Sathya Sai Baba The World-Avatar Teaching and Revelations

Education must enable a person to discriminate between light and
darkness. It must foster and promote the precious wealth of moral
strength and spiritual victory and purify the inner impulses of man.
Mere mastery of books does not entitle a man to be called “educated”.
Without mastery over the inner instruments of emotions, no man can
be deemed to be educated. The latent has to be cleansed so that the
patent can flourish. Experience is essential for the confirmation and
consolidation of what is learnt from books. We do not see any sign of
this in the present educational system. There is no attempt to awaken
the Divine in man, no awareness of the possibility of rising to the psychic
plane. (...)
Unity of minds, mutual love and cooperation, are the qualities you have
to develop today. Education is not for securing university degrees.
Give up this mad pursuit of diplomas which cater to the ego and increase
the distance between you and others. Develop the desire to
serve others and equip yourselves through education with the skill
needed to serve others better. Education must enthuse youth to understand
the precious heritage of Indian culture and spirituality, and to
evoke the higher powers they possess. 18.2.80, (24-309/311)
The educationists of those days paid attention to problems, like who
are the most equipped and the most efficient to teach; which subjects
must be taught, when and where and to whom. They tried to adjust the
curricula and the syllabi in accordance with the needs, aspirations and
attainments of the learners. There was no room then in the learningteaching
process for compulsion or force.
Since the classes had only six, seven or ten pupils, the teacher could
discover whether the pupil had assimilated the subject and clarify immediately
any doubt that disturbed his understanding. The teachers
had an overwhelming sense of duty; the pupil had an equally overwhelming
yearning to learn. So, instruction on topics useful for happy
living and for discovering the spring of wisdom, power and bliss, that
lay in one's inner core, were available to the pupil.
Most of the learning was by listening to the preceptor. Not only students
in the seats of higher learning, but also the smith, the artisan, the
artist, the carpenter, the farmer, the potter, the writer, the musician, the
sculptor - all learnt from the elders by the silent process of lovingly listening
and reverentially watching; not through the process of poring
over books.
Those days can be revived, if only you love and revere the heritage
which is yours. India is a garden of multicoloured flowers - the flowers
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