Education as the Way to Achieve World Peace and Unity

EDUCATION, 29 Dec 2025

Surya Nath Prasad - TRANSCEND Media Service

Problem of War

Today we are living in a war weary world. We, really, have been drifting from one war to another. There have been two major world wars in the present century, and, as events are proving, we are heading towards the third. Besides that there is much data from the past available to prove peoples of all nations have never been free from wars. Democratic nations such as Greece, England, France, the Netherlands and the United States waged war, on an average, during 57, 56, 50, 44, and 49 years respectively, (including the main Indian wars) in every hundred years of their history. The figures for such relatively autocratic nations as ancient Rome, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Austria are 41, 28, 46, 36, 67, and 40 years respectively¹.

From 1480 to 1940 there were about twenty-six hundred important battles. Of these battles Great Britain participated in 22 per cent; France in 47 per cent; the Netherlands in 8 per cent; Russia in 22 per cent: Germany (Prussia) in 25 per cent: Austria-Hungry in 34 per cent; Turkey in 15 per cent; Spain in 12 per cent.²

The same results are found if we measure the burden of war by the relative casualties for a given unit of population in the specified nations, as follows³:

However, these are old data while we have still fresh data of casualties in the war of Bangla Desh are just double casualties in two world wars i.e. at about 30 lacs.

For Democratic countries

CENTURIES

XX                 XIX                XVIII                  XVII

England       66.5                  5.0                  30.1                    22.0

France          92.0                 51.0                 45.8                    36.6

Holland        0.00                  5.7                  84.4                   161.0

For Autocratic countries

CENTURIES

XX⁴                 XIX                XVIII                  XVII

Spain            2.2                  11.0                 11.8                       ?

Italy             52.4                    –                       –                          –

Russia          41.1                 11.1                 21.5                     7.9

Germany      94.7                 13.1                    –                          –

Austria         48.0                  5.8                  94.0                   130.0

All nations of the world, in fact, are more or less prone to wars. The idea of war is still among the people of North and South Vietnam, East and West Germany, Russia and China, Russia and America, Israel and the Arab countries, Pakistan and India etc. One of them may be defensive but still that one also invests a huge amount of national income in the production of arms and ammunition and in increasing military power. Dr. Radhakrishnan⁵ also asserts that one of the two prominent features of our time is the development of nuclear weapons. Krishnamurti⁶ has a strong belief that although war is so obviously detrimental to society, we prepare for war and develop in the young the military spirit. “If we want our children to be efficient killers,” says Krishnamurti, “then military training is necessary. If we like death and destruction, military training is obviously important. It is the function of generals to plan and carry on war, and if our intention is to have constant battle between ourselves and our neighbors, then by all means let us have more general.” Perhaps all nations have the wrong belief that in the absence of aggression or war the human race may be destroyed from the earth. This is why any nation helps an aggressive nation to grow.

People in their own nations are surrounded with the air of violence. Violence, in fact, has become a way of life. Thus in the present world, everywhere, in the family, schools, universities, factories, hospitals etc., unrest, protest, corruption are seen in forms of juvenile delinquency, crime, student unrest, worker unrest, suicide, homicide, genocide etc. The unrest or violence within a nation is reflected among other nations of the world. And it turns gradually from national to world war.

Wrong Diagnosis

It is an ancient misconception that the battle between God (good) and the Devil (evil) in the minds of men happens perpetually. In the preamble of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) also there has been mentioned, “Since wars begin in the minds of men it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed….” A great Sarvodaya leader Shri Jaiprakash Narayan also in his convocational address at the University of Mysore on 29^th November 1965 put forward a similar view as to the roots of war in men’s minds as being in their system of education. Dr. Radhakrishnan⁷ observes the root cause of war as fear and hatred of each other.

It is wrong to think that wars or the roots of war exist only in the minds of men. To understand the roots of war as being in the system of education is also not correct as it is based on the system of society and the form of Government that propound a particular philosophy of life. It is still wrong to think that fear and hatred of each other are root causes of war. In fact men at birth are neither war-minded nor peace-minded. Wars are the outcome of damping down the potentialities inherent in men and women. Peace is the result of proper unfolding of the energies of men and women.

Man has been understood partially in all ages and places. He is never conceived integrally except at Regvedic period. This is why the partial or compartmental education that is introduced to unfold the partial energies of man has developed into either selfishness as man realizes his material self or alienation by denying his material self, in realizing only his spiritual self.

Selfishness among the people gives rise to materialism and alienation from worldly affairs supports the spiritualism. Materialism has developed a discipline named the science for prosperity. Spiritualism has given birth to religion for peace. Thus at present science has facilitated many things for human prosperity but it has also helped to lose humanity’s peace of mind.

A.N. Whitehead⁸ says, “Religion is the force of belief cleansing the inward parts. For this reason the primary religious virtue is sincerity, a penetrating sincerity. Religion is the art and theory of the internal life of man.” It is true that religion has led men to transcend the self to higher self or to the level of God, or utmost peace, but at the same time it makes men to be bankrupt with prosperity that ultimately leads men to regress even to acquire lower prosperity. Thus due to the wrong understanding of man the present world has lost peace and prosperity for all and has the great problem of war and poverty. A renowned psychologist Prof. Lalji Ram Shukla⁹ rightly observes that “the real problem is ignored. The human soul is unhappy and so the world we live in is unhappy. The soul is unhappy because its highest demands – the demands of knowing its own true nature, are ignored and man is busy with unessential things of life. The central purpose of life being ignored there can be no integration of human personality and so the world must be an unhappy world. Peace and harmony which we are seeking in our social and political life are wanting in our mental life. Till a right philosophy of life guides human affairs neither the individual nor society as a whole will be happy.”

Mere religion also fails to bring peace in the minds of man. Religion gives more emphasis on the realization of spirit by denying biological self of the man. It is a jump by repression of biological needs to spiritual. It has led to a large number of alienated individuals. They really do not disturb the peace of others but they themselves are disturbed. However, in the long run they also show their biological repression in violent actions. Thus they also disturb the peace.

Science alone also is not able to bring peace within the individual, and in the world as a whole. It always has led unrest and war among the peoples of the nations. Pandit Jawahar Nehru¹⁰ rightly observed, “Modern Science and Scientists have let loose the enormous power that cannot be bottled up again, and violence can only lead to the destruction of the world and the complete extermination of the whole human race. Non-violent methods must therefore be adopted if the human race is to survive.”

Even the scientists all over the world have begun to feel that the essential first step towards safety lies in the formal renunciation of war. The manifesto signed by Einstein, Bertrand Russell and other leading scientists calling on governments to renounce war, shows that science and scientists have no power to control war. Even the world community of the U.N.O. also has failed to control wars as it has deprived members from the different sick nations of the world. Nevertheless war cannot be stopped as long as man is understood partially.

False Remedy Adopted

Peace was always maintained by wars even in the ancient world. The history of the whole world still carries this truth that no nation has been peace-minded. No era has been warless. In ancient India wars were fought by Shri Ramchandra with the help of an army of monkeys and five Pandavas with the help of Lord Shrikrishna to maintain pence in Ramayana and Mahabharata Age respectively. The writer of Ramayana Sage Balmiki was a great robber who killed many innocent people of that time before he became a Sage or Rishi. Angulimala was a cruel criminal before he became an Arahat or Buddhist. King Ashoka having killed his own brothers became a Buddhist and propagated this religion in foreign countries. Christ and Gandhi were killed in the effort to maintain peace in society. Now-a-days peace is being maintained by negotiations and increasing arms and munition and also with wars. However, peace achieved through wars is one of the causes of wars still in future. In fact, to believe that peace can be achieved through violence is to sacrifice the present for a future ideal; and this seeking of a right end through wrong means is one of the causes of the present disaster, J. Krishnamurti. ¹¹

Nevertheless this remedy could never bring permanent peace as remedy being based on false diagnosis. But it encourages a chronic type of violence establishing narrow religious institution or sect or selfish community or nation, and in the name of their own sector, nation people do not hesitate to commit violent acts. J. Krishnamurti¹² rightly observes that nationalism breeds war. In every country the government, encouraged by organized religion, is upholding nationalism and separatist spirit. Nationalism is a disease; it can never bring about world unity.

The Right Concept of Man and Education

The term man is ambiguous. He must be conceived correctly otherwise a false notion about him would be narrated that frames the wrong aims for life and ultimately distorted objectives for education would be constructed. Man is a composite whole. He is an integrated physical, vital, mental, intellectual, and spiritual entity. These are known as energies or potentialities or needs of man.

In the Vedic Age man was really understood as Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas (Spiritual, psychological (mental) and biological) as an integrated whole with each aspect to be developed equally. For this reason, in ancient India when the concepts and practice of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (World Family) were in action, during that very period India was called “Jagat Guru” (World Teacher), Peoples from all over the world not only were attracted towards Indian society but they made their homes here for the realization of all potentialities inherent in them. Later deprived peoples from other sides of the world were attracted towards Indian society not for the realization of their energies but in order to acquire the prosperity of the land. This was the time when “sickness in Indian culture”¹³ entered and it was the beginning of misunderstanding of the nature of man here also. And a monotheistic society gradually gave way to a dualistic and polytheistic view. God, really, is not outside but inside. The fundamental theme of all religion is the same. Our Veda says about God as “Aham Brahmasmi” (I am the Gold). The Bible says, “The Kingdom of God is within us”. The Koran says, “Insaan Allah Ka Ek Kunaba Hai”. It means every man is the family of God. He can gradually approach the transcendence of God by unfolding all his energies integrally.

Imbalance in the unfolding of energies increases insanity and war. Plato also realized man as having Appetite, Courage and Intellect. But he had doubt as to the realization of all energies by all men. This was why he categorized man as of three types and their respective activities. Sri Aurobindo also considered man as an integrated whole including the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual, that should provide full scope for development. Again society fails to provide opportunity to all men for the realization of their energies. If a society provides opportunity to a maximum number of individuals by giving equal emphasis for the unfoldment of their inherent energies, the persons of that very society will have integrated personalities and their adjustment with themselves and others would be more reality, sane and co-operative. Only this type of people would be peace-minded.

Education has no meaning apart from human being. It is a relative term. It is for men, not for animals. It is only man who is capable of being educated. The education of men depends on their nature. The nature of men is based on their needs or energies or potentialities which may be classified as biological, vital, mental, intellectual, and spiritual. Biological needs are hunger, thirst, sleep and sex; vital needs are air and mental needs are water, freedom spontaneity and genuine expression of self. Intellectual needs are fire, speech, thinking, reflection, judgment, and scientific curiosity; and Spiritual needs are faith, prayer, praise, giving, and acts of love and mercy. Shri Aurobindo and the Mother also correctly understood that education to be complete must have five principal aspects relating to the five activities of the human being: the physical, the vital, the mental, the intellectual and the spiritual. Usually, these phases of education succeed each other in a chronological order following the growth of the individual. This however, does not mean that one replaces another but that all must continue, completely in each other, till the end of lif0e.¹⁴

The education can better respond to the nature and needs of men in relation to their life through its agencies – both formal and informal. Formal agencies of education are those agencies which are set up more or less deliberately by the society. Such agencies are school, library, museums, art gallery, recreational centres etc. Informal agencies of education include all those agencies that tend to impart knowledge and modify disposition in an incidental way, are family, religion, television, radio, newspaper, community, society, state etc. The aim and function of these agencies are to realize all the needs of energies of individuals and provide them proper opportunity to be satisfied or unfolded. And then the five elements of an integrated self may appear.

The Nature of Society and the Education of Man

Society is basically organized in terms of the functions necessary to satisfy the needs or to unfold the energies of men and women. If it fails to do so, it results in unrest and war in a given society and among all societies. Erich Fromm¹⁵ rightly observes that if a person fails to attain freedom, spontaneity, a genuine expression of self, he may be considered to have a severe defect, provided we assume that freedom and spontaneity are the objective goals to be attained by every human being. If such a goal is not attained by the majority of members of any given society, the whole social pattern becomes defective. R.K. Mukerjee¹⁶ also thinks “Man’s social regression is associated with the pursuit of disvalues… . Disvalues are institutional and coercive and violent anti-social actions of groups are social… Sometimes the entire social organization of the million of civilization becomes pathological….” Therefore, a defective society is a basic cause of war and unrest in the world.

Therefore, peace must be defined in terms of the adjustment of society to the needs or energies of man rather than conformity of man to social norms. The imposed conformity to social norm results in violent revolutions throughout society. But natural conformity to social norms is indispensable when human potentialities or energies would be unfolded integrally.

Today, the various societies of the whole world, except Communist, (particularly as Sound in Russian Society), are failing to provide opportunities to the maximum number of their members to unfold their energies properly. Even democratic and socialistic societies which have accepted the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity are not successful in the realization of all the potentialities of the maximum number of their peoples. Constitutionally people of democratic societies have so many socialistic rights, but in practice, a very few affluent people of those very societies can avail themselves of these rights. Political democracy is nothing more than the strong protection of capitalism. How is it that the rich and poor people of democratic societies that were capitalistic in nature at a time having equal rights to property after adopting democratic principles are still rich and poor? There is no hope in mere political democracy for the poor to become rich if they do not get more than equal rights to be rich. It is a fact that in a politically democratic society many people cannot have a good education because they are poor, and they continue to remain poor because mere political democracies as they are capitalistic in nature cannot provide integral education for all. Thus people of politically democratic societies move in vicious circle. Thus we need social democracy in all societies of the whole world for the realization of the full potentialities of all men and women.

In Russia social democracy is enforced. Here people get ample opportunities to unfold their potentialities. This is why Russia has framed education for labour, culture and society. However, Russia also fails to realize the full potentialities of men i.e. psychological and spiritual. Today there is a need of such societies which can provide opportunities for the unfolding of all energies synthetically and the concept of integral education can be propagated and initiated in all societies to achieve natural peace and prosperity in the world.

Nevertheless, the objective is still not one society or nation, but world community which includes many nations as suggested by the name of Auroville – The City of New Life (Dawn). It is sponsored by Shri Aurobindo to give a concrete shape to the ideal. The Mother declared: “Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities”. To realize all the potentialities of man, Shri Aurobindo International Centre of Education has been established. The object is to evolve a systematic integral education and to provide full scope for the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual development of men. But it is not clear how integral education can be helpful for deprived peoples of the world.

Global Need of Two-Fold Education

The present world really needs two-fold education for the correction of faults in the existing generation, and proper development of the energies of the coming generation. Compensatory education to benefit deprived people and integral education to unfold the energies of coming offspring are essential.

The Author¹⁷ of this paper asserts that if people are deprived physically or biologically, future survival of human progeny may be in doubt, as people’s physical development would not only be retarded but even terminated. Similarly if the people suffer psychologically, they may become slaves of their emotions, and normlessness (anomie) in society may increase. Due to the deprivation of intellectual development, people may be mentally retarded. The results will be no surprise and it may be discovered that the whole culture or civilization may regress into a primitive state. Socially deprived people are more tyrannical for the society and, they only plead for war and genocide and society remains in the state of chaos. Spiritually deprived people are always wandering outside in search of God, and such a type of society in which spiritually deprived people live, really is irreligious. It is neither monotheistic nor dualistic. People deprived of all energies are not so harmful as the partially developed ones, since they are retarded in all their energies. But it does not happen so. In every society many of the people are deprived physically, and many in other ways.

Peace and prosperity of society are disturbed due to the continuous rise in the number of deprived peoples in the world. Therefore, these deprived peoples are in need of a type of education that can be truly compensatory. Compensatory education will provide ample and extra opportunities for particular kinds of neglected energy of men to be unfolded. For this perhaps we need a great many talented expert educationists who can diagnose the type and degree of deprivation.

Integral education is essential and beneficial for newly born children. In fact the courses of integral education should be enforced from the very beginning. It should start before birth that is when the baby is conceived by its mother. However, maturity of particular energy should be kept in mind before it is to be unfolded. For the unfoldment of physical energy, play, exercise, sports and games should be introduced, and proper diet should be provided in school or at home. Art, painting, drawing, music, literature should be taught for the release of psychological energies. Philosophy, Ethics, Logic, and Science etc. should be taught and talks, lectures, seminars, symposium and conferences should be organized for the channeling of intellectual energy. Community work, social work, group excursion, and world youth camps should be organized and national and international clubs and pen-friends should be made for the extension of social energy. For spiritual fulfillment, universal religion and regular meditation should be practiced. For the release of all energies a synthetically integrated course should be provided.

However, the concept of compensatory education is not separate but rather complementary in the sense of providing ample and extra opportunities to the deprived individuals for the fullest release of energies that are the same. They may differ in the requirements of facilities to be unfolded.

Nevertheless people of a purely material society or a solely spiritual society are both deprived until they are joined. Both of them require compensatory education to recover peace. Then this peace may reflect itself in all societies of the world. And to prevent the coming generation from suffering this defective compartmental or partial education and to preserve peace and prosperity through integral education man must be realized as an integrated whole by giving equal emphasis to all his parts-the biological, psychological, intellectual, social and spiritual. This integral notion about man bridges the gap between two worlds – the material and spiritual. And only integral education has power in itself to reintegrate the East and West into Global Common Society.

Notes

1. P.A. Sorokin, Social and Cultural Dynamics, American Book Company, 1937,

            III, 348-352, and Reconstruction of Humanity, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, 1962, pp.18-21.

2. Quincy Wright, A Study of War, University of Chicago Press, 1942, p. 220.

3. P.A. Sorokin, Reconstruction of Humanity, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, 1962, p. 19.

4. Only up to 1925.

5. S. Radhakrishnan, Religion, Science and Culture, Hind Pocket Books, 1968, p. 73.

6. J. Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life, Victor Gollancz Ltd.,

1969, pp. 74-75.

7. S. Radhakrishnan, The Present Crisis of Faith, Hind Pocket Books, 1970, p. 10.

8. A.N. Whitehead, An Anthology, Cambridge University Press, 1953, p. 472.

9. L.R. Shukla, Mental Integration, Kashi Manovigyanshala, 1958, pp. 12-13.

10. The statement by Jawaharlal Nehru was made in his speech at the Inauguration of

the Fuel Research Institute in Dhanbad (now in Jharkhand). The speech was

delivered shortly after India’s independence, around the year 1950.

11. J. Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life, Victor Gollancz Ltd.,

1969, p. 82.

12. J. Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life, Victor Gollancz Ltd.

Victor Gollancz Ltd.,   pp. 72-73.

13. For details about the facts of sickness in the cultures of different societies of the world including Sick Indian Culture, See S.N. Prasad, “Social Environment & Mental Diseases,” Social Welfare (New Delhi, June, 1970), pp. 8-9 and 27).

14. Shri Aurobindo and the Mother, On Education, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication

Department, 1956, p. 12.

15. Erich Fromm, The Sane Society, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1959, p. 15.

16. R.K. Mukerjee, The Sickness of Civilization, Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1964, pp. 64-65.

17. S.N. Prasad, Education: Mental Health and World Peace, Author, 1973, pp. 23-24.

____________________________________________

This article is based on the author’s paper: EDUCATION AS THE WAY TO ACHIEVE WORLD PEACE AND UNITY presented at the Fourth Triennial World Union Conference held  from 15-19 December, 1973 on the theme: World Unity – Concept and Practice and published in the Proceedings of the Conference and in World Union Journal, Vol. XIV, No. 1, January-February, 1974, pp. 86-97, and it was also published in Peace Progress – A Journal of IAEWP (Faculty of Education, Hirosaki University, Japan), Vol. 1, No. 1, 1974, pp. 41-49.

Dr. Surya Nath Prasad, Former President of the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP), Retired Professor of Education (India), Former Visiting Professor at Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Peace Education: An International  Journal. dr_suryanathprasad@yahoo.co.in

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 29 Dec 2025.

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