True Education : 1. Swami Krishnananda

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05/08/2019.
For the knowledge of our parents and parentage.
(Keynote address given at a conference on education in Delhi on October 21, 1983)
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"Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu."

Here we have embodied in a nutshell, as it were, the fervent hopes of our ancient Masters as expressed in the sacred revelations called the Upanishads. In this simple, meaningful prayer it is suggested that we all come together as an organic fraternity, that we manifest love among ourselves with a sense of communion from the recesses of our hearts, that we not disrespect or envy one another, that in this inward coming together of our hearts we may generate energy and have peace within as well as without because for That which is, there is neither a within nor a without.

Before we actually enter into a discussion of the important theme of this session, it would be worthwhile, I believe, to dilate upon a few foundational facts which evidently have a direct bearing on these considerations. We live in a human society because we are human beings and our society cannot be anything but its humanness. Hence, it is also a natural consequence that follows from this fact of our being human in a human society that our values also may be mostly human, and a human mind may not be equipped with instruments to think beyond the limitations of what is visible to the human eye.

We live in a human world, and so the values which we consider as meaningful are naturally human. We may be very far from the truth of things if we conclude that God has made this world for man’s welfare. It is up to any one of us to bestow a little thought on whether this conclusion that this world is made only for man can be valid. Perhaps, if we believe in a Creator of this universe, this Creator has only human beings in mind. We live, as I said, in a human world, in a human society; and every human being seeks and works for freedom. A human being would resent subservience and dependence, and would not like it to be prolonged as a part of his life. Freedom in every sense of the term seems to be the demand of the human individual.

Now, while we may not have the time here to discuss the character and nature of what freedom can mean, it may perhaps naturally follow that the concept of freedom implies a sort of individual independence. A person who is not independent cannot be free. So an asking for freedom would also mean an asking for personal independence and liberty. I am advisedly using the word ‘personal’ because not to be sanctioned personal freedom or personal independence would be to imply that a person would be dependent upon certain external factors. Absence of personal independence is naturally a necessity felt to be dependent on factors other than one’s own self, and what else is absence of freedom?

To be continued ...

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