I never claim that I know enough. On the
contrary, I often feel (one may use the word ‘dream’ in place of ‘feel’) that I
am immersed in a sea; having no water, but infinite number of boxes floating all
over, attractively labeled as ‘Knowledge Inside’ with a warning printed
in a very small print. If I try to read the warning with the help of a
magnifying glass, it warns, “Highly volatile in the earth’s environment of the
modern times. Don’t open the boxes”. So far I have failed to interpret what my
feelings (dream) communicate to me.
The
purpose of the present day education system is only to impart limited and
specific knowledge to help one earn his livelihood to some extent only, because
earning one’s livelihood depends on many things other than gaining any specific
knowledge. Those things, most importantly, include learning from one’s
experiences about the practical realities of physical nature in modern day
life. The practical realities of today are centered at maneuvering the external
world (say, one’s immediate surroundings) for immediate personal gains and for
making things easier for ensuring a comfortable life. The ways of the world do
not take into consideration long term benefit of the entire human race; they
don’t even take care of the welfare of the next generation.
The
modern education might be making great contributions in developing a scientific
understanding of all that exists physically in the world; but it gives scant
attention to developing a scientific understanding of ‘life’. Not only this,
the modern education is also guilty of placing scientific knowledge of the physical
realities over and above the scientific knowledge of the ‘life’, if that is available
to us, thanks to the great thinkers and philosophers of the past. A scientific
temperament demands that we give, at least, the same importance to the ‘science
of life’, as that to the ‘science of physical realities’.
Any
education system must ensure that ‘the culture of knowledge’ is not allowed to
be sacrificed at the hands of ‘culture of human selfishness’. Selfishness is
not in the man’s nature; it is only an aberration in his nature.
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A
Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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