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Education confers humility, endows one with the authority to command, that will entitle one to affluence. With the help of charity and compassion this affluence can be made fruitful, and by this means, happiness in this world and peace in the next can be won. The father, the mother and the teacher are the three primarily responsible for moulding the future of the country. Wisdom flashes like lightening amidst the clouds of the inner sky; one has to foster the flash, and preserve the light. That is the true sign of the ‘educated’ person. Education is not acquisition of burdensome information regarding objects and men. It is the awareness of the immortal spirit within,, which is the spring of joy, peace and courage. College education gives you the chance to earn money and live thereupon. But, umless it destroys certain illusions that are nourished by the common level of mankind, your lives will not be happy. Character is the most precious gift of education. You are not educated if all you have achieved is the study of ten books. A college which does not confer the knowledge of the Spiritual Reality to the students who are engaged in the pursuit of various material studies, is as barren as the sky without the moon, or a heart without peace, or a nation without reference to law. Education must open the eyes and enable them to recognise the One behind the many. Education must promote peace, security and happiness. Education has to be welcomed as a Spiritual Practice for the establishment of Peace in the individual heart as well as in society including the human commonwealth. The sign of a person who has had an education is ‘good manners. The objective of education should be impressed on the children’s minds. The academic education of today is shallow and useless because it has no value orientation. Education should ennoble the students, but instead it is debasing them. Instead of shaping the young into diamonds, it is turning them into coals. It is not bringing transformation in them, It is not bestowing wisdom. There is no use if knowledge grows while desires multiply. It makes one a hero in words and a zero in action. Education should serve to enlarge the vision and broaden the outlook of the people. What the head thinks, should be examined critically in the heart and this right decision should be carried out by the hands. This should be the primary product of the educational process. What is necessary is not EHV, but 3-HV: (Head-Heart-and Hands). The hands should carry out what the heart and approved of the ideas emanated from the head. Education must award self-confidence, the courage to depend on one’s own strength. The
end of knowledge is wisdom The universe is a great university. It is essential to practice spiritual disciplines along with academic studies. Most people thing that the purpose of education is to acquire a degree, a qualification. So what is this degree of B.A.? B.A.+D (D stands for degree) becomes BAD, and if you are more qualified you are M.A.+D = MAD! Unless knowledge is transformed into wisdom, and wisdom is expressed in character; education is a wasteful process. The education system today makes and educated person selfish. It makes that person a slave to the senses and as a consequence the person forgets their own divine nature. Education has to endow you with an eagerness to surrender. Unity of minds, natural love and co-operation, are the qualities we have to develop today. Education is not for securing university degrees. Education has to cultivate humility and discipline, but today it is yielding a harvest of pride and envy. The learned man’s life itself shines as the message for mankind. The nation can prosper and be happy only when education develops in an atmosphere of Truth, Love and Reverence. Real education should enable one to utilise the knowledge one has acquired to meet the challenges of life and to make all human beings happy as far as possible. Education does not mean the imparting of verbal knowledge alone. Humility, reverence, compassion, forbearance, sacrifice and self-control are the qualities that reveal the outcome of the true education. Science
without discrimination Education today does not impart to the students the capacity or grit to face the challenges of daily life. The educational field has become the playing ground of ignorance. True knowledge is that which establishes harmony and synthesis between ience on the one hand and spirituality and ethics on the other. Modern education develops the intellect and imparts skills, but does not promote qualities in any way. Education today is a process of filling the mind with the contents of books, emptying the contents in the examination hall and returning empty-headed. True education consists in the cultivation of the heart. The cultivation of Love is the greatest need today. Learning to earn a living is only half the job. The other half is to make life worthwhile and meaningful. Education must assume full responsibility to enter the moral and spiritual lives of pupils. True beauty lies in true education. Not living for food, but living for the sake of an ideal, that is the goal of education, Education must be orientated towards the attainment of character for leading clean simple lives. What the world needs today is neither a new order, a new education, a new system, a new society nor a new religion. The remedy lies in a mind and a heart filled with holiness. The ideal of service and the urge to practice it form the very heart of education. Pure love is the chief manifestation of education.
Teachers You, who deal with children and their upbringing and upliftment have to be aware of this preciousness and of the need to express it in action. Do not develop pride imagining the children to be in need of your service, You need them as much as they need you. Teachers who will promote qualities of mutual love and regard in their students are sorely needed today. Men and women are in essence fountains of eternal joy, peace, love and devotion. Cultivate these, by precept, example and exercise, during the formative years. Then, the educated will have security and sweetness as long as they live. Human values cannot be learnt from lectures of text – books. Those who seek to impart values to students must first practice them themselves and set an example. Fill your hearts with love and lead the children under your care along the ideal path. Resolve to sacrifice everything you have for the sake of the pure-hearted children who rely on you for guidance. You can teach love to students only through love. You are dealing with tender children, as their teachers, guides and examples. You have to equip yourselves for those roles by living the values that distinguish mankind. Serve and thereby gain the position of leader. Only a good servant can become a great master. This new education venture can succeed will only when your lives are healthy. Teachers can achieve any high ideal, provided they are co-operative, well disciplined, soaked in service and sacrifice and fully determined to succeed. Instruct children to revere their parents, this is the first thing to do. The teacher has the greatest share in moulding the future of the country. Of all professions, yours is the noblest, the most difficult and the most important. If a pupil has a vice, he or she alone suffers from it. But, if a teacher has a vice, thousands are polluted. Calm, concentrated, unshaken attention should be paid by those who teach and by those who learn. Only a great teacher can mould a great student. You have to plant spiritual seeds in the young minds. You should nurture them to grow. Among all professions, the teaching profession carries the greatest responsibility. Teachers have to mould the young of today, so that they will grow up as worthy citizens of tomorrow If teachers themselves do not follow the normal ethics of truthfulness etc., how can they instil good habits and values in children? Teachers should not be bound by considerations of hours of work. When necessary, they should be prepared to stay on for hours to remove the doubts of students and help them to complete their assignments. This is your duty. If teachers play their role properly, the nation can be transformed. For all the malpractices among students, the parents and the teachers are to blame. Cultivate the heart to raise a harvest of Truth, Right Conduct, Peace and Love. This crop has to raised in your heart and should be shared with others. Together with worldly education, you have to cultivate the human values and undertake spiritual discipline. To teach the human values, which are like precious gems, you need competent and dedicated teachers who practice these values. In cultivating human values, emphasis should also be placed on avoiding wastage of money, food and time. Even teachers have to be trained in this respect. Service rendered to children is the most sacred. Lead the children along the joyous path of Truth. Let your faces ever shower smiles, springing from the joy you earn from looking at the faces of the children. Carry out your duties, as teachers in the spirit of dedication, love and service, and stand forth as bright examples to the country and the world. Children are lamps, which illumine the path of the nation. The first task of teachers is the cultivation of virtue in the hearts of the pupils. The teacher and the pupil will both be immersed in joy only when Love that does not calculate the reward binds them together. Students Youth is the stage in life when the slightest turn towards wrong will spell disaster. Unless the desire to do service is earnest and the skill to do it is cultivated is cultivated, students will remain a burden to the community. Whatever studies you may pursue, do not give up your faith in God. To give up God is to give up life itself. Life is God. Truth is God. All that you do as an offering to God will be an expression of human values. All degrees, scholarships and punditry have no value if one does not have good qualities. Cultivate virtues. The students of today are the teachers of tomorrow. Be eager and earnest to know more and more about the art of joyful living. It is the duty of all human beings to understand and respect their parents. Students must develop extensive interests. They must visualise wide horizons. Wherever students are, silence, serenity and security should prevail, for such an atmosphere alone promotes study. The degree has to be justified to the recipient by his or her exemplary noble living. Students might fail to revere the guest or adore the teacher as God. But, it will be a great pity if they fall into the sin of dishonouring the father and the mother. The age span 16 –30 is crucial, for, that is the period when life adds sweetness to itself, when talents, skills and attitudes are accumulated, sublimated and sanctified, If the tonic of unselfish service is administered to the mind during this period, life’s mission is fulfilled. Every student must cultivate devotion and such faith. You must love and revere your teachers. That is the first step in the discipline, which leads to a virtuous character.
Children Children generally are good by nature and willing to do their duty and shine well in studies. The cause of the vagaries, waywardness and occasional indiscipline lies with the elders who set poor examples of truth and self-control. From the most impressionable years the children should be taught to cultivate love for all. Love leads to unity. Unity promotes purity. Purity leads to Divinity. The first requisite for children is to have love and regard for parents to whom they owe everything. A sapling can be helped to grow straight, but once it becomes a tree it cannot be guided in its growth. Children must grow in the awareness of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. Children must grow up in the atmosphere of reverence, devotion, mutual service and co-operation. Let the children, even grown-up boys and girls, touch the feet of their father and mother, every morning before the daily tasks are started.
Women When women are true and brave, kind and compassionate, virtuous and pious, the world can have an era of peace and joy. Now, the education that is being given in schools for girls and in women’s colleges help only to make them ‘desirable wives’, not desirable mothers. Mothers mould their children as bright, beautiful, virtuous, strong citizens of the world. This is the only way-out of the horror in which the world is simmering. A woman has to maintain her house. She is not only the housewife, but on her the glory of the whole country depends. The
mother is the most decisive factor in the child’s life. A child’s future is
moulded be the mother.
Parents Parents have the primary responsibility to mould the character of the children. Too much freedom should not be given out of excessive affection. Parents and teachers are the sculptors who have to mould the shape of the students for whom they are responsible. If parents and teachers set the right example, the students will automatically blossom into models of excellence and bring glory to the nation. Parents are allowing children to go astray at home through misplaced affection. The father and the mother must supplement at home the training given by the teacher at school.
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