1033. Experience or Education......which is better???

There was a video I watched yesterday. It was of our Prime Minister Sri. Narendra Modi having a chat with college students. One of the students wants to know from him “Which according to him is important in life Anubhava (Experience) or Shiksha (Education)?

Modi ji initially says it is a difficult question to answer but he clarifies the doubt of the young girl. He says, “Though undeniably Experience is most important it makes us confront with two kinds of situation and to choose between the two one has to have Education (Note: the word is shiksha it is not to be viewed as academic knowledge alone).

He further says, “Along with Shiksha one has to have Ache Sanskar (Good Virtues) which aids the Shiksha obtained so that it is easy to get the better of the Anubhava.”

He gives an example to make the students understand better. “Suppose you are in a market and your purse is pick pocketed. It is an experience which brings you two dimensions, one is you know how easy it is to make money (Charvaka Thought; I need to gratify my senses and I do not mind grabbing others wallet to do so). The other thought is, How can I rob other persons hard earned money? Moreover I need to be alert and safeguard my wallet henceforth.

Here the experience is one that is, you have lost the wallet but the thought process is different. The Sanskar which Modi ji is talking about is so significant that if one has it, every Anubhava in life can give him Shiksha.    

Sanskar is mental impressions which can be modified and to modify them one has to adhere to the “Word of Guru”. The word of Guru is in the form of Shiksha. So in order to get the better of the Experience we need to have ability to discriminate and absorb the good which is the base and this base is obtained from Education.

Now can a Guru change the Sanskar of an individual???

Guru can only guide the path, the words of the Guru is just a pointer and one has to thread the path all by himself. The Guru Shiksha was same to both Siddhartha and his cousin Ananda, one was compassionate towards the wounded Swan while the other caused injury to it. Pandavas and Kauravas got the lessons from the same Guru but had developed different attitude.  

Sanskar plays an important role here than Shiksha and Anubhava, but with a determination to use Shiksha to excel one can change the Sanskar too. Human life is a play of impressions developed by repeated actions. Those actions could be good or not good also; while one is constructive the other could be destructive. The repeated actions would have etched a groove which needs to be taken care. It is better to wipe off those impressions which may lead us to destruction.

What say???