Why is education not helping the world? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Speaker: The question asked by Nitish is, ‘In spite of having a world that is more and more educated, with every passing day the literacy levels are increasing, more and more people are enrolling for higher education as well. In spite of having all this why do we have a world like this? Why do we have a world like this?’
Education has two layers to it. The first layer is the superficial one which deals with objects. Let us see what all is included in this layer? Since your childhood you have studied Hindi, English, History, Geography, Mathematics and now Technology. But you are not the languages, you are not the glaciers and the mountains that you read about in geography. You are not the kings and their kingdoms you read of in History. You are not a quadratic equation, you are not a differential equation either that you read study in Mathematics. And none of you is an electromagnetic motor about which you are reading currently. All of these are external objects. Education about them is superficial education which takes the mind to objects, objects outside. Objects include people, places, things, moments everything. So, when education tells you about other people and their thinking, when education tells you about science and the products of science, it is all about objects; external objects. And your education has filled your mind with knowledge about external objects; which is alright, which is important to an extent. But that is just superficial. That is just the first layer of education.
Real education is something else. Real education takes the mind not outwards but inwards. Real education is about a mind that is able to understand its own processes. ‘From where does anger arise? Why am I so insecure? Why am I always restless? Why can’t I be attentive? Why am I jealous? Why am I possessive? What is the quality of my relationships? What is Love? What is Joy? What is Truth? and What is Freedom? A mind that cannot enquire into this is not an educated mind. A mind that cannot go into itself (pointing at the mind). ‘What are thoughts? How do they arise?’
When education is about the external, the laboratory is outside. When education is about the mind then you have to observe the mind itself. Then the observatory is here (pointing at the mind). If you just have the first kind of education, you will get what someone has called as, ‘guided missiles and unguided men.’ What someone has called as, “smart phones and stupid people.” Are you getting it? That is the product of the first kind of education that takes you just outside. So learn about what others have done, what kind of technologies are being developed in labs, but then you will have, ‘smart phones and stupid people.’ Because you are not stupid, you are intelligent only when you can look at yourself and understand your mind; otherwise you are completely stupid even if you hold a master’s degree. You are not educated in the real sense. You are not educated in the real sense if only the first kind of education is coming to you.
I never tire of telling my audience that if you keep all your education till date kept on one side, and the H.I.D.P on the other, the H.I.D.P will outweigh the rest of your education. Because the H.I.D.P is not about objects, the H.I.D.P is about you. This same mind that has always been forced to wander outside, the H.I.D.P takes it inwards. And that is far more important. That is the second kind of education; the real education, in absence of which you are not really educated.
You asked, ‘Why do we have so many crimes and such things?’ Part of that you would have understood. Right? Guided missiles and unguided men. There is another layer to understanding which will help you understand that why we do have so much of all this. You talked about that particular rape case. Don’t you see that every kid since childhood is being told to speak the truth. to be a loving being, to be non-violent? And still the child creates a world like this which is full of misery, suffering, corruption, violence, hatred and rape. Do you never wonder that in spite of being told all these so-called virtuous things in childhood, from where do these criminals come? After all every criminal was a child once and every child is told of these moral and immoral things. Then why do people grow up to be murderers and rapists ? Why?
The reason is: because the truth cannot come to you from outside, the truth of life cannot come to you from outside. It is a great misconception to think that ethics and morality can be taught. But that is what is happening in every house. The mother tells the child to speak the truth, and if the kid is not a totally dull kid he will turn around and ask: ‘But mummy, why should I speak the truth?” the mother will be irritated because she does not know. Somebody told her. That’s the way she knows. It does not come from her own understanding . So it just remains a foreign thing to the kid, it cannot become his life, it cannot become his way of living because he has never really understood what is wrong with lying. What is wrong with violence. The kid says, ‘Mummy keeps telling me that violence is not right but I get so much of pleasure in killing these small insects.’ And mummy is not really able to tell him why killing insects is wrong. At best she can give some borrowed answer which does not convince the kid.
Till the time you do not get the second kind of education life will remain violent, life will remain full of suffering. People will remain ambitious and greedy and discontented. You must go within. Truth, Love and Joy are not words to be borrowed from somebody, they are to be discovered within. The real freedom, the only freedom is the freedom of the mind and unless your education brings that to you, education is worthless. It can give you a few conveniences, which is alright but it is all superficial.
Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.
