The fundamentals of growth

5. The habit of looking for the essence of things is noble indeed. If only we could acquire it from childhood onwards, how good it would be! This is something that one should make one's own. It appears to many that adhyaatmavidyaa, the science of the spirit, has no connection with ordinary life. Others feel that, even if such a connection were possible, it is not desirable. 

If we could arrange to train people from childhood onwards to distinguish between the body and the spirit, it would be a matter for joy. This is a problem in the art of teaching. As a result of faulty education, the minds of children today are filled with evil samskaras, wrong tendencies. This education does not carry us beyond the bounds of the feeling, "I am only the body." The activities all relate to the body, and yet the quality that the body should attain, the form that should be given to it, is found nowhere. 

While thus vain worship, is offered to the body, no attention is paid to the joys of the soul. This condition has resulted from the present system of education. Worship is offered day and night to the idol of the body. From childhood we are taught to worship this deity, the body. If you hurt your foot, it is enough if you apply a little clay to it. The child would be satisfied with this, might feel that even this treatment is unnecessary. He would think nothing of a scratch or an abrasion, but not so his parents and guardians. 

[ Back ] [ Vinoba Bhave ] [ Up ] [ Next ]