SWAMI VIVEKANANDA'S EDUCATION
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Swami Vivekananda believed that the goal of education is to manifest the perfection inherent in every person's soul. He defined education as revealing this inner perfection, which is our true nature of infinite existence, consciousness and bliss. To achieve this, one must eliminate ego and ignorance through meditation and moral discipline. Vivekananda felt that all religions express the same divine principle. He used a story of frogs in a well to illustrate how people see their own religious or cultural perspectives as limited without exposure to other views.
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA'S EDUCATION
- 1. SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S EDUCATION • Vivekananda points out that the defect of the present-day education is that it has no definite goal to pursue. A sculptor has a clear idea about what he wants to shape out of the marble block; similarly, a painter knows what he is going to paint. But a teacher, he says, has no clear idea about the goal of his teaching.
- 2. SWAMIJI’S EDUCATION • Swamiji attempts to establish, through his words and deeds, that the end of all education is man making. • He prepares the scheme of this man-making education in the light of his over-all philosophy of Vedanta. According to Vedanta, the essence of man lies in his soul, which he possesses in addition to his body and mind. In true with this philosophy, Swamiji defines education as ‘the manifestation of the perfection already in man.’
- 3. AIM OF EDUCATION • The aim of education is to manifest in our lives the perfection, which is the very nature of our inner self. • This perfection is the realization of the infinite power which resides in everything and every- where-existence, consciousness and bliss (satchidananda).
- 4. EDUCATION ONLY BY IGNORING EGO After understanding the essential nature of SOUL’S perfection, we should identify it with our inner self. For achieving this, one will have to eliminate one’s ego, ignorance and all other false identification, which stand in the way.
- 5. MEDITATION & MORALITY IS MUST Meditation, fortified by moral purity and passion for truth, helps man to leave behind the body, the senses, the ego and all other non-self elements, which are perishable. He thus realizes his immortal divine self, which is of the nature of infinite existence, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss.
- 6. ALL RELIGION’S ARE ONE SWAMI VIVEKANANDA • It was reserved for America to proclaim to all quarters of the globe that the Lord is in every religion. • May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura- Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians, give strength to you to carry out your noble idea! The star arose in the East; it travelled steadily towards the West, sometimes dimmed and sometimes effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world; and now it is again rising on the very horizon of the East, the borders of the Sanpo, a thousandfold more effulgent than it ever was before. • c.f. Compete Works, VOL.:1
- 10. WHY WE DISAGREE I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause of this variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. One day another frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well. "Where are you from? “I am from the sea.“ "The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?" and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other. "My friend," said the frog of the sea, "how do you compare the sea with your little well?"Then the frog took another leap and asked, "Is your sea so big?“ "What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!" "Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out." That has been the difficulty all the while. I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.
- 11. WHY WE DISAGREE I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause of this variance. • A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. One day another frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well. • "Where are you from? “I am from the sea.“ "The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?" and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other. • "My friend," said the frog of the sea, "how do you compare the sea with your little well?"Then the frog took another leap and asked, "Is your sea so big?“ "What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!" • "Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out." • That has been the difficulty all the while. • I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.
- 12. SELF-RESPONSIBILITY • We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. • If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; • So we have to know how to act.