Academic degrees may give us positions and prestige, but can they remove the meaninglessness of life and the mental agitation? A recent statement by IAS officer Divya Mittal brings this question into sharp focus by exposing the bitter truth of our education system. She remarked, “IIT Delhi to IIM Bangalore to IAS. I got the best education my country had to offer. It taught me how to crack tough exams and manage big responsibilities. But it never taught me how to quiet my own mind or handle loneliness. We spend many years learning how to achieve, but not a single day learning how to be happy. We don’t know how to host our own storms without drowning in them. We have gym classes for our bodies, but nothing for our souls. We are left inadequate because we studied every subject except our own souls.”
India’s ancient Gurukul tradition shaped students into men of good character devoted to Self-knowledge, not insensitive robots blindly pursuing livelihood, a luxurious life, and licentiousness. Students received moral and spiritual education under the benevolent guidance of Gurus who were endowed with the finest values of Indian culture, equipping them with the wisdom to restrain their mental impulses and remain balanced amidst both pleasure and pain. This education blessed the students with inner bliss and peace in the Self, leaving no room for the darkness of inner emptiness and despondency to take root in their hearts. However, Macaulay’s diplomacy sacrificed Indian values-based education and implemented Western education, which continues even today under the guise of so-called secularism. Along with valueless education, smartphones have been handed to the new generation, which, through moral degradation, pushed them even deeper into the abyss of emptiness. The results of this are evident in the form of the increasing incidence of suicide. Having received secular education but devoid of spiritual education, the educated generation not only burns in the fire of unrest itself, but also exploits others.
In such a toxic environment, Saints like Pujya Bapuji became a protective shield for future generations, connecting them to spirituality. Through delivering mass Satsang discourses, establishing Baala Sanskaar Kendras, Yuvaa Sevaa Sangh, Mahilaa Utthaan Mandal, conducting student and youth camps, and Gurukuls, initiating festivals like Parents’ Worship Day, publishing spiritual literature like Divine Inspiration: The Secret of Eternal Youth, Rishi Prasad, Lok Kalyan Setu, and video magazine ‘Rishi Darshan’, He proclaimed with such a trumpet voice to propagate moral and spiritual values that it saved millions of children, adolescents, and youths from moral degeneration, filling their inner emptiness with the light of the noble values of Indian culture. Only through the acquittal of such a great soul and co-operation in his divine work can the lives of the future generation be illuminated with the light of Self-knowledge. This will bring about the moral and spiritual revival, not only of India but of the whole world, without which, material progress holds no value.
