The Real Education
There are two kinds of education just as every human being has two ends. Let us understand what these two ends are at which a Man exists!
On one end, we are just machines, absolutely mechanical and preprogrammed. We do not decide the configuration of our body, its design and birth, how body is growing up and how the cells in the body are multiplying. At the physical end, we are all programmed machines!
Then there is another end, the end of free will where there is no conditioning at all. Where you really know what is happening, where no forces dominate over you and where you can understand all the programmed activity going around you.
Man exists between these two ends and it is upon you that where you want to be. If you are closer to the programmed pole, if you are deeply body identified, there will be very little freedom there and a lot of fear, because the machine has nothing of its own. It all comes from the outside and it all can be taken back by the outside. On the other hand, where there is freewill, there is understanding, there is knowing, there is a lot of freedom and there is no need to fear because nothing you have that can be taken away. This end is not physical, this end is pure mind and the other end is body, the physical end. Man exists between these two poles.
Now, coming to education. There is one kind of education which deals with the physical only, just the physical. This education is concerned only with sustaining the body and sustaining the body includes earning money, having some kind of shelter and all the other stuffs. This is the kind of education that we have been receiving since our childhood. Look closely at everything that you have studied since childhood and you will find that it has only one purpose, to sustain the body, to make the sustenance of the body more comfortable. It has no utility beyond that. We are not finding any fault with that; it is important to have that kind of education that we have been receiving. This education will probably get you a job, will get you some money, this education has given us education, the entire expanse of medical science which helps keep the body fit, which prevents diseases, but this education is not sufficient.
Then there is another kind of education, the real, the higher education. When I am calling it ‘real’, it does not mean that I am calling the other end ‘unreal’, the other end is alright. It is needed. It is important, it makes life comfortable, but that end is not sufficient. If you have only that end, then you have all the technological innovations but a very stupid mind. If you have only this end (the physical end) then you know the structure of the atom but do not understand what is happening in your own heart.
Today you know how we are destroying the planet with global warming. Today you know that we have enough missile material to destroy the Earth not once but hundreds of times. What kind of madness is this? Today we very well know what is causing climate change, yet we are doing the same things that keep increasing the pace of climate change. This is what happens when you have only that kind of education which says takes care of the body and that the body is all you have.
Another kind of education is completely missing, the higher education as we say it. This education looks at that which is not mechanical; it looks at the other end of your being. It brings your mind to the free end of your being; it is the awakening of intelligence; it is the finding of one's self. It is the asking of the question, WHO AM I? It is the intelligent observation of the activities of one’s mind, it is the understanding of conditioning and this is higher education.
No syllabus covers death, you had many subjects till now, have you had any subject named or titled ‘I’ or ‘Me’ or ‘Myself’. You have read about the trees, mountains, computers and clothes but you have never been brought to yourself. That is one thing that you have never read about, that is one thing that you have never bothered to enquire. As if everything is important except you.
If you can know your own functioning, if you understand your conditioning, your slavery then you will not remain slaves. Hence, they will not give you the other kind of education. They will give you only one kind of education which perpetuates your slavery.
Don’t you see that you have been prepared as finished products to be supplied to some corporations who need to fill their vacancies? They need products of a certain kind and those products are being produced in our school and colleges. If the industry needs people who can make good shoes, colleges will start courses on making shoes. Twenty years back there were not many colleges who had so many seats in Computer Science and IT, today because somebody from outside is demanding, give me more people, so our education is producing more and more output that is useful to that person out there. That person there is dictating what you are studying. So, he is greatly interested that you receive only this kind of education and that you are never exposed to the real education.
It is the other end, the real, which makes you really human. It is this end which makes you really valuable. If you do not give attention to this education, you will find yourself rejected by life itself, you will find that you are just living a degraded life. Pay attention to the real thing.
