On True Education Swami Chinmayananda [Excerpts from Shri gurudevs address inaugurating the Tapovanam Chinmaya Vidyalaya at its

new campus on Taylors Road, Madras, 12th August 1990] Artists are generally considered a slightly off, crazy people. They are considered crazy because their vision is something more than what you and I see, and therefore we cannot generally appreciate them until they produce what they are thinking or what they are visualizing. I had a friend who was a great artist and one day I saw him standing on the roadside, looking at a stone, which was shapeless. I went up and asked him, What are you doing? It was one of the greatest mistakes I made, because he immediately invited me to give him a hand in lifting that stone. So, with what little effort I could, we both started lifting it. Luckily, many others who were standing around came and helped us. We lifted laboriously that piece of stone and moved slowly with it into his studio. And in his studio, he placed it in a particular place, turned the stone around in several directions and finally fixed it up. And thereafterwards, he just looked at us, as though we were not needed over there. We all left, and for two, three or even four days, I never met him for he did not come out of his room. The fifth day when I went there just to see whether he was still living, I found him covered with dust, and the whole studio full of chips. He was standing there with his hammer and chisel, and he was chipping away on that piece of stone, which was there. He had brought out of it a beautiful, attractive, shining and enchanting Krishna form. He was not even conscious that I had entered the room and that I was watching over his shoulders. It burst out from my mind, or from my mouth in sheer appreciation of the beauty that he had created and with the best of intentions I congratulated him, What a beautiful Krishna you have created! The fellow, red-eyed because for the past 3 days I dont think he had slept, nor had he eaten anything this crazy mad man turned with his hammer in hand and said, You come into this sacred place and you dare accuse me that I have created this beautiful form! The form was already in that shapeless stone. All that I did was chip away the rough stone that was concealing the beauty of the sculptured piece and Krishna who was already there, was brought out vividly for you to see. I saw this Krishna even when the stone was lying there on the road side. The artist had got the vision to see the beauty in that, which you and I rejected as ugly. If this picture is in your mind, this is called True Education Not merely adding one more instruction to the students, giving more and more data that is not education it can at best become instruction. There, where instructions are imparted, that will be called an institute, not a school. A school is where we bring out from the students the beauty that was already there, which we even as parents, never suspected. To remove that which covers what is already there in the student is true education. This can be done not merely by adding more and more data of material world and objective sciences, but by helping him to remove the clouds in his own mind, his false values, his false attachments, his false understanding of himself and the world around him. It is here that the spiritual education would help the student to unveil his beauty. If it is done early I life it becomes a permanent and beautiful personality. That is the reason why

we insist that along with the secular education a little of the personality structure is also given to the children. It is for this purpose that the teachers are also given education in order that they be entrusted with this science which is the heart of the Hindu culture. The heart of Hindu culture lies in the study of the Upanishads. So the Gita and Upanishads are taught to the teachers, so that they what it is all about and they will be able to do this subtle work of removing and slowly brushing away the dirt and the filth that is holding up the beauty of the man or a student beauty that is inherent in the student. No student is utterly bad. There can never be a human being who is totally bad. Knowledge alone cannot bring it out. Look at the character of Ravana. What a great Vedic scholar and devotee of Lord Shiva! Well read, and extremely educated in culture, and yet, look at his character. His own knowledge, which he has got, he could not enjoy because of the crowded lower impulses in his mind. When knowledge, power and position are there, the inner character gives you happiness and you are able to share that happiness with others. We want this inner nature in the children to be nurtured and brought out and we have bee doing this for the last 20 years silently and today we can definitely say that the path of the great rishis is a practical technique and we have been demonstrating this in all our fifty two high schools throughout the country. A mere building is not sufficient. It is in the hands of the staff, the teachers, how they mould tomorrows children out of the institutions and feel a sense of satisfaction of having fulfilled their duties. A reward of the true teacher is not in terms of money, but the fact that he has moulded and shaped and trained and let out in society students who will contribute to the glorious history of their community or nation. It is an urgent need or else we will be creating such people as we see now, disturbing the entire world, from the crystal state to a very disturbed condition. Unless the equipoise and balance come to our mind, we will not be able to enjoy even our prosperity, nor will we have the guts and courage to face difficult situations. This mental vitality and strength can be cultivated and we must help the growing generation to cultivate it. Children have to be tended, nurtured, nursed and nourished. They are highly delicate instruments, these children and they have to be moulded to become strong human beings. They have to balance themselves, inspired by high ideals in themselves to serve others, even at the cost of their happiness. Even if a group of such people is created out of these schools, we will have contributed much to the history of mankind. The teachers who are working in our institutions should not think that I am only a school teacher. You are silently creating tomorrows heroes the mighty men of action, the creative people of tomorrows world and with that attitude there is not only a sense of dedication, a high sense of inspiration, but also the satisfaction that you are creating great people of our community. The Role of Teachers (Swami Chinmayananda)

While working hard, sincerely pouring out our love and affection to the tender children and imparting unto them a stable culture and brilliant character, we shall certainly, as members under the constitution, seek our own rights and privileges. Today, the teachers must serve as bridge between the school and the community as a link between the pupil and the parents. It is high time that we make an intense heartsearch whether we are serving the nation, as we should. Whatever be the reason, there cannot be any excuse in an independent country when those who are employed in such a crucial profession on which depends the independent community default in their duties. Even a starving soldier has no excuse to fail to shoot at the approaching enemy line. Similarly, we teachers shall not justify ourselves at any provocation to overlook our duties or to prove ourselves inefficient in this great job of educating the future generations. While working hard, sincerely pouring out our love and affection to the tender children and imparting unto them a stable culture and a brilliant character, we shall certainly, as members under the constitution seek our own rights and privileges. Unfortunately, we find that we have slipped into a wrong channel where we ignore our duties but loudly demand our privileges/ The present examination system must be replaced. This is meant only for creating typists and clerks. The system of examination should bring out from the students their own original thinking and independent judgments. This new system of examination cannot be inaugurated into our present system until the teachers also straighten their textbook cramming, note dictating-dead system of imparting instruction. This is the method adopted by instructors and not by true teachers. A teachers job is to set the student to think independently and give him the art of educating himself. A lot of adjustments among themselves are required before we can hope to change the present system of education. No doubt, some of the teachers are loaded with work, but even in the present system there are some rare few who in spite of their work, experience it as a load of joy. Such true teachers are indeed very few among us. We must consider in our discussions how the workload can be converted into joy loads of self satisfaction in having done our best to carve out the future leaders of our country. In the 30s if it was the responsibility of the politicians to win our independence, in the 60s we must consider that it is the responsibility of our teachers to create the true Bharat in the very interest of the character of the generation. Experiment in Education (Here follows a message from Swamiji sent to the souvenir brought out by the Chinmaya Mission schools and colleges essentially meant for our students.) It all started as an experiment; it is even now an experiment and I am sure it will ever continue to be an endless process of experimentation. It should be so. Human mind is not the same; it transforms with every change in the whim of the subjective person and with every breeze of change in the outer society around. To train such a fluttering human mind constantly exposed to the criss-cross currents of change in a community, is indeed a constant experimentation.

From a feudal, quiet, sleeping society, our country is today marching into the modern, fast, electronic age with our heads flaming with material ambitions and our hearts shrunk into ugly selfishness. The over emphasis of materialism has made individuals twisted and ugly in their essential cultural grace; ugly individuals can constitute only a horrendous society. The politicians, the economist and the scientist cannot see anything beyond the material world and it should be so. Theirs is the job of organizing and creating a rich, prosperous and peaceful world around, with technology contributing to the comforts and the achievements of the members in the society. The educationists are to bring about an extra beauty in the performance of man in the society as a result of his cultivated inner discipline and larger vision. We are trying in our Vidyalayas to train the children to score in the material world, following the secular syllabus prescribed by the Government, but taught in an atmosphere of Spiritual Presence. We select, train, and therefore expect our teachers to have such a spiritual balance in themselves, so that they can throw around them the grace and glory of the spirit in the classroom. Under such a gracious canopy of moral and ethical charm, we find the students blooming into men and women, self controlled, disciplined and dynamically striving with a magnificent vision. This is an experiment; it should continue as an experiment; making the necessary adjustments from time to time to protect the growing minds of our students from the malicious whims of changes in the values of the society. The parents of our students have been our main patrons. This compilation of the total picture of our 25 schools and 8 colleges run by the Educational Wing of the Central Chinmaya Mission Trust is now presented to you through your child only to give you an overall picture of this successful and fast spreading Neo Educational Movement. The entire success is the success of the teamwork. The Headmasters and the Principals and the highly inspired staff members together have worked as a disciplined army, dedicated to the sanctity of their sacred profession, and in their selfless and continuous enthusiasm, they have been moulding unconsciously the spiritual beauty in the growing children. The various State Governments are now interestedly watching the results of this experiment. More effective than preaching is demonstration: through the Vidyalayas we have been eloquently demonstrating that the spiritual statures of the students draw nurture and nourishment not only from the silent and vibrant atmosphere of spirituality created in the entire school. Wherever I noted that a teacher or a Headmaster is blocking this atmosphere, I have ruthlessly removed him. This weeding, though painful, cannot be avoided if the harvest has to be rich. I warn the staff members to realize the sanctity of this experiment, the urgency of this subtle operation, and request them most faithfully, to work as my hands and mouth, as my eyes and heart. We must succeed. This is our experiment. We shall not fail the Nation and the silent demand of the innocent children growing under our care to make a cultural history of the morrow.