Who is educated

Puran Sharma

“The Ideal of all education, all training, should be this, man- making. But, instead of that, we are always trying to polish up the outside.”
Swami Vivekananda
In the beacon light of the foregoing quotation of self realised Swami Vivekananda , we shall be diving deep into the vast realm of education for proper comprehension and resolution of the query “Who is educated”.
Let us endeavour to understand it by virtue of a real incident occurring in the life of well educated person occupying a very high position in the Administration:- An Indian Administrative Services official was on a holiday tour to a fascinating tourist spot in the country with his two children studying in Middle and primary classes in a well equipped school. Whilst the kids were playing freely around in the spacious park they suddenly happened to notice something very unique and phenomenal hanging on a tree which was out of their reach and climbing on that tree to pluck the hanging wonder was not possible for them being too novice in this activity.
In fact it was a nest woven by a tiny sparrow called as architect bird and the children having spotted it for the first time were rightly taken aback perhaps they had no exposure to the village life. They thought of plucking it for pleasure and fun and rushed to the father to resolve the issue. It was found to be well beyond his reach too. The children were pretty adamant and were not in a mood to drop the issue rather they were hell bent to get it at any cost. Father did not want to displease his dear ones. He was in a fix, looked around here and there haplessly, spotted a balloon vending boy of the age of his off springs, called him, narrated the problem to him and told him to pluck the nest for the kids in lieu of payment from his side.
To his surprise the poor boy firmly refused. Father thought he desires to have bit higher amount in the bargain, so told him I shall give you the money you wish to extract in striking this bargain. You tell me what amount of money you want for executing this act. However, the balloon boy replied in the negative once again. He was then offered huge money to do this job but in vain. The balloon selling boy was quite unrelenting and from his body language and the tone and tenor of his arguments in defence it was clearly evident that he will not succumb under any circumstances. Ultimately the concerned IAS officer tried to frighten him as the last resort saying in a commanding voice that do not you know I am senior powerful officer in the administration, can punish you and hand over you to the Police in defying my instructions.
To this the boy humbly replied, you do whatever you want but I shall not perform this sinful act at any cost. On hearing this officer was shaken from inside and asked him as to how it is a sinful act under the circumstances? Sir, don’t you know? This is home and habitat of little sparrows who have built it with due diligence and persistent hard work, there may be their eggs or tiniest chicks, therefore, destroying their shelter ruthlessly out of sheer arrogance and naked brutality shall be the greatest inhuman act and the ultimate unpardonable sin in the divine court. On hearing the logic and reasoning of the balloon boy who has not seen the school in his life, the highly educated and the widely learned person felt as if lightning had struck him, he felt crestfallen and all his so called prestige, esteem, wisdom and highhandedness was dashed to the ground.
In consequence of this emotional narrative of the balloon selling boy who was really hapless but full of self pride , he sat for a while and thought, ” who is educated in real sense of the term, myself, IAS qualified serving administrator or this boy who has never seen the school and belongs to very ordinary illiterate family. He instantly realised his folly, warmly hugged him with tears in his eyes, purchased balloons from him and dropped the nasty idea of destroying the small beautiful habitat of the little birds. He felt truly transformed and morally educated.”
The inference and moral drawn from the story pinpoints that Education cannot be measured in terms of Exams passed and degrees obtained but it is something different and higher than the certificates and the awards as well as the authoritative positions held on the basis of degrees. It is not the intelligence quotient but the emotional quotient of the humans that makes the difference which refers to compassion, love, courage, truthfulness, perseverance, forgiveness, bonding, taking care and watching interests of other humans etc. Dictionary meaning of education is:- 1.The act or process of imparting knowledge and developing skill 2. The knowledge or skill obtained 3. Pedagogy (science of teaching). However, as per our ancient scriptures it is defined as:-” YA VIDYA SA VIMUKTAYA which means EDUCATION has the tremendous potential to liberate , to make us free from miseries, poverty, ailments, illiteracy and above all the physical as well as the mental slavery.
“Furthermore, navigating the vast ocean of education we observe that it has inherent power to inculcate paramount life values such as discipline in all walks of life, strict adherence to rules, norms and law of the land and character etc. However, this can be termed as extreme ideal situation but the ground reality is all together different and the unsavoury impact of current system of education is conspicuously visible. Crime against women and children is registering steep rise day in and day out. Communal violence is also on the increase. Directionless youth are becoming vulnerable to exploitation by the dangerously inimical external and external forces. Disintegration of branded Indian family system is happening at lightning speed. Divisive forces are ruling the roost.
Despite all this unpalatable darkness there is a perceptible silver lining, a ray of hope in the form of rock solid leadership giving a tough fight to change the scenario. It is hoped the New Education Policy would surely prove to be the ultimate game changer in the times ahead.
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