K School – Students Talk 27, Rajghat, 8 February 1955

One of the problems that is confronting most of us in the world and specially those who are going to be educated and go out and face the world is this question of reform. We are all concerned, every group of people, socialists, communists and every reformer, is trying to bring about certain changes in the world. These changes, though opposed, are necessary. Because man throughout the world in perhaps certain countries where there is more prosperity, there is also hunger, starvation, no proper place to sleep, and how can such reformation take place without creating more chaos, more misery and more strife. That is the real problem, not that reformation of some kind, fundamental or merely superficial, is necessary or not, but in bringing about certain reformations, however desirable and however necessary, it is obvious as one observes and reads history and looks at the everyday political news that that very reformation brings in its wake other forms of misery, other forms of confusion. So every reformation, change, in its wake brings certain misery and to counteract that misery more reformation is necessary, more legislations, more checks and counterchecks and this vicious circle goes on of reformation which brings certain other disorders and those disorders, in putting them into order bring other disorders and that is what we are faced with. This vicious circle that apparently seems to have no end.

Now how is one to break through this vicious circle? Mind you, it is obvious reformation is necessary but is reformation possible without bringing about further confusion? That seems to me is one of the fundamental issues which any thoughtful person is concerned with, not what kind of reformation, not at what level but whether any reformation is at all possible without bringing with it other problems, other issues, which again need further reformation. Now, how is one to do and what is one to do in order to prevent this, and surely it is the function of education, is it not, whether in a small class or in the school or in the university to face this problem and resolve it. Not merely abstractly, theoretically but actually, not make philosophies about it, write books about it but how to solve this problem because man is caught in this everlasting circle, the vicious circle of reform which needs further reform and what kind of education, what kind of thinking is necessary to break through this, because if it is not broken through, our problems are endless, and limitless. So, can education, can the thinking bring about the breaking away from this circle? I think it can be done and it must be done, otherwise man is everlastingly doomed to suffering and the problem then is, what is the action, social culture, scientific and all other activities? What is the action that will put an end to the increase of problems? That is, is there any movement of thought, in any direction that can free man from the social activity in whose reformation further reformation is necessary? That is, is there an action which is not the outcome of a social reaction? I hope all this is somewhat clear because you see, there is a way of life, I think — when I say I think, it is merely a way of speaking — there is a way of life in which reformation does not breed misery. That is a way which might be called religious. The truly religious person is not concerned with reformation. He is not concerned with bringing about a mere social order but the truly religious man in seeking what is true, that very search brings about its own action which will have an effect on society but that action is, that is, if education is principally concerned with the search for truth, god and not merely to fit into a particular pattern of society, then that search to discover what is true, what is god, that very search is the social action. That search will never be anti-social nor fit into any particular pattern of a given society. And I think this is very important to understand because as we grow older, when we have set aside our particular amusements, distractions, sexual appetites, and our own petty little ambitions, then we become aware of the immense problems of the world and we want to do something; we want to act, we want to bring about some kind of an amelioration and so on but you see, unless we are really religious, not the religion of priests, churches, or organisations or beliefs or dogmas, those are not religions at all; they are merely conveniences to help man in a particular pattern of action and for exploiting man’s credulity, fears and hopes; those are not religions, but the religion which is to find what is true, what is god, that requires enormous energy, wide intelligence, subtle thinking and in the search of that, in the search of the immeasurable, that very search is the right social activity, and not the reformation of a particular society because you see, to find what is true, there must be great love; there must be wide awareness of man’s relation to all things, and therefore not the concern of one’s own progress, achievements, the fulfilment of one’s own ambitions and the search of what is true, which is true religion and the man who seeks what is true is the only religious man. That man because of his love, his action upon society is entirely different because he is outside society. The man in society who is concerned with reformation of society, he can never create the new culture and what is necessary is for the religious man in his search, that very search gives its own culture and that is the only hope because you see, that search gives explosive creativeness, and that search is the true revolution because then, because he is not contaminated by society, by all the edicts, sanctions, counter sanctions of any given society, culture, because he is free of all that, he is able then to find that which is true and the experiencing from moment to moment of that which is true; that movement creates the new culture and that is why it is very important to have the right kind of education and the right educator, the educator who is educated, not merely earning a livelihood through education, but educated to the right kind of education which will help the student, which will help man to bring about a different culture altogether. And not be concerned with everlasting reformation and with its miseries. And to do that we must obviously put aside all the beliefs, not belong to any religion, to any organisation, to belief, any grouping together of people who have come together on authority, on ideals because they are all concerned primarily with the social reformation, with the decorating of the prison walls. So the religious man is the truly revolutionary man. And education is to help each one of us to move in that direction, for in that direction only lies our salvation.

Question: I want to do social work but I don’t know what to do and how to start.

I think it is very important to find out why you want to do social work, not what kind of social work and how to start. Why do you want to do social work? Please listen. Don’t let the questioner go off to sleep; why do you want to do social work? Is it because you see misery, hunger, starvation, exploitation, rich and poor, the appalling enmity between man and man, is that the reason? Because in your heart you have love and you are not concerned with yourself, or you want to do social work as a means of escape from yourself? You understand, because you see marriage and all the ugliness involved in it and you say, I must not get married it is not worthwhile and you throw yourself into social reformation or your parents have urged you towards it or you have an ideal. If you have an ideal, if it is an escape, if it is merely a form of compulsion imposed by society or by a priest or leader, then don’t do any social work because such social work is then merely further misery for yourself but if you have love in your heart, if you are seeking truth, if you are a truly religious person, if you are no longer ambitious, if you are no longer seeking success, and you virtue leading to respectability, then your life will help to bring about social activity. And I think this is very important to understand because when you are young, as we most of us are young here, we want to do something; it is the air, social work, books talk about it, newspapers everlastingly do propaganda about it, there are social schools and all that but you see, without self-knowledge, without understanding yourself and your relationship to man, your social actions will bring ashes to your mouth. Do please listen to this. It is a happy man, not the miserable man who is the revolutionary and the happy man is not a man who has cars, achkans [long-sleeved men’s garment WS-07], saris, lots of possessions; a happy man is the religious man and such a man, his very action, his very living is social work but if you merely are one of the innumerable social workers, your heart will be empty. You may do marvellous reforms, you may give your minds away or ask other people to give their minds away but since your heart is empty, and your mind full of theories, your life will be ashes, dull, weary, without happiness. So, first proceed with self-knowledge and out of that self-knowledge, action of the right kind comes into being.

Question: Why has man become so callous?

Asks a little boy — why has man become so callous? I think that is fairly simple, is it not? When all education is concerned with acquiring technological knowledge and looking for a job and be concerned with his own virtues and his success and with ideals, obviously such men are callous. You see, men have no love for anything, they have no love for their children or wife or their husband. They never look at the full moon and delight in the whispering waters, they never look at the dance on a still stream; they never look at the flight of birds; they have no song in their hearts; they are always occupied; their minds are full of schemes and ideals to save mankind, full of brotherhood and their very glance, posture, gesture is the denial of their profession. That is why it is very important while we are young to have the right kind of education so that our minds and our hearts are open, sensitive, eager, but that eagerness, that energy, that explosive understanding is destroyed when we are afraid. And most people are afraid of their parents, teachers, priests, of the government, of their boss; if not that of themselves. So, life becomes a thing of fear, darkness and that is why people are callous.

Question: Can one refrain from doing what one likes and yet find the way to freedom?

You know, it is one of the most difficult things to find out what you want to do, not just when you are adolescent or young man, but throughout life. You understand, to find out for oneself what one wants to do, what one really loves to do because if you do what you don’t want to do, what you really love to do with all your being, then your life is miserable. Then being miserable, you want distraction, cinemas, you want to read, do some kind of reform and all the rest of it, so can you find out now? Can the educator help you to find out now, what is the thing you want to do most? What is the thing you like to do right through life irrespective of what your parents, society, teachers want you to do? Is it not? That is the real question. Then if you are doing what you really love to do with all your being, then you are a free man. Then you have capacity, confidence, then your hands can paint the walls, dig ditches, and in that digging, painting, you are a happy man because that is what you want to do but without knowing that, you become a lawyer, or an ugly politician, then there is no happiness because then the very profession of law becomes the means of destruction of yourself and of others. Please listen to all this, this is your life. So, you must find out what to do, to do something that you love; don’t think in terms of vocation, to fit into society. You understand? If you say I must fit into society, and society offers you very few professions, the profession of law, soldier, policeman, business man, a technician. That is, if you are thinking that you must fit into society, then you will never find out what you love to do. You know, when you are in love, when you love something, there is no problem. Then it does not matter what you do; love and then let love do what it will; then that is the right action. But if you don’t love and give your life to that which you love, then you will never be free because that which you love never seeks a success, is never concerned in imitation. I don’t know if you understand all that I am talking about. But do pay a little attention because we are talking of your life, what you are going to do because if you are going from this school or any other school and college and out into the university and if your job, profession brings misery, then life becomes a terrible thing. Then life is very ugly but if you can find out what you want to do, what you love to do, and that requires a great deal of penetration and insight, not do what you like for that is not what you love to do. So, don’t think in terms of profession, don’t think in terms of earning a livelihood but if you love what you do, then you will have a livelihood. You see, now we are educated to do what we don’t want to do; we go to offices from morning till night; where is there love in that? It becomes soon wearisome, boredom, and this is important to understand, to understand all this. So, can this school or any other school help you to find out what you want to do? And I think it can because, you see, if the educator gives confidence to the student, makes the student feel completely secure in a place of this kind, secure, that means make him feel completely at home, then the very teaching of any subject, through education will reveal to the educator the capacities of the student and thereby help the student to uncover, discover his own love of action.

Question: Only the pure can be truly fearless. Is it so? Kindly explain.

I don’t know anything about the pure. I don’t know what purity means. Don’t have these ideals of purity, chastity, brotherhood, non-violence and all that business. Don’t have any of those ideals but be fearless, and that requires immense insight; don’t be courageous because that has no meaning; to be courageous is merely a reaction of fear but to understand the whole process of fear, what causes fear. You see what causes fear — the moment the mind wants to be secure, secure with your wife, with your husband in a job, in your responsibility, in your position, secure in your thoughts, ideas, secure in your relationship to the world, secure in your relation to god, then there is fear. The moment the mind seeks any form of security, gratification, any form at any level, there is bound to be fear and to understand that fear, to be aware of all that is important. It does not bring purity; the mind then is free, alert, watchful, and that mind that is free from fear, such a mind is an innocent mind. It is only the innocent mind that can understand what is reality. You see unfortunately in this country and elsewhere, ideals have become of such extraordinary importance; ideals — the what should be, I should be that, I should be non-violent, I should be good. You know the aim of life, the should be, somewhere far away, the should be and therefore it never is and we are cursed with these ideals because that prevents you from thinking and you can think directly simply and truly when we are faced with facts, not with what should be; those are escapes, ideas; they have no validity at all but if you are faced with what is — that is, you are afraid, afraid of what your parents say, afraid of society, death, disease, of what people think or don’t think, if you can look at those and understand that, go into it, though it brings you misery, but to go into it, to understand all that, then you will find the mind becomes extraordinarily simple, clear, and that very clarity is the outcome of a very quiet mind but to have ideals is just postponing, a kind of escape from what is, and we are educated to all the absurdities and the philosophies of ideals which have no value at all. You have all the ideals of non-violence, ahimsa and god knows what else but are you non-violent? So why not face violence, that which you are — your greeds, ambitions and pleasures and distractions, why not look at those and understand those? Then if you understand it, you will see time as a means of progress, as a means of achievement has come to an end. See, the mind invents time to achieve and therefore the mind is never quiet. The mind is never still. And it is only the still mind, though it may have a thousand years of experience, such a mind is an innocent mind and a fresh mind. That is why it is able to solve the difficulties of its own existence in relation to man.

Question: Sir, man is the victim of his own desires which have created many problems; how can he be free of desire?

How can one be free of desire? That is, Sir, you are saying, how can one bring about a state of desirelessness; you see, first we say desire creates mischief, and therefore the ideal is to be without desire and how can we achieve that ideal — you see the trick of the mind. First it sees desire creating misery and in order to escape from misery, it creates an ideal which is to have desirelessness and then it says how am I to get it and generally what happens is, in order to be desireless, you suppress desires, you understand? You throttle desire, you kill desire and you think you have achieved a state of desirelessness which is all nonsense, though the Bhagavad Gita and all the Gitas in the world say that.

What is desire? It is energy, is it not? The moment you throttle energy, you have killed yourself though all the religious books say kill yourself; you have killed energy; that is what has happened here; there is not one religious man who thinks and is free. They have all throttled their desire and therefore there is death; so to understand energy and the utilisation of energy in the right direction that is what is important, not how to throttle desire. You see, when we are young, we have energy, bounding energy; that can skip over the hills, reach for the skies; then that energy which is so explosive, which has no motive, just energy, then society comes and says, use it in the right direction, that is the right direction, which is respectability, be respectable within the frame of the prison. So, through education, through every form of sanction, control, that energy is gradually being squeezed out but that is not the problem, not how to kill energy but how to increase and how to maintain the energy continuously so that it is not at the bequest of any society, but that energy which is movement towards god, towards truth. That is the problem; that energy, you see, has quite a different significance. Then you need more, not less. Then you need an immense quantity of it because without that energy you will never find out what is true. So, that very energy, in its very movement towards reality, that very movement towards reality is the truth. Then that has quite a different significance; then its actions are entirely different; then it is like a pebble in a calm lake, how it creates waves; these waves are the culture but the action is energy, energy in the direction of what is true. Then that energy is limitless, is immeasurable. That energy is god, truth.

This is the last talk. Some of the children will be glad, who have been so restless.

Question: Sir, that student wants me to put this question to you — what is the difference between shyness and fear. And when there is so much turmoil, what is one to do?

May I ask a question? Why do you put a question for somebody else who is shy? One of the questions is, the difference between shyness and fear. The questioner should know that. The questioner who is shy, puts that question, should the difference between fear and shyness. Then the other question is what is one to do amidst so much misery and turmoil, what kind of action. That is what I have been talking all this morning and the previous morning. Sirs, you don’t listen.

the young nor the old listen. Their minds are full of problems, invented or real but a mind that is full of problems, will never solve any problem but only the mind that realises its problems and keeps quiet. Has it not ever happened to you that you are thinking of something, a problem, working at it, and you cannot solve it and you let it go and then the mind becomes detached from the problem, it is quiet; then in that quietness there is an answer for the problem. I doubt if you listen to anything at all except to the murmur of your own thoughts, intentions and your own petty ambitions. Sir, the answer to all your problems is not in a book or in one talk but it is in your heart and to look at the stars, the tree, the earth and flowing river. I am sorry, when I come back we shall continue. In the meantime we have nice happy days and rich lives.