ASTO MAA SADGAMAY,
TAMSO MA JYOTRIRGAMAY,
MIRTYOR MAA MRITAM GAMAY.
Education is for gaining Knowledge. The intellect is a gift of God to the human being, given to him in trust that he will wisely employ it for his own development as well as for the good of all God's creation. And therefore the thoughts that go into the intellect should bring fulfillment, peace and harmony to man. Education was undertaken as worship to the God of Knowledge
Education in the ancient days was free, independent from political influence. "What is the necessity of learning the Vedas?" Such a question was never asked. The children of Brahmins were taught the Vedas without the necessity of rationalizing the value of the Scriptures. Can there be an answer to the question "Why should l love my mother?" She is my mother, therefore I love her. In the same way, the Vedas are mine, therefore I must study them. This was the direction that the educational system took in Ancient Indian society. They worshipped Vedic Culture. "AMRUTAM TU VIDYA" Knowledge is the nectar of God.
Education should not be just to teach one how to make a living, but to teach one-about life. Spencer, a great thinker in Education, says that no man has ever become great by education. Those who have become great have become so because of the culture they received.
The Tapovan
Tapovans were schools of learning where all children, whether they were girls or boys, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas or Shudras, were sent to receive education. Each Tapovan was headed by the Guru and his wife, and students lived in the Tapovan for many years. The Guru and his wife gave the same love to the students that they would have received from their own parents.
The Child
There was a psychological reason behind the establishment of this system of education. A child develops understanding when he becomes 7 or 8 years old. Since his parents were still young, themselves, it would naturally be difficult for them to keep their behavior controlled in the presence of the child. If they don't, it forms bad impressions on the child's mind. For example, these young parents may want to listen to music of their choice, but the suggestive lyrics may perturb the child while studying. It is not always possible for everyone to curb their pleasures, but in the
pursuit of pleasures, the undiscriminating mind of the child is bound to receive wrong impressions at home. Therefore according to the Indian culture as soon as the child became 7 or 8 years old, he would be sent to the Tapovan, where he would live in an atmosphere conducive to learning, and the parents on the other hand could live freely without worrying about creating harmful impressions on the child.
Life is one of the greatest forms of wealth. This wealth of life has been classified into 4 stages: 1) the time to gain 2) the time to enjoy 3) the time to give and 4) the time to renounce. Brahmacharya-ashram is the time to gain - gain intellectual and physical strength.
The Environment
Ease of Learning: Education was given easily and naturally.
Tolstoy has said that a child learns only during the first seven years of his life. He automatically absorbs everything the mother says and how she says it and the learning thus received is true education.
The Tapovan system stressed that learning should not be felt to be a punishment, it should be undertaken with joy and enthusiasm. It was undertaken for self-development. People went with pleasure to the Tapovans. Thereafter came a time when they studied because they considered it their duty, and today, many children consider going to school a punishment. It has become a burden children must bear. When learning becomes a pleasure, it makes a great difference in the attitude toward the work that has to be undertaken in learning. Then learning will not become a matter of fulfilling a quota of classes necessary for the completion of the school year.
The Guru took personal interest in every individual child who came to him for education. The impersonal attitude of the present system of education leaves each student to grasp whatever he can according to his intellectual power. Whereas the Guru would, for the student's good, keep on repeating the lesson to be taught until the student had grasped it completely and satisfactorily.
Parents give the child physical life. The Guru gives him spiritual and ethical life. By giving him knowledge of the minutest atom, he takes him intellectually into the world of God. Because the Guru is a fountian of knowledge and brilliance, his attitude is loving and benevolent. Rich and poor students in the Tapovan were treated alike. To the Guru, each child was the representative of the entire human race. If one child was spoilt, the whole race could fall. Therefore, part of his teaching would be in the form of worship of God. And because of this pious environment in the Tapovans, cultured and well-behaved citizens - were created. In everyone, qualities befitting the human being were developed, and bad qualities shorn away. Grateful, knowledgeable, youths of good character emerged from the Tapovans.
The Guru was the student's whole world. It is only when the teacher means everything to the student that the student will absorb everything that the teacher says. The Upanishads tell us "ACHARYA DEVO BHAVA" - think of your teacher as God. This is for the student's good. There should be gratitude towards the teacher, as well as the feeling that he means the whole world to the student, then only will the teachings of the Teacher affect the student. If the student thinks the teacher is a fool, he will never learn anything from him. Therefore the Indian Culture teaches an attitude of reverence for the teacher:
“GURUR BRAHMA, GURUR VISHNU,
GURUR DEVO MAHESHWARA,
GURUH SAKSHAT
TASMAI SHREEGURAVE NAMAH.”
The Guru was God to the student. He instilled hope and solace in the student, understanding the fears and difficulties of the student, guiding him toward spiritual development. Only those who were distinguished by certain qualities were deemed Gurus, not as today, when someone who performs miracles and claims to be God's messenger instantly attains the status of Guru.
The qualities necessary to be a Guru were:
1) Life touched by divinity
2) An intellect full of knowledge
3) A heart filled with love
4) Broad view of life
5) Generosity of spirit
6) Noble, brilliant life,
7) Wealth of heart.
Physical development: Students should exercise to develop healthy bodies. The children in the Tapovan regularly did Surya-namaskar. That is, even physical exercise was undertaken with devotion.
Mental development: One must know how one is to live with others. The student has to be educated on how to live in the family, in society.
There is no use of the knowledge that does not increase the love between man and man, man and nature, man and God. This loving attitude is received in temples, from the Geeta and the Upanishads, at the feet of the Lord and from His Scriptures. Today thought has become lifeless, and life has become thoughtless - and that is why man is lost. He does not know in which direction he is going, and what he is doing. Education has become divorced from life.
The education by which man's intellect blossoms, that is, which increases Smruti (memory), Medha (the faculty of reasoning) and Pragna (the mind's power of discrimination), and which contains the culture and values of the parents, is Internal education. This education begins from the time the child is in the womb and continues for the 7 - 8 years that he lives at home with his parents. And that is why it has been logically explained in the Indian Culture what a woman should read and do or not do during her pregnancy.
The Goal
Education is the foundation stone of society. The word "educate" means "to draw out." That is, every human being has qualities and capabilities that are latent. The goal of education has to be the flowering of the potential in the child.
The teachers words flowed like ink and the child's mind soaked them up like blotting paper.
.
