YOGA IN EDUCATION AND MANAGEMENT

SWAMI SARVAPRIYANANDA
Registrar, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Belur Math. Kolkata. India

In this paper, I would like to focus on Education and Yoga in the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.

1. The five components of educational philosophy. Whenever we discuss the educational philosophy of great thinkers, it is always helpful to analyse and classify his thoughts into five distinct categories. We may call them the five components of educational philosophy. They are: i) Aim of education, ii) Method of education, iii) Curriculum, iv) Role of the Teacher, and v) Discipline.

2. Aim of education, 'Education is the manifestation of the divinity already in man.' 'We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library... We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet.'

3. Method, "To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I could collect facts at will." (Swami Vivekananda).

4. Curriculum, In ancient times, people used to go to sages to learn wisdom and to get answers to the fundamental questions of life. This was seen in all ancient civilizations - Greece, India, and China, in particular. However, over the centuries education has retreated from that position. We no longer claim to give wisdom, we give only information, our schools no longer give moral and spiritual values, only secular subjects are taught.

5. Role of the teacher, 'The only true teacher is he who can immediately come down to the level of the student, and transfer his soul to the student's soul and see through the student's eyes and hear through his ears and understand through his mind. Such a teacher can really teach and none else.'... The only duty of the teacher is to remove all obstructions from the way.'

6. Discipline, 'Another thing that we want is the abolition of that system which aims at educating our boys in the same manner as that of the man who battered his ass, being advised that it could thereby; be turned into a horse... We must give only positive ideas. Negative ideas weaken men.'

MANAGEMENT IN THE NEW ECONOMIC ORDER AND YOGA

PROF. RANAJIT CHAKRABARTY
Social Welfare and Business Management, Calcutta University, Kolkata, India

The liberalization of the Indian Economy in 1991, Capital convertibility and all other economic measures has put challenges for the management not only at the national level but at the macro level also. From the era of Thatcherism and Reganism based on Friedman's New Classical Theory of open market economy stress is now being given all over the world to growth induced by technical progress and by increasing capital i.e. raising savings and investments This investment to be in human capital and knowledge capital. Human capital is a way of defining and categorizing peoples' skills and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy. Many early economic theories refer to it simply as labor, one of three factors of production, and consider it to be a commodity - homogeneous and easily interchangeable. The whole economic order has changed and emphases being given to human capital and knowledge, the managers of the corporate houses find it difficult to cope with the situation. To reduce their stress which is defined as -"Stress is the "wear and tear" our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment; it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create positive or negative feelings", Yoga can help. The paper has also studied extent of burn out of the managers in a corporate house.