Education¹²

Dear seekers, I wish to give a very short talk on education, and then I shall welcome a few spiritual questions.

From the spiritual point of view, what is education? Education is a sacred opportunity to learn and unlearn. What do we learn? We learn God-knowledge. What do we unlearn? We unlearn the teachings of ignorance-night. What is God-knowledge? God-knowledge is self-giving. And what is ignorance-night? Ignorance-night is self-binding.

Education is also a sacred opportunity to achieve. What do we achieve? At the end of our journey’s close, we achieve God-perfection. And what is God-perfection? God-perfection is “I am; I eternally am; I universally am.”

Education is continuous self-transcendence. This self-transcendence is not a visionary idea. It is not a chimerical mist. It is not a song for tomorrow’s dawn. No! Self-transcendence is a divine reality, an all-fulfilling reality in the immediacy of today.

Education human and education divine. Human education is either an unconscious or a conscious desire to gain supremacy and autocracy. Divine education is our devoted willingness to love and serve the Divine in the human, the infinite in the finite and the Heaven-free Reality in the earth-bound reality.

Human education, even when it reaches the ultimate rung of the ladder, quite often can be partial, hurtful, aggressive, unlit, obscure, impure and undivine in the truest sense of these terms.

Divine education is spontaneous, soulful and fruitful. It is an inner urge to perfect one’s outer life and bring to the fore the forgotten essence of Eternity, Infinity and Immortality within us.

Human education, at its very best, is greatness. But this greatness quite often fails to mix with goodness. Therefore, we can safely and unmistakably say that human greatness is blind to goodness. But divine education is goodness within, goodness without.

Again, we have to know that there is human goodness and divine goodness. Human goodness is charity-flower and philanthropy-fruit, which satisfies the human in us. Divine goodness is devotion-flower and surrender-fruit, which satisfies the divine in us and pleases the Inner Pilot, the Ultimate Absolute within us.

Human education always means money-power and time-power. Divine education is devoted willingness, which far transcends money-power and time-power. Divine education is something that establishes or will establish its inseparable oneness with something beyond time and space, far beyond the domain of material power, earthly possessions and earthly achievements.

As you all know, today the United Nations is observing Woman’s Day. This is a most significant and most auspicious day not only for the United Nations but also for the entire world, for all of aspiring humanity. Sri Ramakrishna, the great Indian spiritual Master of Himalayan height, taught us to see each woman as the mother, the direct representative of the divine Mother.

Today our subject matter is education. It is our mother who gives us our education first and foremost. It is from her that we get not only our first lesson, but also the last transcendental lesson. When we see the light of day she tells us, “Children, look around. The earth is beautiful.” As years advance upon us, our mother tells us, “Children, go deep within, dive deep within. There is something which is infinitely more beautiful than the earth.” Her final teaching is this: “Children, the beauty of earth and the beauty of Heaven have only one source, and that source is God, our Eternity’s beloved Supreme, who is All-Beauty.”

From earth we get one kind of education; from Heaven we get another kind of education. We need education both from earth and from Heaven. Thousands of years ago the Vedic Seers offered us a lofty message. Their message was to accept both knowledge and ignorance as one and then finally to transcend both ignorance and knowledge.

Through earth-knowledge we make scientific discoveries and become the masters of our earth-life. Through Heaven-wisdom we learn universal love and the feeling of inseparable oneness; we become the lords of our inner existence.

Since it is Woman’s Day, I wish to offer a soulful song which heralds the victory of the Divine Mother, the Mother Supreme. Tomari hok jai — Mother, may Thy victory be proclaimed …