Speech on "The goal of education" by Rev.Swami shitikantananda 26.06.2024

 Speech by Rev.swami shitikantananda                                                      26.06.24

Disclaimer! "Swamiji(shitikantananda) says some words in Telugu that are translated into English into colored text."

Topic: "The goal of education" continuation of the topic......

So there are some thoughts of Swamiji on education very important for you since you are students(swamiji is saying to the students in the hall) 

(Swamiji reads out the above quote ) why do we go to schools and colleges? To get educated, to get education, are we getting the right education from our schools and colleges? what should be the goal and objective of the education? what education should give us? here Swamiji(Vivekananda) is delineating four objectives for education, the first is it should help us build our character, the second is it should help us make our mind strong, the third is it should help us expand our intellect, and fourth is it should help us to stand on our own feet , fourth objective is education should help us get good employment where we can stand on our own feet, education should help us to provide for our basic necessities of life right? Education is a kind of empowerment, it's a tool of empowerment, so that we can face the challenges of life with ease because you are more empowered you have the greater capacity. but is it the fact that educated people have less suffering than the uneducated illiterate people? No, educated people are struggling more today just look at our society there are various reasons I don't have time to go into all those details now but I want to tell you one thing, without defining the objective and goal of education clearly okay? we are taking education for the last 50-60 years if you just see in India first define the objective and goal, before you empower the citizens of the country through education first define the goal what is the objective of your education what objectives you want to achieve? what goals you want to have? you just define. The definition is not clear and everything you know topsy-turvy accidental this is the problem in the country, you know in our culture we talk about Chaturvidha Purushartha "Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha" They are called "Chaturvidha Purushartha"

life has these four objectives we have to gain all these four, education should help us actually in gaining all these four that's what Swamiji(Vivekananda) is saying, instead of using the word dharma Swamiji(Vivekananda) saying education should help us build our character and it should help us expand our intellect, character building is one of the important components of education should be, final goal actually as the Swamiji says it should help us to stand on our own feet, you just see the kind of competition  that we have created okay? everybody will go into a specific area today if it is a software, artificial intelligence you know data science everybody will go and rush into that so much so that you create artificial competition there, whether you like it or don't like it entire society five years down the line, ten years down the line how it's going to be you have to have the capacity to imagine, you should have to capacity to look into the future 5 years down the line, 10 years down the line how the situation is going to be? No that's not there, so entire society will go in one direction and then they create artificial competition there and now actually saturation has come in that area and you'll be laid off  you'll be fired you'll be removed jobs are not there okay I only know now this, artificial intelligence I know This is the only area where I have competency now what alternative employment I have? This insecurity pertaining you know to this livelihood has become too huge in this country we are unfortunate, from childhood onwards a child has to know that every work is pure, we have to do any work if we should do it when you create such a flexible individual through education this joblessness you know this kind of artificial competition won't be there, how many children are preparing for this competitive exams group 1 and group 2? how many posts are there? everybody imagine he or she is going to get. I don't think anywhere else in the world this kind of competition exists as it exists in India.

Because of that they get tensed up, anxiety and fear and then because of stress and anxiety and fear the physical health you lose, because we have all become a victims of a lopsided and ill-conceived education because the policy makers who are supposed to design supposed to divide the plans for the future of the country in my opinion they have not done it well they have failed, you know the teachings of Vivekananda, teachings of people like these Mahatmas will help us actually to have a road map as to the objectives of education, so that is the reason actually though we say we celebrate that we are the biggest democracy in the world we have so many problems not that we have progressed since independence so many areas we have achieved you know great progress but at the same time you have so many problems also and Vivekananda wanted education to be a panacea for all the ills of the society, you talk about education and education again and again Swamiji(Vivekananda) says, that is the true empowerment educate the masses (repeats) educate the masses we can actually bring them out of poverty only through education but it has helped to some extent but in many areas it has failed because of you know we have not designed it well because we have not really defined the objectives and without defining the objectives in the last 70 years if you just look at our country we have taking the education, so it's very very important actually the purpose and the goal you define first before you give something to people that's why Swamiji saying education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there undigested all your life we just look at our school education today what is that kind of education that the children get there? there is a syllabus, textbook whatever the content that is there in the book that is actually put into the brain of the child , information! information! information! right? you by-heart and get good marks and good grades child what he does? he doesn't know anything he looks around and no! no! maybe because if I get good grades and good marks I will have an employment that is the idea.

For what you have done at the end of the day you just have byhearted you have by-hearted a little information that is there in the book, if information is equivalent to education computer actually you can consider the most educated person in the world today because there is so much of information is loaded up there right? no! no! you should stimulate your thinking, your education should be in such a way it should stimulate your thinking it should bring out the originality in you it should actually whatever the inherent genius you have it should bring out that genius our education is it helping in that direction? definitely no, already there is a set of information  in the books this is called syllabus that syllabus has to go into the brain of the child and the child has to bring out that information again on answer sheets in examinations and then you give a certificate or grade. How can you call that education? you just you know gathering the information, your mind you are using it as a information you know accumulation tool it is no use  you should stimulate your thinking for that, that much of syllabus is not necessary a little you have to learn a little principles Siddhanta's basic things but other side you don't have to define everything like that, you don't have to put so much of information there, ask the child, give a task to the child, give a problem to the child and ask the child to come out with a solution, you make them into teams three four children they will come together and then allow them to think for themselves through that thinking actually through that churning actually they will come out with a solution. In the process their intellect become sharper and sharper and they will be able to stand on their own feet.

Now actually because they are truly empowered because they have so many problems they have solved on their own they gain confidence automatically the communication power will build, you ask the children to speak they are not allowed to speak in classrooms it's all you know passive learning , we never allowed the child to speak in the classroom, never have given a task to the child, you have supposed to bring the genius out but rather the child becomes a dull automatically because the information cramming , it becomes undigested automatically it becomes riot that's what Swamiji saying, it create undigested all your life it creates riot in the brain and today this information overload is still creating a riot and we need to change our education system sooner the better okay? it's a little longer story is there for this in one, ten minutes prayer meeting I cannot tell everything about the story but the next prayer meeting also I will continue with the same topic education. Thank you have a nice day.