The pursuit of knowledge and goal of it has a distinguished value. Goal drives us where we like to go but purpose deals with what we become in the process of achieving our goal. The same thing is discussed in the book Why are you being educated by J. Krishnamurti. It sounds very unfamiliar question to us, we have dedicated a part of life to get an education and someone is asking why are you being educated?
Krishnamurti has dealt a bigger issue in his book. First, the basic points about the books – it is not a book written by author rather it’s a lecture series delivered by him in different universities. Where he delivered his lectures and students asked him different questions. The journey of the book starts at the Banaras Hindu University and ends at IIT Bombay. A wonderful journey of fundamental questions by students and a pleasant set of replies by Krishnamurti sir.
Now, the fulcrum of the book is to liberate a student’s mind from an age-old pattern of education. We are becoming just the problem-solving machines; should it be the purpose of education? This is the question of the author which has been raised in this great motivational book Why are you being educated. We are afraid of our future and in this process, we are ruining our present time. A fascinating line I found in this book is, “and if you are a student, what is your future? Just to pass some examination, get a job, and fall into the trap which the past generation has created, get married, have a little house with a wife and children?” One can judge the gravity of the line, how seriously he is judging the education. As far as I can think, it suggests that this might be your goal but cannot be your purpose. Your purpose should be how you would you like to die, how you would like to your name to be remembered? Education gives us sincerity and humility.
I can say that Krishnamurti sir was a visionary who could see our future. Now, what is happening in our university is awful. Especially in engineering institutes, they have to read every time. A recent research reveals that IIT Bombay students don’t have a chance to a bath. So, they take only once in a week. Where are we heading? We are creating only problem-solving machines, not the real human beings.
Krishnamurti sir’s chief concern here is to awaken students to the fact that the pursuit of knowledge does not liberate man from his fundamental ignorance of himself. He stated that knowledge is an illusion that creates a mirage where we have to go for best. He suggested not only teachers have to play a pivotal role but we all members of society like parents, friends and many more. We can lead to a better pursuit of knowledge that should be capable of creating Real Humans Not Salesmen.
