What does it mean to be “educated”? What is the standard of education? What is the bar? How do we know if someone is educated or not?
I was shocked and disgusted to see news like this in the media…
- Bengaluru student raped, blackmailed by college professors; three arrested
- Former professor charged with raping multiple victims from El Salvador
- Two women say Stanford and UC Berkeley professors raped them
- UP professor booked for raping female students
- Muslim Schoolteacher rapes and marries 12-year old student
- Mumbai Teacher Gave Student Anti-Anxiety Meds, Sexually Assaulted Him
How is it that teachers and professors did this to their own students?
We are very proud of our education system in the modern world.
We gush about our kindergarten, primary, secondary, tertiary education… about Montessori and Waldorf, and other types of education.
We talk about degrees, undergraduate, graduate, PhDs.
We talk about vocational training, we laud the trades.
And yet, on a daily basis, we see scandals in the world around us. They occur in the corporate world, the medical profession, business, and government…
There are many band-aid solutions floating around, but do we know the real cause?
Our education system is a failure
Why do I say that?
Because education is meant to produce cultured individuals of high character. Someone objects that this is a subjective thing. Who can define what is a “cultured” individual with “high character”?
That is yet another failure of our education system. We don’t even know what the definition of simple things is.
The definition of “well educated” has been known for millions of years.
If someone does not trust the pedigree of Vedic culture, there is more recent definition. More than 1,500 years ago, the great thinker Chanakya Pandit wrote:
mātṛvat para-dāreṣu
para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat
ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu
yaḥ paśyati sa paṇḍitaḥ“One who considers another’s wife as his mother, another’s possessions as a lump of dirt and treats all other living beings as he would himself, is considered to be learned.”
quoted by Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/9/10/27/
But there is hardly such a person trained by the modern education system… And if you can actually find such a person, that is in spite of their education. It is not because of their education.
We don’t teach such things in our education system. What do we teach?
We teach how to compete, how to defeat, how to win at any cost. We teach how to beg, borrow, or steal. We teach how to be passionate or ignorant, but never how to be “good”. We simply teach people how to make a dollar, or a rupee, or a pound or euro. That is not education!
Education means to raise a student above their low class impulses, to be good in the face of temptation! But it is impossible for our education system today to do any better.
The very definition of “goodness” is unknown in the modern world!
Here are a few definitions of “goodness” from the Vedic scriptures…
- nitya–sattva–sthaḥ — in a pure state of spiritual existence BG 2.45
- ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā – Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets BG 14.18
- sattva–saṁśuddhiḥ — purification of one’s existence BG 16.1
- sāttvika – that which increases the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction BG 17.8
- na dveṣṭy akuśalaṁ karma kuśale nānuṣajjate
tyāgī sattva-samāviṣṭo medhāvī chinna-saṁśayaḥThe intelligent renouncer situated in the mode of goodness, neither hateful of inauspicious work nor attached to auspicious work, has no doubts about work. BG 18.10
There are many many wonderful definitions of what it means to be “good” in Vedic literature. When we look at the few definitions of “goodness” above, we see that our education system does not touch these at all:
- Spirituality
- Understanding of the evolution of the qualities of life
- Purification of our very existence
- Renunciation, Contentment, etc.
As a result, no matter how educated someone is, they inevitably indulge in this:
- Look upon other women (or men) as objects of their own gratification
- Covet others’ wealth and try to make it their own
- Emphasize and amplify the differences between others and oneself, treat others differently from how one would like to be treated
There is plenty of evidence to support the above claims.
Do you not see how things are in this world? Everyone is searching after one sexual experience after another… constantly, in real life, in the media, on social media, on the Internet… our society has become a cesspool of illicit sexual indulgence.
The men do not see other women as mothers. Nor do the women hold themselves in high enough regard to act and behave as mothers should. In fact, there is hardly any understanding of the exalted nature of mothers in our world! Some women, even elderly women, balk at being called “mother”, preferring to remain sex objects or identify with other designations.
With wealth, it is a free-for-all, “finders keepers losers weepers” goes the saying taught to tiny tots these days! No one sees others’ possessions as good as worthless. They are constantly envious of what others have, and how to take it from them, by hook or by crook. This goes all the way from individuals to corporations to countries!
And almost everyone treats everyone else differently from how they would like to be treated… There is widespread harassment, racism, sexism, ageism, nationalism, ableism, classism, and so much more.
The education sytem does not teach that we are all spirit souls, equal spiritually!
So, dear reader, our education system has failed.
We need to bring it back to this standard of education.
“One who considers another’s wife as his mother, another’s possessions as a lump of dirt and treats all other living beings as he would himself, is considered to be learned.”
All teachers, lecturers, instructors, professors, and other educators who can’t uphold this principle must be educated. They must reach the right standard before being trusted to educate anyone.
Until then, the education system will stay broken… and we will continually experience fresh horrors from the “products” of this demonic education system we push.
Anyone who can’t uphold the above principles must be seen as uneducated. They should not be given any position of leadership in any part of society.
Most of the modern leaders, including are uneducated, unfortunately. This includes this representative sample of those who lead our society today.
- Teachers
- Professors
- Politicians
- Business leaders
- Government leaders
- Scientists
- Researchers
- Doctors
- Military Leaders
- Engineers
- Architects
- Judges
- Lawyers
- Police Officers
- Accountants
- IT Professionals
- Corporate Leaders
- Social Workers
- Economists
- Religious Leaders
Can we wake up to the real standard of education?
Freedom through Genuine Spiritual Progress 