When we don’t know where we want to go, does it matter
which train we take?
Humans would not do anything that doesn’t give them any
benefit. That’s just how we are tuned. Today, we spend a ton of resources on
learning and education. But what is the goal of education? Most of us hate our
jobs and are wondering when the golden retirement would come so we can finally
live our lives!
If the goal is it getting a degree, then why not print
the certificates ourselves? Is it landing in a good job to earn money to buy
things? Then why not earn money without certificates (we know many people who have
done that)? Is it an elusive happiness at the end of materialistic achievements?
Does money beyond the basic needs, guarantee happiness?
I understand that as parents, we would like certain
things for our children (and for ourselves, too) - money for survival and for some
luxury maybe, good habits, social responsibility, happiness, the ability to
love something and pursue it.
Is our education giving all of this?....any of this? It
may give us money and a false sense of superiority and respect, but I highly
doubt if there’s any relationship between education and happiness, or good
habits? Or education and social responsibility?
It’s no wonder, while we keep polluting our oceans
with plastic and toxic chemicals, our educators continue to frame syllabus
believing education has nothing to do with caring for the world.
We are living in an age where children and teachers
are frustrated with their system of education, framers of education content are
clueless, parents are looking at these two groups in desperation and ultimately
face disappointment when we read something like this in the morning paper:
---Ranjana Kumari, a 25 year old Ph.D. Scholar found
dead in IIT Madras, hanging from the ceiling. This is the second death in
the last four months.
--A young man from Kerala, Shahul Kornath took his
life in September
---On 2 Feb, 2019 - Anirudhya, third year B.Tech Aeronautical
Engineering student IIT Hyderabad, jumped to his death. Decision to end my life
purely logical: IIT student before jumping off hostel building.-
---- Data published by the National Crime Records
Bureau shows that 2,646 people died in 2015 due to “failure(s) in
examination(s)”
---I think we are all too familiar with the gun
shootings by teenagers in schools in the USA and the campaign supporting
weapons in the hands of teachers and staff…there is no need to go into the
actual details.
--- The global teen suicide trends are equally depressing.
Russia, Europe taking the lead in teen suicide, followed closely by Finland,
Norway, USA, India.
I think we should hangs our heads in shame and admit
that we are fooling ourselves into thinking that we know what our education
should give us, and an even bigger lie to believe that our education system is
fitting our ill-conceived goals.
One of my biggest motivations in digging into Tamil
literature is to see what kind of education they had and is there anything we learn
from them?
So in looking into the ideas put forth by our
ancestors, this post is about Kural 2, that gives the goals of education. It is
upto each of us to see if this maybe a good way to go.
Kural #2:
கற்றதனால்
ஆய பயனென்கொல் வாலறிவன்
நற்றாள்
தொழாஅர் எனின்.
Transliteration
Katrathanaal aaya
payanenkol vaalarivan
Natraal thozhaar enin
Meaning: What is the use of
learning, if they do not adore the Purely Wise One’s (God’s) Feet.
So, does this Kural tell us that we have to pursue
some religious learning and that is the only real education ? and the goal of
such a real education is to touch God’s feet ?
Parimelazhagar explains that there are six stages in education.
A person may go through these stages in the previous birth and continue from
where they left off in this birth. He says any education, whether it is
Physics or Chemistry or English or Arts must lead us to Intelligence.
What is the difference between education and intelligence? As a rough
explanation we can say that Education is what goes inside our mind.
Intelligence is what comes out.
Swami Vivekananda was a very highly educated man. It
is said that he had an X-Ray memory. He only had to flip through a book and all
the contents would be uploaded in his memory. His guru was Sri Ramakrishna
Paramahamsar – a man who did not even complete his village school education.
Vivekananda says about his Guru “we ordinary people like to quote wise men’s
words, but Paramahamsar’s words are
quotes by itself”. That is the difference between education and intelligence.
Our ancestors say that, once we reach intelligence we
should learn to let go of education.
An example: If there is a dirty brass pot, we
usually use tamarind and sand to clean it. After cleaning, the shine of the
brass is restored. The shine did not come from the tamarind, it came from the
pot. Now after cleaning the pot, we must remove the residue tamarind and
sand. If we decide to leave the tamarind on the pot just because it produced
the shine, the pot will become even dirtier than before. Similarly, we use
education to polish our minds to make intelligence shine through. Once the
shine is achieved, we should get rid of the education. Otherwise it will give
us a huge ego! When sweeping the house with a broom stick, we collect the dust
and put the broomstick away. We don’t keep the broom in the middle of the hall.
We keep it in a corner, where it belongs. Education is like the broom stick.
What’s after intelligence?
Intelligence must lead a child to Good Habits (Ozhukkam
in Tamil). In our current education such a relationship is non-existent. But in
ancient Indian Education System, an education without good habits was
considered useless. A knowledge of what is good and bad was a fundamental
requirement.
What should Good Habits lead us to?
Good habits in a person must lead to Love. Our
habits must lead to mutual tolerance and
respect for each other’s values and eventually to care and love. Some people may possess many good habits but they like to criticize the habits of others, just to make them feel superior.
That is an example of possessing good habits minus love.
What should love lead us to?
Love is when we care about people who are known to us,
like our family and friends. When our child falls down, our heart leaps and we
run to help. When we are able to extend such care for people unknown to us, that
is called compassion (Arul in Tamil). Our love should lead us to
Arul.
What’s after Arul?
Compassion (Arul) will lead us to give our things for
the betterment of others. We will learn to release our attachments and reach
renunciation which is the path to Veedu or God or Mukti.
After Mukti?
That’s it. That’s the end of our journey.
This the route they have charted for education.
Becoming a doctor or an engineer and all that is only the side benefit. When we
go to the church or temple, we buy ice-cream and pop corn on the way. The main
goal is to pray, the side benefits are the ice cream and pop-corn. Sadly, today
we have made the ice-cream and pop-corn as the main goal.
Any education that does not take us down this path, is
considered useless. We can get money and fame from such a retarded model, but happiness cannot be had unless our
education gets converted to intelligence and to good habits - to love and finally to
compassion. And remember, they are not talking about religious education. Any subject,
they say, when we go to the depth of the field, we will be faced with questions which will take
us in this path. I can personally vouch for this from my own experience.
So that’s the meaning of Kural 2. What is the use
of education, that does not help us to reach the pure feet of God.
These are the six levels of education. In any society,
those in the higher levels will command more respect that those in the levels
below. An intelligent person will command more respect than an educated person
(Eg: Vivekananda and Paramahamsar). Similarly, a man with good habits will
command more respect than an educated person. A man with compassion will be
highly regarded than an educated person. Political leader Kamarajar, an
ex-chief minister of Madras Province, was a true leader. He dropped out of
school at an early age to support his mother. But even today, he holds a
special place in his people’s hearts because he truly cared for his people and
initiated many schemes for their welfare.
We are used to showing love for things that
reciprocate our love (Plants, animals, other humans). In Thiruthondarpuranam
or Periyapuranam by Arumuga Navalar, which is a compilation of the lives of
devotees of Shiva, we see Kannappar (http://hindumythologybynarin.blogspot.com/2013/07/kannappa-nayanar-devotee-of-shiva.htmlr)
who had compassion for a stone! It is said that Kannappar, who was uneducated,
attained Mukti in six days, while Navukkarasar, a highly educated devotee,
attained Mukti only at the age of 81. So we should understand that education
can also stand in the way of our final goal. At some point we should let go of
it.
Education can land us in one of the following three
possibilities
1) Doubt or Ayyam in Tamil (eg: the answer of
2+2 is 4 or 5??)
2) Incorrect
understanding or Thiribu in Tamil (eg: confirming that the answer of 2+2
is 5)
3) Clarity or Thelivu
in Tamil (Eg: the answer of 2+2 is 4).
A person has to cross doubt and Incorrect
understanding to reach clarity. We need the Divine Grace to be able receive education
in the right way – to result in clarity. A person in doubt can be helped, but a
person with a wrong understanding is difficult to correct.
I pray that the knowledge of Kural will be rightfully
transmitted via this blog to you, the reader J
Parimelazhagar points to us that in the previous
Kural, the worship of God in the Aruvam (Refer post: Stones, Grass, Elephants....so many gods!) level was introduced. In this Kural,
there is a mention of feet of God. Hence this refers to the Uruvam level of worship.
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