All posts tagged Purpose of education

The Story called “SUCCESS”

Rajesh (name changed), an IIM graduate, six digit earning per month, having absolute clarity about where he wants to be in life, 27 years of age, things going quite well… What else does one aspire for? Wouldn’t the parents be happy for having nurtured such an individual? This is success indeed.

Alas! Not.

This guy is facing severe stress these days. Not due to work load at office, but due to health reasons. He complains of bleeding each time he passes out feces. On diagnosis, it was identified that there are ulcers in his colon and it has been damaged very badly. He had very poor eating habits for close to a decade – to achieve academic excellence. While in college he frequently gave long gap between meals apart from regularly skipping breakfast and/or meals. Sleep also has been a casuality. A successful and sought after professional is afraid to get into the toilet. What a Paradox ?!?

This is a common denominator for most youngsters of the current generation – a lifestyle prevalent among children once they enter class nine. The same intensifies on entering prestigious institutions like IITs, IIMs and the likes. They get so much used to that kind of life-style, the trend is carried to their professional life as well. Select few are fortunate enough to not fall into this kind of lifestyle trap. The effect of poor lifestyle on physical and hence mental and emotional health is very trivial in the initial stages. The compounding power of money is taught in the school, but they fail to mention that the same principle applies to health as well.

Is academic excellence alone the deciding factor for success in life ?!?

Fill the following grid to verify the truth behind this notion. Some are done for you…

 

Successful

Un-Successful

   Educated 

Abdul Kalam

—————–

—————–

—————–

—————–

Osama Bin Laden

—————–

—————–

—————–

—————–

School/College

drop outs

or Uneducated

Rajni Kanth

—————–

—————–

—————–

—————–

 

 

Who notes them?

This exercise is not to undermine the importance of academic education. The idea is to give academic excellence its right position, in the overall excellence and balance that needs to be achieved. It also is intended to give an appropriate definition to education – which should be man making and life-fulfilling. It is definitely not simply literary or intellectual understanding about scientific facts and figures.

In pursuit of success (Read: money) people increasingly ignore one or more of the following – health, relationships, ethics, values, environment, etc., It was shared in an earlier post, how eight wealthiest individuals ended their life in a pathetic manner. Instances like Rajesh, which we come across more commonly these days, also stand testimony to the fact – financial success is not true success.

Ancient Indian Wisdom prescribes that, at the worldly level, goal of life is to achieve wealth and security (Artha), enjoy rightful pleasures (Kama) in a harmonious manner (Dharma) and remain free from pain and stress (Moksha). The focus here is on the term harmonious manner – Dharma. It is only when we earn wealth and enjoy pleasures in harmony, do we find peace and happiness in life.

Harmony should first be achieved at the individual level and then extended to the societal level. Individual victory can only lead one to collective or inter-personal victory. At the individual level there needs to be harmony between intentions, thoughts, words and actions. The head, heart and hands need to integrate. One way to achieve this is to use the vital force (Prana) to regulate the physical, mental, psychic and intellectual domains of an individual.

Like the cells in a physical body are harmoniously and organically integrated, the members of a society need to be organically integrated to achieve harmony in the society. At the outset, this may seem Utopian or philosophical statement. But, a close observation of the history of civilizations will reveal the truth.

One cell in the body may or may not decide the functioning of its neighbor cell. But it definitely can and does respond in an appropriate manner based on the functioning of the neighbouring cells. Such response alone helps a physical body to remain fit and healthy.

Similarly, we may or may not be able to decide the actions of other elements around us. But we definitely have the ability to make a choice, to prevail upon the choice and decide our response to every situation we are faced with. These choices determine our level of happiness and hence our level of success.

This is the unique blessing of humans… the power to prevail over a choice with the help of WILL.

What are the choices we are making?

How informed are we in making our choices?

How discrete are we in making our choices?

A Happily Successful person is one who makes the RIGHT CHOICES, before exercising his WILL over the choices.

3 Comments
by Ankur on May 11, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Ankur's Thoughts, Aug 2013, Finance & Career, Intellectual, Mental, Practical Aspects from Scriptures, Social, Uvacha
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Posted by Ankur on May 11, 2013

https://ankurlearningsolutions.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/the-story-called-success/

Education is The Manifestation of The Perfection Already in Man – Swami Vivekananda

This is a famous and most often quoted quote on education by Swami Vivekananda. It clearly demonstrates the clarity and crispness with which Swami Vivekananda delivered his messages.

As I was contemplating on this quote this morning, three important messages popped out from this statement – Manifestation, The Perfection, Already in Man…

Manifestation – It is not assimilation, but Manifestation Swamiji is talking about. The learning has to be manifested. Something is said to be manifested only when it finds an expression. Mere intellectualisation of concepts and ideas do not suffice. True education is to see that the learning has manifested in us and our works.

Agreed! One cannot change overnight. But, there is no purpose going on learning hundred things, without giving them scope to find expression in our life. It is advisable to take one thing at a time and incorporate it into our system, before we say we have learnt that. This holds true, especially for life lessons.

Perfection – Whatever we learn should be manifested. But the question arises… what should we learn? What should be manifested? Swamiji talks of manifestation of perfection. As it is the case with most of Ancient Indian Scriptural Concepts – Perfection, as used by Swami Vivekananda needs to be viewed from two levels/perspectives.

At the spiritual level, it denotes the divinity or completeness of an individual. The perfection or divinity in man should find expression as a result of education. In Swamiji’s own words…

“The Light Divine within is obscured in most people. It is like a lamp in a cask of iron, no gleam of light can shine through. Gradually, by purity and unselfishness, we can make the obscuring medium less and less dense, until at last it becomes transparent as glass”

Here Swamiji talks not only about the Divine within, but also the means by which that Divinity has to be brought out. More on this in a later blog.

At the practical, worldly or empirical level, perfection denotes the ability to address various problems human beings encounter in society. Again in Swamiji’s words…

“The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle for life, which does not bring out the strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion – is it worth the name? Real education is that which enables one to stand on one’s own legs.”

Education must provide “life-building, man-making and character making” assimilation of ideas so as to develop an integrated person – one who has learned how to improve his intellect, purify his heart, handle his emotions and stand firm on moral virtues and unselfishness.

Already in Man – This is the key principle in the above quote. The perfection which has to be manifested, Swamiji declares – is already in man. When we already have it, what is the role of education? What are we learning? The process of education is actually a process of purification. A process by which we realise the perfectness within. A process which brings out the strength within and makes us courageous like a lion and help us stand on our own legs in this society.

Here lies the critical role of an educator – be it a parent at home or a teacher at school.

Here lies the importance of making education student centric.

It is an educator’s responsibility to throw light on the strengths of the student and facilitate ways and means to bring out those strengths, so as to nurture a confident and courageous adult. His/her role is that of a farmer, not a sculptor.

10 Comments
by Ankur on March 19, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Ankur's Thoughts, Education System, Experts Speak, Intellectual, Mental, Physical, Sep 2013, Social, Spiritual, Swami Vivekananda, The Educator, Uvacha
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Posted by Ankur on March 19, 2013

https://ankurlearningsolutions.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/education-is-the-manifestation-of-the-perfection-already-in-man-swami-vivekananda/

Learning… The Right Contact with the World…

Every object or being in this world has an inherent nature which we identify them with.

We identify fire with heat, water with wetness/dampness, sugar with sweetness, salt with saltiness, fox with cunning nature, cow with compassion, rock by hardness, etc.,  Their inherent nature gives them their identity. Objects and beings may have many other properties, but they are essential identified with one specific property. If there is no saltiness we do not call it salt. Sugar generally goes with calories as well, but these days people have identified sugar devoid of or with very low calories… but it has sweetness and is hence designated as sugar.

Similarly, Humans have an inherent nature and that is called as humaneness. Being Humane is not just about love and compassion towards fellow beings and environment. It is something more than that. All beings go by their basic instincts of hunger, fear and sex. It is only Humans who have an intelligence, that can think beyond this. It is only they who can use their intellect intelligently and use it to maintain a right kind of contact with the world.

People generally identify themselves with their body, mind and intellect. Body relates to senses and sense indulgence, Mind to its emotions and feelings and intellect to thoughts and ideas. These faculties are available in different proportions to all beings. It is proven that even plants and animals have feelings and emotions and they respond to feelings and emotions expressed to them. Many birds and mammals also have intellect and they use it to fulfill the three basic instincts. However, it is only Humans who have an intelligence to exercise a choice in using his faculties of body-mind-intellect. Humans have the ability to choose. They can choose the thoughts they entertain and ideas they forbid. Based on the chosen thoughts and ideas they entertain, they determine the kind of contact they maintain with the objects and beings around.

Fire is identified with heat. However, based on the substratum and surrounding environment we get different kinds of flames and thus the heat it emanates varies. This determines the quality of fire and we use various kinds of fires for various applications.

Similarly, the nature of human beings vary in the extent and the way this intelligence is used. As in the case of fire, environment does play a significant role in the development of this intelligence in human beings. Right kind of environment during his early formative years determines the extent to which this intelligence is developed in him and the way he responds to his environment during his later years.

The environment, circumstances and incidents one comes across are not in his control. Seldom does a person has the ability to make a choice here. However, he always has the choice to choose his response to the circumstances or environment he is in.

One may meet with an accident (No exercise of choice) and chose the way to respond to the after effects of the accident.

One may be offered a bounty feast (No exercise of choice) and chose the way he indulges his senses to that feast… chose what and how much to eat

One may win an olympic medal (limited exercise of choice… as it is also dependent on other’s performance and preparedness) and chose the way to respond… be Thankful for all those who helped and trained or exhibit arrogance and brag about his achievement.

Let’s take a couple of  live examples…

Both Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare protested and made demonstrations against corruption and the government. They both exercised their choice. The government then responded by trying and arresting both in different instances. This they had little control over. But the way they both responded during the time of their arrest evoked absolutely different kinds of responses from the general public and also the who’s who in the country. The idea here is not to make a judgement about the right response or their intelligence, but only to demonstrate that one has the freedom to make a choice.

Here is a man, Spencer West, who lost his legs as a child, but scales 19,000ft-high Kilimanjaro by crawling on his HANDS for seven days…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2162085/Disabled-man-legs-climbs-Mount-Kilimanjaro-Spencer-West-scales-mountain-using-HANDS.html

Exercise of choices is determined by one’s intelligence. True Intelligence and humaneness lie in using one’s sense objects, one’s emotions and one’s mental and intellectual faculties to maintain the right kind of contact with the objects and beings in this world so that one lives in harmony with this world.

Learning the art of living is in Learning the right kind of contact one has to make with this World… and the foundation for this learning is laid down while one is in mother’s womb and significantly developed and determined during his formative years in school.

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by Ankur on August 1, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Ankur's Thoughts, Aug 2014, Education System, Intellectual, Mental, Social, The Educator, Uvacha
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Posted by Ankur on August 1, 2012

https://ankurlearningsolutions.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/learning-the-right-contact-with-the-world/

Discontent to Freedom… to Independence

J Krishnamurti says…

Conformity leads to mediocrity… Revolt is of two kinds: there is violent revolt, which is mere reaction, without understanding, against the existing order; and there is the deep psychological revolt of intelligence… which is not reaction, and which comes with self-knowledge through the awareness of one’s thought and feeling.

He further adds… “If those who are young have the spirit of enquiry, if they are constantly searching out the truth of all things, political and religious, personal and environmental, then youth will have great significance and there is hope for a better world… The Young if they are at all alive, are full of hope of discontent; they must be, otherwise they are already old and dead… Most parents and teachers are afraid of discontent because it is disturbing to all forms of security, and so they encourage the young to overcome it through safe jobs, inheritance, marriage and the consolation of religious dogmas… We must understand discontent, of which most of us are afraid. Discontent may bring what appears to be disorder, but if it leads, as it should to self-knowledge and self-abnegation, then it will create a new social order and enduring peace. With self-abnegation comes immeasurable joy.

Discontent is the means to freedom… It is the burning desire to inquire, not the easy imitation of multitude, that will bring about a new understanding of the ways of life…”

We are all aware that, if we want to have different results, we need to do different things and in different ways. But what is that different way? How do we know that? It is this creative discontent that is born out of SELF KNOWLEDGE AND INTELLIGENCE… will ultimately lead us to the right answer.

The emphasis here is on the words Self-Knowlegde and Intelligence. Intelligence is normally mistaken for knowledge or accumulation of information… Conventional Education focuses on equipping children with this kind of intelligence which is nothing but intellectual knowledge. Mere accumulation of information is only one part of learning… a part of Intelligence. Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is in its entirety as a whole. Intellectual knowledge is about the thought functioning independent of emotion, whereas, intelligence is the capacity to feel as well as reason; and we need to approach life with intelligence, instead of intellect alone or with emotion alone. It is through this integrated approach one can gain self-knowledge. When one observes his thoughts, feelings and actions in a dispassionate manner which is self-abnegation all about, he can gain self-knowledge. Such knowledge will make one inwardly rich, filled with love and free from fear and as a process of its natural expansion and sharing with the child, he will help the child to also become internally rich, full of confidence and free from fear.

Thus, it is a natural requisite for the parents and the teachers (who are educators) to first understand themselves and grow rich and independent, internally before moving forward to providing the right kind of education to the children. Such educators who themselves are filled with creative discontent, will be able to nurture the naturally available creative discontent and absorptive learning capacity in a child. They then will be able to understand and appreciate the inquisitive nature in a child… the discontent in them leading to revolt against the existing values (which is a reason for all the stress and strain in modern life) and establishing a new world order which is based on the foundations of Love.

2 Comments
by Ankur on May 7, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Ankur's Thoughts, J Krishnamurti, The Educator
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Posted by Ankur on May 7, 2012

https://ankurlearningsolutions.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/discontent-to-freedom-to-independence/