Living beings know because they possess intelligence. Human
beings have much superior intelligence than other living beings. They can know
more. There are two ways (methods) for knowing. The first is by experiencing, a
method most suited for gaining new knowledge. The second method is of retention
in the memory; to make subsequent and repeated use the knowledge already gained.
Dharma relates to man’s actions for his benefit. It is Dharma that can
make the man happy for shorter or longer time periods or maybe, till eternity.
Adharma harms the man and is the main cause of his sorrow. Dharma can
be considered as man’s duty or his ‘nature’. For example, we say that man’s
nature is to be happy or a river’s nature is to flow downwards along a slope.
After having been born, the man cannot be happy if he is
surrounded by unhappiness. In our life we can be happy only if we live in happy
surroundings. The happiness can be achieved only if our actions are according
to what the man’s Dharma stipulates. It,
therefore, becomes our duty (Dharma) to educate the new entrants
in this world as to how they can conduct themselves according to the man’s Dharma.
We know that all living beings, without exception, educate their offspring to
learn the methods of survival in this world. The nature has already planned out
the extent of education needed to be imparted to the newborn of different
species. The man’s case is different. The man that possesses superior
intelligence thinks and does more than what is needed for his physical survival
alone. Between mere physical survival and what a man is capable of doing, there
is a big grey area
available to the man to decide what he wants from his individual and collective
life. He has to gain new knowledge and
retain the existing ones about the meaning and purpose of life, and, the way he
has to live to fulfill that purpose.
The human race has created an order over and above the
natural order. This order, in principle, implies that it is the man’s duty to
pass on the knowledge gained by the human society to the new entrants in the
world, that is, to the generation next to him. On what grounds, then, can
anybody have any kind of ‘authority’ to grant any ‘right to education’ to the
new generation?
The knowledge is of two types. The knowledge of the
realities, that is, of the truth; and, the knowledge of the ‘myths’ (let us
call it ‘absence of knowledge’, Avidya or having doubts about the
realities). Sometimes, ‘myths’ are created by repeated use of inappropriate
words or expression. A government has duties to perform; it can, definitely,
induce others to conduct according to the accepted and prevailing order in
human life, but it can do it only if its performance is consistent with its Dharma’
(duty). In common language we can say that if any government or ruler has
any authority, it flows only from his duties, not otherwise.
The modern
governments all over the world have generally been consistently making serious
errors in the matter of ‘educating’ new generations for quite some time. Some
of them might have been doing a few things worth boasting about according to
their perception of education by making adequate provisions for imparting
‘skills’ to new generations so that a few are able to get ‘skilled hands’ to
work for them, the ‘skilled hand’ get employment to survive with varying ease,
and, the people, in general, get marginal advantage of the man’s ‘materialistic
progress’. But, as for meeting the aspiration of the entire human race, of
being able to live in a reasonably happy world, the progress made by the modern
governments, democratic or otherwise, has shown a negative trend.
If we work with the premises that education primarily implies
abilities to contribute in the creation of material wealth we would be
compelled to place human being below par the earthworms or other living beings that
generate material wealth, according to their abilities, from the nature and for
the nature, keeping only that much for them as is needed by them for their
survival. The modern education trains the human mind to generate wealth,
primarily making use of his intellect, for a few who hold the reins and are
wealthy, leaving aside marginally for other human beings and the nature. With
such education, we can’t expect to create happy surroundings for us.
It is not that there are no people who do not realize the
extent to which the modern education system is flawed; it is only that the
right actions to set right the things and proper circulation of the right
thoughts is sadly lacking.
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