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be in great difficulty -- for them it is necessary to live within the precincts of the mental structure bequeathed. No new structure can be built. Efforts have continuously been made for thousands of years so that the son does not surpass his father in regard to mental development. There are many devices and contrivances for that.
So, material wealth increases in this world, but mental poverty also increases along with it. There are many dangers when the mind is small and the material wealth is greater. Just as we progress in material wealth and leave our forefathers behind, similarly we should leave them behind in mental and spiritual development also. In doing so, it is no insult to our parents, it is respectful. The right type of father is one who lovingly desires that his children leave him behind in every respect. But it is dangerous if the father does not want his child to go ahead of him in any field. So far, the teacher has helped the father in not allowing the child to go ahead.
It is madness to feel that if we begin to think further than Krishna or Mahavira or Mohammed, it will be an insult to the latter. Because of this, the whole education has remained past-oriented, instead of being future-oriented.
Any developmental, creative activity is always future-oriented.
Our whole education is past-oriented. All our doctrines, ideas and ideals are taken from the past. The past is that which is dead and gone. We are trying to impose things which are thousands of years old on the minds of our children. Not only do we impose the ideas, but we call a child ideal who proves himself a good follower of the old beliefs. Who is praising such a child? This is being done by the teacher, and that is how the leaders of society, religions and the state are exploiting the teacher.
The teacher is made to believe that he is the disseminator of knowledge. He is not the disseminator of knowledge; he is the preserver and maintainer of the status quo, of the knowledge that has developed in the past, and he is an obstacle to the knowledge that can develop. He does not allow anything to leave the parameter of the past. As a result, we continue to
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