Purpose of education

Education is not mere a mean to meet two ends. Neither it is something to satisfy one's ego. With whole focus of modern education outwardly, only utilitarian aspect of things are taught. Educated person not necessarily in position to understand and practise the basic values of life which a so called uneducated man can follow with his age old wisdom. Even we accept that any knowledge is a double edged sword, by any aspect modern man is not becoming more wise with education. As the purpose itself is not propagating even secular values, we all become expert technicians of a subject without understanding a soul behind it.

Why education is failed to bring any fundamental change in one's nature or help him to evolve with his natural potential? We always talk that the root cause of all problems in developing countries like Bharat is lack of education to masses. It is also claimed that traditionally majority were deprived of basic rights of education by certain class in the name of castism and it is because of Britishers that people of modern Bharat could avail uniform education to everyone. When i see the problems of Bharat even after 60 years of independence following the western concept of education at all levels, I hardly can convince myself that the current format of education is and will solve the problems of our society. We are producing just literate masses without any roots merely trained to earn money by any means.

If we invest to educate coming generations, in the era of globalization and mass communication obviously people will be exposed to everything across the civilizations but without having firm roots on the ground. The result will be more and more cutting of future generations from the very idea of Bharat and producing mere western copy in desi body. By no means I want to devaluate western education system. It has its own strengths and west has built a civilized society on that basis in last few centuries. But the aspirations, goals, requirements of western society are totally different and why one should assume that the same is applicable to us and we cannot progress without following the footprints of the society whose philosophy of looking towards the life is diagonally opposite of the age old wisdom of eastern people? The world need two diagonally opposite ideas and both are necessary and true on its own. People should able to choose from them depending on one's inclination. Unfortunately we are allowing only one idea to develop and that too at the cost of other. We, the people of Bharat are at the diagonally opposite side of looking at the things not merely in past but in today's day to day life. Hence we see conflicts between what we see or practise and what we learn at every stage of the life. Obviously as we are not aware about and not taught about the meaning of what we see or practise, we tend to ridicule using the knowledge we acquire which is meant for totally different purpose.

To elaborate on this I would like to highlight the differences in two philosophies:

Who am i

This is as an old quest as human existence. Approaches may differ but everyone is interested to know the ultimate truth. As there is nothing beyond matter for western philosophy naturally Bharatiya mind will never get answer to this inner journey for him which starts beyond matter.

Matter and energy and consciousness

Western philosophy interprets everything in the language of matter as for them there is nothing beyond it. Bharatiya thinking is that everything is an interplay of energy in different forms. Matter is too a kind of energy. If we penetrate matter then we reach to electrons which is neither matter nor energy as per the latest understanding. This matter-energy is nothing but ever changing part of universe behind which is the primordial consciousness filled everywhere which is same in each living and nonliving thing.

Medicine

Allopathy is concerned only with physical body. Bharatiya philosophy considers the system as psychosomatic which is made up of body-mind-soul. Psychiatry too considers mind as just byproduct of bodily functions and not as independent entity.

Nature-human being relationship

Everything around is made for us and we are here just to exploit it for our benefit. This is what western philosophy believes and practice. Bharatiya darshan says that nature has enough for every-ones need and but not for every-ones greed. We are part of nature and have no special status over other living beings. We should extract only what is required without disturbing the natural balance.

Evolution of Genetic and Karmic code

Darwin's theory explains at physical level,how we are evolved from monkey. This was well known to our ancestors in the form of 'dashawatar tradition'. But this is not enough to explain the reason of ones birth in particular social,cultural and economic background. If everything in this world is governed by certain laws then birth of anyone whether human or amoeba cannot be without logical reason. Here comes the theory of reincarnation which can be easily explained with law of conservation of energy. Hence along with genetic code, karmic code also plays important role in evolution. Evolution is not necessarily always physical but it can be psychological, emotional and spiritual as well.

What one want to achieve in life

Human being is not just a bundle of desires. The ultimate happiness is never possible with materialistic possessions. Education should able to teach us how we can discriminate between 'Shreyas' and 'Preyas' meaning necessary and useful. Freedom is the ultimate thing everyone hankering for, it may be natural, economic, political, social, emotional or spiritual. We cannot feel bondage of next level until we get freed from lower bondage. At the moment we are only concerned about economical freedom and think that we will achieve everything then. But once economic freedom is achieved next bondage can be understood. Bharatiya darshan had experienced these levels long back and accepted that all levels are necessary but one should not stop at any step until the last one and that is to go beyond birth and death cycle.

How all living creatures are related

All living beings has same consciousness. As we only look at the matter, we see each one as unique entity. Once we understood and feel the oneness then we will treat everyone same as we our-self expected to be treated by others. Education can play vital role to mould young minds in early years. But we have no such thing in present day education which has emphasis on right than duties.

All paths leads to same truth

Bharatiya darshan believes that same truth can be said in different ways. By accepting this we can expect the possibility of coexistence. With the notion of superiority or inferiority over other will not allow to accept other's ideas in right spirit. Every individual is at different step of evolution and not a single pill is useful for everyone. Religion is not the thing to be marketed but is for uplifting the individual to next level of freedom.

It may look like that this kind of education is not necessary for day to day living and one can get such learning in religious schools or at home by tradition. But the independent nation is for people and by people which should look after well being of an individual at every possible level. By defining growth in terms of consumerisation and then accordingly making people just a machine either to produce or to consume things is leading us to dead end. No doubt, we should not stretch and remain stuck to either end and try to follow middle path, but certainly the emphasis will differ if the goal is set. In the present day Bharat with diagonally opposite ideas about history and future about our nation it looks practically impossible to make such changes overnight.

But it only depends on attitude and our culture has inherent capacity to take everyone together. Once we start looking things from our own perspective and for our own needs, we will see things as they ought to be!