Knowledge is increasing, is happiness increasing? Schools are multiplying, are happy homes multiplying? Today's knowledge inputs teach us to be selfish, manipulative, and more aware of our rights than of Dharma.
Sadhu Vaswani aspired to integrate education with atma vidya. He said that education is not a withered parchment, it is the flowing waters of spirit. It helps you reach out and touch the lives of others. You learn to live beyond your own narrow self.
Greed and selfishness increase with specialized courses in strategy. In such a situation of education, happiness is not included. Current education disintegrates the personality of students by keeping spirituality out. Man is whole and needs to learn to develop in all directions. So-called super education glorifies the ego.
Egoism is spiritual poverty. Allen Bradley writes in Future Education: The major portion of human family can see no further than the next meal, the next entertainment thrill, or new acquisitions a new car, flat, TV or the next holiday. True education should bring the realisation that these are a means, not an end. They could be aids to a happy life, but not happiness in themselves.
Recently, I met someone who was my classmate at university. She was a brilliant student. Her oratory and boldness had made her an icon on the university campus. We envied her. We presumed that she would have a brilliant career. Somewhere in her ascent, she lost touch with reality, made wrong choices and ended up living at the mercy and kindness of her friends.
She had received an excellent education but it was not related to life. It did not teach her how to cope with frustration. It did not inspire her to reach out to others. It did not give her enough humility to see reality, nor strength to fight her circumstances. Her education lacked a lot.
I was barely 10 when my father made me write an essay on the bushman in Australia, the pygmy in Africa, and the Eskimo in the tundra region, each of whom receives education in his own way. In his wisdom he added, 'What you learn in school is history, geography, and science'.
Today, between the controversies of single and multitasked skills, Montessori and top-of-the-line education, students miss out on the ultimate equation in life. Prestigious institutions claim to motivating students to realise higher goals, but none of them even mention the true goal of life happiness.
Brahmacharya meant training of physical and mental aspects. Thoughts when purified develop into a strong mind. Compare it with today's education; students receive information rather than life skills the most important of which is emotional balance. They receive degrees and grades but have no clue to equanimity.
In fact, students turn neurotic scrambling for marks. A spiritual element is necessary to meet the new demands of the dynamic but flat world. Yoga and meditation are processes that create space for Self and its need to love.
Practical lessons in compassion in action and love in action such as service to community, caring for the elderly, reverence for all life, if integrated with the regular teaching curriculum along with celebration of all festivals, will not only spread joy of unity but will also bring a sense of fulfillment so essential to happiness.