Education as Service | Page 6

set a good example himself. Three of these
are put by my Master under the head of cruelties caused by superstition.
1. Animal sacrifice. Among civilised nations this is now found only in
India, and is tending to disappear even there. Parents and teachers

should tell their boys that no custom which is cruel is really part of any
true religion. For we have seen that religion teaches unity, and therefore
kindness and gentleness to everything that feels. God cannot therefore
be served by cruelty and the killing of helpless creatures. If Indian boys
learn this lesson of love in school they will, when they become men,
put an end entirely to this cruel superstition.
2. Much more widely spread is what my Master calls "the still more
cruel superstition that man needs flesh for food." This is a matter that
concerns the parent more than the teacher, but at least the teacher may
gradually lead his boys to see the cruelty involved in killing animals for
food. Then, even if the boy is obliged to eat meat at home, he will give
it up when he is a man, and will give his own children a better
opportunity than he himself had. If parents at home and teachers at
school would train young children in the duty of loving and protecting
all living creatures, the world would be much happier than it is at
present.
3. "The treatment which superstition has meted out to the depressed
classes in our beloved India," says the Master, is a proof that "this evil
quality can breed heartless cruelty even among those who know the
duty of Brotherhood." To get rid of this form of cruelty every boy must
be taught the great lesson of love, and much can be done for this in
school as well as at home. The boy at school has many special
opportunities of learning this lesson, and the teacher should point out
the duty of showing courtesy and kindness to all who are in inferior
positions, as well as to the poor whom he may meet outside. All who
know the truth of reincarnation should realise that they are members of
one great family, in which some are younger brethren and some elder.
Boys must be taught to show gentleness and consideration to servants,
and to all who are below them in social position; caste was not intended
to promote pride and rudeness, and Manu teaches that servants should
be treated as the children of the family.
A great part of the teacher's work lies in the playground, and the
teacher who does not play with his boys will never quite win their
hearts. Indian boys as a rule do not play enough, and time should be

given for games during the school day. Even the teachers who have not
learned to play in their youth should come to the playground and show
interest in the games, thus sharing in this part of the boy's education.
In schools where there are boarding-houses the love of the teacher is
especially necessary, for in them the boarding-house must take the
place of the home, and a family feeling must be created there. Bright
and affectionate teachers will be looked on as elder brothers, and
difficulties which escape rules will be got rid of by love.
In fact, all the many activities of school life should be made into
channels through which affection can run between teacher and pupil,
and the more channels there are the better it will be for both. As the boy
grows older these channels will naturally become more numerous, and
the love of the school will become the friendship of manhood. Thus
love will have her perfect work.
Love on the physical plane has many forms. We have the love of
husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, the
affection between relatives and friends. But all these are blended and
enriched in the love of the Master to His disciple. The Master gives to
His pupil the gentleness and protection of a mother, the strength of a
father, the understanding of a brother or a sister, the encouragement of
a relative or a friend, and He is one with His pupil and His pupil is a
part of Him. Besides this, the Master knows His pupil's past, and His
pupil's future, and guides him through the present from the past into the
future. The pupil knows but little beyond the present, and he does not
understand that great love which draws its inspiration from the memory
of the past and shapes itself to mould the powers of the future. He may
even sometimes doubt the wisdom of the love which guides itself
according to a pattern which his eyes cannot see.
That which I have