K School – Students Discussion 1, Rajghat, 27 December 1954

Talk to the boys and girls of Rajghat 27-12-’54.

These morning talks, meetings are really meant for those students living in this Rajghat. And it will be naturally discussions and talks every morning and when there are questions to be asked I think it better be restricted to those who are students and not necessarily for those who are older but if the older people want to ask questions please ask them remembering that this meetings are primarily for those who are students here. I wonder if we have asked ourselves what education means, why we go to school, why we learn various subjects and what it is all about, what does it mean? Why do we pass examinations, why we compete with each other to have more marks, better grades, what does all this so-called education mean; this is really a very important question not only for the student but also for the parents, also for the teachers also for everyone who loves this earth. What does education mean? Why this struggle to be educated? Is it merely to pass some examinations which are generally quite silly which indicate absolutely nothing or is it to prepare ourselves for life? You understand to prepare ourselves while we are young to face life. Or is it merely to pass few examinations and to get a job. Job is necessary a livelihood is necessary but is that all? So is education a means of preparing for a livelihood or is it a way of living while we are very young to understand the whole process of life. Life is not merely a job, an occupation, life is an extraordinarily wide thing, a very profound thing, a great mystery, a vast space in which we function as human beings but if we merely prepare for jobs for occupations, for a livelihood then we will miss the whole canvas of life. And that is much more important to understand 1 than merely to swat up, to get very proficient in some subject, mathematics, physics, or what you will. So is it not important to ask ourselves whether we are teachers, grown up people or students why is it we are being educated, what does it mean? Perhaps we are too young to understand this but those of us who are grown up, must we not ask this question and also help the student to ask this question so that he begins to understand because what does it mean, what is education, and what does life mean? Is not life an extraordinary thing? You know how the birds live, the trees flourish, the blossom, the heavens, the stars, the river and the fishes therein; life is poor and the rich; life is this constant battle between the citizens of a group of a race, of a nation. Life is meditation, life is envy, fear, this thing which we call religion, all that is life and much more, the extraordinary subtle things, the hidden things, the envies, the ambitions, sex, the passions, the fears, the fulfilments, the anxieties, all that is life, not just one [corner of it](../../projects/kft/data/transcripts-input/corrier-.of.it) and what we generally do is prepare ourselves to understand one small corner which is to get mark, to have a job, to have a few children and for the rest of our lives become machines, fearful, anxious, frightened of life. So, is education the understanding of life or merely to find out a job, best job you can get, vocation, livelihood and prepare for that. What is going to happen to all of you? Have you ever thought about it? What is going to happen to you when you grow up it is alright when you are here you are playing, studying, enjoy yourselves, perhaps, a little frightened when the examinations comes along but here you are and have you ever asked what you are going to do when you, grow up, what it all means, invariably you get married, invariably you will be grand mothers fathers, before you know where you are and you will have a job, then you rot, decay in that. Have you noticed people about you? They have a job, they go to office, they are bored, they are frightened, they have no interest and they slowly decay they die. Is that all your life is going to be, don’t you ask yourselves this and should not you ask these questions? If you are rich you have fairly good position already settled; your father or mother gives you comfortable job, richly married, and there also you decay, you deteriorate; so, what does it all mean? You understand? So without answering this question what does this whole expansive life mean, with all its subtleties, with its extraordinary beauty, with its extraordinary sorrows and joys, without answering these questions, education has no meaning. You might be a B.A. or I.C.S. or have innumerable alphabets it has no meaning. You might have a very good job and then what, rot, decay your mind becomes dull, weary, stupid. So, must you not, while you are young, ask what it is all about and is it not the function of education to cultivate the intelligence which, will try to find the answer to all these problems, you know what intelligence is? The capacity, surely to think freely, without fear, without a formula, to think freely so that you begin to discover for yourself to discover what is real, what is true, but if you are frightened you will never be intelligent. If there is any kind of anxiety, any kind of ambition, spiritual or mundane ambition, any form of ambition which breeds fear such ambition does not help to bring about a mind that is clear, simple direct, and so intelligent. You know this is really very important while you are young to live in an atmosphere, in an environment in which there is no fear. Because most of us, as we grow become frightened, frightened of life, frightened of living, frightened of losing, frightened what death is, frightened of losing a job, of what your neighbours would say, wife, tradition, or husband; so most of us fear and where there is fear there is no intelligence and is it not possible for all of us while we are young to understand, to grow in an atmosphere of freedom in which there is no fear, and yet not to do what you like but to understand this whole process of living which is really extraordinary; because life is very beautiful, not an ugly thing that we have made it; and you can only appreciate the richness of it, the extraordinary beauty, the depth, loveliness of it only when you revolt against everything, revolt against religion, revolt against tradition, revolt against the present rotten existing society, so that you as a human being find out what is true, for yourself, not to imitate, but to find out; that is education, is it not because it is very easy to conform; to copy what your parents, your teachers or your society tells you. That is a safe way of living but that is not living; in that there is death, decay, fear. But to find out for yourself and you can only find out what is true for yourself when there is freedom, when there is constant revolution inside, inwardly but we are not encouraged for that; no one tells you to revel, to find out what god is, because if you revolt you have become a danger and your parents, society wants you to live safely and you also want to live safely; safely generally means to live in imitation and therefore in fear and surely the function of education is, is it not, to help each one of us to live freely without fear and that requires a great deal of thinking on your part as well as the part of the teacher, the educator to create an atmosphere in which there is no fear; you know what that means, what an extraordinary thing it would be and we are must create it because you see the world, you know what the world is, the world is made up of wars; it is made up of politicians who are always seeking power, is made up of lawyers, policemen, soldiers all fighting, all ambitious, all wanting a position, power and also the saints, all the religious gurus with their following they all want position here or in the next world; it is mad world, completely confused; there is communist fighting the capitalist, the socialist against somebody else and so on; everybody against somebody. Your father against your neighbour; you against your father, mother, everyone is struggling go [to] arrive to a safe place, a position, comfort, and that is the world torn by beliefs by rituals, by caste distinctions, by nationalities, by every form of stupidity and cruelty, and that is the world and you are educated to fit into that; you are helped to fit into this structure of what we call society, your parents want to do that and you want to fit in. Is education merely to make you to conform to a pattern which we call society or to give you freedom, complete freedom, so that you grow, so that you create your own society, a new world not this rotten world; that is at least what we want to do, those who are responsible for this schools, that is what we want to do not in the future, it must be done now, otherwise you would be destroyed. We must create immediately not in some future date but now a sense in which there is freedom, an atmosphere in which there is freedom so that you live and find out so that you become intelligent, so that you can face the world and understand it and not merely conform to it, so that inwardly, deeply, psychologically you are in a constant revolution because it is only the man that is, in constant revolution that discovers what is true, not a man who conforms, not the man or girl who follows some tradition, that finds god, truth or love. It is only the man that is constantly enquiring, constantly learning, constantly observing, and you cannot learn, observe, you cannot be aware if you are afraid and education is surely to eradicate inwardly as well as outwardly this fear that destroys human thought, human relationship, and love.

Q: If all individuals are in revolt don’t you think there will be chaos in society?

Just listen to the question first; because it is very important to understand the question, not the answer; the question is, if all individuals are in revolt won’t society be in chaos; now he takes it for granted that society is in perfect order; he says it is in such perfect condition that if you revolt against it, if everyone revolts there will be a mess, chaos, but is the society in such perfect order now? Everything is beautiful, no corruption, no man is against another man, no ambition, no competition, everyone living happily, fully richly, are they? So the world is in chaos; that is the first thing to realise; don’t mesmerise yourself by words; the world is in chaos, it is in decay, whether here or in Europe, or in America, or Russia, and seeing that decay, you have a challenge; you are challenged to find out a way of solving this; and how you respond to that challenge is important; if you respond as a Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian or Communist then your response is very limited; it is no response at all; you can only respond if there is no fear, in you; if you don’t think in terms as a Hindu, but as a human being, not as a Communist or a capitalist, but as a human being who is trying to solve this problem and you cannot solve the problem unless you yourself are in revolt against this whole thing, against acquisition, because society is based on acquisition; unless you say that is wrong, I am not ambitious, I am not acquisitive, then only you can respond to it, then only can you create a new world.

Q: To revolt, to learn, to love, are they three different processes or are the three simultaneous?

The gentleman asks whether the three are one process, a unitary process; of course it is a unitary process; they are not separative, three separative processes. That is not a question for the young people. You see the question was asked, it is very important to find out what the question means; that question was asked based on theory. It seems to me; he is not experienced it; it is merely a verbal intellectual question; it has no validity, but a man who is fearless, who is struggling to find out to learn, to love, he does not say is it one or three; don’t laugh at it; we are so clever that world, that mind, with the intellect and we think by explanations, we have solved the problem. Do you know what it means to learn? To learn which means really there is no teacher, is there? If you are learning throughout life, there is no teacher to learn from. Then everything teaches you, a dead leaf, a bird in flight, the smell, the tear, the poor, the rich, those who are crying, the smile of a woman; the haughtiness of a man, everything shows you and you learn therefore there is no guide, no philosopher no teacher, to teach you because you are in a state of constant learning and therefore there is no accumulation and revolt.

Q: Society is based on acquisitiveness and ambition; if we don’t have this ambition then we find we decay; our energies go waste.

He says I dais society is based on acquisitiveness and ambition. He says if we are not ambitious won’t we decay. This is really a very important question; so please pay attention; you know what attention means? let us find out what it means? you know in a class room the teacher says pay attention because he says, you watch out of the window, or pull somebody else’s hair, so he says pay attention which means what? You are not interested in what you are doing at all and so you are forced by the teacher to pay attention; that is not attention at all. Attention comes when you are interested in something, when you love to find out; then your whole mind, your whole body is there. Similarly, this is really a very important question; if we have no ambition, we shall decay; now, is not the ambitious man destroying himself, that is the first thing to find out, not whether ambition is right or wrong. You know any ambitious man; are you not ambitious and being ambitious are you not unhappy and therefore destroying yourself? Look about you and look at all the people who are ambitious; first at all when you are ambitious you are thinking about yourself; then you are cruel, you push aside other people; you are trying to fulfil, you are trying to become the big man and so creating in society the division between those who are ambitious and succeeding and those who are also climbing behind you; so there is a constant battle between you and what you want to be and the others; so it is a constant battle and is conflict productive of creative living, you understand? Is this too difficult? And are you ambitious when you love to do something for its own sake? When you love to do, not by doing something you will get somewhere, that you will have more profit, greater result but something you love to do with your whole being; in that there is no ambition, is there? In that there is no competition; you are not struggling with somebody; so is not education, should not education help you to find out something which you really love to do? It does not matter if you are a gardener something which you love to do so that from the beginning to the end, of your life, you want to do something which has significance, deep, worth while; otherwise the rest of your life you are miserable. You become a clerk whether in the biggest house in Delhi or in the small house in Rajghat because your mind falls into a routing, and there is boredom, death, decay; that is why it is very important to find out while you are young what it is that you love to do and that is the only way to create a new society.

Q: In most of the countries and in India, education is being controlled by government. Is it possible to try, carry on an experiment of this kind?

If there is no government grant, is it possible for a school of this kind to survive when everything is controlled by government, that is what you are saying. You see everything throughout the world is becoming more and more controlled by the government, by politicians, by people in authority; they want to shape your minds, your hearts; they want you to think in a certain way whether in Russia or in other country or anywhere else but the tendency is to control and the gentleman asks is it possible for a school of this kind that I am talking about to come into being without government help; now what do you say? You know, if you think something is important, if you think something is worth while you give your heart to it irrespective of governments, societies whether success or not, you give your heart to it; then only it will succeed. You don’t give your heart to anything, wife, god, job, to nothing and you put questions; if you and I really feel strongly, vitally that this is the only thing to do, to bring about a new world not all the talk of brotherhood, masters, joining societies and all that nonsense but really feel that a new world can only be created when, you and I feel in complete revolt with society inwardly, psychologically, spiritually, then we can give our hearts, bodies, mind to this creating a school, where there is no such thing as fear with all its implications. Then we will create it but if you really remain outside and say I will come into it when it is a success, when you all struggle, push and then I will come and join you; then you won’t create such a new if world; Sir, anything is done only by a few who are really willing to see what is true and live according to that but to discover what is true demands a great deal of freedom. Freedom from all traditions, which means freedom from all fear.