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The teachings of Plato on
Education: A parallelism with Swami’s teachings on Educare
Part 2
GOODNESS
After the virtues of
the true philosopher have been mentioned, Plato leads us to the
highest point, the knowledge of Goodness (Sivam). Righteousness,
bravery, self control and all the other virtues are indeed very
important, but still there is something higher. This is the idea
of Goodness, God Himself, who is like the Sun whose rays are the
virtues.
“There is absolutely no point in having
expert knowledge of everything else, but lacking knowledge of
Goodness. There is absolutely no advantage in owning everything
else in the world, but not Goodness” (505a-b).
That is what every
soul yearns and makes every effort to own. Many people are in
the dark about it, but we cannot allow the best members of our
community, the ones to whom we are going to entrust everything,
to be equally in the dark. But what is Goodness?
Socrates professes himself incapable of defining Goodness and
proposes a simile instead, the simile of the Sun. Just as the sun
is the source of light and growth and is responsible for sight and
seeing and is the acme of the visible realm, so Goodness is the
source of Truth and reality and is responsible for knowledge of
all ideas in the invisible world of higher intellect. To give a
clear image of Goodness, Plato introduces here the famous allegory
of the cave (514a – 518b):
“Imagine people living in a cave down under the ground; at the far
end of the cave there’s an entrance open to the outside world.
They’ve been there since childhood, with their legs and necks tied
up in a way that keeps them in one place and allows them to look
only straight ahead, but not to turn their heads. There is
firelight burning a long way further up the cave behind them, and
up the slope between the fire and the prisoner there’s a road and
beside it a low wall. Imagine also that there are people on the
other side of this wall, who are carrying all sorts of objects,
that stick out over the wall; and some of these people talk and
others are silent. Do you think these prisoners would see anything
of themselves, of one another or of the objects except the shadows
cast by the fire on to the cave wall directly opposite them, since
they are forced to live without moving their heads? And if they
were able to talk to one another, don’t you think they would
assume that their words applied to what they saw passing by in
front of them? And if sound echoed off the prison wall opposite
them, when any of the passers-by spoke, they would assume that the
sound came from a passing shadow. All in all then, the shadows of
the objects would constitute the only reality people inside would
recognize.
 What
would happen if they were set free from their bonds and cured of
their ignorance? Imagine that one of them is suddenly made to
stand up, to turn his head and walk and to look towards the
firelight. It hurts him to do all this and he is too dazzled to be
capable of making out the objects whose shadows he had formerly
been looking at. And if someone tells him that what he’s been
seeing all this time has no substance and now he is seeing more
accurately, what do you think his reaction would be? And if he
were shown any of the passing objects and he were asked what it
was, he would be bewildered. He would think that there was more
reality in what he had been seeing before than in what he is
seeing now. And if he were forced to look at the firelight it
would hurt his eyes and he would turn away and run back to the
shadows. He would think that the shadows are clearer than the real
objects. And if someone drugged him forcibly and pulled him out
into the sunlight he would not be able to see a single one of the
real things, because his eyes would be overwhelmed by the sun’s
beams. He wouldn’t be able to see things up on the surface of the
earth until he had got used to the sunlight. At first, it would be
shadows that he could most easily make out, then he would move on
to the reflections in water and later he would be able to see the
actual things themselves. Next, he would turn his eyes on the
heavens, easier at night and he would look at the light of the
stars and the moon. And at last he would be able to discern and
turn his eyes on the sun during day time. After that he would
realize that the sun is the source of the seasons and the yearly
cycle; that the whole of the visible realm is its domain and that
everything that he used to see is caused by the Sun. And if he
recalled the cave where he had originally lived and his former
fellow prisoners, he would feel happy about his new situation and
sorry for them. And if he went back underground and sat down again
in the same spot, his eyes would be overwhelmed by darkness,
because of the sudden transition from the sunlight. And if he had
to compete against those same old prisoners at identifying those
shadows, they would call him a fool.. They would say that he had
come back from his upward journey with his eyes ruined and that it
wasn’t even worth trying to go up there. And if anyone tried to
set them free and take them up there, they would grab hold of him
–if they could- and kill him.
You should apply this allegory, to what we were talking about
before. The region that is accessible to sight should be equated
with the prison cave and the firelight there with the light of the
sun. You should think of the upward journey and the sight of
things up on the surface of the earth as the mind’s ascent to the
spiritual realm. The last thing to be seen in the spiritual realm
is Goodness; and the sight of Goodness leads one to realize that
This is responsible for everything that is right and fine. In the
visible realm Goodness is the progenitor of light and the source
of light and in the spiritual realm, Goodness is the source and
provider of Truth and Knowledge. The sight of It is a prerequisite
for Righteousness either in one’s private affairs or in public
business".
(Republic, 514a –
517c)
EDUCATION IS
THE TURNING OF THE SOUL TOWARDS THE LIGHT OF GOODNESS
After this
wonderful allegory of the cave and the description of the upward
journey of the Soul towards Goodness, Plato defines that this is
exactly the goal of education. He says:
 “Education
is not putting knowledge into a soul which doesn’t have it, just
as giving sight into eyes that are blind. The capacity of
knowledge is present in everyone’s soul. And just as an eye turns
from darkness to light, the soul has to turn away from the world
of becoming towards the Being Itself until it becomes capable to
see the Brightest Reality, which we call Goodness. That’s what
Education should be, the art of orientation. Educators should
devise the simplest and most effective methods to turn the mind
towards the Light. Not to implant sight in it, because it already
has the capacity, but to correct its orientation, because it is
now improperly aligned and is not facing the right way”
(Republic, 518c – d)
As Swami very simply
says:
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“Education
should not be information
Education should be transformation” |
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The ascent of
the soul towards the Being starts with music and gymnastics as we
saw earlier. But for the completion of the journey to Goodness
higher education is needed. The philosophers must study
arithmetic, geometry, solid geometry, astronomy and harmony.
Finally after the mind has been sharpened through them, it is
ready for the highest subject, that is dialectic. Maybe we could
ask here how these subjects that deal with the world of becoming,
can help in the spiritual ascent of the Soul towards Being?
“The study of these subjects purifies the
organ of higher intellect that everyone has, while other
occupations ruin it and blind it. This organ is a thousand times
more precious than any eye, since this is the only organ that can
see Truth” (527e).
The real science is not the science of the mundane world but
spirituality, the science of the Being beyond time and space. How
can the previous subjects help in this science? Plato says about
astronomy: “There is nothing
in the visible realm that is more beautiful than these decorations
in the sky. But since they are within the visible realm, they
should be regarded as considerably inferior to true decorations,
to true Beauty… Therefore, we should use the heavenly decorations
merely as illustrations to help us study the invisible realm of
the Divine… If we don’t ignore the heavenly bodies, we’ll never be
engaged in true astronomy and we’ll never develop our soul’s
innate intelligence”
(Rep. 529c – 530b).
We see that for
Plato the real benefit of the study of the material world is not
to remain trapped in the external vision, but to be awakened to
the Divine Reality that lies beyond the worldly phenomena. The aim
is to see with the inner eye of wisdom the Divine Beauty that lies
behind the external beauty. To reach at the highest top and to see
Goodness Itself, the last subject is dialectic.
Dialectic is the highest faculty of discrimination between what is
real and what is unreal, what is permanent and what is transient.
(Dialectic = Viveka)
“He who uses dialectic with absolutely no
use of the senses, reaches the summit of the spiritual realm. He
grasps with his intellect the Idea of Goodness Itself, just as the
prisoner of the cave ends up at the supreme point of the visible
realm, that is the Sun” (532a – b)
“Dialectic uproots the things that now are
taken for granted and leads towards the Primary Cause. It gently
extracts the mind’s eye from the mud in which it is now buried and
guides it upwards.” (533d)
“So dialectic occupies the highest position
and is the copestone of the curriculum. There is no subject higher
than this and therefore dialectic completes our educational
program.” (534e)
Until now we saw in brief the educational program that Plato
establishes in an ideal community. This is exactly the same with
the one that Bhagavan Baba has established all over the world with
the program of Education in Human Values.
The foundation of this program is
Self-confidence, that is the strong faith in the
spiritual nature of man, the
 faith
that his real self is the Divine Self, Atma, who indwells in the
vehicle of body and mind. The purpose of the ideal education is to
remind to man this Divine Nature of his.
To reach this Divine
End, man has to build the mansion of his life with the walls of
Self-satisfaction,
that means to learn to draw happiness from his inner Self. Then he
has to build the roof of
self-sacrifice; when he is established in his real
spiritual Self, then he can sacrifice outer things for the welfare
of his fellow beings. Finally, in this mansion the Light of
Self-realization,
the Light of Goodness, will shine.
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Many times
Swami in His discourses speaks about Socrates, Plato and
Aristotle. Here is an extract from a discourse delivered
by Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba to the faculty and students
of Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prashanti
Nilayam.
“Socrates
used to follow the path of
Pariprasna – asking questions and answering them.
This encouraged the whole youth. What are the
characteristics of a ruler? What good qualities and habits
should he have? What morals should he follow? What type of
devotion should he have? He used to inquire in all these
things. He made the youth think about these things and
finally it was decided that the person without these
qualities was not fit to be a ruler. He should have love
for God. It was decided that the youth should fight for
the country. The rulers of his time were very annoyed
about this, hence decided to sentence Socrates to death.
Good always faces obstacles like this. The decision was
final. Nobody could change it. Socrates decided it was
better to die in the hands of his devotees rather than in
the hands of the rulers.
 The
first disciple of Socrates was Plato. Plato was a very
mighty person. Plato tried to spread the teachings of
Socrates all over the world. He preached that for this
world three things are important and necessary: Truth,
Goodness and Beauty. What is Beauty? Beauty is not related
to the body. Selflessness is beauty. A person who works
selflessly is the most beautiful one. These three are also
called Nischala (steadiness),
Nirmala (purity)
Nisvartha (selflessness).
Aristotle,
the disciple of Plato had good acquaintance with Indian
culture. He took those three words of Plato and reformed
them as Satyam Sivam and Sundaram. He taught to the world
that Satyam (Truth),
Sivam (Goodness) and
Sundaram (Beauty) are very
important. These three are the teachings of Satya Sai
also. Satyam: speak truth,
Sivam:
mangalam
(auspiciousness). What is auspiciousness? Selflessness is
auspiciousness. If anything is selfish, it becomes
amangalam (inauspicious).
Then comes Sundaram: Beauty.
When will anything be beautiful? Anything will be
beautiful when there is no trace of attachment. Plato
developed all these things. When a country is developed
like this, then people can enjoy the fruits of this. The
culture that Plato and others followed is also
Bharathiya culture.”
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Part 1
Source:
Radio Sai
E-Magazine 1st May 2004
http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/09May01/02a_Swami_Educare/swami_educare.htm
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