Thursday, June 18, 2015

Integral Education Part II - Does book guarentee wisdom ?


न चोरहार्यं न च राजहार्यं न भ्रातृभ्राज्यं न च भारकारि।
व्यये कृते वर्धत एव नित्यं विद्याधनं सर्वधनप्रधानम्॥

( Knowledge cannot be stolen by a thief.
It cannot taken away by a King.
It cannot be divided among brothers.
It does not cause load. It always increases when spent.
The wealth of knowledge is the greatest of all wealths. )
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Knowledge can not be acquired by just reading Books.

It goes without saying that the teachers are the influential catalysts in the field of education. Life is note mere materialism , there is ultimate reality in us. To make student realise and manifest the inner reality should be the desired outcome of our education. Teachers have a great role to play paving the path to make student perceive the inner reality.

What is the nature of education and training need to be given to student to realise the inner reality??? Make him understand that education is not about following a book , but imparting true facts of life. Make student understand that Books come with a baggage of per-conceived notions of the writer and every book can not be truth in itself.

A student must understand that following a Book will make him a mere follower and never a 'originator' . When he challenge the truth alone will take him to the way of imparting the knowledge. Book he/she reads should just be a launching pad to take a plunge towards knowing the truth. Knowledge is not in the Book but in Life we lead and it need continuous efforts to tap it.

Training of mind to acquire knowledge is not same as memorising the content of the syllabus . Training of mind should be used to study the logic not just to by-heart the content. But the modern education system has now got institutionalised . It now gives important to Book and its content rather than training the mind to justify opinion from justified belief.

Book must be used as first step in long journey of Knowledge. We need not deduct the authors experiences stored in a book but see it as a sojourn and continue further on ones own exploration. Books are our primary source of gaining knowledge , but that itself is not the entire knowledge.

(will be continued)

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