- What is Education?
- What are the
types of education?
- What is the main aim of education?
- What are the responsibilities of teachers?
- What are the benefits of education?
Education and its Types
There are
two types of education:
One is concerned
with facts and knowledge about the external world and teaching them to
the students.
The second
is educare. Educare involves deep understanding of the knowledge that
springs from within, and imparting it to the students.
Today’s education
imparts to students mainly knowledge of the external world. It is only
culture or refinement that can develop human goodness. This cannot be
achieved by education concerned with only with the external world. Such
education is like a counterfeit coin.
Education
without culture is like a dark room; only bats live in a dark room. Such
rooms are filthy. So, by pursuing such education devoid of culture, our
hearts become dark rooms. Education without culture is like a kite with
its string snapped. No one knows where it will fall and what damage it
will cause to others. Only if education is blended with culture will it
shine forth as true education.
What is culture?
It is cultivation of good thoughts, good feelings, and good qualities
by discriminating between good and bad, sin and merit, truth and untruth.
Culture also overcomes narrow-mindedness, making one broadminded.
Types of Knowledge
There are
four types of knowledge: bookish knowledge, general knowledge, discriminative
knowledge, and practical knowledge.
A fully educated
person is one who manifests good qualities, is truthful, compassionate,
reliable, and caring. Bookish knowledge is superficial. It is temporary
and transient. It lasts as long as it is in our head. We fill our heads
with bookish knowledge, go to the examination hall, write our answer paper
and return empty headed. To become
a caring human being, we need to progress from this superficial knowledge
to general knowledge.
General knowledge
consists of ordinary acumen and intelligence. Discriminative knowledge,
which comes from knowing right from wrong, also has in it common sense.
Both general knowledge and discriminative knowledge are essential for
life in this world. In India the washerman goes from house to house collecting
clothes. He collects many clothes, but he does not keep any written record.
In the evening, he returns all the clothes to the respective houses. Many
educated people could not do this; it is an example of general knowledge.
We have it from our birth and it should remain all our lives.
From discriminative knowledge, we can proceed
to practical knowledge. This practical knowledge is changeless. True and
eternal education never changes, it opens the heart to recognise the unity
of which we are all but a part and, in doing so those who understand aspire
for the welfare of all.
The Main Aims of Education
We need some
worldly knowledge. It is important if we are to contribute to the societies
in which we live and care for our families. More important however, is
the need to understand who we are, to understand our spiritual essence.
Spiritual knowledge is the highest education. It is the foundation on
which all other knowledge exists.
It is a mistake
to believe that bookish knowledge is true education. Education has become
identified with making a living. Education is not meant just for making
a living; it is for life. If education is merely for making a living,
then how do birds and beasts live without education? Even ants and mosquitoes,
which do not have any education, carry out their lives? How can education
be merely for earning one’s food, clothing and shelter?
What is the
essence of education? The essence of education is the concentration of
the mind and not the collection of facts.
The end of
education is character. Education without character is useless. Here is
a definition of character by a western journalist:
- An honest person
- A person with a sense
of duties and responsibilities whatever they may be.
- A person who tells the
truth
- A person who offers others
their due
- A person considerate of
the weak
- A person who has principles
and stands by them
- A person not too elated
by good fortune, and not too depressed by bad
- A person who is loyal
- A person who can be trusted
Our character
is reflected by our words, behaviour and conduct in daily life. It is
a reflection of our true inner being, and is best awakened by example.
Truth is fundamental
to the development of character. There are three types of truth. They
are: a fact, truth, and absolute truth. To say what you have seen is a
fact. If I see you wearing a white shirt and say that, ‘you are wearing
a white shirt,’ it connotes a fact. Later you may be wearing a blue shirt.
Then what I have said earlier does not hold good any more. Thus, a fact
is subject to change. Truth, on the other, does not change with time.
A person may change a number of shirts, but the person remains the same.
Sai Baba, the chancellor of the Institute of Higher Learning, has often
said, ‘you are not one person but three. The one you think you are, that
is the physical body. The one others think you are, the mind, and the
one you really are, that is the Atma (spiritual essence) Although the
body and the ideas held in the mind are subject to change, the spiritual
essence is changeless and has no attributes. It is pure, eternal, unsullied,
enlightened, free, and sacred. It is the essence of our being. When we
are true to this essence, ‘it follows as the day follows the night that
we cannot be false to anyone’.
Responsibilities of Teachers
General knowledge
is the bulb and spiritual knowledge is like the current flowing through
it. To teach one without the other does not work, both are necessary.
Spirituality forms the basis for all forms of knowledge. It is greater
than both practical knowledge and general knowledge. So both worldly knowledge
and spiritual knowledge should be imparted to the students.
The son cries
over the body of his mother, ‘Oh mother, why have you left me!’ But who
had left? The body of the mother is still there, then why is he sad? It is because life has left the body of his
mother. So the body is not the mother. The mother is the life principle.
Life has no death. The body is like a dress; death is a change of dress.
Everything in this world undergoes change. But there is one thing that
is changeless. That is the fundamental knowledge.
Educare is
the key to true education. What is the difference between education and
educare? Education is like insipid water; educare is like sugar. Merely
adding sugar to water does not make it sweet. The heart is the tumbler,
educare is the sugar and secular education is the water. With wisdom as
the spoon and enquiry as the process of stirring, you can attain spiritual
knowledge. When you put wisdom into practice you can attain supreme knowledge
of the all-pervasive Divinity, which enables you to recognise the unity
of all creation. A cloth is made up of a bundle of threads and more fundamentally
it is cotton. Cotton, thread and cloth are one and the same. Without cotton,
there is no thread and without thread there is no cloth. Recognition of
the unity in multiplicity is the ultimate goal of education.
Principles of Education(Adapted from the inaugural discourse,
by the Chancellor of the Institute of Higher Learning, at the first conference
of Sathya Sai Schools) on 20 November 2001
