REFORMATTING YOUNG MINDS
Dr Jernail Singh Anand
Men and mischief go together- Anand
Since times immemorial, education has been looked upon as a parallel training for a growing up human mind, and it is about how to live in the world, and how to connect back to the source of life. It is unfortunate that men, when die, leave all their wisdom or follies behind, and they take nothing with them, except their plain spirit, which is then subjected to close scrutiny and awarded or punished as per divine parameters. This world would have been far better if men who are born to this earth also carried their former wisdom and did not have to start afresh.
In fact, it appears humanity is not a straight upward progression. Gods are trying on human versions. How different men tackle the same problems, obviously, differently, and this helps gods to understand the variety of problems in human life, and make a repository of human wisdom which shows how situations can be handled in different ways. Humanity can be seen as soft versions of truth and untruth which keep intersecting in complex combinations.
As such, progression of human civilization is only a hit and trial for gods, who deny them acquired wisdom, and resend them on the earth, with only original wisdom, and then see if men have made any tangible progress in being human. But, it appears, they are disappointed and disillusioned too in the capability of mankind to emerge from their inherent weaknesses and accomplish something of value.
What we consider of great value, the hi tech trains, aeroplanes, and AI etc, are no match for the ingenuity of gods, because all these things put together, have further diminished the size of man in the eyes of the angels. Angels judge men, not by their intelligence, but by their wisdom in making this world a better place. Intelligence is mostly directed towards one’s own wellbeing. Men never look beyond their nose. Whatever they are doing is amiss in the eyes of gods. Is it that all the educational edifice, the complex web of universities, colleges, gurus and ‘ghantals’, [high flown teachers] have failed to rise to the expectations of gods?
If gods are not happy with men, if they are irritated with nonstop debates and seminars, it is because people have lost their control over natural language of the body, and they have to use language which they have mastered how to miscarry. They have tried to make fool of the gods who have realized at the end that men and mischief go together. All the knowledge is born out of mischief. People who study theology and mysticism, are like teachers who have taught Poetry for forty years, without writing a poem themselves.
The Blues
Where has education lagged? First of all, the declared aims of the people at the helm were suspect. If it was Macaulay, by now we people know it well, he wanted only ‘babus’ to take dictation from English masters. And second purpose was to paste English culture over the minds of young Indians. Even today, we name our schools after ‘Convent’ etc. English and Italian names of colonies, and companies, point to only one thing. We have no pride in our own culture. We feel inferior and that is why when we have to teach Poetry, we quote Keats. We have no Indian authors at hand to quote, as if there are no poets of substance in our own country.
While Macaulay’s model was defective, still it gave us great scholars who spearheaded the struggle for freedom. But, as times are moving ahead, we find the intellectual quotient of the people is giving way and the idea of acceptance, discussion has taken the back seat. Indian scholarship today believes in dictums, and ideological struggles and independence of thought and speech is under grave erosion.
Education should have created a corps of people who believe in goodness, fairness, justice and honesty. It is nowhere near this ideal. On the other hand, we have taught success, and push-ahead syndrome to our students. Finally, the kind of society that we come across, is one in which only money matters, power matters, wealth matters, and all types of crimes flourish.
If a man is properly educated, how can he become a criminal? How can Universities sell degrees, and how can doctors sell kidneys? How can professionals sell secrets, and corporates reduce the people to paupers and make high business profits? If a student gets the degree of an IT professional, he migrates to USA, and there, his only passion is to attain great success. These accomplishments are good, but do they have any relevance to the country they belong to? How they connect themselves to the nation of their origin? Going beyond nationalities, I wish to underscore the idea that every professional is not an individual skyscraper. He belongs to a society, a family, and milieu, which he must serve. Accomplishments without this service dimension are acts of absolute selfishness, and isolate the man from the cosmic responsibility.
Cosmic Responsibility
As a cosmic citizen, everyone must feel connected to his society, to his family and, of course, to gods if he is not an atheist. Our education teaches us in a thousand ways what we should do to succeed in life, and universities give us degrees on the basis of which, we can get jobs. Now that you are equipped with the art of earning money, so that you could remain alive, the society wants your body and your mind for its incomplete jobs. Where are you ? It waits but there is no response from our top rankers.
What Not to Do
When I was learning car driving, my driver was an old military man. Ordinarily, the trainers tell you to save the car from a brick lying on the road. But he would ask me to let the tyre hit the brick. He said, if you know how to hit it, you will also know how to save your car from it.
From this story, I come to the conclusion that teachers and educators should teach their students what not to do in their lives. This is very important. In the past, when we went to a doctor, he would give us medicine, but at the same time, he would tell us what not to eat, because indiscriminate eating could aggravate the malaise and render the effect of his medicine useless. But now, doctors take care to prescribe medicine, [in order to inflate bills] and, if you do not force, the doctor won’t tell what not to eat. Naturally, it ensures your visits to the doctor.
Same thing happens to our educators. They don’t tell the students what they should not do. For the benefit of the readers, let me state a few don’ts. Others you can think of yourself.
Don’t cross your limits. Don’t cheat anybody. Don’t make false claims. Don’t do anything for which your conscience stops you. Don’t think of success as your ultimate career. Never use ulterior means for success. Never tell lies, even to yourself. Never think of breaking the law. Never go into marriage till you understand the idea of marriage. Never go for matrimonial ads. Never look for a partner who is rich. And so on.
If we want a better world, we need to work on these ideas. Education of young minds means we have to make them into decent human beings with minds which do not think amiss. We have to impart them love for mankind, love for nature, love for the creator, love for parents, and love humanity at large. Every student, when emerges from the University education, should swear by honesty, fairness, and goodness. It should be inscribed on the degrees as a solemn pledge. If we are not doing so, we are responsible for criminalizing this society.
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, with an opus of nearly 200 books, is Laureate of the Seneca, Charter of Morava, Franz Kafka and Maxim Gorky awards. President of the International Academy of Ethics, his name adorns the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. Anand’s work embodies a rare fusion of creativity, intellect, and moral vision. He is a global voice, challenging readers to confront the complexities of existence while offering hope through art and ethics.
Biography:
https://sites.google.com/view/bibliography-dr-jernal-singh/home
