July 16, 2020
The new corona virus pandemic is a rare, perhaps unique, opportunity for people to choose new directions for human society. “But in order to know which step to take in which direction, we need a lot of sincerity to evaluate if we are happy, if this is the world we want to live in and if this is the world we want for our children. It’s the beginning of a revolution of consciousness”, explains life scholar, teacher and spiritual master Prem Baba. “I believe that the pandemic has shown us a lot. It has made it possible for us to assess our potentials, but mainly our limitations in different areas of life. And I think that the most deficient area is the spiritual.”
Prem Baba points out that even the global crisis manifested in politics, economics and ethics is essentially a spiritual crisis. And at the epicenter of the crisis is the unconsciousness about people’s true identity, with all of the doubts such as the reason for existing, the meaning of life, the reason for waking up every morning. “This spiritual crisis is even more evident in people’s inability to deal with their fears, frustrations, losses, differences, anger and difficulties. “And there is also the fear of death, of scarcity”, explains Prem Baba.
Another indicator pointed out by the spiritual master Prem Baba is the cruelty that has emerged so intensely, for example, in social networks, especially in dealing with those who think differently. “Spirituality is the basis of democracy and human rights, the pillars that can ensure our evolution as a species”, explains Prem Baba. “That’s why in the post-covid-19 period, spirituality in schools is of vital importance. As the thinker André Malraux said back in 1955: “The 21st century will be spiritual or it will not be”. If we do not work hard with the purpose of developing spiritual intelligence, first for educators and, subsequently, for children and young people, I do not see horizons for our society. ”
The teacher explains that when he talks about spirituality, he is talking about consciousness, that is, about that moment in which the person begins to question their identity, where happiness really is and what moves them.
Prem Baba recalls that in secular knowledge, happiness is outside the person and can be bought. “Knowledge is oriented so that the human mind has the ability to buy happiness in different ways, whether creating wealth to buy happiness with money, or to exercise dominion over the other. For we have a belief that, if we subdue the other, we will receive what we need”, details Prem Baba. “We live in a mistake and the current educational system is based on this. The first insight is a discontinuity of this model. Those who believe in the model that money buys happiness are mistaken.”
“Are we really prepared to teach a child to be happy? Are we prepared to create a prosperous, harmonious and blessed future? If we don’t have it today, how are we going to have it tomorrow? How are we going to share that which we don’t have?”, questions Prem Baba.
The teacher points out that society has made very important scientific discoveries and achievements, especially the domain over matter and the surprising technological evolution over the last few years, which leads us to artificial intelligence and to the domain of nanotechnology. But Prem Baba believes that this knowledge is not yet used in favor of self-knowledge and the science of self-realization (spiritual intelligence).
“But the question is: do we know ourselves? Are we qualifying people with a character that allows them to make a good use of that knowledge? Is a feeling of solidarity that which drives us? Are we trying to create a culture of peace, love and altruistic prosperity? Is the goal to find happiness that doesn’t depend on anything out there?”, asks spiritual master Prem Baba. And he himself replies: “No, because this knowledge of spiritual intelligence which shows that happiness is within and how to access it, is still for a very few people.”
Prem Baba points out that there was a great advance in Brazil in terms of education, with the inclusion of the development of socio-emotional skills in the new common national educational base. “The need to develop self-knowledge is already at the base. I consider it a gigantic advance, but until it becomes a practical reality, it depends more objectively on professionals in the area of education. The educators are the ones who will carry out the task of putting this law into practice or not”, warns Prem Baba.
Prem Baba also points out that the fear of transformation is big. “For as toxic and destructive as the belief system is, it gives us a sense of security. The break with a system we got used to leaves us very vulnerable”, highlights Prem Baba. “Changes are not easy, especially structural changes. Consider the example of an adult who is aware of a bad habit. It takes tremendous work to decondition. And it’s so difficult to change an adult mind because it was programmed in childhood and after the program was installed, reprogramming takes a lot of work ”
Education for children and young people is, in the point of view of the spiritual master Prem Baba, an opportunity to avoid the wear that adults have today to decondition their minds.
“But this education needs to understand that freedom is the maximum value and that the child is born with a wisdom that needs to be respected and accepted. The child is born loving and trusting, with a clear vision of what they came to do in the world. But how can we, as adults with a conditioned mind, manage to respect and create the space for them to reveal their wisdom that could then provoke a different future?”, asks Prem Baba.
This is the challenge that parents and educators of a new reality face. For the spiritual master, this is the theme that everyone should focus on for us to guarantee the future of humanity in the post pandemic. “If before we killed ourselves with swords and then with firearms, now besides these, we kill ourselves even more with all this technology in the hands of people without spiritual consciousness.”
Spiritual leader Prem Baba highlights the need for people to have the courage to innovate. “As I’ve said, we are in the midst of a revolution of consciousness. And I think the main aspect of this revolution is the courage to become spiritual in a secular way”, explains Prem Baba. “Our challenge is to open the way to build self-knowledge, which allows us, among other things, freedom and self-confidence.”
Prem Baba lists the new subjects that should be included in the school curriculum in the discipline of spirituality: “self-observation, conflict mediation, emotion management, mastery of the mind, democratic values, human rights, comprehension and the respect for the environment and art, which is the element that connects all this knowledge. This is all part of spiritual awareness.”
For the teacher, the preparation of children and adults for the future after covid-19 requires, in the first place, the creation of spaces that allow them to be themselves. “We need to welcome these children and young people, since many are not even understanding yet what is going on. And the escape from this war scenario in which we are living in is the internet, which in turn is a minefield”, explains Prem Baba. “But how can we embrace the children if we ourselves are broken inside? We can only give what we have”, he admits.
Prem Baba is sure that the first step of implementing the project to spiritualize education is to strengthen educators with adequate training for the new cycle of human evolution.
“I propose the creation of spaces to dialogue and promote ideas, like a greenhouse for projects of this nature. A space to make reflections together, having the courage to put everything on the table and especially with the humility to recognize that we do not have all the answers, that we do not know how to do it, and that, together, we will learn to create the world we want to live in”, concludes Prem Baba.
In another text, spiritual master Sri Prem Baba talks in detail about relationships and marriage and explains the reason why they are the school for self-knowledge. Read it here!
