The International Day to Protect Education from Attack, September 9

Osho isn't gentle with His young audience, he's provocative. Fire in the belly, straight talk: being young has nothing to do with age, it's about living fully in the present, not stuck in the past like the old, or lost in future daydreams like children. Then He turns sharp: the entire education is built on a lie, ambition. You've been trained to race, to beat the next person, to fear coming second, and that fever never really leaves you.

His real provocation lands here, love should be education's beating heart, not competition. He rips apart the false glory attached to "winning," and hands the youth a challenge no one else will: only you can break this rotten structure. Rebel, Osho says.

I am pleased at the prospect of speaking to the youth and the students. The first thing about youth that comes to my mind is what today I would like to say to you in detail.

For the old the past exists; that is already gone, and their whole world is behind them. Children imagine about and desire for the future; old people think and worry about the past. For the youth, there is neither past nor future; for them there is only the present. If you are young, you can really be so only through your ability to live in the present. If in your mind there are thoughts about the past, you have begun to grow old. If imagination about the future still goes on in your mind, you are still a child.

Youth is a balancing midpoint, when the mind is in a state where there is no past and no future. When we rightly live in the present, the mind is young, fresh and alive. The truth is that nothing else exists except the present. The past and the future do not exist. Only the present moment exists.

How many are there who live in the present moment? I call one who lives in the present moment youthful. One who has attained to the ability to live in the present moment has a young mind; it is neither old nor childish. But what happens mostly is that people directly move from childhood to old age; very few attain to youth. One does not necessarily pass through youthfulness. However, the interesting thing is that one who really becomes youthful does not become old, because one who knows the secret of being a youth does not need to become old. The body will become old, it will age and pass away, but the mind will remain constantly young and sharp.

So the first thing I would say to you is not to think of yourself as young just because your age is between that of a child and of old people. Just because of your age you do not become a youth. Being a youth is a very deep happening. I shall tell you a few things in that connection.

I am told you are students. That too I don't see, because if there were students in the world, there would be a lot of knowledge; students go on increasing but not knowledge. Ignorance is increasing. Students are increasing, universities are increasing, but the world is becoming worse and worse. If knowledge was increasing, then the world would really be better.

It would be really surprising if someone took me to a garden and said, "I have grown so many plants and flowers. Flowers go on blossoming, but there is also an increasing stink, instead of any fragrance." We would have to ask then, "How are these flowers and plants grown that the stink is increasing?"

Universities are increasing and books are increasing. I am told there are five thousand books published every week in the world. Books and students go on increasing in quantity, education is increasing, but the world is becoming worse. In this world if wars are becoming more violent, hatred is becoming more widespread, jealousy and envy are on the increase, there must be something basically wrong. For this situation the responsibility really rests on those who are connected with education -- the teacher and the students.

During the last five thousand years there have been many revolutions -- economic and political -- but so far there has been no fundamental revolution in education. It is worth deliberating on now whether there is any possibility of a revolution in man's culture without any revolution in education. It is not possible, because education creates a structure of your mind from which it becomes almost impossible for you to be free. A student is studying for fifteen to twenty years, during which time the structure of his mind will be fixed. Afterwards it is very difficult to be free from that structure unless a person is adventurous and courageous.

Is there something wrong with that structure which is educating us? Certainly it must be wrong, because the outcome is wrong -- and it is the outcome which decides if something is right or wrong. The children who come out duly educated, also come out as perverted human beings.

I do not mean to tell you that the ancient form of education was better and that we should return to that. All that is nonsense; in life there is nothing like going back. In the past also the educational system was not basically right. If it had been, the present wrong system would not have come out of it. It was wrong in the past, it is wrong now. Wrong only comes out of wrong.

I will tell you what actually has gone wrong.

The center around which our education is moving is wrong. The whole problem has arisen due to the wrong center -- which is ambition. Our whole educational system is revolving around ambition. What is being taught to us? We are taught ambition. We are taught a race to get ahead of everyone. Even in a small child learning in kindergarten we are creating an anxiety about coming first in the class. There is no greater anxiety than this in the world. The only anxiety is how to get ahead of all, leaving everyone else behind.

The small child going to school is full of anxiety. He will be rewarded if he comes first; he will be insulted if he comes second. If he fails he will be humiliated; if he succeeds he will be rewarded and respected by teachers and parents. We are creating competition in him. Competition is a kind of fever. When you are feverish there is a rise of energy. You can run faster, you can use bad language faster, you can do things which ordinarily you would not be able to do. In fever there is a kind of intensity and speed.

The whole educational system is based on this fever of getting ahead of everyone. The ego of the children is aroused; they become eager to come first. They work hard, with all their strength. But for what? Only because there is competition to come first. This fever of competition gets hold of children. Even after they come out of the field of education that fever persists.

They want to build a bigger house, have a bigger shop, reach a higher position. From being a junior clerk, they want to be the head clerk; from being a master, they want to be a headmaster; from being a deputy minister, they want to become a minister. Somebody wants to be the president of the country, or to be something else. A sort of mad race for being something or the other takes hold of them for their whole life. In this mad race the whole peace, energy and capability in their lives gets destroyed.

What do they achieve in the end? In the end, they reach nowhere. Wherever they reach, they will find someone ahead of them. And as long as there is someone ahead, they will have no peace. There has been nobody in the world so far who has experienced being ahead of everybody; there is always someone in front. The world is big and we are standing in a circle. In a circle who is ahead and who is behind? Everyone is ahead of everyone else. And then the race goes on and on and on. So far in the world nobody has got ahead of everybody. But we are still teaching children to come first; we are teaching madness. They will remain in the race throughout their life and will waste it.

Our whole education is based on jealousy and envy. We go on saying to people, "Do not be envious, violent and jealous," but our whole education is rooted in jealousy. We point to one child and say to the other, "See how intelligent he is, and how dull you are. Be like him!" Thus we are creating envy and jealousy.

What are we creating in the mind of this child? We are pouring the poison of envy into him. We do not love this child. This poison will flow through his veins, through his mind, for his whole life. The child will always want to be ahead of everyone -- and the joke of it all is that nobody ever has been ahead of all, and there is no joy in being ahead. What has joy to do with being ahead of somebody? What relation can peace have to being ahead of somebody? No, this is a fundamentally wrong teaching.

This ambition, and the educational system revolving round that center of ambition, is wrong. If we want to create a new world we will have to change this center and create some new center.

What can the new center be?

I would like to tell you that competition cannot be and should not be the center of education.

The center of education should be love.

What do I mean by love? If we want to learn music -- and we are so many sitting here -- and if in our effort to learn music we try not to allow anybody to get ahead of us in music... can we learn music in such haste and fever? If we fall into that race to remain ahead so that nobody insults or disgraces us, so that nobody proves that we are unsuccessful and we are nobody, can we learn music? Will this be love of music or love of ego? If it is love of ego, then music cannot be learned. Can we learn music while loving the ego?

For learning, humility is required. Our educational system teaches ego, not humility. Teachers are all displeased and complaining that there is no humility in the students. How can the teachers expect humility? When we teach students to be ahead of everyone, we are teaching them ego. How can there be humility in them? It is a fallacy to expect that. When they stand ahead of others, their humility is destroyed and they are full of ego. Those suffering from ego cannot learn music, cannot learn anything.

To learn anything, humility is required. To learn, egolessness is required. But we are not encouraging egolessness. We are, as it were, firing their ego by telling them, "You have to come first and secure a gold medal in university. You have to be a Bharat-Ratna" -- the highest title conferred on an individual by the president of India -- "You have to be the president"; "You have to be this and that!" The fire of envy is created in their mind -- their ego is encouraged. How can they learn music? How can they learn mathematics? How can they learn the essentials of life? For learning anything, a nonambitious, non-competitive mind is required.

Yes, there is another basis for learning music. That is love of music, not competition with the knower of music. Not competition with a fellow student, but love, sincerity and delight in the subject to be learned is required. It is better that we teach love for mathematics, rather than competition with others learning mathematics. It is better that we create love for music, rather than competition with others who are learning music. Music can be learned because of the love for music. Everything can be learned when we love that thing; then only is it possible to learn. But we are not taught what love is. Our education has nothing to do with love.

So what actually happens is that if you have studied literature in the university, after coming from the university you do not continue to learn literature, because it has harassed you and bored you a lot. If you have learned poetry in the university, your love and joy for poetry in life will have already been destroyed. It is destroyed because it was studied during the race of the egos, studied only to pass the examination and studied to come first. No love for poetry was really created. Therefore, in fact, it happens that our education destroys our genius.

Emerson once said something in honoring the first young graduate of his town -- he was asked to say a few words in praise of that graduate. Emerson said, "Well, let me first understand and evaluate that young man. After that I can say something." After a month he attended a gathering to honor that young boy. Emerson told the gathering, "I have liked this young man, I am all praise for him. But why do I say so? I say so because in spite of his having a university education, he has been able to preserve his genius. I praise him for that."

The state of education is like that. They are really marvellous people who have come out of the intricacies of the university without losing their genius. Ordinarily it is destroyed, it gets destroyed.

The whole foundational structure of education is basically wrong. Then education can only be of competition, rivalry, and ambition, which naturally creates a world full of ambitious fights, battles and conflicts. These children will grow up tomorrow and will fight. They will fight as a crowd, as a society, as a cult, or as a nation, because they have to be ahead of everyone. They will fight for their country.

All countries of the world are fighting. Why are they fighting? -- because the children have been taught nothing else but fighting. They have not been taught love, they have been taught jealousy and envy. Two world wars were fought recently in which about one hundred million people were killed. There must be something wrong with the education. What sort of education is this, which enables the killing of millions of people over five to ten years? What sort of students have come out of the universities? How diseased are their minds? How is it possible that wars continue to be fought in this world every day and the universities also continue to grow?

If the education is true and the universities are real, wars must disappear from the world. There would be no wars -- because how can an educated person fight? Can a cultured, civilized person fight? Can he kill? -- not one or two persons but millions of people? But that is what we are doing. A well educated student will fight and go to wars! He cannot be aware of the strategies that cause war, because in him only the seeds of war have been sown. The seeds to fight with everyone else have been sown in him. In fact he will be interested in war, he will be happy fighting.

You may have observed that when there is war you feel happy. It certainly is a diseased state of mind. When there is war there is brightness on the faces of people; people appear to be enthusiastic and cheerful. When India is fighting with Pakistan, or when India is fighting with China, or when anywhere else such stupidity is being committed, how cheerful people appear to be! Their nights and days are filled with a freshness. They read newspapers from the early morning, listen to the news and go on discussing the events. Just watch their faces. It is as if some event of great happiness has happened! People have been prepared for fighting. They have no other interest but fighting for all the twenty-four hours of the day.

When passing by and seeing two persons fighting, hundreds of people will form a crowd watching the fight, putting aside many necessary, important things needing to be attended to. What madness! Watching two persons fighting is a sign of a perverted mind,.it is not a sign of a cultured mind. To be interested in seeing two persons fight is a sign of an ugly mind. But people throughout the whole world are doing this. It is true for every country. Our mind is prepared for that.

When one person is defeated and the other has won, we garland the one who has won and disregard the one who is defeated. This is a sign of a perverted mind. This is a sign of a violent and a wicked mind. After all, what is so great that makes you garland a winner and disregard the one who is defeated? Don't you see the diseased mind of the person doing this? Should there be love and sympathy for the man who is defeated or not? Or should we become full of respect for the winner?

If the education was right, love and respect towards the defeated would arise. One would feel amazed upon seeing this person who wanted to win, who wanted to defeat someone. What a violent attitude this man must have! There is violence in defeating someone, there is hatred in defeating someone. The very effort to defeat someone is a proof of a perverted mind, proof of a diseased mind. But we always respect the one who wins, we disregard the one who is defeated. Why? -- because we ourselves want to win. We are supporters of those who have won because we also want to win. In our mind also the same interest in winning is working. We are also interested in sitting on the chest of another person, so we garland the one who succeeds and forget the one who has fallen; there is no value in a defeated person. This is fundamentally wrong.

Try to understand why there is ambition within us. What is the reason for our running so madly? The reason is that the more a person is suffering from inferiority, the more ambitious he becomes. The more inferiority you experience, the more you feel that you are nothing, the more you will become ambitious. Why? Through ambition, you want to prove yourself in the eyes of the world and in your own eyes, so that nobody makes the mistake of considering you inferior.

I will tell you a small story to help you understand. You may have heard the name of Tamerlane -- he fought and defeated a small country. The king of that country was Baijal; he was arrested and brought before Tamerlane, duly handcuffed. Defeated, Baijal stood in front of Tamerlane, who was sitting on a throne with his advisers and soldiers standing by.

Tamerlane began to laugh. It was natural that Baijal should get angry; Baijal, though defeated, was a king. He lifted his head proudly and told Tamerlane not to be foolish. "He who laughs at others' defeat has some day to shed tears at his own defeat."

But Tamerlane said, "I am not laughing at your defeat. I am not so foolish as to laugh over such a small victory. I am laughing at the fact that I am a lame man and you are a man with one eye. How strange God is, that he gives kingships to lame and one-eyed men!"

If I were present at that time I would have told Tamerlane that nobody else asks for kingships except for those who are lame and blind. No wise person would like to become a king. No wise person would like to become a politician. No wise person would want to sit on the chest of another person. No wise person would like to bring someone else down to his feet or be his owner. All these things are desired by the diseased and inferior man residing within us.

The mental states of inferiority and weaknesses within us -- the lameness and blindness -- want to be hidden. We are running to hide them and to prove that the whole world is wrong, that we are alright. We have proved our might, and we are trying to prove to others that we are not weak or wanting. This is the race of the inferior mind.

The education based on ambition is, at its root, based on violence. Ambition is not a dignity to the personality; it is an inferiority of the personality. Everybody in the world is afraid of being nobody. Everybody wants to have a name, to be a VIP. Everyone wants to have a position, a good reputation and a house of his own. Who is creating this madness? It is created by our education.

The education is right which can say that you are enough as you are; that you do not have to be anything else, you are enough as you are. Explore all your possibilities and experience the joy of it. Do not be in a race with anyone. It is not necessary; there is no reason for doing so.

If education can make every person aware that one is enough as one is, and can enable him to experience the bliss of it, if education can make facilities available for the full growth of what one has -- facilities for growth, not for ambition; facilities for love, not for competition; facilities for self-awakening and consciousness, not for conflict with others -- then such education will be able to bring about a fundamental revolution in the world. As long as education is not able to do this, it is not in the interest of man; on the contrary it is harmful to man, it poisons the human mind.

Whatsoever we have is enough. What is lacking in anyone? If a person does not become ambitious, the world is not lacking in anything. If a person does not become diseased with the madness of ambition he has everything. But he is not able to see that. How can he see? We only see what others have. One who is ambitious always sees what others have, he is not able to see what he has. It is interesting to note that if tomorrow he is able to get what others have, he will cease to see that too. Again, he will begin to see what others have.

Just think and see if it is true or not. You have two eyes, two hands, two legs; you are breathing; you have a body -- it is a great wealth with which you can create a great many things.

There was a king who was very disturbed and uneasy, and he thought of committing suicide. He got on his horse and rode towards the jungle. There he saw a young shepherd playing on his flute, and nearby his sheep were grazing. There was such magic in the tune of his flute that the king stopped his horse and told that young man, "You are playing your flute with such joy and abandon that you seem to have been given a kingdom!"

That young man replied, "Kindly pray to God that whatever may be my sins he should never give me a kingdom!"

The king said, "You are mad! What is your fear of a kingdom?"

The young man said, "A man is a king while he has no kingdom. No sooner does he acquire a kingdom then he becomes a slave."

So far nobody has seen a king who is really a king, although many who had nothing have been seen by the world who were real kings, whose joy and bliss knew no bounds, and who created such music in themselves that that music can still be heard even after thousands of years. The world has not seen any music and bliss arising from within any king. His clothes are shining, but his soul is deeply rusted. His crown is shining, but there is no light in his head -- there cannot be ever. What he chooses shows that there can be no inner light. If he had that inner light he would not have been madly wanting to decorate his head with gold.

One who has a golden head never cares for wearing a gold crown on his head. Who is mad enough to drag stones around? But those who have no golden head have their head filled with a lot of rubbish, and a gold crown hides that rubbish.

So that young man said, "Pardon me, and please pray to God that he may not make me a king, ever."

The king was puzzled. He said, "I see that you are wearing torn clothes and your work is to graze your sheep. What is the secret of your joy?"

The young man said, "The secret of happiness is not related to what you have, but in how you are using what you have." He further said, "I have eyes -- I see the beauty of nature and become delighted. I have sheep -- I love them and my heart is full of joy. What is lacking for me? I have healthy hands and feet, I am earning my daily bread. Night and day I am near the moon and stars, the jungle and the hills. What is lacking? Yes, I am lacking in one thing: the anxiety of kings. I have a deep sleep at night."

The king said, "What you are saying is right. Go back to the town and tell the people that you met me and tell them that I have agreed with you on what you are saying about happiness, and that I had come to the forest to commit suicide. I pray to God he may never give you a kingdom."

I also pray to God that nobody should ever think of having a kingdom. Whosoever gets the idea of having a kingdom becomes sick and diseased; his life is being destroyed. But still we are all running a race to have kingdoms. It does not matter what you want to become: as long as you are running after becoming something, you are in the race to become a king. It may be just a small kingdom, but that makes no difference.

The fundamental thing is to recognize what you have within and rejoice in it, to tend the potentiality of it with love. If you can do that, your life can be full of joy. Everyone's life can be full of joy; everything depends on how we use what we have -- just as the shepherd said.

I will tell you another story. There were two hermits in Japan. It was the rainy season, the rains had just begun, and one evening when they came back home, they saw that half of their hut was destroyed; the winds had blown away the roof. One of the hermits was very angry with God. He complained, "The heavy, rainy season has set in, clouds have gathered and half of our hut is destroyed. What will happen to us now? How shall we live?" And it is in such moments that doubt arises if God really exists or not. "The big palaces of sinful people are intact, and God is not thinking of blowing away their palaces, but he blows away the huts of us poor people."

But the other hermit was praying with folded hands and eyes closed, telling God, "You are so kind. Who can trust cyclones? Our whole hut could have been blown away -- it is you who have saved the half of it. Such care of us hermits! We are highly obliged and feel such a sense of gratitude towards you."

The next night that hermit wrote a song: "Until now we had not known that joy which people with half a roof have. Last night we were sleeping under half of the roof, and the moon was so beautiful seen from the other, roofless half of the hut. Whenever our eyes opened during the night we saw the stars too and fell peacefully back into sleep. This morning when I got up I was full of a joy, unknown before. Had God given me the hint, even in a dream, I would have removed half of the roof myself much earlier. There was no need for the cyclone to be bothered about it. But I was not aware of it."

Everything depends on how we take things and with what attitude we accept what we have. Our current education creates wrong attitudes from the very beginning. What is created is not an acceptance of things but a race for things. We think of what others are having -- we are never aware of what we have. In such a situation, life begins on a wrong track. Then only death is able to free us from this misery; nothing else helps. This is the result of wrong education.

Right education will teach us how to develop what we have in ourselves -- but comparison, never. As soon as comparison enters the mind, the problems begin. But our present atmosphere supports comparison.

The birthday of a cobbler is never celebrated by anyone, but the birthday of a politician is celebrated. Why? What significance is there in a politician? What are the reasons? What good deeds has the politician done for the world that you are so obsessed? None. It is just because he has a high position, is occupying a high chair, that his birthday is celebrated. We have compared things in a wrong way.

You may have heard about Abraham Lincoln. His father was a cobbler and Abraham became a president of America. Many people must have become very unhappy at a cobbler's son becoming a president. The same would be the feeling if it happened in our country. So, when he stood up for his first speech in the senate, it was beyond the tolerance of one member. It was beyond the tolerance of others too, but those who were a little more cultured remained sitting silently, suppressing their dislike. That one member stood up and addressing the president said, "Don't assume any airs while making a speech -- your father used to stitch shoes."

Ordinarily people feel it is a lowly occupation to stitch shoes, although everyone wears shoes. Wearing them is not bad, it is stitching them that is bad! This world is really in a mess. If stitching shoes is inferior, then wearing them should be more so. What sort of madness is this!

What did Lincoln say in reply? He seems to have been a man of deep thinking. He said, "I know. As far as I can remember, my father used to stitch the best of shoes. You have reminded me of my father at the right moment. I recollect that the family of the gentleman who has reminded me has been wearing shoes stitched by my father. May I ask if my father ever stitched shoes that were not right? Were they weak, badly shaped, or did they wear out faster than they should? I remember he was stitching shoes with such joy that whosoever bought from him was very pleased with them. It will be difficult for me to be as good a president as my father was a cobbler."

If the right education was available, the prestige which becomes associated with positions, professions and things would disappear. There should be no stigma attached to making shoes, in baking bread or making bricks or building a house. Nobody is higher or lower -- they are all participating together in helping the same life.

Everything is needed in life. People making or cleaning roads are needed, and people preparing bricks are needed, as much as people ruling a country. Nobody is inferior, nobody is lower. There is no status for anyone; everybody together is creating a life of interdependence. Life is a cooperation. Nobody is higher in it, nobody is lower in it. The peon is not in any way inferior to the president. As long as these ideas of inferiority and superiority remain, there can be no peace for the human mind... because then the peon would want to be the president -- it is natural -- or if that is not possible, he would want his son to be a president. It is natural, he would want that.

The day on which our education does not associate the dignity of a person with his position or nature of work, the day on which we accept the importance of all work equally, for the benefit of life as a whole, we shall understand that the value of a cobbler and tailor is as much as that of a musician. The question is of how good and of what quality is the work one is doing, not what one is doing.

Kabir was a weaver, weaving cloth. People asked him to stop doing such work; it was not befitting a saint. He said, "If it befits a saint to wear clothes, why should it not befit him to make the clothes? The only difference there can be is that earlier when I was making cloth, I was thinking how I can get a greater price for what I was making from the customers. But it does not become a saint to charge more. Now when I am making cloth, I think of how to give a better quality of cloth at a lesser cost. I am making stronger cloth with joy, and I feel as much joy selling to a customer as I would feel if God himself came to buy my cloth!"

He would go to the market dancing, and ask as to which god was going to accept his labor and prayer. He touched the feet of the person who bought his cloth, saying, "Oh God, wear the cloth carefully. I have woven it with great care and love, prayerfully and laboriously."

But is it wrong to weave cloth? Is it wrong to be a weaver? Nothing is wrong in life; everything, every work is required for life. There should be no status or position attached to any work. But our education is totally wrong. The peon in a school has no dignity. If that is really so, would any child like to be a peon?

It depends on the youth to change the outlook and bring about a revolution. Till then, thinking in terms of inferiority and superiority is going to continue.

A few days ago I was invited -- probably by mistake on the part of the organizers -- to give a talk on Teachers' Day. They said it is a great honor for teachers that a teacher has become a president. I said, "That is wrong. The teacher's honor is in being a good teacher, not in becoming a president. If all the teachers start running in the race to become a president, it will be a calamity." But that race is on. If they cannot become the president, they will want to be a state education minister or a vice-chancellor or something else.

It is altogether wrong. The respect and honor of a teacher is in being a good teacher. If a good teacher starts trying to become a president, it is not an honor for the teacher. One can understand a president giving up his position and becoming a teacher, but not vice versa. Why? -- because what comparison is there between a teacher and a politician? Becoming a politician is a fall for a teacher. It will be a growth for a politician if he becomes a teacher. Being a teacher is the simplest profession, a noble livelihood. It is a very fundamental basis for life. Teaching is not just a profession, it is a joy, a service, a creation, a devotion in itself. Anyone leaving it for something else will not be and should not be respected. But in our mind, politics and position have become very important. We are very strange people: a person sitting on a small stool becomes small!

A person I know narrated an incident. There was a magistrate in Madras, a British magistrate. He must have been a little idiosyncratic -- though it is a little difficult to decide who is not idiosyncratic at all, one way or another. He was sitting in a sort of courtroom. Whenever anyone came to meet him, he would order a particular type of seat for him.

He kept seven different types of seats in another room. According to status, position, wealth, he would order a seat to be brought in. A small stool was meant for an ordinary person, who might have to be allowed to sit. A poor person need not sit; he can say whatever he wants to while standing in front of the magistrate. After the small stool, there was the number two stool, a little better; then, third, a chair, stronger than a stool; then a better chair, and so on and so forth, up to number seven.

One day a person came who appeared to be poor. At first the magistrate thought of asking him to speak while standing, but on entering he said, "I am a land-tenancy holder in a particular town." The magistrate asked his peon to bring number two. The peon went outside and while he was bringing the number two seat in, the man said, "I was awarded the title of 'Rai Bahadur' by the government." On hearing that the magistrate asked his peon to bring the number four seat. As the peon was hurrying with the number four seat, the visitor said, "... And I recently donated a couple of million rupees to the War Fund." The magistrate shouted his modified order to the peon for seat number six, when the visitor interrupted, "Why do you harass the peon? Call for the number seven seat, because I have still to tell you more about myself by way of introduction. So better just call for the number seven seat."

We may laugh at such an idiosyncratic person, but we are all like him. In our mind there is respect for a president, for a prime minister or for a governor. Do we have any love and respect for just a man as such -- just empty, without any name, position, title or certificate, and whose pockets are also empty? If we do not have any respect for just a man, then remember that we have respect for nobody at all; what we have is respect for chairs, big and small.

But all this is what education teaches us. It is all rubbish, only worth burning. The whole educational arrangement is wrong. It is necessary to lay new foundations. Those new foundations will be that we should be taught love, not competition. We should be taught respect for a human being as such, not respect for position or money. It is necessary that respect should not be associated with the nature of a person's work. An attitude should be created where the whole life is considered a joint contribution of all people. Then with such a mental frame we can understand what the potential of an individual is, without any comparisons and evaluations.

As I told you earlier this morning, there is no necessity to compare, because every individual is unique in himself. It is not necessary to say that you are weaker than a certain man, or more intelligent or less handsome than a certain man. All such comparisons are dangerous and violent. The whole problem arises from that. Every person should be accepted as he is and his potential allowed to develop.

A rose is a rose, and a jasmine a jasmine. One tree will be tall and another short. A small grass flower is there -- but it has its own dignity and joy. What is mysterious and significant is that that grass flower should fully blossom, not remain half-way on its journey. It need not be compared with a roseflower. The roseflower has its own delight in flowering, and the grass flower has its own. A small bird sings its song and a big bird sings its own. It is not a question of who has sung a better song, but the question is whether one could sing fully to one's heart's content. There is no comparison of one with the other.

Every individual is a unique creation of God, and we must accept him as such. We should keep in mind that our whole education, culture and civilization should draw out whatsoever is hidden and awaiting growth, and should not let anything remain dormant. This should happen, not in any haste, not with any dubious approach or competition, but through love and joy.

When all the potentialities of a person develop in their fullness and flower, he is full of joy. Then he has flowered; he is fragrant and peaceful. Such a person can search for truth and God and can know and experience truth. Only one who is peaceful in life can enter deeper into life. Whoever is in competition and disturbed will have no peace. Whosoever is peaceful, who accepts himself, who is joyful and fragrant due to his own flowering, will slowly receive automatically the messages of godliness; he will start experiencing godliness all around. A miserable man can never know God. When all the doors of bliss open within, only then begins the experiencing of God.

So the ultimate aim of education should be such as to lead every man to the total fulfillment of his soul and its experience. But at present the situation is such that a person is not able to experience happiness and peace in the world. God remains a faraway journey and destination. Because of this, because of his endless problems, man goes to the temple, puts money in the donation boxes, bows down to the priest. This is all useless. To save himself from tension, he seeks the help of God. When he is defeated in the elections, he seeks the help of God and gets amulets prepared, or takes tips from so-called religious priests to win at the racecourse.

Somebody was asking me yesterday if I give tips to win on the racecourse or not. All sadhus and sannyasins in our country do this. I said, "I am a very ordinary man, neither a sadhu nor a hermit; how can I give any such tips?" But there are great sadhus, sannyasins and mahatmas who can do that. Or if you come across God, he can help you. I am helpless. But all these kinds of things go on -- tips about horses and how to win elections. Those sadhus and mahatmas wander around Delhi because all the defeated and the winners both then touch their feet.

Tense, fearful, defeated and miserable people go to seek solace from religion. Such a religion becomes false. The very reason why these people go there is irreligious. Only a person who has pacified his mind in every way, whose mind has no struggles and knows no conflicts, whose mind is full of love and respect, who is compassionate to all and not envious, can reach anywhere near religion. One day God himself knocks at his door and puts a hand on his shoulder. Religious teaching does not mean repeating the Gita or the Koran. It is because of them that there is so much irreligion in the world.

The religious teaching should create a mind which is noncompetitive, nonjealous, nonviolent, loving and compassionate. Such a religious education will not make a man a Hindu or a Jaina or a Mohammedan. These are madnesses, they are diseases. No healthy and centered person can be a Hindu or a Mohammedan; he can only be religious.

I have told you a few things. If you try to understand your individuality against this background -- and think a little about whether you should really be competitive and envious or seek the path of peace, love and joy, and awaken some inner potential in yourself which releases the fragrance of bliss -- only then can you be a student in the right sense. Now, when the university is not right, the educational system is not right, where will we look for a solution? The teachers are not right, the educational system is not right; who will do this work?

The youth can do it. In them there are sparks of rebellion although in India the spark has almost died out. For thousands of years the youth have not been born here. There is no spirit of rebellion here, only ashes. But still, if there is any hope, it is only with the young people. If the young people rebel against the whole educational apparatus and system, and get ready to shatter all these structures, then if not today, tomorrow, the warmongering world can be ended; the world which believes in nations can be ended. These borders, India and Pakistan, all these idiocies can be ended; these walls between Hindus and Jainas can be ended. One human culture can take birth.

But it all depends on the youth. They will have to become rebellious. The burden of a great revolution rests on the shoulders of the youth. Perhaps human history has never before seen such a significant moment when there is such a great responsibility on the youth.

Just think, can this responsibility be taken up by us? If we can take up the responsibility, man can be saved. If not, then things are already too rotten, the matter is over. Then it is just a question of passing on the information, making the announcement that man is dead. It will not be long before all preparations for the death of man are complete. Any time we can be finished. Some fifty thousand atom and hydrogen bombs are ready to destroy the earth. They are far too many for the job -- they can destroy seven such earths.

What will happen? Even if we kill each person seven times, still we have made more arrangements than needed for it. If just one politician's mind goes mad -- and their minds are half-mad -- any moment he can take down the whole humanity with him.

Who will save it? On whom does the responsibility rest?

You may not have expected that I would talk to you and to your Center about such things. You may have thought I would tell you some methods to pass examinations, to succeed, to get ahead of others, to reach higher positions. No, I will not do that. Enough has been told to you about these things. We are suffering tremendously because of that.

I pray you do not succeed, but that you be real human beings. Success is not a value. I pray you do not reach any positions of power, but that you reach your inner being, where there is something worthwhile. I pray you do not compete with anyone, but awaken the potential of loving your own individuality. I pray that you too can become a brick in the creation of a new culture -- this is what I wish for you.

I am very grateful to you for having listened to me so silently, with such love. I offer my salutations to that new man that is residing within us all. Please accept my salutations to that god.

Shiksha Mein Kranti ~ 09