June 6, 2025
Education is integral and should not be divided into the sacred and the secular. The human being has obviously three aspects which are inextricably interwoven: body, mind and spirit. Education is that which is able to bring out the best in each one of us. To ensure that which is thus brought out is the best, education trains the moral and the intellectual faculties of man. None of these can be neglected without disastrous results.
We need secular education - the arts and the sciences (which is the form or the body of education). Equally we need moral and intellectual training so that we are able to discriminate between the destructive and the constructive uses of technology. Here again it is when the human heart attains maturity through moral training that we begin to see that our worst enemy is the 'me' (selfishness). A truly mature and therefore educated person arises from this realization. It can therefore be easily seen that education is the surest means to the eradication of the ills and evils humanity is suffering from today.
When does such an education begin? It is beginningless! Hence it is a fresh beginning every day, every moment. It is a spiritual adventure undertaken by the parent, teacher and student together.
None of the three has authority over the others, all of them being part of this maturing process. All of them learn all the time from one another and from themselves. In this spirit of co-operation there is no compulsion, no surrender, no suppression and no rebellion.
Education is the expression of whatever is best in man and the spirit of education is the focussing of attention within one's own heart to observe what is thus expressed! Such observation is itself maturity.
When the part of the globe revolving on its axis turns away front the sun, there is darkness. This is the greatest message which most of these oriental divinities have given us. Krishna, Buddha, the wonderful Vedic sages have all proclaimed one Truth, that there is no such thing as 'eternal damnation'. I am in darkness, not because the sun has set, not because the light has gone, but because I have turned away. This inner light is there, it has always been there, it will never, never disappear. But, I must turn towards it. This turning towards the inner light is yoga.