EDUCATION TAUGHT IN B G
Bhagvad Gita literally means ‘The Lords Song' It is the philosophical
discourse of Lord Krishna to persuade the reluctant Arjuna to fight. To
motivate him the Bhagvad Gita is preached in the battlefield of
Kurukshetra by Lord Krishna to Arjun as a counselling to do his duty.
Gita is not only advice given to Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra,
but it is a universal message to all mankind caught in the clutches of
indecision of 'to be or not to be'. It is considered to be one of the
greatest scriptures of the Vedic philosophy.
The Bhagvad Gita shows the ways to live a spiritual cum material
life consequently. The Bhagvad Gita is conceived as an essence of all
Vedic philosophical thoughts, In the Bhagavad Gita, much effort has been
made to equate Karma Yoga, GyanA Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga, in which meaning of
education fragranced. One can get fruit from the Bhagavad Gita according
to his/her intention and level of understanding. Through the lens of
education, all aspects of educational philosophy, i.e. meaning of
education, aims of education, pedagogy, curriculum, teaching methods,
assessment technique, and roles of learner and teacher can be found and
interpreted. Therefore, the Bhagavad Gita can be taken as an educational
philosophy, because it has got all components of an educational
philosophy. Performing one's own duties for the attainment of joy,
satisfaction and salvation getting rid of the three wraths (lost, anger and
fear) with the steady mind and wisdom is the meaning of education which
is found in the Bhagavad Gita. It helps us in managing our desires and
emotions, making appropriate choices of actions and ways to deal with
difficult situations. It shows us how to free our emotions of love and care
from jealousy, envy etc. So that they flow without any distortions and
encompass the whole of humanity.
True education provide children not only an intellectual
stimulation, but also a real purpose of life. The Bhagavad Gita
is the Holy Grail of education because it is the essence of all
doctrines and philosophies. It is providing the purest knowledge and
gives direct understanding of the self realization.
Bhagvad Gita and Education: Education is the process
of cultivating completeness in human being. That implies knowledge,
skill, ability and wisdom for Karmic and Dharmik life. According to
Bhagavad Gita- To formulate the principles of education the divine
teacher Lord Krishna has not imparted his wisdom to his student as a
dictation like others. The Gita answer the 'why' of such education. The
human child in the world is not a tabula rasa or an empty being. He
inherits the certain tendencies, instincts, propensities of
character, mental dispositions etc. from his past life. Parents give to
child his physical apparatus and soul's doing are his own. This
explains individual differences. The Bhagavad Gita gives the
principles of education clearly indicating that education is
spiritual-social necessity. It is a value and its edifice cannot
be built on sand.
Bhagvad Gita and Objectives of Education: . In Gita the
objectives of education are as follows-
I. To develop virtual knowledge: There is ignorance of virtuous knowledge
in our students. In Gita Krishna point out Arjun’s ignorance and motivates
him towards performing his duty. From this position we should take up the
idea to remove ignorance and to provide the virtual knowledge to the
students.
II. To develop and modify the personality: Everyone’s personality has
evil (Asuri) and virtuous (Devigodly) traits. In other words, Kauravas
(Asuri) and Pandavas (the virtuous) exist in each of us. Krishna awakens in
Arjun the virtuous powers inherent in him and motivates him towards the
right path. This is exactly what a Guru should do for his student. Thus the
objective of education should be to develop and sublimate the personality
of the student.
III. To co-ordinate between the individual and social aim: In the
battle-field Arjun is lost between his individual freedom and the social
responsibility. His individual freedom was to fight or not to fight. The
social responsibility wanted his participation in the battle for
establishing peace in the land. Krishna told him to sacrifice his
individual freedom and take up the Gandeeva and fight with the wicked
persons and their allies. Thus we may say that according to Gita ‘one of
the objectives of education should be to coordination between the
individual and social aspects of things.
IV. To develop the inner consciousness: Arjun desires to keep himself away
from the battlefield. Krishna does not want to force him against his
will. Krishna tries to convince Arjun about his sacred selfduty
(Swadharma).Finally, on his own, Arjun decides to fight against his
opponents. Thus Krishna succeeds in awakening the inner consciousness
(Anthahakaran). This is exactly we should follow in the field of
education.
V. To develop intellectual and logical ability: Arjun expresses his
doubt about the utility of battle. His doubt is at the root of preaching’s
of Gita. Krishna uses his intellectual and logical ability for removing
Arjun’s doubt. Thus the main purpose of the philosophy of Gita is to
develop the intellectual and logical ability of Arjun (the common man) in
order that he may be able to take his own decision. This should be our
objective of education also.
Vi. To establish the importance of duty: There should be balance between
one’s rights and duties. Krishna tells Arjun that nothing is greater than
performance of one’s duty (Swadharma-palan). It is very Bhagvad Gita and
curriculum Gita refers two types of knowledge.(Gyan)-
1. Physical Knowledge (Art, Science, Engineering etc)
2. Spiritual Knowledge of body and soul. In our educational system
the spiritual knowledge is generally ignored. This has resulted in the
predominance of acquisition of wordly wealth of various types .The
knowledge about the spiritualism alone can give eternal peace to man. Hence
in our educational system “the spiritual aspects of man’s life should also
be given its due place along with subjects related with wordly affairs.”
Bhagvad Gita and Methods of Teaching: - Conversational method
-Question-Answer method - Demonstration method -Contemporary method
(rational analysis with proper analysis) - Learning by doing Bhagvad Gita
and Teacher: The concept of the teacher in the Gita is that he must be most
balanced. The true teacher not only teaches truth but also demonstrates it.
In short, the teacher is vigilant enough to keep the soul and body
of his student as well as his own together. Bhagvad Gita and Students:
Conclusion: The student, according to the Gita, is not a disciple but a
learner. But the first and the last characteristic of an ideal student are
to surrender before the teacher accepting his ignorance of the subject he
wants to know. Genuineness, humanity, obedience, faith in his teacher is
the essential characteristics of a good learner. The student, according to
Gita, must keep away from three great vices- Kama, Krodh and Lobha in his
personality. Obedience means respect to the teacher; however, it does
not mean the foolish obedience in which everything is accepted by the
student blindly. Bhagavad Gita has not called the spiritual knowledge as
education instead it has taken both spiritual knowledge and material
aspects in defining education and considered education as the basis for
worldly and spiritual progress. • Bhagavad Gita identifies moral duties,
harmonious ethical climate, unity between spirituality and practice,
between the transcendental and material living. We need efforts for
bringing out the hidden knowledge form our scriptures and use this
knowledge for improving our education sector. However, no serious
attention has been paid to this philosophy in our society and universities.
This may be because of the fact that our education system has grown on
the feed of the Western thoughts. {INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CREATIVE
THOUGHTS}
K RAJARAM IRS 11925 BASIS OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE NATURAL EDUCATION THAT
EXISTED 5000 YEARS BACK.
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