Why education is the most powerful tool in the world

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”

— Nelson Mandela

This statement is a cliche now. Almost everyone agrees that education is the fundamental route to living a successful and happy life. But I want to explore the more mystical reasons behind the power of education and learning. Why is it exactly that by hearing mere sounds, and seeing assorted letters, can the “daughter of a peasant become a doctor” as Mandela phrased it.

Let us begin by understanding the way God has constructed the world. There are two components to the world: ideality, or thought and materiality or body. The former is infinite and the latter is finite. Moreover thought sees the world from inside itself; body sees itself from the external world. It was exactly this dichotomy between true reality (thought) and appearance (body) which Plato famously elaborated in his brilliant metaphor of the cave, and which subsequently came to define Western philosophy for the next two millennia. Thought is the thing-in-itself famously said to be impenetrable by Immanuel Kant.

It is only by understanding thought do we tap into the infinite mind of God, limitless and continuously being revealed. And here is the kick, it is because we are pieces of God that we are merely learning about ourselves. Our knowledge becomes us. This is why a man or a woman who studies and writes poetry becomes a poet, or if they study for its own sake for long enough, a philosopher.

We carry around our knowledge, that is to say, we are our essence, throughout our lives and only lose it practically due to the ageing of the body. I am of the opinion that knowledge is eternal, eternally stored within our souls, kept deep within the individual and collective Unconscious. It is for this reason that many people can recall past lives. But this is a digression.

Education unlocks the mystery of the universe, one step at a time. Moreover, God will only develop a relationship with someone to the extent he has realized his godliness within. Here we must bring in the additional concept of faith. God develops his relationship with someone on the basis of his intellect or his faith or some combination of the two.A man who has never taken the chance to read in his life, or to pay attention to the wisdom and knowledge of others is a mere beast (this also presumes he has no faith), undistinguishable from animals. And hence God will only have a relationship with that person on his level, i.e. as he treats other animals. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the prophet is so steeped within godliness and knowledge that God is willing to communicate with them, either through dreams or face-to-face as was the case with Moses.

And at the end of the day, God controls everything. It is only because of your relationship with God that you will achieve anything in life, definitionally. What you can do for yourself, ignoring the faith side of the equation, is to study as vigorously as possible. Because God will then place you where you are needed in the divine geometry of society. And the rewards are surely to follow.