Guhrtoutioun – education

This essay discusses a system of education that emphasizes that a human being is much more than a combination of chemicals. He is matter and consciousness. The consciousness of a human being is not a mere combination of molecules or different chemicals as is the material body.

Holistic education begins by understanding the real nature of a person. How can a teacher educate someone unless the real nature of a person is understood? Understanding the person means seeing that everyone has a temporary material and eternal spiritual nature. The temporary material body is animated by consciousness which is the symptom of the eternal, individual soul within the body.

There are different theories of what is consciousness. One theory states that consciousness is a product of matter or chemical combination of matter. The second theory states that consciousness is not a product of material combination but is the symptom of the presence of a non-material or spiritual soul. The difference between matter and soul is that matter is inert by nature but appears active when the soul is present. Matter is not conscious, only the soul is conscious.

When the soul is present in matter (meaning when a person is alive and his material body is animated by consciousness), matter seems to be conscious, but when the soul leaves the body, it becomes apparent that the material body loses consciousness. The soul is eternally individual and matter becomes ordered into a living organism by the presence of the soul. The soul is the moving force behind matter and makes matter appear sentient with consciousness. A simple example to understand the difference between dead matter and live matter is during a gold tournament. Let’s say Tiger Woods needs an ace or hole in one to win a championship. He is on the 18th hole and he hits the golf ball from the tee right up on the green and it goes toward the hole and just misses by a half inch. Woods physically expresses his frustration by throwing down his gold club and grimacing. The audience expresses their disappointment by making a soft groan of frustration. But, the golf ball is unperturbed. It has absolutely no expression of sadness or frustration or anything because it is only made of dead matter that has no consciousness.

Matter does not have the qualities of morality, ethics, compassion, empathy, tolerance, patience, love, affection, mercy, humility, forgiveness, etc. Matter doesn’t feel happiness or pain. This can be proven by testing a person before death and after death. Before dying, a person can feel all these human sensations and emotions. After death the body of the departed soul does not feel or respond to any of these human states of consciousness.

The above list of human qualities are not a product of matter just as consciousness is not. These qualities develop from the soul of the person as the soul evolves within the material or spiritual culture of knowledge and experience. A knife is not moral or immoral. However, when a knife is used by an expert surgeon to save a person’s life, it is used in a morally good way. If a knife is used by a thief to rob someone or kill them, it is used in a morally wrong or reprehensible way. Of itself, the material knife is not good or bad. It depends how it is used by a person. A knife is not conscious, but a person is because a person has a dual nature of matter and soul whereas the knife has matter minus the soul.

Education that teaches academic subjects along with ethical behavior is directed toward a person who has a dual nature of matter and soul. The material body moves only because the soul is present within it. Training the person to use the body to serve the real purpose of the soul is the goal of value-based education.

The soul is a person who seeks relationships and expresses human emotions in such relationships. The entire gamut of human emotions evolve in relationships with other persons. For these relationships to be real, fulfilling, inspiring, affectionate, loyal, sincere, and lasting, one needs to develop the spiritual side of human nature. The body changes. It grows and deteriorates, but the soul evolves if it is given the right inspiration and information.

The body imprisons the soul, but the soul that evolves spiritually is liberated from the material oppression of birth, death, old age and disease. Liberation means gradual freedom from the routine of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. One is able to limit these bodily maintenance functions to a minimum to keep body and soul together so that one gains time for the gradual elevation of consciousness. As consciousness evolves, one’s perception becomes aware of the personal presence of God in all things. This universal vision endows one with perpetual feelings of love and humility in the presence of the beautiful Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus, one is liberated from the oppression of matter, limited material vision and superficial relationships based on the body rather than the soul. In such an elevated state of consciousness, one dedicates all activities and thoughts to serving God without any selfish motive.

Sharing such universal vision with others by helping them gently and lovingly to rise up to such heights of consciousness is the real endeavor for the educator. The challenge for the educator is to find the ways and means to help others attain such transcendental vision. The step-by-step development of consciousness is described in the Bhagavad-gita, chapter 13 verses 8 to 12. Learning to see the presence of God within everything engenders the culture of respect and defeats prejudice and hatred based on bodily differences.

Everything material and spiritual has a divine nature because it emanates from and is pervaded by God. Such a celebration of the sacred in even the most mundane thing makes life a constant discovery of God’s omnipresence. Instead of seeing unending differences, one begins to see the intimate connectivity of all things due to the presence of God within and without of everything. This is the difference between a positive or negative outlook on life; the difference between prejudice or acceptance. Prejudice comes from thinking superficial differences of body, color, language, etc., are irreversible or genetically predetermined. Acceptance evolves from seeing the common origin and interwoven relationships of all things to God beyond the limitations of the material body.

There are primary and secondary qualities in nature. “Primary qualities are properties objects have that are independent of any observer, such as solidity, extension, motion, number and figure. These characteristics convey facts. They exist in the thing itself, can be determined with certainty, and do not rely on subjective judgments. For example, if a ball is round, no one can reasonably argue that it is a triangle. Secondary qualities are properties that produce sensations in observers, such as color, taste, smell, and sound. They can be described as the effect things have on certain people. Knowledge that comes from secondary qualities does not provide objective facts about things. Primary qualities are measurable aspects of physical reality. Secondary qualities are subjective.” (sourced from Wikipedia)

The above is the conventional point of view about primary and secondary qualities. Although the primary qualities are measurable, they are constantly changing due to the volatile nature of matter.

Thus, the most we can say about the measurable reality is that it’s reality is tenuous and dependent on our imperfect senses and instruments of measure. Like the secondary qualities, the primary qualities simply produce sensations in the observer because without senses and instruments of measurements that extend the range of perception of the senses it would be impossible to perceive the primary qualities. The primary qualities seem to have more permanence than the secondary qualities but such a belief is illusory because the nature of matter is continually changing.

Some material objects change quickly and others change over a very long period of time. According to the Vedic knowledge and experience, matter goes through two phases: manifest and non-manifest. Matter is considered eternal like the soul, but it can manifest and then non-manifest. In the non-manifest stage, it is still existing although it cannot be perceived with the senses or instruments of the senses, This is because the time factor and the modes of material nature (goodness, passion and ignorance) come to an absolute stop or stillness and therefore, matter stops moving and interacting. Therefore, it cannot be perceived. It remains in an absolute inertial state.

At most, the primary qualities are temporary and fluctuating and will disappear completely at some point of time. According to the Vedas, both the primary and secondary qualities of a material object are merely sensations perceived by the mind. The primary qualities seem to be more lasting or consistent for a certain time, but they will also alter or disappear because the form of an object is impermanent.

Matter or material energy is permanent, but the objects that are formed are all impermanent. Some seem to last longer than others and thus one may claim they have primary qualities. These qualities are not inherent in the object itself but, like the secondary qualities, are no more than perceived impressions. The classical example is the human body. In the Bhagavad-gita 2.13 it says, “As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” Throughout our life from childhood to old age we observe that our body is changing. The changes can be in height, weight and many other measurable aspects. Yet, we as the observer remain the same although the body we inhabit changes significantly.

Both the primary and secondary qualities of the body are fluctuating in time. One can say that the body one had at two years old is dead and gone when the person reaches twenty years old. But, the observer is not dead. The observer of the changes who inhabits the body remains the same throughout all the changes.

Can the observer be measured and quantified as the primary quality of the person? The answer is yes. The observer’s awareness can be measured in terms of degrees of consciousness. Just as a person can take an IQ test or a teenager takes an SAT test, so a person can be administered a consciousness test to determine the degree they are conscious of reality. The different bodies of the observer during life have appeared and died, yet the observer remains to witness them from childhood, youth, maturity, middle age and old age.

The degrees of consciousness are detailed in the Bhagavad-gita based on the influence by the three modes of material nature. (See Bhagavad-gita ch. 14) One can have consciousness influenced by ignorance, passion or goodness and a myriad number of intermediary combination of those three. For example, one may have consciousness that is 30 % ignorance, 50% passion and 20% goodness. The percentages can vary infinitely.

It is also said, “The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he (the soul) is even higher than the intelligence.” (Bg 3.42) From this verse, we can understand that a gradual evolution of consciousness is possible by which one can attain the spiritual level of pure goodness without any influence of ignorance and passion or mundane goodness.
All three states are influenced by selfish desires. But pure goodness on the spiritual platform has no taint of selfish desires. The only concern on the spiritual plane is pure love of God and sharing that love with all others.

Everything that is living has consciousness including plants and animals. According to the Vedas, all living beings and creatures have consciousness. According to the Vedas, there are 8 million four hundred thousand different species of living beings in the entire universe. In the Padma Purana, it is said, “There are 900,000 species of aquatics, 2,000,000 trees and plants, 1,100,000 germs, insects and reptiles, 1,000,000 birds, 3,000,000 mammals and 400,000 human species. Each of the eight million four hundred thousand species has a particular consciousness that is a mixture of goodness, passion and ignorance. It is only in the human form of life that there can be a dramatic evolution of consciousness that may rise to the pure spiritual leval where there is no longer any influence of the modes of nature. In all the lower forms or species than the human, the development of consciousness is limited by the type of body. The soul entrapped in the lower forms of species must patiently wait to rise to the human form before it can have the possibility to evolve consciousness above all material influence and attain eternal liberation from matter.

Consciousness is measurable.

Dr. Jagadishchandra Bose, an Indian scientist found that all plants have deeply embedded neural strands within their vascular bundles. While vascular bundles serve as agents of fluid transfer throughout the plant, the microscopic strands which Dr. Bose located demonstrate activity when adjacent plant parts are stimulated. Dr. Bose found that these strands exhibited negative electrical impulses when the plant was in any way disturbed or stimulated. He further found that such neural connections extended throughout the plant anatomy, effectively interlinking roots, stems, branches, leaves, and flowers. This great discovery explains responses which occur within the plant.

One can similarly measure the consciousness of a living person before they die and right after they die. One can measure the consciousness of a child as compared to an adult. One can measure the consciousness of a person at different periods of their life from childhood to adulthood. The measurements concern the reception of sense perception and conceptualization of those sense objects by the person. Thus, there are different states of conscious awareness of a person that can be measured and evaluated by predetermined standards.

There are two obstacles that cloud our pure consciousness and keep our eternal soul in the impermanent material world. They are the desire to exploit material nature with the subsequent attachment to matter such as our body, family, nation, ethnicity, and material possessions, etc., and the attempt to escape from the material world and its stringent laws through cultivating speculative knowledge and mechanical techniques. These two obstacles obstruct our ability to perceive correctly.

Our perception is very limited. When we look at an object we see very little of it. For example, when you look at a person, you see only the surface of the body. You don’t see the veins, arteries, capillaries, bones, muscles, tendons, intestines, stool, urine, mucus, bile , etc. We don’t see or hear the working and thoughts of the mind and intelligence. There is so much we don’t perceive. Similarly, when we observe nature, we see only a tiny part of it without perception of all the intricate and subtle arrangements operating as we observe it.

If our very limited power of perception is further clouded by the desire to control and exploit nature, then we exclude even more objectivity in perceiving what we are able to see. Thus, we are virtually in the dark during the entire duration of our life unless we are instructed how to optimize our powers of perception.

Optimizing our powers of perception to the point that we actually perceive the personal presence of God in all things and everywhere is the goal of education. With such perception, we perceive the most fundamental primary quality of life, the soul and its relationship to the Supreme Soul and the correct use of the material energy which is meant to be used in the service of God. The real purpose of human life is achieved by such understanding and perception.

Such perception is impossible as long as we are influenced by the material modes of passion and ignorance. The action of the modes of nature puts us into a sort of hypnotic state of mind in which we lose sight of reality and accept false perceptions as real. To understand how this happens we need to begin by understanding the evolution of life on earth.

When scientists explain evolution they purport that life evolved from inorganic chemicals. The Vedas explain that matter evolved from consciousness or the spiritual soul. The background of all creation is the spiritual, eternal reality which is God and His expansions of infinite individual souls and infinite spiritual and material energies.