Acharya Mahaprajna
Spiritual education, though necessary, is not beyond controversy. There are many who question its need. It is argued that since all educational needs can be met by schools and colleges, it is unnecessary to burden the learners with religious, moral or spiritual education. There is the further complexity created by diverse opinions and principles championed by different religions. It was for this reason that spiritual education could never gain general acceptance. But the mistake here lies in our taking sectarianism and religion, or sectarianism and spirituality as synonymous. For all practical purposes we confuse the one with the other.
What we are talking about is not even remotely sectarian, nor is it concerned with any religious dogmatic code of conduct. We are concerned with purely spiritual matters and we would be well-advised not to get bogged down in philosophical niceties and speculative abstractions. Avoiding all complexities let us say that spirituality connotes an awareness free from excessive physical attachment and malice. No one can deny the existence of awareness at least in the present. Leaving aside the question whether it existed in the past or would exist in the future, one should free it of the two evils mentioned above at least in the present. Doing so is being spiritual, for spirituality denotes eschewing the feelings of attraction and repulsion and experiencing equableness. It means rising above individual likes and dislikes and developing a state of equanimity. Most people merely talk of impartiality and objectivity. They cannot practise it simply because they cannot do so until they rid themselves of their preferences, propensities and prejudices.
The entire conduct of our life is governed by our likes and dislikes. For experiencing spirituality one will have to undertake bold experimentation even if it be for a single day. One will have to transcend the tendency to get drawn towards or be repelled by the events of the day. Consciously one will have to cultivate a sense of equanimity towards the happenings of the day and spiritual awareness would automatically follow.
Men of the world place an undue emphasis on purely worldly considerations. Consequently, education also is based on the same principle, and as soon as a certain degree of intellectual development takes place and one starts earning a living, education is thought to have fulfilled its function. But the advocates of spirituality do not regard such education as complete. Why is it, according to them, inadequate? To answer it one may have to consider the following:
The most burning issue at the present time relates to the mad and unbridled arms race between the major powers. The whole world is in the grip of fear and the greatest need of the hour is disarmament. But can disarmament be truly possible and can people really be free from fear? Here we confront the most crucial question. Are we sure where and for whom is disarmament truly needed, even though we are convinced of its imperative need? Is disarmament primarily confined to the domain of international relations and world peace or does its main base of operation lie elsewhere? Our most unequivocal answer is that disarmament should start from home, for it is primarily and critically meant to produce a happy family, which means happy individuals. Here one might ask: Do people use arms against one another in the family? Are various instruments of destruction like guns, bombs and ballistic missiles used within the family? To answer these questions we have to understand the real meaning of the words 'arms' and 'disarmament'. In the language of spirituality a weapon is anything that can kill. Judged from this angle is there anything in this world that does not have the power to kill an individual? Obviously none. As little a creature as an ant, or for that matter the smallest microbe, a germ or a virus can kill a man. Even things that otherwise support and sustain life have the capacity to kill. Common salt, fats and practically everything we eat, including things we enjoy like sweets, have the intrinsic power to kill. In this sense all these things are arms. In fact, this is true of all things, all material objects. Not only that, even our body, speech and minds turn into arms if they are misused. The different feelings, attitudes and desires are all arms. One can then classify arms into two main kinds: Those which relate to material objects (objective) and those that are connected with our inner attitudes and propensities (subjective). This should not surprise anyone, for who does not know that all quarrelsomeness, disputation and contentiousness are mostly manifestations of the use of the subjective arms? A mind given to jealousy, prejudice and passion is the greatest and most lethal weapon. A bad thought or a bad feeling has more capacity for harm than an atom bomb. If not curbed, it may prove most destructive.
In the family the most baneful weapon is ambition, immoderate desire. Most mishaps within the family - between brothers, father and son, husband and wife - have at their base the same desire or ambition. When it is roused, all else becomes secondary, unimportant and irrelevant. This arsenal consisting of thought, speech, body aberrations, feelings and ambitions is truly formidable. Before it the conventional arms pale into insignificance. Truly speaking, the latter are put to use only as a result of the former being activated.
The Science of Living or Jeevan Vigyan is the most effective means of disarming all physical, mental and emotional aberrations. Such an exercise in disarmament is what the world needs most, for without it conventional disarmament will be impossible to achieve. It is no small irony that we have completely reversed the order of priorities by concentrating all attention on secondary causes, ignoring those that are primary. We have to revamp the present-day education system by introducing into it the above concept of spiritual training whereby the learners are able to achieve 'disarmament' in its primary sense. We should give up the illusion of treating the symptoms by ignoring the real malady. What is the good of trimming and pruning the leaves when the rot has actually set in the roots? Let there be no mistake that to save the world from a nuclear holocaust it is vital to curb the use of primary arms. Let body, speech and mind all become purged of their abuses and the individual, the family and society will automatically be cleansed of the poison of hatred, malice, terror and injustice. For this purpose, as noted above, education in the Science of Living must be given the highest importance.
