School Teach Thyself

Education is the foundation of development of any nation. Every citizen must have access to quality education at affordable price. It is against this backdrop that the current state of India’s education needs to be assessed. These are admission times and talking to any parent anxiously waiting outside a school premise will prove what the greatest concern for him or her is – finding out the right school at an affordable price. Legislations hardly matter if quality education is not within the reach of the common man. The Right to education is not enough to guarantee quality education for all. 67 years of our independence and the issue of a reasonable quality school for every child still haunts us. Why have we not been able to do so is a question that begs an answer. In fact even the concept of quality of education has not been standardized. Parents do not know what quality education is. The students do not know what they are learning and why. Even teachers do not know what a student of a certain class is supposed to know. And the biggest irony is that the schools go on experimenting with myriad of models treating their pupils like guinea pigs. There are only hollow claims made by schools which have not education but commerce as their basic objective. We need to regulate school education which has today become a money minting business. The managements are only interested in fleecing parents who see in the schools a means of fulfilment of those dreams they have seen for their children. And they often have to live beyond their means for this. The schools, however, are hardly bothered. The different heads under which the fee is charged may bewitch even the wisest of the parents. There is an admission fee, development fee, tuition fee, computer fee, sports fee, smart classroom fee – the list is unending. And then the books. Every year the books of different classes change so that the same books cannot be used by other children. The most interesting thing is that the content does not change much. May be, the titles of a few chapters would have changed. The schools are now also selling school dresses, school shoes, stationaries, school bags and other accessories. All for money. In fact, there is less of teaching and more of cheating. What lessons are we trying to impart? What values are we trying to inculcate? Not that children don’t understand. But they are helpless and feel guilty from within when they see their parents paying through the nose. There is one lesson that the schools may need to learn from Gandhi. It was just after the independence when a school was being opened at Vardha by an industrialist who had been a great admirer of Gandhi. He invited Gandhi at the opening of the school and asked his views on the kind of education is to be imparted. A reluctant Gandhi very humbly stated that according to him the schools should impart such an education that when a child is asked what will a man get if he buys apples at four annas a piece and sells them at one rupee a piece, the reply should be that the person will get jail. But what do we teach – good business at 300 percent profits. Are the schools listening?

Be Your Own Light

Buddha, the enlightened was on his death bed. All his disciples were worried how difficult it would be to spend life without Buddha with whom they had lived and received guidance for around four decades. After such intimacy, imagining life without Buddha was just not possible. The disciples were all crying at the very idea of their master leaving them. Ananda, the chief disciple was asked by Buddha why they all were crying. Ananda said that since the master was not going to be there to lead and enlighten them, they were expecting darkness to descend on them. After following Buddha for nearly forty years the very thought that Buddha will not be leading them was a cause for great anguish and despair. Who now was going to show them the light of life. What would be their fate without the Buddha? To this Buddha said in a very sanguine manner ‘Atma Deepo Bhava’- Be your own light.
This was said to be the last teaching of Buddha. But the fact is that this was the central theme of Buddha’s teachings. To find your own path, to guide oneself with one’s own light. Buddha experienced enlightenment on his own. Nobody did anything to enlighten him. In fact, being one’s own light is the essence of all teaching. But how can this be achieved given the darkness and gloom all around.
This is the question that bothers ordinary minds. But there is need to understand that for those who, despite living day and night for four long decades with Buddha, would not see light on their own, what difference it would have made if Buddha had lived some more ears. How long can one live on barrowed light? There is a path to attain one’s own light; achieve enlightment. Of course, a teacher is needed. But only to the extent that he shows the path. The journey has to be made by one self. Buddha’s lesson was this. Self-enlightenment through self-realization. And for self-realization there is need to develop self-awareness. To understand the destructible nature of Maya that surrounds our lives. It is this Maya that camouflages the reality and continuously distracts us from seeing the light that is within us. Buddha had focused on impermanent nature of this surreal world that we perceive to be real. This is the reason why Heraclitus used the analogy of the river to explain the impermanence of the nature of this world. Shankara described this as Maya that is perceived due to ignorance or avidya. Heraclitus said that you cannot bathe in the same river twice. It is ever changing, for every infinitesimally small moment of time. Nothing remains same. It is the perception that makes us believe that things remain same. Apparently they do but in reality they do not. It is our ignorance that is responsible for this false perception. And to remove ignorance we need that light, the light from within. This is what Buddha had meant by saying ‘be your own light’. The light is there, in every person. Only it has to be kindled by realization. Mystic poet Kabir had explained this in very simple terms. It is paraphrased below:
Just as the oil of the sesame is in the small sesame grain, just as the fire is there in the flint stone, so also is your divine, your enlightenment in you. All you need is to awaken yourself. That is- Be your own light.

Life and the T-20

What is life has always been a difficult question to find an answer to, particularly because there are as many views to life as people. The experiences of life shape the philosophy of individuals about life. For instance, the Kathmandu earthquake. It turned many a believers into non-believers and vice-versa depending on the course of events they encountered. Often the world view of individuals are fairly stable though sometimes excessively traumatic experiences do alter them. But that apart, the changing times also impinge upon people’s mindsets making them interpret incidents and events according to the context. The present time may be viewed in the same way. Not too long ago many people believed that life is slow and steady that can be predicted on a given course. So they believed that one who submits to fate is wise. For such people the game of cricket resembled life and it was popularly believed that there always was a second innings. Those were the times of test cricket in which technology had little impact and outcomes were predictable. Though many a times umpires played a crucial role and with the movement of his finger swung the fortune of players. And mind you those days the idea of neutral umpires was an alien one. So batsman had to contend not only with the bowlers and fielders, but, also with the spectators and umpires. Cricket thus was also a game of chance and luck mattered. A parallel would be drawn with life. Enter Kerry Packer, a marketer who proved to be the game changer in the seventies. Cricket changed and so also the people. Life now had no second innings. The philosophy was ‘you only live once’ instead of ‘once is not enough’. Technology, speed, precision and approach -all changed cricket and life. Third umpires became a new entity to ensure greater fairness. The world view about life also got modified and people felt more in control. Ambitions, goals and persistence became the defining traits of life. A more confident generation, more cricket savvy and optimistic entered the scene. But the change continued. In both attitude towards game and life. As the grammar of the game changed, cricket no longer remained a gentleman’s game. It was more of entertainment, a competitive sport where confidence, resilience and attitude became critical. Slow and steady no longer mattered. It was fast and accurate that was the norm. Cricket was now defined in terms of T-20 and attitude of people towards life also went about a corresponding change. These are T-20 times as IPL competition is in full swing and a lot of people are watching T-20. Listening to the running commentaries and watching the matches gives a fair enough idea of how world view towards life is being influenced by the shorter variety of the game. Predicting the outcomes may still not be easy as in this version one or two good or bad overs may change the entire complexion of the game. But there relies the critical lesson. Hang on and you may get the opportunities in the form of those good or bad overs. So persistence, grit and resilience will matter. Both in the game and in life. And yes reputation and performance are different things, like in the IPL. Big names do not matter. Big performances do. So life is to be lived like that. Stay on the wicket and you may get that chance. Never say die till you actually die.