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There’s a question that has quietly stayed with me for a long time:
If happiness and peace are what everyone ultimately wants, then why doesn’t our education system focus on teaching us how to achieve them?

We spend years in school learning how to solve equations, write exams, build careers, and compete in the world.

We are trained to think, to analyze, and to achieve. But somewhere along the way, a more fundamental question is left unanswered – how do we live well?

This question becomes even more striking when we look at our own cultural heritage.

Texts like the Ramayana have, for generations, offered not just stories, but frameworks for living – ideas of duty, integrity, relationships, sacrifice, and inner balance.

For many, these are not just religious ideas, but deeply human ones.

And yet, after independence, such texts were not a central part of formal education.

At first glance, this feels like a loss. If these texts carry wisdom about life, why wouldn’t we teach them to everyone?

But the answer lies in the kind of nation India chose to become.

India defined itself as a secular country – one that belongs equally to people of all religions and beliefs.

In such a diverse society, making any one religious text compulsory in schools could feel exclusionary.

If one tradition is formally taught, others might feel left out.

To avoid this, the education system moved toward neutrality – focusing on shared, universal knowledge rather than specific spiritual traditions.

The intention was unity.

But somewhere in that process, something subtle may have been lost.

Modern education became excellent at answering one set of questions:
How do I succeed?
How do I build a career?
How do I compete?

But it became less effective at answering another:
How do I find peace?
How do I deal with anger, fear, or dissatisfaction?
What does it mean to live a good life?

This gap is something many people feel, even if they don’t always express it clearly.

At the same time, it’s important to recognize that simply teaching a text, even one as rich as the Ramayana, would not automatically solve this problem.

Values are not absorbed just by reading; they are lived, experienced, and reflected upon. A textbook alone cannot transform a person’s character.

So perhaps the real issue is not whether one particular text should have been made compulsory.

Perhaps the deeper question is this:
Can education balance knowledge with wisdom?

Imagine an approach where students are exposed not just to one tradition, but to many, where the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and even global works of philosophy and literature are explored, not as religious instruction, but as sources of insight into human life.

Where discussions are encouraged, not beliefs imposed. Where students are invited to think about meaning, not just memorize information.

Such an approach would not divide, and it could deepen understanding.

Because at the end of the day, beneath all differences, human beings are not that different in what they seek.

Everyone, in their own way, is searching for happiness.
Everyone wants a sense of peace.

Some look for it in success, some in relationships, some in spirituality, and some in quiet self-reflection. The paths differ, but the destination feels similar.

The challenge is that many of us are taught how to chase things, but not how to understand ourselves.

We are prepared for the world outside, but not always for the world within.

And that may be why, even in a time of progress and opportunity, restlessness still feels so common.

Education, at its best, should do both. It should equip us to live in the world and also help us make sense of life itself.

Perhaps the goal is not to go back or to replace what we have, but to expand it. To create a system where skill and self-understanding grow together.

Because in the end, success without peace feels incomplete.
And knowledge without direction can feel empty.

If education can begin to address both, then it will not just create capable individuals, it will help shape balanced human beings.

And maybe that’s what we were really looking for all along.