For creation to be enjoyed and experienced there must first and foremost, exist an ‘illuminating consciousness’. This capacity for illumination is the essence of all knowledge. The different capacities, capabilities and functions knowledge creates, are all derived from its original power- the power to illumine. In Chapter 4 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna explains the ‘guru-śisya’ parampara (or the lineage of the teacher and the taught).

Imam vivasvate yogam proktavānahamavyayam,

Vivasvānmanave prāha manuriksvākave’bravīt.

 “I taught this Imperishable Yoga to Vivasvān, Vivasvān taught it to Manu; Manu taught it to Iksvāku.

The Lord declares that he Himself, at the very beginning of creation, imparted the knowledge of the vedas to the Sun (Vivasvān), and later on, the Sun-god conveyed it to his son, Manu, the ancient law-giver of India. Manu, in turn, declared it to Iksvāku, the ancestor of the Solar dynasty that ruled over Ayodhya for a long period of time. (4.1).[1]

The act of illumination must necessarily, simultaneously generate an awareness of one’s need to know. In other words, the need to know arises because you are enabled by a higher consciousness to intuit that a higher knowledge exists. The all-illuminating aspect of knowledge was expressed in creation in the form of the Sun deity. Knowledge in Hindu cultural tradition is an expression of the entirety of creation and is understood to be the basis on which society gets structured, experiences conflict, resolves conflict and establishes order. With illumination, comes the capacity to apperceive laws (infallible principles) that sustain creation. This has been expressed as the knowledge the Sun-god ‘conveys’ to the ancient law-giver of India, Manu. With this apperception of laws, there arises a need to know dharma in the context of human society and the noble aspiration of leading people by principle and ethical conduct. This has been expressed as Manu, the law-giver teaching the knowledge of the vedas to Iksvāku (the ancestor of the Solar dynasty), who ruled righteously over Ayodhya for a long time. From this awareness of right conduct, arises a simultaneous awareness of ‘the wrong’. Now, this wrong must be conquered and subjugated, as this wrong unchecked, will lead to the moral decadence of a society and its culture. This awareness necessitates the formation of many other functions to counteract the forces of evil. And this is more or less the point we’re at, in today’s web of knowledge-powered functions. We’re currently living in an age where the good and evil forces co-exist within an individual and each individual must battle with his own evil.

Even though we live in a world empowered by an unprecedented body of knowledge, we are today, facing a moral crisis. In a rapidly changing world, we stand forever enamoured and distracted by the new. We’re losing our ‘viveka’, our capacity of discrimination, that allows us to tell the difference between the beneficial and the harmful, between law and lawlessness, between right and wrong and between the eternal and the ephemeral. Our capacity for illumination lies captive and forgotten in a world cluttered with amusements to endlessly beckon the mind. In a strange travesty of intention, the more we’ve systematized the passing on of knowledge through ‘education’, the more ignorance we’ve created. We’ve systematically destroyed the innate thirst for knowledge. From being the end to which all human endeavour and effort were directed, it has, in modern times, played out as the means to enjoy all the material joys of life. Knowledge, from being a deep need- an aware, seeking jiva experiences- has transformed into a political tool to ensure equal livelihood opportunities for all. The ‘seeker’ or the ‘student’ has been reduced to an enrolment; a puppet whose destiny is decided by the education system. This education system in turn, conveys its high scorers on a fast track into the work force. The linking of education to jobs and of knowledge as a means to securing personal advantage- is seen as pragmatism.

While such pragmatism, can wax eloquent on the need for education to address the need for professional preparedness for jobs, or for providing students with the qualifications and toolkits to be job creators, it remains mum on a core issue: how does the system prepare students for life? How does it prepare them to face conflicting situations? How does it prepare them to resolve those situations? How does it prepare them to know right from wrong? All of these require an education on understanding and then, sublimating the subjective experiences one has when meeting with life. While a standard of living can be achieved through the purchase of services and commodities, the standard of life can only be raised when all that is acquired in and through the process of living is sacrificed in pursuit of a higher knowledge. This sacrifice is not to be misunderstood as an abandonment of all that is acquired, or a foolish self-denial in the name of morality and altruism, but as an offering that is made as a service to another, to free another from need, but more significantly, to free oneself from attachment to action. The search for the ultimate truth, makes unattractive all the passing fancies that your worldly knowledge can garner for you. True knowledge is arriving at the understanding that this world has nothing to offer you. In fact, action detached from the desire of its fruit, is the law by which excellence in action can be achieved. However, this detachment is possible only when there exists viveka, that enables a jiva to make good judgments and consciously climb up the value ladder. He learns to let go of lesser values in a determined pursuit of higher ones. In the process of letting go of small desires and taking on nobler pursuits, he comes to realize his freedom.

Freedom from smallness; liberation from desire-driven actions, actions dedicated to higher ideals- these are the goals that a good education must direct a student’s attention to. While many of our schools are successfully helping students launch themselves in professional careers, the transfer of ‘knowledge’ remains superficial. It’s been reduced to the ‘successful completion’ of assignments and project work with instructions from the teacher. The successful completion of tasks begets good grades, good grades mean better opportunities, and the access to better opportunities have come to be seen as a mark of a good education. The student remains the project of the school and the education system. His ‘success’ is a mark of its own worthiness. The student on the other hand, never really having sought the knowledge out of his own thirst, remains in a perpetual darkness about his spiritual dimension. He remains partially educated, thrown into the arena of life, but unacquainted with his own self, never having experienced his own light. In conceptualising knowledge in a restricted sense, as capabilities required to competently execute tasks as they pertain to a profession, we divide the student into two: a secular worker distinct from his spirituality. The teacher in such a scenario, for the successful working of the system, need only teach him about functioning in a professional context. However, can anything be known for oneself, when one’s inner life is surrounded by darkness? Does anything in the world exist without the observer? An illumined mind, as indicated in the guru-śisya parampara, is the fundamental and perhaps the only true knowledge, a teacher is called upon to give to the student. It’s a fallacy to think of spiritual awareness as a separate domain of study; it must be understood as the thread that holds together all the ‘different beads of knowledge’. The guru-śisya parampara is not just a concept meant for intellectual pleasure, it’s a law by which knowledge from the highest dimensions flows down to the plains, to our homes, our offices and our marketplaces. Deep knowledge always creates two entities: the preceptor and the student. In other words, it is a wealth of knowledge alone, that will create a corresponding need to know.

The generation of knowledge is not an industry, nor is it a service that is provided by a school to a student, it is at its heart- a search for illumination. It’s only an illumined teacher who can help the student illumine his own mind. That, in a nutshell, is the objective of education. In order for a ‘system of education’ to work well, the teachers must first and foremost, be tireless seekers of the highest knowledge. When it comes to embarking on a quest for knowledge, the teachers must lead the way. An illumined mind alone, can function with clarity. An illumined mind alone, can see. An illumined mind alone, will be able to throw a light of understanding. It’s imperative therefore, that teachers see themselves as ‘lifelong learners’ and ‘perennial seekers’ of the highest knowledge. It’s only in the ‘illumined consciousness’ of a true preceptor, that a ‘sincere seeker’ manifests. In other words, a good teacher and a sincere student are co-pilgrims on the same spiritual journey.

[1]Holy Gita Ready Reference (Your doorway to the Bhagavad Gita); Chinmaya International Foundation; 2005