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How to truly satisfy the thirst for knowledge In this excerpt from Science of Being and Art of Living, Maharishi first suggests that strictly information-oriented education can only excite but never satisfy a student’s thirst for knowledge, and then offers the simple system of Transcendental Meditation to culture the mind from within and, with that, both fully quench the thirst for knowledge and glorify all outer aspects of life. Maharishi writes: ‘Present systems of education in the various countries of the world only give the students informatory knowledge. There is nothing precise in the field of education today which will really develop the inner values of mind, body and spirit. Therefore, whatever education is received by the people is just on the surface level of information. In every subject certain information is given about that subject, and if a student is able to remember the information, he passes the course. The current system of education prepares the student only for a recognized career in the society primarily for earning a living. ‘There is no field of inner values of life open to the students. The information about the inner world of the mind and spirit is closed. It is surprising how the more substantial aspects of inner life which form the very basis of all the outer life and existence have been ignored for so long a time all over the world. It is now high time that, along with the outer fields of the different branches of learning, education be provided to the students in the inner spheres of life. ‘Without the knowledge of the Absolute, and without the practice of Transcendental Meditation to unfold the mental faculties, education is incomplete. The responsibility for keeping this generation of students out of contact with the inner values of life and the field of the permanent status of existence lies on the shoulders of those wise men who are responsible for the present curriculum in every country. ‘When the student is given only informatory education in his subject he has no basis from which to fathom a great range of knowledge in that subject. How much of the world could be physically investigated and known through investigations of phenomena! The universe is so vast and the creation so unlimited that it is not physically possible to analyze and dissect everything in the entire creation. ‘That is why the present system of education fails to quench the thirst for knowledge. It has the ability of exciting the thirst but has no means to satisfy it. It is almost always true that as a man studies any field, he finds a greater field of the unknown lying ahead. Whatever little is known about a subject, the more advanced study of that subject silently informs the student of a much greater range of knowledge lying ahead, for which at present there is no means of learning. This will always remain the case as long as the system of education is based only upon informatory knowledge. ‘When, according to the present system of education one finds a greater field of unknown lying before the student, it amounts to increasing ignorance of the subject rather than knowledge of it. Such is the deplorable state of the present system of education. It can only excite the thirst for knowledge and has no way to satisfy it, and it only helps to advance the ignorance of the subject to a greater degree than it provides knowledge of it. ‘The only way to come out of this deplorable state of education is to find ways and means to culture the mind from within, and make it strong, so that when one studies a particular subject on the informatory level, one is also able to explore the deeper regions of the subject. ‘If this inner culture were provided to the student of any branch of learning, along with his usual course of informatory knowledge, the education from outside would be supplemented with the development of mind from the inside, and all mental faculties might be developed. A really well-educated man would be the product of such an educational system. This is an education which will not leave any door of knowledge closed for the mind and which will enable every student to have command of the full knowledge of the subject. Then the citizens of the world will really derive benefit from what we call education. ‘If education is based on inner values along with information of the outer world, education in any branch of learning will not create mere ability to maintain life by means of a job somewhere, but will reveal to the growing man the real significance of inner life. His personality will develop a bold character and brilliance in his career. Every man will be found profusely equipped with the ability to gain great knowledge on every subject. ‘The current educational system, by providing varieties of subjects, only helps the student to make a choice of one of them. Every man has such tremendous mental faculties latent within him that, if there could be a way of properly developing them during the student career, every citizen of the world would be a very highly developed personality and could use his developed potentialities for all good for himself and all others. ‘Without the technique of unfoldment of mental faculties the great genius present within man is only wasted. We have seen in the part [of Science of Being and Art of Living] on “How to Contact Being,” which explains the principle of Transcendental Meditation, that in one stroke of inward direction the conscious capacity of the mind is developed to the fullest extent. In the outward stroke the inner potentialities of man, the spiritual nature of transcendental absolute consciousness, comes out with the mind to be lived in the midst of all the relative values of the world and forms and phenomena. ‘The system of Transcendental Meditation, which is an easy approach to mental development and the unfoldment of all latent potentialities, and a direct way to fathom the spiritual values of inner life and glorify material values by the light of the inner self, is a simple and a direct technique of education from within. The system is there, it has been evolved, it has been tried, and it has proved its value in every part of the world. Now it is left to the wise men responsible for the field of education to put this in the curriculum of the students in the colleges and universities so that a new humanity may be born—free from shortcomings, free from ignorance about the inner values of life, and more developed in their fuller personalities. ‘This is the need of every country. Any country in which such a program is introduced would soon naturally gain greater advantages over other nations. The citizens of that nation would be much more capable men in all fields of thought, speech, and action because they would be using their full potential in all fields of life. That country will have better businessmen, better technologists, better statesmen, better scientists, better sociologists, better people in all fields of life. The people will be more advanced and integrated in their personalities—happier and more peaceful. This system of Transcendental Meditation is a boon to the student world. Whether it is adopted or not depends upon the educators of the world and on the good sense of judgment of those in whose hands lie the destiny of education in the different countries.’ Editor’s note: The earlier Excellence in Action article, ‘Education from within—a boon to all students,’ presents the first part of Maharishi’s discussion on ‘Education’ from Science of Being and Art of Living. © Copyright 2011 Global Good News®
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