HOLISTIC EDUCATION: ANCIENT INDIAN EXPERIENCE

PROF. PANDURANGA BHATTA C.
Management Centre for Human Values, Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, India

Ancient India recognized the supreme value of education in human life. The ancient thinkers felt that a healthy society was not possible without educated individuals. They framed educational set up carefully and wisely aiming at the harmonious development of the mind and body of students. What they framed was a very liberal, all-round education of a very high standard, calculated nature to prepare the students for a useful life in the State as a worthy citizen. This is an essentially a universally applicable educational framework highlighting the purpose of human life and interconnectedness at all levels of existence as a basis of human values. Thus the objective of education was not merely to prepare the student to earn a livelihood, but also to infuse into him a strong desire to lead a good and virtuous life. According to them education must aim at creating a mind that is both scientific and spiritual at the same time-one that is enquiring, precise, rational and skeptical but at the same time has sense of beauty, wonder, aesthetics, sensitivity, humility, and an awareness of the limitations of the intellect. Understanding oneself (self-knowledge) is as important as understanding the world. Without a deep understanding of our relationship with nature, with ideas, with fellow human beings, with society, and a deep respect for all life, one is not really educated. For an ordered, gradual and total development of human personality and to secure a progressive balance and harmony of growth the ancient Indian thinkers' contribution is the concept of purushartha (meaning a human goal), an object of desire, consciously pursued. This significant concept of development upholds the legitimacy of man's desire for economic security and sensuous aesthetic satisfactions, but it does not support the insatiable greed. Both wealth and pleasure are goals only pursuable in society with at least some amount of stability and harmony. Dharma is claimed to be an important factor in the maintenance of social stability and harmony. Therefore, the observance of dharma, in virtue of its being a necessary condition of social stability and harmony, is insisted upon as an indispensable ethic for the pursuit of wealth and pleasure.

YOG: INDIA'S PATH TO DESTINY DIVINE

PROF. MANOJ SONI
Vice-Chancellor, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, India

India stands on a historic threshold today. A young nation with the wealth of ancient wisdom marching towards a future of unparallel leadership. India is rising with the dawn of a new age - the Age of India. A country so vibrant with the vitality of unprecedented youth, a nation so beautiful with the vividity of her manifestation, a society so creatively enterprising, is a phenomenon of rare occurrence in the history of human civilizations. That phenomenon is rising today as India - our Bharat. Thus, we, the children of this great motherland, are face to face with a formidable challenge, or as I perceive it, a sublime duty - 'Utthan prad Kartavya', to be precise. Yoga is a path that will lead us to our divine destiny by nurturing the harmony of excellence in material and spiritual. Education, as I see, is the lifeline for carrying the energy - the pranashakti, of Yoga to our societal body and its myriad constellations. The challenge is to find and share the answers to the questions of 'how' and not so much as to those of 'why', 'when', and 'where'. The search and the sadhna are to facilitate the metamorphosis of those answers from the nucleus that has sustained India. This is our grand moment of opportunity - a moment from which we can not turn away our face - with honour.