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2. True Education

  1. Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man... Therefore the only duty of the teacher in both cases is to remove all obstructions from the way. (CW/4-358)

  2. The very reason of nature's existence is for the education of the soul; it has no other meaning; it is here because the soul must have knowledge, and through knowledge free itself. If we remember this always we shall never be attached to nature; we shall know that nature is a book which we are to read, and that when we have gained the required knowledge, the book is of no more value to us.

  3. We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet. 

  4. Bring light to the poor; and bring more light to the rich, for they require it more than the poor. Bring light to the ignorant, and more light to the educated, for the vanities of the education of our time are tremendous.

  5. Education is not the amount of information  that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got  by heart the whole library. 

  6. What is education? Is it book-learning? No. Is it diverse knowledge? Not even that. The training, by which the current and expression of the will are brought under control and become fruitful, is called education.

  7. The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle for life, which does not bring out strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion - is it worth the name?

  8. Real education is that which enables one to stand on one's own legs. The education that you are receiving now in schools and colleges is only making you a race of dyspeptics; you are working like machines merely, and living a jelly-fish like existence.

  9. If the poor cannot come to education, education  must reach them at the plough, in the factory, everywhere. Now I can get hundreds of such, all over India, unselfish, good, and educated. Let these men go from village to village bringing not only religion to the door of everyone but also education.>

  10. Education is not filling the mind with a lot of facts. Perfecting the instrument and getting complete mastery of my mind [is the ideal of education]. If I want to concentrate my mind upon a point, it goes there, and the moment I call, it is free [again].

  11. The ideal of all education, all training, should be this man-making. But, instead of that, we are always trying to polish up the outside. What use in polishing up the outside when there is no inside? The end and aim of all training is to make the man grow.

  12. A nation is advanced in proportion as education and intelligence spread among the masses. The chief cause of India's ruin has been monopolizing of the whole education and intelligence of the land... among a handful of men. If we are to rise again, we shall have do it.... by spreading education among the masses.
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