Peace of mind can be attained if education and peace go hand in hand.

What is the first and foremost thing that mankind lives for?

I feel peace of mind. Man ultimately wants peace of mind body and soul. He strives to get it in whichever way he can. He over looks the fact that because to him, there is so much misery, and that he is the cause of blood shed, death and war.

History has justified that war does not settle anything. Then why in the wide world does one fight? Why is distress, communalism, dictatorship, cast differences seen mostly in developing countries? Why do people of different religion fight with one and other? Why do people in developed countries need more psychiatrists, homes for elderly, than the developing countries?

What is the key to all the distress? I feel education is the main hindrance. True education is not mugging up things and reciting them like a parrot, it means implementing the things we learn. What is the point of studying "conserve our natural resources" when, when are walking down the road and see a tap running and a lot of water going down the drain. Does our conscience at that instinct tell us close it? No. We say "hey as long as I don’t have to pay the bill who cares". This is not acceptable. We will never really be educated at this rate, though we get a good degree and are qualified and well known professionals.

One of the other factors that cause people misery is their narrow mindedness. They stick to opinions, which are not their own. They never think for themselves and also don’t budge from what they feel. Thus learning should not be bound to four walls. It should make you think in a broader perspective and not make you narrow-minded.

I remember a beautiful song from Boyzone, which goes like this:

No matter what they tell us

No matter what they say,

No matter what they teach us

What we believe is true.

Man has never tried to understand, what religion really is. Without any knowledge of other religions he maintains that his religion is the most superior and fights for it. He doesn’t feel the need, nor has taken pains to study other religions. What ever he knows about other religions is mostly from hearsay or from things he reads. Thus he builds up an opinion on very little knowledge and won’t budge from his thoughts even if they were wrong. That’s the root cause of lots of misunderstandings, which in turn leads to ruthless battles among different religions.

In the developed countries people get so lonely that they need to go to the doctor. Why can’t studies be modeled in such a way so that one will not feel lonely, resulting in peace of mind?

Why are elders sent to old age homes? Don’t we learn in school " always respect our elders"? What is the point of studying when one says "hey old man you have become a burden I cannot take care of you any more I don’t have enough money". This is not called education. If these words were told to the same person who spoke them would he have liked to hear them? Schools need to change the teaching pattern so that generation gaps can be overcome and both generations can mingle freely in peace with each other.

Finally I would like to say that, both education and peace, go hand in hand. Education should be changed so that it makes a person think for himself with a broader perspective and vision, so that he respects other religions, elders and also the people younger than him. And last but not the least, so that he can attain peace of mind.

Written By Maitreyi Doshi

Some of the graphics are taken from "Holy Cow"