Words of Wisdom-39:

True education is limited to those people who would die without knowing, whereas the masses in the institutions are merely going through the motions, for education is a way of living - Bryant H. McGill

'The Education India Needs' by Swami Chinmayananda

“Education for becoming” rather than “education for knowing and doing” was the call given by Swami Chinmayananda. Education is not a process of merely emptying out the mind of the teacher, by pouring its knowledge into the minds of the student. Education is a feeling for the needs of the students and supplying them with right solutions.

Education has to be holistic. It has to be rich in the sense that it caters to intellectual, emotional, moral, active and spiritual, all at once. Education should concentrate on personality development, acquiring knowledge of the world, adjustment with self and society and above all realization of the permanent values of life. An educated man is “an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity”.

Swamiji believed that a systematic culture of the mind and heart, the process of rearing and nourishing these, in other words liberal education, is the background against which the training of special skills should be imparted. In this sense true education is both ‘a diving inward and spreading outward’.

Sampoojya Gurudeva steadfastly believed that “Youth of today are not useless, but used less, they are not careless but cared less”.

Revered Gurudev was apparently appalled at the purposelessness of the system of education that was being imparted to our youth, the flowers of our Nation even after political freedom, without the least regard for ancient culture and its noble value. Mere dissemination of information on certain topics going by the name of education would not make the youth wise or morally strong or help them to develop their personalities fully. Swamiji felt that a huge reservoir of youthful energy is running to waste through destructive and dissipating channels under the present system of education. The so-called educated youth are drifting with no aim or purpose in life. With fatherly love and saintly intuition, Gurudev unfolded a plan for personality development for the youth – Chinmaya Yuva Kendras.

Prevention of a huge wastage of youthful energy, its proper conservation and redirection through channels of self-development and nation-building should be the be-all and end-all of education. He wanted that the youth are not used less, but more, not cared less, but more. The motto was “Harnessing Youth Potential to Dynamic Spirituality for the Future”.

Ad sponsored by The Hindu in “Bhavan’s Journal”, Sep.15, 1999

Path to Human Excellence

Our youth has intelligence and energy. In our current education, they miss one important item of all true education, namely, character-building. A combination of knowledge and character alone can make path for Human Excellence. That character comes from the manifestation of the divinity always present in every human being and finds expression in the spirit of love and service of humanity, irrespective of caste and creed, gender and nationality. We have Indian character excellence, Western character excellence, and Chinese character excellence. But today we need a human character excellence.

- Swami Ranganathananda

True Education

True Education is not a knowledge of facts, but of values. True education leads us to the reality of life, peace, nature and survival of the human race. During my 25 years of experience in education, I have studied my school students and ex-students very deeply and I have found that the “values” inculcated by the school, the society or the home by the age of 18 to 20 years become more or less permanent. Therefore, schools are the only institutions to provide true education to the child.

- Dr.R.K.Sharma, Principal, Ahlcon Public School, New Delhi

- Courtesy: The Hindu, New Delhi, January 8, 2000