Does education lead us to the truth? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
The question asked by Gaurang is, ‘Does education lead us to the truth?’
Acharya Prashant: Not necessarily Gaurang! What do we mean by education? If education is merely a gathering, an accumulation of knowledge in the mind, then surely it is just about filling up this container (the brain) with a lot of external information. Obviously, there is nothing of the Truth in it in that case. Getting it?
We said this mind is obsessed with traveling outside, this mind is obsessed with getting attached to the objects here and there. If education does only that, that it takes the mind outwards and further outwards, to this object, to that object, then such an education obviously has not much to do with the Truth.
Truth lies not there (pointing towards the world), Truth lies not here (pointing towards the head). Truth lies in a completeness ‘here’ and ‘there’. This (Mind) and That (World). Our education systems are designed to take you just outwards. History, Geography, Language, Technology, all of these are merely about the objects there (outside). Know about the society, know about the world, know about what is happening there and this is a very incomplete process. Which in no way brings you to the Truth .
Education is complete only when it is integrated, only when it is whole. And the wholeness of education lies in knowing not only the outer world but more importantly the mind that knows the world. If you know them both, then you can call yourself educated.
Otherwise what you get is a very botched-up product of the education system which has lots of knowledge but no understanding. Somebody has said, ‘you have guided missiles but unguided men’. Till the time education is just about having these, and educational institutions are all about stuff on the periphery, we will have greatly guided missiles but totally lost men. As they say, ‘Smart phones and stupid people’. That is the product of our education. There is no question of Truth in all that.
Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.
