PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION

Om Saha Nau-Avatu | Saha Nau Bhunaktu | Saha Viiryam Karava-Avahai | Tejasvi Nau-Adhii-Tam-Astu Maa Vidviss-Aavahai | Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

Meaning: 1: Om, May God Protect us Both (the Teacher and the Student), 2: May God Nourish us Both, 3: May we Work Together with Energy and Vigour, 4: May our Study be Enlightening, not giving rise to Hostility, 5: Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.

 What is philosophy? Philosophy is the art of thinking things through. It is a methodology. Philosophy is thinking about the world as a whole and mans place in it. Anything, everything and nothing is thought and understood through categories, which are philosophical. Philosophy is a critique of other modes of thought. It is an activity of the second-order. Every organised study has a philosophical facet. Thus, we have a Philosophy of Education.

Philosophy seeks for three Ps:

Propriety
Purpose Perfection

 Time of unsettlement is the time to think because we know what to think.Our misfortune is not that we are thrust into a time when thinking must be done, that we do not do it. Chester Rowell writing in the post-World War-I We do not think for half a minute in six months. Bertrand Russell Russell means by thinking philosophical reflection and philosophical reflection is the connective mode of thinking. Logician-Philosopher, L.S. Stebbing quotes E.M. Forsters way with approval as, Only connect.

Higher education in India, at present, is a costly vacuum. Mission, vision, world-class institution, foreign collaboration are buzz words for commoditisation and commercialisation of education even as they talk of packaging and show-casing the same. The traditional hierarchy in public instruction used to be primary, secondary, college and university, the last two being higher than the former two. Now it is primary, secondary, higher secondary, college and university education. Thus higher secondary education is not higher education; only college and university education are. A time was there that was in the seventies of the last century when there was a spurt in establishing colleges. As many pathsalas, so many colleges, so to say! In the present century, there is a spurt in establishing universities. The players are not the government, not persons having genuine interest in education, not persons dedicated to the welfare of the motherland, but those, who have accumulated money out of trade and commerce over the post-independent years in order to expand their business empire further.

All these have happened because of envisaging and chasing a wrong model of education (public instruction). It might be noted, in passing, that the term public instruction is reminiscent of the British model that India has abandoned and espoused the American model imperceptibly. This way or that, it is a Western model. In the West, a distinction is made between two sorts of knowledge: knowing that and knowing how. Knowing that is knowledge about facts of the world. Broadly, it is theoretical knowledge cultivated in humanities and science departments. Knowing how is learning and acquiring a skill. Emphasis is laid on formation of skill and it is set as the aim of all knowledge, scientific as well as non-scientific that includes philosophy.

It is important to keep in mind that any skill cannot be expected of and pursued by any person. It depends as much on ones inherent potential and propensity and suitable training to develop the same. This is ignored, more often than not, as a result of which we do not find a physician in a Doctor, a technocrat in an Engineer, a teacher in a Professor, a legalist in an Advocate, a worker in a leader, etc., let alone a human being in the designated persons.

According to Swami Vivekananda, education is man-making. It is the making of the total man. The soul of man is the source of all knowledge. It must be tapped. No knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. Learning is but discovery. They devise different methods of learning in the educational career assessment of a teacher, it is invariably asked as to what new method of teaching he/ she has devised. But they forget that mind is there behind method. The mind has four aspects: rational, emotional, mystical and practical corresponding to buddhi, mana, citta and ahankara. Education is the art of preparing for life. It cannot be delinked from the philosophy of life. Such education is deplorably absent, save high and multiple degrees and hi-fi communication skill. Establishing a temple within or adjacent to the premises of an educational institution would not spark off nobility to learning. Perceptive and conscious design of educational policy alone can do this.

 Sri Aurobindos view on education is similar. Formerly, education was merely a mechanical forcing of the childs nature into arbitrary grooves of training and knowledge in which his individual subjectivity was the last thing considered, and his family upbringing was a constant repression and a compulsory shaping of his habits, his thoughts, his character into the mould fixed for them by the conventional ideas or individual interests and ideas of the teacher and parents. The discovery that education must be a bringing out of the childs own intellectual and moral capacities to their highest possible value and must be based on the psychology of the child-nature was a step forward towards a more healthy because a more subjective system; but still fell short because it still regarded him as an object to be handled and moulded by the teacher, to be educated. But at least there was a glimmering of the realisation that each human being is a self-developing soul and that the business of parent and teacher is to enable and to help the child to educate himself, to develop his own intellectual, moral aesthetic and practical capacities and to grow freely as an organic being.

Let us now be reminded about the syndrome of education in the Indian tradition of the Vedas and the Upanisads. The santipatha at the beginning reflects the wish that education is lighting of one lamp by another. One lamp is the acarya and the other one is the antevasi. The Taittiriya Upanisad discusses about adhividya samhita about vidya. In Siksavalli, it is said that ACARYA is PURVAPAKSA, ANTEVASI is UTTARAPAKSA, VIDYA is SANDHI and PRAVACANA is SANDHANA.

 The ambience of imparting education is upanisad upa meaning below, ni meaning near and sad meaning sit. The sisya sitting by the siksaka in order to have siksa. The three words sisya, siksaka and siksa come from the same root in Sanskrit sis that means to educate. The siksaka is also called guru. Here gu means darkness (of ignorance) and ru means dispelling (it). Guru as a unitary word means heavy. There is a distinction between siksa and diksa and correspondingly, between siksa guru and diksa guru.

 What goes on between two participants is samvada, that is sama vada deliberation at par. The deliberation is in dialogical form. One asks, the other answers. Sometimes the guru might pass on the answer in silence. The sisya might be old and the guru might be young. Age does not matter in learning. There is a guru parampara. This ensures both continuity and authenticity in matters of knowledge.

Both the guru and the sisya must fulfill certain eligibility conditions. A guru must be aptakama atmakama, and Akama The sisya must be an eligible one (adhikari). The sisya must have the prescribed mindset so that the guru can impart and he can imbibe the instructions. The Gita prescribes, tadbiddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya/ upadeksanti te jnanam jnaninah tattvadarsinah// 4.34 yat jnatva na punah moham evam yasyasi pandava/ 4.35 Tha samvada goes on in an open state of mind. The guru must not be accepted by the sisya as having the ultimate say. no itarani viparitani acaryakrtani api, Tattiriya Upanisad, 2.2

 The seeker must have the urge for acquisition of knowledge. sraddhavan labhate jnanam, say the Gita and the Katha Upanisad (1.1.13). There are three categories of sisya and putra as well: uttama, madhyama and adhama. The madhyama variety accepts everything that the guru says; the adhama variety accepts nothing; the uttama variety accepts only those that are right and reject the rest.

It is few and far between that a sisya gets a proper guru and a guru gets a proper sisya. In the Bhagavadgita we find a great guru in contact with a great sisya Sri Krsna and Arjuna respectively. acaryovakta kusalosya labdha/ acaryo jnata kusalanusista// Katha Upanisad, 2.7

A great guru does the greatest thing in the life of the sisya. It is not the material. In reality, material does not matter much, the nonmaterial is what matters more importantly. The guru makes the life of the sisya one of peace and painlessness. It has been sung in the praise of the great guru Samkara.
guravovahava santi sisya vittapaharinah/ tamekam Samkaram vande sisya santapaharinam//

 Why must we seek knowledge? The Bhagavadgita has the right answer. na hi jnanena sadrsam pavitram iha vidyate/ tat svam yoga samsiddih kalenatmani vindati// IV-38 [In truth, there is nothing so purifying as knowledge in this world. One who is perfect in yoga discovers it in oneself in course of time] [Yoga is not some special mystic supra-mental state with supernatural powers like levitation, etc. The unswerving state of mind and intelligence is itself the pinnacle and fulfillment of yoga.]

 The Gita brings out a distinction among jnana, vijnana and prajnana. Jnana is commonplace knowledge. Vijnana is specialised knowledge about the world of various kinds as mantra jnana and tantra jnana. Prajnana is atmajnana. The Upanisads draw a distinction between vidya and avidya, vidya being atmavidya or brahmavidya. Alternatively, the distinction is between paravidya and aparavidya.

 The Visnupurana tells about the value of vidya The Mundaka Upanisad tells about the hazard of avidya. sa vidya ya vimuktaye (tat-karma yan-na bhandaaya saa vidhyaa yaa vimuktaye; aayaa saayaa param karma vidyaa-anyaa shilpa naipunam)

1.19.41

Those acts alone which help one to avoid bondage are the rightful/ righteous acts and that learning alone which leads one to release is real knowledge or vidya. All other acts end up only in fatigue and all other learning is a mere exhibition of skill in arts. This means Education is that which has Liberation as its aim or Knowledge is that which liberates.

AVIDYAYAM ANTARE VARTAMANAH SVAYAM DHIRAH PANDITA MANYAMANAH JANGHANYAMANA PARIYANTI MUDHA ANDHENA NIYAMANA YATHANDHAH 1.8

YAMA-NACIKETA SAMBADA
The seeker of atmavidya par excellence is Naciketa, son of Vajasrava, also known as Uddalaka, son of Aruna. The father was performing Visvajit Yajna to attain Heaven. He was donating out of use cows. The inquisitive son was watching this attention and asked his father, Whom are you donating me to? To Yama, he said in disgust. Yama is the master of atmavidya and Naciketa found it to the fit occasion to meet Yama and acquire the same from him. Yama to Naciketa:
the distinction between syeya and pyeya na vittena tarpaniyah manusya neha nanasti kincana eko vasi sarvabhutantaratma