15 WONDERFUL THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION BY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

ABOUT SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

   Swami Vivekananda's name was Narendranath. He was born on an auspicious day, Makara Sankranthi, 12th January 1863, a day of the festival in Calcutta which at that time was the center of an intellectual upsurge. 

    He was a sunny tempered, Sweet, loving child, but takes from the Mahabharata & the Ramayana &this had a son the seeds of the spiritual life a Narendra. He world be formed meditating for 2-3 hours at a stretch.

    Education is the solution that Vivekananda indicated the formation of humans. In keeping with this Advaita philosophy He defined education because of the gradual manifestation of the perfections that are already the possessions of the soul. 

Hence, religion had a central role in his religious philosophy and the men of the spirit were the true teachers of mankind.

15 WONDERFUL THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION BY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 

1)What is education?:-

• Education can be described as the business of man-making.' At the present birth, man is under the influence of Maya, that is, ignorance, and does not know his real divine nature.

• The role of education is to bring out what is already within the soul. Hence, education is not merely a work of filling an empty mind with information.

• Education, logically, is something that has to do predominantly with the interior of man. It is not a question of polishing up the outside. Its end is building man, making him grow into a dynamo of power, the building up of his personality.

2)Religion-the core of education:-

• We said that for Vivekananda the soul is divine, identical with the absolute principle of the universe. Hence, education is nothing but the "manifestation of the divinity within man."' Religion hence is the core of education. Without religion, education makes absolutely no sense. Vivekananda said: "I consider religion due to the innermost core of education ... I feel that the teacher should take the pupil's start line during this as in other respect and enable her to develop along her own line of least resistance." 

• God-realization is the end of human existence. Education that tries to help the man in the fulfillment of his nature and personality has to take religion as its cornerstone. Education is almost worship.

3) Criticism of Indian Education:-

• Vivekananda was rather critical of the educational system of his time in India It had been the system of the British Raj. Its aim was not man-making, but to form "a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and intellect."' 

• He admitted that the educational system of the English had its good points, but complained that it had also its strong negative points, to such an extent that the great points became insignificant. "In the first place, it's not a man-making education, it's merely and completely  a negative education."

4) The basic method of education:-

• The science of Yoga claims to possess discovered the laws which develop a personality. Everything in the universe follows a precise pattern of causes and effects. Even spiritual growth isn't exempt from this universal law. The laws governing the method of learning are often studied and disciplined.

•  This science is precisely the science of yoga. Here Vivekananda refers particularly to the science of Raja-Yoga.

5) The Teacher (guru):-

• One of the most interesting aspects of the educational thought of Vivekananda is his idea of the guru. But to understand what is the role of the guru and what are the necessary qualities in him to be a good teacher, we must start again from the fundamentals of his philosophy.

6) The Student-Sishya:-

• The student, consistent with the traditional Hindu law was the heir of the teacher, not even his son. Vivekananda explained the students as adopted Son of the guru. The guru-disciple relation was said to be stronger than that of father-son relation.

7) The Curriculum of Study:-

• Vivekananda's insistence on the traditional of education may raise doubts as to whether he wanted at all an education in the modem science. His answer was most emphatically in the affirmative. The Guru-Griha-vasa does not mean that only religion and devotion were taught. That, of course, was the basis. But with this modern science had to be included. He wanted the old system with most modem contents.' Western science together with Vedantic philosophy is what he wanted.

8) Physical Education:-

• His curriculum aimed towards the harmonious development of 'the body, the mind, and the soul. Therefore, physical culture, religion, science, technology, aesthetics, classics and languages are to be taught. About the necessity of physical education Vivekananda said: "What our country now wants are muscles of iron and nerves of steel."

9) Music and fine arts:-

• Vivekananda was a great admirer of music. He himself had a fine deep the voice that thrilled his listeners when he spoke with them or send to them some devotional song. Many of his disciples considered him a longtime musician both in Indian and Western music. He certainly would have agreed with Plato who prescribed gymnastics for the body and music for the soul.

10) Technical education:-

• With an eye fixed to the material development of the masses in India, Vivekananda emphasized the importance of utilizing the latest technology in all the fields of the Indian economy. He had his own plans for this: "If I can get some unmarried graduates, I'll attempt to send them over to Japan and make arrangements for his or her technical education there, in order that when they come back, they turn their knowledge to the best account of  India.

11) Education of the heart:-

• Whatever the curriculum, Vivekananda was careful to insist that an all-round the formation should be given. Both the intellect and therefore the heart is to be formed. He criticized the Western sort of education for being solely intellectual, neglecting the heart. Such an education only makes men ten times more selfish, he thought and leads the nation to its destruction.

12) Education for women:-

• Vivekananda was a strong supporter of the education of women, in a time when the education of women was next to nil India and was considered unnecessary and useless. He lamented that the number of educated women in India wasn't even one-fourth of that of men, which itself was very small, anyway.

13) Programs in Science and Technology:-

• One of Vivekananda's objectives for the establishment of the Ramkrishna Mission was 'to impart, promote and undertake the study -of and. research within the arts, sciences, technologies and industries altogether their branches, both basic and applied.

14) Electricity and Propagation of Waves in Space:-

• 'The concept of electricity occurs in a variety of contexts in the discourses and writings of swami Vivekananda. Take the following Lucid 'example from Raja Yoga. We shall take one fact from physics. We all hear of electricity and various other forces connected with it.

15) Conservation Laws of Physics:-

• Conservation laws of physics have a special place therein science, as they arise from basic symmetries of physical interaction. One of the most basic conservation laws is that of energy.

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