Saturday, July 18, 2009

Education and Spiritual Initiation

Education lends beauty to human life, because society is ever in need of educated people. From this point of view, education is a kind of power though everyone naturally likes to have power, its misuse, however, is not salubrious. Therefore, it is extremely essential that education goes hand in hand with spiritual initiation. Such initiation alone can ensure the good use of education. An initiated man does whatever he does, only for the attainment of his goal. In order to guard against the misuse of education, i.e. the power attained through knowledge, science and arts, the educated should most essentially be initiated.

Human life is an aggregate of desires and demands. Desires lead man to dependence, inertness and want; while demand paves the way for the attainment of independence, oneness with the conscious self and absolute completeness. The completeness of human life lies in the fulfillment of demands and renunciation of desires. The goal of every human being is one, and hence initiation too is one initiation has two primary parts responsibility and demand. Fulfilling one’s responsibility in compliance with the laws of nature does ensure the automatic fulfillment of demands. The unwavering conviction of fulfilling one’s responsibility and an unflinching faith in the theory of demand and supply do constitute initiation. This initiation is equally essential for the people of every class, society, nation, doctrine, sect, religion, etc. in the absence of this initiation, no man can become a true man, and without becoming a true man one’s life cannot become useful for oneself, for the world or even for Him, who is the fundamental source and illuminator of all.

Education is power and initiation is illumination. Using power in the darkness is like digging one’s won grave. Education has its influence on the body, senses, mind and intellect. The agents work under the supervision of the doer. Therefore education should be utilized under the supervision of initiation. No human does spire to be destroyed by the powerful, hence the oath of refraining from the misuse of power constitutes the initiation for the path of duty.

Although the importance of education can hardly be overemphasized, it is a great folly not to be initiated. Education, in the absence of initiation, can even lead to great calamities. An uneducated man can never cause so much havoc as an uninitiated educated man can do. The educated people have a high place of important in society, which is always in need of their active cooperation. As such, the educated are most essentially required to be initiated.

Without initiation one can’t develop a flawless conviction about what is the demand i.e. the goal and also about what is the responsibility towards the attainment thereof. And in the absence of these, an all round development is not possible. Initiation may vary in its external mode but internally it always stands for dutifulness, maintenance of aloofness and surrender to the Lord. And that is not all; the perfect discharge of one’s duty automatically leads to aloofness, which in turn paves the way for surrender. The total annihilation of selfishness, sloth, and the limited ego is not possible without a good sense of duty, aloofness and surrender respectively. Selfishness, sloth and the limited ego alone have deterred man from seva, spiritual life and love respectively. Destruction of selfishness, sloth and the limited ego are all inherent in initiation.

Education makes a man useful, while initiation redeems one from the indebtedness to all. Without redemption from indebtedness one cannot make foray into the realm of peace, independence and love, which alone constitute true life.

No comments: