Talk given in Palakkad by Brother Martin
at a Mahayaga organized by the well known saint Sri Tathata
THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
There are two purposes of education: the primary purpose and the secondary purpose. The primary purpose is to help us to know who we are and the purpose of our life in this world. The secondary purpose is to acquire skills or instruments as doors in order to manifest our true self for the welfare of others.
There are two important questions that all the sacred scriptures, all religions and all philosophies, all sages and all prophets try to answer: who we, human beings, are and what is the meaning and purpose of our life in this world.
The way we live our life depends on the identity that we have about ourselves.
If we are not aware of whom, we really are then we live in a state of ignorance and our whole life becomes a waste.
Suppose a person is traveling 200 Kilometers for an hour and travels for 10 hours and at the end discovers that he or she has taken the wrong road, how does he or she feel?
The whole journey and effort have been a waste.
Jesus Christ said: what does it profit a human being if he or she gains the whole world but has not lived his or her real life? It is a complete waste. It means that we, human beings, are designed by Divine Life to live in a certain manner. We have our dignity and our vocation. If we do not live according to our vocation then our life is a complete waste in the eyes of God, even if we might have done great things according to the standard of this world.
It is said that when God sends us into this world God tells us what our real purpose is but we all forget it. One day a mother told her little son: my son, take this money and go and buy some bread from the bakery. As the boy was going to the bakery he came across a magic show. He was attracted by it, bought the ticket and went to the show. When the show was finished he was so happy that he ran to home to tell his mother about the magic show. As he was narrating the items he saw in the show, his mother, annoyed, asked him, my son, where is the bread? Then only the boy realized that he had gone out to buy bread but he had completely forgotten. It seems that the same thing can happen to human beings.
The Fundamental Question is: who are we?
There is one archetypal answer given by two important spiritual traditions, the Vedic and Christian, to this question:
The Vedic sages have declared: Prajnanam brahma; Aham brahma asmi; tatvam asmi; ayam atma brahma.
It means: Brahman is non-dual consciousness; my eternal 'I' is Brahman; your eternal 'you' is also the same Brahman; Atman, the ground of human consciousness is one with Brahman, the ground of the universe. These four statements are the four pillars of the Vedic spiritual vision.The New Testament says that God is Love. Jesus Christ said: I am the light of the world; you are the light of the world; the Father and I and are one.
God is Love, God is non-dual consciousness that embraces everyone and everything; my eternal 'I' is God and God is the light of the world; your eternal 'you' is God and that God is the light of world; my infinite 'I' which is the ground of my human consciousness, is one with the ground of the universe, the Father.
These statements are the four pillars of Jesus’s vision or vision of Christianity.
We have two types of 'I's: one is infinite and another is finite. Our infinite 'I' is God and our finite 'I' is its vehicle.
Our infinite 'I' is Krishna and our finite 'I' is Arjuna. Arjuna has to act according to the promptings of Krishna. Our human will has to reflect the divine will. Arjuna has to say to Krishna: thy will be done. It is rule of Dharma.If Arjuna forgets Krishna then begins the rule of adharma, the rule of Dhuryodhana.
God is a Sower or Like a Turtle:
Jesus Christ described God as a sower. Our birth in this world is like sowing a seed of God in the filed. The seed has to grow into the tree of God. The seed needs to be protected and nourished until it bears fruit. But not all the seeds bear fruit because the ground where they have fallen is not conducive. Only those seeds which have fallen on the fertile land bear hundred fold.
Our birth in this world can be compared like a turtle that comes from an ocean and lays eggs on the beach. When the eggs are hatched, the baby turtles run towards the sea, because they are genetically designed for it. But not all baby turtles reach the sea because there are so many predators on the way. The predators snatch them and use for themselves or they are directed in the wrong direction. Turtles have become an endangered species. They need to have special protection so that they can reach the destiny for which they are meant.
In the same way we, human beings, are destined to make journey to the ocean of God but there are many predators on the way, who block this journey and use them for their ideals born of ignorance. Jesus Christ said: first of all seek you the kingdom of God and its way of life or dharma then all things will be given to you. We need to search for our real destiny, which is the sea of God.
Hence the Purpose of Education has two fold:
Primarily it is to help us to know who we are and how we have to live our life in this world of time and space.
It is to help the seed of God in us to grow into the tree of God.
It is to help us, the baby turtles, to make our journey back to the sea, our real destiny.
Secondarily it is to help us to acquire skills or instruments as doors to manifest our true self for the welfare of others.
When the secondary purpose obeys the primary purpose then then there is unity, harmony, peace and non-violence. It is the rule of Dharma.
When the primary purpose is forgotten and the secondary purpose becomes the ultimate goal of life then dharma is forgotten and adharma, division, disharmony and violence rule the world. When a servant obeys the master there is harmony. When the servant becomes a master then it is disharmony.
In order to keep the primary purpose of our life alive, the physical parents, the social structures, the educational systems, the political systems and the economic systems should be a very conducive. They should be a fertile ground where the seeds of life or God can become fruitful. They should be facilitators of life, protectors of life and not to become predators.
The New Testament gives us two models or archetypes: The king Herod and The Virgin Mary.
The king Herod is a predator. He is a symbol of physical parents, a social system, an educational system, a religious system, a political system, an economic system that want children for its continuity. He is called the murderer of innocent children because before the children are born he has already chosen them for his continuity. The children have no life of their own. Herod wants power, position, wealth. He wants the continuity of them. He also educates children for power, position and wealth. He promotes competition and the survival of the fittest. He does not hesitate to use violence if someone becomes an obstacle for his ambition and continuity. He wants children to serve him. He represents the rule of adharma, Ravana or Duryodhana.
On the contrary the Virgin Mary is a facilitator of life. She is a symbol of physical parents, a social system, an educational system, a religious system, a political system, an economic system that affirms the uniqueness and the dignity of every human being. She receives new life as the life of God. She says that her child is not her child but the child of God, the incarnation of God. She helps her child to realize its destiny, to realize its oneness with God. She educates her child to renounce the desire for power, position and wealth and live and die for the welfare of the whole of humanity and creation. She promotes the cooperation and the survival of all. She is at the service of her children. She worships her children as the children of God. She discontinues the rule of adharma and inaugurates the rule of dharma, Ramarajya or the Kingdom of God.
Sometimes the rule of adharma seems to be more powerful than Dharma but the sages have been very optimistic. They declared that truth or dharma will ultimately prevail or be victorious( satyamevajate), not untruth or adharma. Truth radiates the path of the holy people. The sages, who desire truth, expand their desires or consciousness and come to the abode where the immeasurable treasure of truth can be found.( Mundaka Upanishad).
Sri Tathatha is such a sage who walks on the path of this Truth. He has expanded his consciousness and reached the abode of this truth. He desires that everyone should reach that abode of truth and so he organized this mahayaga. I wish and pray that this mahayaga rise the consciousness of people and bring them to the abode of truth, sathyaloka, and manifest that truth in their life and work for the establishment of dharma rajya, the kingdom of God.