Educare and Education

In an earlier issue, we discussed the question of spiritual balance. Presently, we shall look at that issue in terms of education and educare, especially in the light of the great importance that Swami attaches to educare, the conferences that have been held and continue to be held on educare, and the stress on educare that is constantly being laid in the Organisation.

We begin with what Swami Vivekananda said over a hundred years ago. He made two important points and both of these have been elaborately stressed by Bhagavan in recent years. Vivekananda said that education must bring out the Divinity latent in man. He also pointed out that humanity’s thinking has been shaped by two great streams of thought and philosophy. One originating in Greece drew people into the outside world. This in turn led to exploration, advances in science and technology and all that. The other stream of thought originated in ancient India, and sought to take man deep inwards. As scientist David Bohm remarks, the Western Approach is analytic and tries to understand the whole by breaking it into parts. The Eastern Approach, by which is meant really the Indian Approach, is holistic. Vivekananda says that what modern society needs is a good and practical blend of the two schools of thought. Let us now see how Swami describes this blend in terms of what may be called education and educare.

Education is the name given to the knowledge that one acquires about the external world. This knowledge is acquired, among other things, through our senses. Educare, on the other hand, relates to the knowledge about our Inner world. This knowledge has already been deposited in our Heart by a loving and merciful God. This treasure is His gift to us. It has been given to each and every individual, WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTION.

Swami describes education and educare as follows. He says:

EDUCATION: MIND SHAPED BY EXTERNAL FORCES.
EDUCARE: MIND SHAPED BY THE DIVINE SOURCE WITHIN.

IN THE CASE OF EDUCATION, ACTION IS INFLUENCED AND DETERMINED SOLELY BY THE EXTERNAL WORLD.

IF EDUCARE IS THE FOUNDATION, THE INTERNAL FORCE GENERATED BY SATHYA, DHARMA AND PREMA ALONE DETERMINES THE ACTIONS PERFORMED IN THE EXTERNAL WORLD.

EDUCATION: SURVIVAL PHILOSOPHY [DESTROY OPPOSITION, BEAT THE COMPETITION, ETC.]

EDUCARE: DIVINE PHILOSOPHY [LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL].

FINALLY, EDUCATION IS FOR THE HEAD, AND EDUCARE IS FOR THE HEART!

Incidentally, the word educare has its origin from the Latin word ‘educare’ [pronounced edukare], meaning, to bring out or develop from latent or potential existence. On our context, it means bringing out the Divinity latent in the person.

The question arises: “Why suddenly EDUCARE? Why was it not there before?” The answer is the following: Earlier, the forces related to educare were working silently, implicitly and unobtrusively. There was morality in the home, morality in the school, morality in the work-pace, and finally, morality in the community also. Today, the situation has changed completely. God has been put on the back burner so to speak. Therefore, an entirely different strategy and set of priorities are called for. We have to first invoke God strongly and then only move on to other matters and business.

Just look at the recent happenings in the Corporate sector for example. All of a sudden, one is hearing of scam after scam, and how greedy executives at the top have been taking the public for one huge ride and swindling money, millions of dollars if not billions. Commenting on this spate of corporate fraud, one pained teacher of a business school asked, “Whatever happened to old-fashioned ideas of honesty and integrity?” They got thrown out because people thought they were old-fashioned – that is what happened! Who wants honesty when one has to compete severely in order to survive?