Aug 5, 2009, 12.00am IST
SWAMI KRIYANANDA.
Spiritual counsel is usually given to people after they have reached the supposed age of discretion - which is to say, when they can make up their minds as to which set of values they will follow.
Unfortunately, few people ever develop such discretion! Most of our values are imbibed during childhood. The terrible mistake people make is based on the modern, supposedly scientific error that values consist of mere systems of belief, and have no objective validity.
The education of children is generally considered forbidden grounds for giving such advice. Thus, formal education has become a matter of training the intellects of children; of preparing them for later employment; of stuffing their heads with facts and more facts - without suggesting to them what they might do with those facts, once they've learned them. Schooling, therefore, becomes an education in meaninglessness and in life's essential purposelessness.
I think the main reason for the alarming number of childhood suicides is not the excessive pressure placed on children to study that they may compete successfully with others when they grow up and achieve worldly respect and high position. The main reason is that children are given no high purpose to believe in. Children today are taught to be cynics - at an age when they have an absolute need for ideals of some kind. At that vulnerable age they are given nothing to believe in but dry facts and still drier principles.
This state of affairs is based on the belief that values of all kinds are entirely subjective. Childhood is the time for inculcating a completely opposite understanding. Jesus Christ said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." This is so because you feel happier sharing with others. Life teaches us this truth, but usually only after many a painful taste of the fruit of selfishness.
True values are not only subjective: they are based on universal experience; they are not matters of taste.
Everyone in the world wants basically only two things: to avoid pain, and to find happiness. This truth traces back to what Adi Shankara taught: that God is Satchidananda: ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss. All beings are motivated by the need to achieve ^ if not bliss, then at least lasting happiness.
India's ancient teachings have given a completely acceptable explanation for why values should be made a part of every system of education. The underlying and universal quest for happiness can be taught to children. It will spare them much unhappiness in life. Man is happier, for instance, when he is kind than unkind. He is happier practising contentment than complaining at how life is treating him. To the extent that he hurts others, he himself attracts hurts. The yamas and niyamas of Patanjali are not a system of beliefs: they are universal principles that hold true for every human being, regardless of the religion he follows or the society in which he dwells.
Intellect also is a one-sided aspect of understanding. What we understand with our hearts is, indeed, a surer guide to true comprehension.
Education should teach children that how they do things is more important to their well-being than what they do. It is time we learned that facts, and even skill, by themselves cannot produce a healthy society. Cooperation, positive thinking, kindness and other eternal values are essential to a truly productive life and to the attainment of the universal goal of all life: happiness.
(For more information on spirit-based education, call 9999009332, or go to http://www.livingwisdomindia.org/)
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