and drink the water at the top, it has no taste at all. When you take a spoon and stir it well, the sugar at the bottom spreads all through the water and gives that water sweetness. The tumbler is our heart; the water, worldly education; the sugar, divinity. Only when we stir it well with the spoon called Buddhi, that is, only when we enquire, can we attain Prajñāna and sujñāna. Some people think they are men of Jñāna.