Transformation through Education – Swami Chinmayananda

As the thoughts, so the man, be he an engineer, a lawyer, a doctor, a politician or even an erudite scholar. To change the texture of one’s thoughts is to transform the personality.

Hammering in some data and information adds up only to instruction, and not education. These bits of knowledge may be useful to understand the world better and to earn a livelihood, but they do not, and cannot add to the quality and stature of the individual’s inner personality. A change in the quality of thoughts changes the very nature of the uneducated and therefore wild person, to a soft, humane and decent personality with a balanced head and heart.

The beauty or ugliness of thoughts depends upon the values of life the individual has accepted and is maintaining in his intimate personal understanding. Unless we destroy the unhealthy values and come to successfully replace them with healthier values of life, the metamorphosis of an ugly, incompetent and hateful man into a beautiful, efficient and loving citizen can never be accomplished. This is the heart of education: inculcating healthy values of love and spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of others.

Values are very subtle to grasp and apprehend, and very volatile even when one has grasped them and their blessings. These healthy values can be assimilated by the growing children only when they ride upon a hero whom they come to recognise and respect.