EDUCATION IN HUMAN VALUES
-Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
-Taken from the Discourses
Given by
Bhagavan Sri Sathya
Sai Baba
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-AIM OF EDUCATION-
• Present day education develops the intellect and skills but does little to develop good qualities. Of what avail is all the knowledge in the world, if one has not got good character ? It is like water going down the drain. There is no use if knowledge grows while desires multiply. It makes one a hero in words and a zero in action.
• The entire country will suffer from the consequences of defective education. If students are disciplined and well behaved, the country will be safe and sound. What is the Government's responsibility ? We find that every time there is a change in the education ministry, the educational policy is changed, with the result that there is instability and uncertainty. The main defects in the educational system remain uncorrected. As a consequence, the students suffer.
• Education without self-control is no education at all. True education should make a person compassionate and humane. It should not make him self-centered and narrow-minded. Spontaneous sympathy and regard for all beings should flow from the heart of one who is properly educated. He should be keen to serve society rather than be preoccupied with his own acquisitive aspirations. This should be the real purpose of education in its true sense.
• There is no point in blaming the students. They are like the stone out of which the sculptor chisels the figure he wants. It is the sculpture who produces a thing of beauty out of a piece of rough rock. Parents and teachers are the sculptors who have to mold the shape and figure of the students for whom they are responsible. If parents and teachers set the right example, the students will automatically blossom into models of excellence and bring glory to the nation.
• You should not forget that personal example is the best method of teaching. If we don't show by example what we teach, of what use is our teaching and what impact it will make on childrens' minds. When I was young, I wrote a play under the title "Do people practice what they teach?" If the parents tell the son something, but they act in quite a contradictory way, of what use is it? What right do they have to find faults with the child, if the child doesn't behave properly? Personal practice before precepts, that is what is necessary.
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- TEACHER & STUDENT-
• The teacher has the greatest share in molding the future of a country. Of all professions, his is the noblest, the most difficult, the most important. He has to cultivate in himself humility, compassion and the spirit of loving service, much more than those belonging to other professions, for he is an ideal and an example to his pupils. If a pupil has a vice, he alone suffers from it. But, if a teacher has a vice, thousands are polluted. The teacher is a beacon which has to guide and lead. If it fails to illumine, many will be wrecked on the rocks.
• While educating children, great attention has to be paid to the cultivation of good conduct, good speech and good thoughts. Teachers have to be examples which can inspire the pupils. They must practice what they preach. As the teacher, so the pupils. When the heart of the teacher is full of goodness, selflessness and love, the pupils will express these virtues in every act of theirs.
• Every person in the primary school must feel a sense of kinship with everyone. Consult each person who is involved in the task of unfolding, caressing and caring. Let there be harmony in the office, the classrooms, the dormitories, the dining room and the playground. And, whenever anyone is asked to do a thing or not to do it, ensure that the persons know how it is relevant and important. When you have to reprimand a child for some misdemeanor or delinquency, do not pounce all of a sudden or terrorize by shouting. Instead speak to them: " If another child did the same to you, or took something belonging to you, or hit you, wouldn't you feel hurt ? When you do not like someone else to do harm to you, in turn you too should refrain from doing harm to others ". Children will quickly understand and will feel sorry. They will resolve not to repeat such an act or word again. They yield to affectionate advice. [And we know from today's mind-sciences that emotional reactions to behaviors actually reinforces that which it is trying to correct in its own way]
• The profession of a teacher is the most responsible one in every country. If the teacher strays from the path of truth the entire society will suffer. So you must make every effort to live life uprightly. You have in your charge, looking up to you for guidance, children so innocent that they have no knowledge yet of the world and its ways. It is only when the teacher himself is wedded to disciple and observes good habits that his pupils will be able to shape themselves into ideal individuals and citizens.
-THE STUDENT-
• Be eager and earnest to know more and more about the art of joyful living.
• Students must develop extensive interests. They must visualize wide horizons.
• Whatever studies you may pursue, do not give up your faith in God. To give up God is to give up life itself. Life is God. Truth is God. All that you do as an offering to God will be an expression of human values.
• Students have to cultivate gratitude, compassion and tolerance. Sympathy with the distressed is a fundamental human quality.
• The long-beaked stork never gets upset thinking over the sad fate of the living being it swallows. Students of today are also unconcerned about the society that fosters them and expects their gratitude. Every individual must prepare himself to promote the happiness of ten others. Students have to resolve to look upon society as fostering their own lives. This involves renunciation of one's own fond dreams of gain. This attitude of renunciation can alone render life holy.
• All degrees, scholarships and punditry have no value if one does not have good qualities. Cultivate virtues.
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-IDEAL OF WOMANHOOD-
• Modesty and devotion to God are the real jewels of womankind. When women are true and brave, kind and compassionate, virtuous and pious, the world can have an era of peace and joy.
• Remember that women have a vital role to play in the world. Our scientists recognized the primary importance of women and gave them appropriate status in every respect. Cultivate humility which is the hall-mark of true knowledge. Develop self-confidence, without which nothing worthwhile can be achieved in life. Above all, have firm faith in God. People perform all kinds of rituals on the basis of the holy days mentioned in the almanac. But they do not have firm faith in the Supreme Godhead, who is the eternal basis of everything.
• Of course livelihood has to be earned; but, when, as happens now, both husband and wife work away from home, children grow on the laps of nannies and the shoulders of servants, learning their language and manners. The father and mother become casual strangers. When the food they eat is not prepared by loving hands and served with affectionate smiles, the savor disappears and the vibrations are often vile. The mother, as a teacher, attends school leaving off her natural role as the teacher of her own children! This is indeed a tragedy ! The house where such parents live can never become the home that children love to cherish in memory. The securing of jobs cannot be allowed to overshadow the real purpose of education. Women have to cultivate the qualities of sacrifice and detachment, of virtue and wide vision, so that they can lovingly transform their mates and children into seekers, on the way to success.
• After you complete your studies, you must become ideal mothers. The mother is the most decisive factor in a child's life. A child's future is molded by the mother.
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-ADVICE TO CHILDREN-
• You have an obligation to please your parents, who are responsible for all that you are. Give joy and satisfaction to them. Thereby you will be ensuring joy and satisfaction for yourselves from your children in the years to come.
• Have high aims in life. Set before yourselves the examples of great men and women who have figured in history of your country and the world. Take a lesson from their life of sacrifice and heroism. Wherever you go, whatever walk of life you may choose, bear in mind the honor and glory of the Institute and prove yourselves in action to be worthy alumni. Conduct yourselves befittingly before elders and relations and earn their regard and love. Bring credit to the family in which you are born and to the family in which your married life may be spent.
• Resolve to be good, lovable children from this moment. Do your duties gladly and well, to the satisfaction of your well-wishers. If you feel sorry for the wrongs you did, that itself will please God and He will pardon you. If you endeavor to turn a new leaf and become better, God will shower Grace on you. Here you are given protection and education.
• Whenever an idea of hurting others or taking someone else's belongings or spreading falsehood about others enters your mind, turn to God for help. Ask Him to give you strength, for all these ideas are born of fear and cowardice, qualities which in turn come from weakness.
-PARENTS' RESPONSIBILITY-
• You need determination to face the challenges of life, which is filled with ups and downs, successes and failures, joys and sorrows. These challenges have to be faced with faith in God.
• To instill in the minds of the young the values of prayer and of humility and loving service to others, the homes where they grow have to be the first schools. The parents have to be imbued with faith in the basic truths of Universal Religion. They must be seen worshipping at the family alter, meditating in silence, forgiving the lapses of others, sympathizing with pain and grief; they should not be seen by the children worried, helpless, discontented and distressed, as if they have no God to lean upon, no inner reserves of strength and courage to fall back upon.
• In the tender hearts of children, there is much potentiality of devotion and attachment to higher ideals and objectives; this can be developed and cultivated, by you. Do not think that they do not know anything, that you can divert them any way you wish; this is a mistake. Recognize the great potentials of the child; adopt such methods as the child itself might suggest or indicate. Help the child to reach Godliness and become aware of its high destiny. Do not presume that the child is some inferior personality or that it is incapable of attaining the heights.
• Children's minds are innocent and pure. Children should grow up with a sense of amity [peaceful relations] and brotherly understanding with each other. The influence of parents on the children's minds is very significant. It is actually the primary and predominant influence on the children's personality and behavior pattern. The father and mother must supplement at home the training given by the teacher at school.
• You teach the children " We must always speak the truth." But, in the child's home, a phone call comes and the child picks up the phone. The caller wants to speak to the father, but, if he does not want to talk to that person, tells the chid to inform the caller that he (the father) is not home. You teach the child to always speak the truth, yet the father's actions instruct the child to tell lies !
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RIGHT CONDUCT
• Good conduct is most essential. A people without morals [actions based on universal spiritual values] perish. It is the decline in morality that is responsible for the country's troubles. The recovery of morals is the primary need today. Morality cannot be had from books or from the market. It has to come from the heart... Learning to earn a living is only half the job. The other half is to make life worthwhile and meaningful.
• The old are lost in brooding over the past and lamenting the passing of " the good old days ". The young are concerned about planning their future, their jobs, marriage, family and so on. Both are ignoring their duties in the present. They do not realize that the present is both a product of the past and the seed for the future. If the present is properly taken care of, the future will be good of its own accord. Decide to do your duty in the present. It will pave a royal road for the future. Duty is God. Work is worship.
• Show your gratitude to your parents, to those who have nourished and cherished you, to your teachers and to your spouses. This is the primary index of humanness. You have to develop the consciousness that you belong to one and the same human family.
• I bless you that by your example, you may propagate the ancient ideals of Truth, Right Conduct, Equanimity and Love, wherever you are. Have compassion in your hearts for the unfortunate brothers and sisters who are unlearned, ill or suffering. Try your best to open their eyes, to cure their ills and to alleviate their distress.
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Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
