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Video Information: 20.08.2022
Context:
~ How to know, what is the real teachings?
~ What is real education?
~ What is self education?
~ How important is education of the self?
~ How to gain self education?
~ What is the need of self education?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~
Video Information: 20.08.2022
Context:
~ How to know, what is the real teachings?
~ What is real education?
~ What is self education?
~ How important is education of the self?
~ How to gain self education?
~ What is the need of self education?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaste, Acharyaji. I'm very happy that I expressed my gratitude. I'm very delighted
00:13to share the screen with you. Acharyaji, my question is a follow-up question, but that
00:20I see many institutions are fueling the concept of Maya. Again, it's not a concept, as in
00:26the previous video you said. Many institutions are fueling this thing, because I have seen
00:31on many premier institutions, Nahi Vidya, Pavitramye Vidyate, Tejasvinavaditamastu or Saavidyayamukte,
00:39Upanishad sentences are there. But at its core, I believe that besides some ritual, there
00:45is nothing or sort of any meaning is there in their entire knowledge system. So my question
00:52is, no one is talking about truth. So unless we build one strong system for it, and I have
00:57heard that in your mind also, there is some goal that building institutions like Nalanda
01:03or something like that. So will you please throw some light on it and why this is happening
01:08that many institutions have just become placement agencies and nothing more than that. Be it
01:13sort of anything, like many institutions are there like that.
01:17It's got to do with popular culture. Institutions do not lie at the root of culture. It is culture
01:28that gives rise to institutions and later on it becomes a cycle where the institution
01:35keeps reinforcing the culture. But ask yourself what came first? We established our institutions
01:45and when we established our institutions, our institutions reflect our mindset. We decide
01:54what we are going to our institutions for. Are you referring to institutions of higher
02:00learning or to social institutions, political institutions? I suppose you are referring
02:04to institutions dealing in education, typically professional education, right?
02:09Yes.
02:10You are talking about the coaching industry, you are talking about IITs and IIMs and such
02:13things, right?
02:14Exactly.
02:15Right, right, right. Now tell me if you come to know that there is a recently established
02:24IIM that guarantees no placement at all, would you be eager to go there? Are you from IIM
02:33Calcutta?
02:34Yeah, I'm from IIM Jammu, third year PhD student, IIM Jammu.
02:38So before you go to IIM Jammu, don't you inquire about the placement scene?
02:44Yeah, for PGP students are doing it. Exactly. Yes.
02:48In fact, that's also what decides the rankings of the various institutions. No, does it not?
02:54Yes.
02:55That's the ground reality.
02:56Yes.
02:57Somebody tells you academics are better, let's say, at IIM Bangalore, but placements are
03:06better at IIM Ahmedabad. You know what you are going to put your finger on, right?
03:12Yes.
03:13So, that's how it operates. Now, what can the institution do? When I went to IIM Ahmedabad,
03:23or was it IIT, I don't know, but at one of these places, it was either the PGP chair
03:31or the dean academics, they said to most of you who have just landed, there are only two
03:38offices that matter, the admissions office and the placement office. Everything in between
03:44is just time pass. And that's why you don't like to attend classes. Even CGPA is just
03:54a means to clear the minimum cut off needed for the most coveted companies. If the companies
04:05ask for 8.0 cut off, you would want to keep it at 8.03. Or if it's 7.5, then accordingly.
04:16So it's got to do with us, what can the poor institution do? The institution comes from
04:22us. I know of several great institutions, where the academic fraternity has even thought
04:35of banishing campus placements. They have said, our role is to educate you and empower
04:44you. And once you are empowered, you go out and you seek employment on your own or you
04:51start out on your own, whatever. But then there has been a great resistance from the
04:59students. The students say we have come here, not just to be educated, but to be employed.
05:06The onus is on the institution to serve us jobs on platter. It's got to do with the
05:17philosophy of the times. We are not students, we are wannabe consumers. Let's face it.
05:26You do not go to an IAM to be a great manager. You go to an IAM to be a great consumer. You
05:33want the best gadgets. You want to be there in New York or Chicago. You want to be an
05:41investment banker in London. And that's the reason why you go to an IAM or to an IIT or
05:48even to any other place. And that's also the reason why you write the UPSC. You don't want
05:54to become IAS so that you may serve the country or bestow your compassion on the less fortunate
06:01beings of this planet or your district. You are there so that now your lust for consumption
06:11can be further aroused and further ingratiated. Is that not so? Yes. Now what can the poor
06:25institution do? They can write Vidya Dadhati Vinayam. You will say Vidya Dadhati placement.
06:35And if Vidya does not Dadhati placement, then Vidya is of no use. They might say Ya Vidya
06:47Sa Vimukta Ye. You would say Ya Vidya Sa placement Ye. Only that is Vidya which gives you placement.
06:59The poor campus itself will fall on global rankings. Because the global rankings take
07:06in account the quality of intake. The moment a campus declares, I am not going to put so
07:14much emphasis on placements. Students would start boycotting. The parents would start
07:21boycotting. You have to ask yourself, do we exist to consume? When the philosophy at
07:31the ground level will change, then you will find all your institutions are changing. Not
07:37merely ITI, your political institutions, the institution of the family, the institution
07:42of marriage, your art, your science, your medicine, everything will change. Right now
07:46because at our core, all we want to do is get, get and get more and eat it up and get fat. That's
07:57what the common man lives for. So that's also what is reflected in the institutions. But at
08:05the same time, something else can happen. And what is that? I'm talking about grassroot change in
08:12culture. Now some visionary can come up with an institution specifically built to change the
08:20culture. And remember culture is not just conditioning. Culture is not just things and
08:26concepts you tell your kids to condition them. Culture is founded on spirituality. If culture
08:36has to have any meaning, if culture is not founded on spirituality, then culture is just a set of
08:42principles that condition. The culture, true culture founded on spirituality, if an institution
08:51can nurture that, then that institution will serve as the base to change, reform, really modernize
09:03all other institutions. We require an institution of that kind. And that's the reason why I talk
09:12of the university I want to build in my lifetime. What would be the nature of that university? Where
09:21would that come from? All that is quite hazy right now. But in some sense, I've already started that
09:30university, that institution in an online way. Even this that we are doing right now is a process
09:38within that university. I do not have the resources to have a huge campus and raise structures of
09:48brick and mortar. But I can talk and I can create educational material. We can write books. We can
10:05have video interactions. So that's what our university is currently doing. One day probably
10:16it will become or it will assume visible characteristics of a mainstream university.
10:25Those characteristics it does not have now, but it's already functional in an authentic way.
10:30Yes.
10:38Thank you so much. Hello Chairoji, I have a follow up question to that. As far as the higher
10:46education institutes are concerned, it is fine that students go there for placement, that is
10:52still understandable. But when we go to the grassroots levels, like our earlier schools,
10:57high schools, all those stuff. So why do we see that? We don't see a lot of spiritual based
11:04subjects. Spiritualism as a subject itself is not taught as part of the school curriculum. All we
11:11have is the traditional five, six subjects which keep on repeating every year. So why is that and
11:16do you think that can change in the future? Because there is nobody who understands the
11:23importance of that. Obviously, reflection, philosophy, life education, core spirituality,
11:30they must be there in the curricula. But then who would teach? Who would set that kind of syllabus?
11:38Who would test? Who would invigilate? Who would accord the grades? You first of all need some
11:49competence to be a teacher of spirituality or life philosophy. We do not have those kind of
12:02people. First of all, at the level of policy making, we have been quite unfortunate. Our
12:11policy makers when it comes to education have been people who had no respect for spirituality.
12:18So in the name of modernity, in the name of progressiveness and also in the name of secularism,
12:28they kept spirituality just totally away from the books and minds of our young people. For
12:44them spirituality was a taboo. Something not to be touched because it is very dangerous. Why?
12:52Because they themselves are not spiritual people. So you require a big change in that because India
13:06and the entire world is paying very dearly for that mistake. The problems of today can have
13:13only spiritual solutions and you have kept the young population totally oblivious of spirituality.
13:24So how will the problems of today be solved? Can you have, I keep asking, can you have
13:30technological solutions to something like climate change when climate change is very
13:36obviously a crisis of consumption? It is a crisis of attitudes and behaviors. It is a
13:46crisis of greed. It's a crisis of lack of compassion. It is a crisis born out of cruelty
13:53and insensitivity. How can you have technology coming up with solutions to that? Similarly,
14:04technology can give you nuclear weapons but technology cannot give you the wisdom
14:09to avoid a nuclear war or can technology do that as well? Technology can give you
14:19the means to colonize another planet but technology will not give you the love to
14:24save your own planet. The problems of today can have solutions only in spirituality and we are
14:36such foolish people. We are depriving ourselves of the only help we can have. We are keeping our
14:50kids, our teenagers, our young population away from all kinds of wisdom literature.
14:57We have conflated religious dogma with spiritual wisdom. We do not know the difference. Now
15:08religious dogma is obviously something we want to keep aside. It has no place in the world of today.
15:14It actually should have had no place at any time in history but it continued. Spiritual
15:26wisdom is something totally different. The essence of the Upanishads and Gita is the
15:35only thing that can save us today and when I say that I do not mean to exclude other scriptures.
15:39I am talking of Vedanta as representative of all wisdom. It is an inclusive thing.
15:47Are you getting it? Our education has become very dangerously anti-life because life when
16:05it comes to a human being is about consciousness not just biological activity. You eat, you consume,
16:15you see, you hear, you move, you breathe. That's not what we can call as the life of a human being.
16:24A human being is alive only if he can reflect and understand. Somebody who can't reflect,
16:32you can't understand, is as good as dead or is only as alive as an animal or vegetable.
16:40Our education is preventing us from reflecting into life,
16:51from understanding our own existence. Therefore, I am calling it anti-life.
17:02I don't know whether I have answered your question. If I have not then you may say something.
17:08I have answered it. Thank you.
17:10Thank you.
17:11Sir, this is a question regarding education. That is something I have been trying in many
17:22ways for myself and for my family and my son as well. Previously, we spoke that these days
17:30education institutions are not life-giving, but they are in fact life-sucking, where they only
17:37make machines out of them. I have been very clearly realizing this for the past few years.
17:43We spoke about educational institutions, but I am also finding that even the institution
17:55called family is not so life-giving, because the people in the family are also equally educated by
18:03the same institutions. One of our friends also mentioned energy vampires. I have noticed that a
18:12lot. Then I started believing that it is good for the kid to be away from such institutions,
18:20at least for a certain period, so that the process of self-enquiry can start.
18:25I wanted to understand one of the key things that have helped me for self-enquiry was travels,
18:33breaking my patterns, going to different environments and trying to live in those
18:39cultures. I have started a journey where I would take my family to such communities and
18:47break certain patterns and give us the space where we can explore different ways of self-enquiry.
18:54So, I would like to understand for a kid of 9 years or 10 years, how important it is
19:01to not only help him to get out of such influences, but also how important it is for him to
19:09explore him, to expose him to different environments so that self-enquiry can naturally come to him.
19:15It is quite important, very important if you expose him to different environments.
19:20But obviously, like all exposures, there has to be a deftness in the one
19:31making the experiment or bringing about the exposure.
19:36Otherwise, you know, exposures might not help or might even be problematic.
19:49Think of exposing your swollen knee to x-rays.
19:58Done rightly, it assists the treatment. Done wrongly, it can itself become a problem.
20:07Or the exposure that you provide to the photographic film,
20:19when you open the camera shutter, exposed rightly, you will get a beautiful picture.
20:28If there is underexposure, all you will get is darkness.
20:32If there is overexposure, you will get a bland brightness.
20:39So, first of all, you must know the frame, you must also know the shutter speed
20:46and you must know the art, the skill, the craft.
20:51So, be careful.
20:57Uncaring and unthought-out exposures may not help that much.
21:05We have had people who travel a lot. We have professional travels, we have tour guides.
21:14Do they automatically become liberated people?
21:18No, they don't. So, it's not as if exposure by itself suffices.
21:29There has to be constant care and attention as to what kind of exposure, what is it bringing
21:34to that person. And after the exposure, there has to be reflection and deliberation and you talk
21:43so as to put the exposure in perspective. Let's say you take the kid to a slaughterhouse
21:55and he gets to see how that very modern and automated slaughter facility is functioning.
22:03It can work both ways. On one hand, it can help the kid realize the cruel ways of our world.
22:15On the other hand, it can, if not put in perspective, it is possible the kid starts
22:22even appreciating the fineness of automation and the sophistication of the mechanical
22:32and computer systems there. Think of it. So,
22:41one has to be attentive. But one thing is certain, experience helps.
22:50And the other thing I would want to talk of is facts.
22:55The kid must know history. The kid must know what is going on in the world.
23:02The kid must know all the things that constitute the mind of the common man.
23:10Just think, what is it that fills us up? What is it that we are so concerned about?
23:19What is it that occupies TV screens? What is it that most people are surfing on the net?
23:26It is these things that make our minds, you know, simple, right? Beyond our genetic baggage,
23:39what are we made up of? There is something we bring into the world with the body
23:48and the rest of it we simply acquire from the TV screens and what we see and what we hear.
23:57We must know what is it that makes us up and then the facts of those things must be very
24:06clearly brought out to the child. For example, religious conflict.
24:11For example, political ideologies. Why don't you start discussing communism versus
24:21capitalism with your kid? Marx versus Smith, why not? In a very simplified form, obviously,
24:31the kid must be able to know what is going on. What is, for example, the difference between
24:40difference between the left and the right? Why not discuss it? Because that is what constitutes
24:47so much of the popular debate these days and it's going to continue for decades. It's a very old
24:55topic. So, the kid must know these things and the father, the mother, all the well-wishers,
25:01the teachers, the relatives, the friends, it's upon them to sit with the kid and take up these
25:06matters. What does the left want? What does the right want? What is the difference between a
25:10leftist, a socialist, a communist? Are they one? Are there differences? What happened in Russia?
25:17What happened in France? What were these revolutions? What happened in Europe in those
25:23times? And if the kid can develop a taste for these things, then this is an insurance against
25:31a lot of nonsense. If the kid can start relating geography to history, if the kid can start
25:42relating our biological tendencies with social structures, if he can start looking at a house
25:50and asks, what does this tangible house of bricks and cement represent in mental terms?
26:02You know you have been a great father. The day the kid asks a question of this variety,
26:08what is it in man's mind that gives rise to houses or to theatres or to schools or to hospitals?
26:19You don't find these things in the jungle. And why are some houses bigger than others?
26:26Right? Why do houses have these specific rooms, these specific compartments and divisions?
26:33Why must there be a bedroom, a drawing room, a kitchen? How exactly have we come up with
26:39these ideas? Because these are not rooms, these are ideas first, right? So what does these ideas
26:45represent in our mind? What is it about us that gets tangibly represented as the idea of the
26:54drawing room, let's say? The kid must be encouraged to ask these questions. This is a drift. This is
27:02a kind of cultivated habit. It has to be cultivated in the beginning. Later on, when that faculty is
27:07awakened, then it becomes spontaneous for the kid. But initially, like a good farmer, you will have
27:16to plough the field and sow the seeds. If you will wait for things to happen by themselves,
27:23they might take a lot of time, they might not even ever happen. So don't leave things to chance.
27:30Plough the field, sow the seeds, water them, take care of them, save them from all kinds of animals,
27:38including the animal within. So that's what a good father ought to do. I hope I am not
27:45putting too many and too severe conditions on parenting. But because I look at the
27:57bringing of the kid as a very, very serious matter. Life is something serious, is it not?
28:06Therefore, I think parents must realize that they carry a tremendous responsibility.
28:16There is nothing in the world that must not be discussed with the kid.
28:24India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, China, why not? Why must not the kid know the mind of, let's say,
28:34Putin? Why exactly did Russia have to get into Ukraine? What's going on?
28:39And can now the kid relate it with the European reformation and renaissance and the general thought?
28:59Can the kid look at, for example, China and India
29:03and think of Gautam Buddha and Acharya Shankar?
29:12Obviously, it's not a clean parallel, but I'm talking of free thought and free connections.
29:24When you can connect two seemingly disparate things in the mind, it means that the
29:33faculty of creativity is being aroused.
29:53Thanks, Acharya ji. I really don't have a clear path on how I'm going to do that,
29:58but I'm sure I would keep inquiring myself and also help as much as possible to help him inquire.
30:07But this is still try and testing only. I'm testing various things. I might fail. I might
30:14again figure out something else, but definitely a lot of inputs from you is helping me. Thanks a lot.
30:22I would like to, first of all, extend a humble thank you gratitude on behalf of the I am Calcutta
30:31I am Calcutta's Lit Club. Thank you to all the participants also for bringing such great
30:36questions on the platform. I think the way Acharya Prashant answered everything, we have
30:43covered a lot of length, a lot of depth and breadth in all the questions, right from discussing
30:49climate change to discussing self-inquiry. There is nothing we have not touched upon today and I
30:54hope this session proves to be an initiation for everyone to start on their journey of self-inquiry.
31:01Again, a big thank you to Acharya Prashant and his team and especially Dr. Chatterjee
31:08for helping us and helping us conduct this session smoothly. Thank you everyone.