What Gives You The Edge?

न चोरहार्यं न च राजहार्यं न भ्रातृभाज्यं न च भारकारी।

व्यये कृते वर्धत एव नित्यं विद्याधनं सर्वधनप्रधानम्॥

(It cannot be stolen by a thief and cannot be conquered by a king;

It does not get divided among siblings, and isn’t burdensome.

Whenever it changes, it grows—

The wealth of knowledge is the best of all wealth.)

The concept of knowledge is synonymous to that of education. No, I am not limiting education to academic education alone. Directly or indirectly, every form of knowledge gained is through education—self-education, mass education, adult literacy drives, discoveries, innovations and inventions, even toilet training.

Today is Education Day in India, marking Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s birth date. I do not remember who he was or what he did, though I remember that his name did appear in the Indian freedom struggle, in the passing. What I intend to speak about here has perhaps more got to do with education than a pompous celebration of it. How can you define education? I believe that when a human learns to control the inborn beast in him or her, and when he or she aims at better living, puts to use the maximum of resources and faculties he or she has learnt to use, he or she is educated. When one realises his or her responsibilities towards others, and when one is able to think of others as someone like oneself, one is educated. When one realises that it all comes back to where it began from, one is educated.

We all exist with our demons; we are incomplete without them. But to accept that there is one is education. How does one rise above the rest? How did the Buddha or the Christ or the Prophet or persons of their calibre manage to be people the world thinks of? What set them apart? The word is enlightenment. And since you get enlightened only alone, for every kind of knowledge only makes you wiser, you need to share. Yes, to learn to share is education.

We had the Prime Minister’s message for us being read out in class by Ms Debjani, our French teacher. After having read it out, she told us how knowledge, like smiles or yawns, spreads contagiously. She told us how someday if she were to need some kind of help, and if a person were to help her, she will be reminded that she helped many people grow to be educated people, and that sense of ‘educatedness’ has travelled from them all, to her—it all comes back to you.

I’d conclude by leaving Steve Jobs’ message with you.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.