Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c6.s2.6

c6.s2.6

Education must aid in this self-fulfilment, and not in the acquisition of mere objective knowledge. It is more concerned with the subject than the object, the inner than the outer world. But there is a method in this madness. The theory is that it is hopeless to get at the knowledge of the whole in and through its parts, through the individual objects making up the universe. The right way is directly to seek the source of all life and knowledge, and not to acquire knowledge piecemeal by the study of objects. The pursuit of objective knowledge is thus not the chief concern of this Education. When the mind is withdrawn from the world of matter, and does not indulge in individuation, Omniscience, the Knowledge of the Whole, dawns on it. Individuation shuts out omniscience. Individuation is concretion of the Mind. The Mind takes the form of the object in knowing it. It limits itself to the object, like the water rained down from the clouds limiting itself in a tank. Thus Individuation is Bondage. It limits vision, knowledge, omniscience. Perception of Life in the perspective of the whole is Mukti, Emancipation. The individual must achieve his emancipation, his escape from bondage, *saṁsāra*, the ills which flesh is heir to, from disease, decline, death, desire, and its satisfaction, recurring in a vicious circle of birth and death, to use the Buddha’s words.