KUMBHA EDUCATION AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION
'Unsatisfied over his earlier creations of the lower order –animate and inanimate- the Creator eventually derived happiness by creating Man, endowed as he was with the intellect for self-realisation.' (Srimad Bhagavatam)
'The distinction between the eternal and perishable was first realized by Man; followed by the discovery within himself of the germ of the Eternal. The East was the first to discover it.' (Max Muller – Sacred Books of the East)
'The aegis of Providence follows the footsteps of a man who sets out on a purpose other than his own.' (Paul Brunton – Search in Secret India)
Current Educational Models are devoid of the means to inculcate ethical and moral values as part of the learning imparted to the student populations. This is a fatal omission in the training of future generations and is of growing concern to academics, scholars and intellectuals interested in the future of education for the progress and welfare of our ancient country. The scope and content, nay the very aim of present day education, negates integrated development of our future citizens with emphasis not only on learning but blended with a conviction, belief and practice of ethical, moral and spiritual values which form the very backbone of our ancient civilization. India's culture and unique civilsation, its propagation of profound philosophies, and its very way of life attracted esteem and admiration from the East and the West alike. Its educational system and institutions evoked universal admiration and were a source of inspiration to visiting scholars from as far as China.
The system was such that learning and knowledge was absorbed by direct communion between the preceptor and disciple and ensured balanced, integrated development of the younger generations. Knowledge and skills were moored to character and ethics and intellectual advancement mirrored faith in the real values and goal of life. The system verily brought forth unique creative ideas for refinement of the human being, and intellectual excellence to probe the supra-mundane.
No wonder then that India's education was a fount for many a foreign scholar who traveled to this country in search of higher spiritual knowledge. Chinese scholars, Fa Hien and Huen Tsang have recorded glowing analyses of Indian wisdom of the time and the high level of scientific knowledge that sprang from discerning experiments with nature and thought. Art and culture flourished under the reigns of enlightened monarchs and great philosophies emerged from seers, saints and Acharyas.
The great luminaries and mystic saints, Buddha (563?-483 BC), Mahavira (6th Century BC), Shankaracharya (9th Century AD), Ramanujacharya (?1137 AD), Madhvacharya (1192-1276 AD), Nimbarkacharya (13th Century AD), Bhakta Namadeva (1270-1352 AD), Saint Jnaneswara (1271-1296 AD), Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and Amir Khusro (13-14th Century AD), Swami Ramananda (1400-1476 AD), Saint Kabir (1440-1518 AD), Guru Nanak (1469-1539 AD), Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya (1473-1531 AD), Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1533 AD), Goswami Tulsidas (1532-1623 AD), Swami Thyagaraja (1764-1846 AD), and a host of other divinely inspired propounders of spiritually based education were great reformers, and uplifters of moral and social values and religious fervour.
During the Moghul period, education got enriched from Arabic culture, and the Bhakti movement gained momentum from the invasions. On many occasions it surpassed religious boundaries and generated new experience absorbing harmonized ideas from even conflicting sources.
Alas for today's education designed for mass production of robots. Total neglect of ethical, moral or spiritual aspects in education has made it vulnerable to negative influences. It engenders unhealthy competition between aspiring students; breeds animosity in their minds and antagonism in their hearts encouraging violence within the self and disharmony with the society; and eventually rebellion against the very system. It imparts learning without knowledge, and clouds vision with greed and self-interest. They become strangers to the glories of past education in their motherland. Bereft of knowledge and belief in the true values of life, any ambition to excel and contribute to society's welfare and upliftment is stifled. They lose the very potential to grow as worthy citizens of this great land. To continue the present system may well become counterproductive as it carries the seeds of self -destruction.
How then are we to put back education on the tracks of Nalanda, Taxila, Vikramasila, Kashi and Avanti and redeem, reform and reorient the models to suit our country's manpower needs and talents. It is indeed a daunting task. Recent centuries of foreign rule have degraded past educational models with borrowed ideas and practices. The glamour of the western models has already cost us dear. The pursuit of science solely for material progress without injecting character and morals as part of the system has devalued the entire system and rendered our vision myopic. It is a distinct disservice to future generations. It is the duty, nay dharma, of all thinking men to arrest the growing malaise in the present system.
With this aim, the present Seminar is our humble effort to create widespread awareness of the vital problem facing us and the urgency for corrective action. The Kumbha Mela is the auspicious venue so that the aegis of Providence may guide and lead us. This hallowed place has been a traditional meeting ground for saints, mystics and seekers of truth. It signifies the battle between virtue and evil to establish the supremacy of Truth. Various schools of thought have been in quest of Truth, each in its own way. This perpetual quest for Truth is symbolized in the Kumbha as a unique effort of mankind. The venue and the occasion are propitious for us to devise a new Curriculum mental enrichment and material prosperity in the coming years on the foundation of an educational system, which will promote intellect and improve national character.
Wherefore is the eminence of the Kumbha Mela? It occurs every twelfth year alternating between the four sacred places Nasik, Ujjain, Haridwar and Prayag. The occasion is not determined by any mundane event but by the concurrent entry of Brahaspathi and Surya in specific Rasis. Surya in Mesha with Brihaspathi in Simh brings importance to Ujjain; Nasik gets the importance when the two planets conjoin in Makara; Surya in Mesha and Brihaspathi in Kubha confers the importance on Haridwar; while entry of Brahaspathi in Vrishabha and Surya in Makara shifts the importance to Prayag. Brahaspathi is venerated right from Rig Vedic period as the God of wisdom and knowledge and Lord of Mantras. Since the Cosmos is an organic whole, events and objects must be interrelated. Planetary influence on mundane objects is the basic tenet of Astrology. Brahaspathi transits a Rasi once in twelve years while Surya does it once a year. The determinant for the Kumbha is Brahaspathi's movements. Waiting for as many as twelve years for a particular juxtaposition of Brahaspathi and Surya in the celestial region must cannot a special signification in the celebration of the Kumbha Simhast. The mighty celestial planet of Brahaspathi exerts a great influence on earth – a much smaller planet – and more significantly a special influence on the sensitive human beings, as believed in time honoured astrological faith. Practice, belief and faith through the centuries is proff that the impact of Brahaspathi in Simh and Surya in Mesha during the Kumbha is exerted through the medium of water as one of the five elements. Water is prone to receive durable influence by the pull of heavenly bodies as is evidenced by the waxing and waning tides of the ocean. If even the moon, a speck in the Solar system can exercise on particular dates so great a pull on the earth as to cause vibrant stirs in the human brain and emotional upset, the vast influence of Jupiter on human activities can readily be imagined. The wise sages of India have devised the congregation of humanity on the Kumbha occasions and prescribed sacramental baths in holy rivers, so that they may received stimulation from the divine wisdom of Brahaspathi by his influence exerted through the medium of water. Faith and practice from time immemorial has invested Kumbha Melas with sanctity and prayerful invocations to the Creator. Ujjain as the venue for this Seminar and on the Simhast occasion is a divine augury.
The Churning of the Ocean in quest of hidden treasures and the ultimate Nectar associated with the Kumbha has an allegorical connotation. Devas and Asuras are cosmic entities impelled by Satvic and Thamasic gunas respectively. The former strife to gain the Nectar and attain immortality, Truth (the Satvic) triumphed over evil (Thamasic) and prevented evil from perpetuating itself. In a like manner the bound Jiva held captive in the human body composed of the elements is actuated constantly by interplay of the three gunas in its ceaseless efforts to gain freedom from bondage. By constant endeavour and steadfast application, the Jiva elevates himself by Satvic actions and prayers to attain the Supreme Being. The Jiva's striving for the Nectar of eternal bliss and Divine effulgence is the culmination of good actions through Satvic qualities. The Churning for Nectar typifies the ceaseless effort of the individual to attain "Siddhi", Truth overcoming evil in all his actions. The constant search for the nectar of freedom from bondage is the intense search for the vision of the Supreme, breaking all shackles in the way. Verily, Vasudeva told Arjuna –
"Man attains perfection by worshipping by his own duty Him from Whom is the activity of all things (inanimate and animate) and by Whom all this is pervaded."
(Bhagavat Gita XVIII.46)
The churning of the Ocean for Nectar has a more proximate application for the aims of our Seminar. Gaining Vidya, learning and wisdom is the ultimate Nectar of our educational system. Ceaseless studies for assimilation of valuable knowledge must address our efforts. Sravana, Manana and Dhyana to retain Vidya is like churning for Nectar. We make invocations to Brahaspathi that he may bless our efforts to establish improved educational systems and reframe our curricula to yield lasting benefits to the student populations and enrich their intellectual and moral content. This calls for an enlightened and disciplined band of faculty members, and dedicated fraternity of students with faith and conviction in the new approach. The Lord says, in Bhagavat Gita IV.34 :
'The Wise Who see the Truth will teach you Knowledge.'
This exudes quality and purpose in the entire operation.
Ujjain has other unique claims for importance. It is the abode of Mahakaleswara, One of the twelve manifestations of Lord Shiva as Jyothirlingas. The cosmic poison arising out of the churning of the Ocean was swallowed by him to save humanity and gods alike. On washing his feet in the tiny Kshipra River at Ujjain, the river water got the privilege of Nectar spilling on it to make it available to humanity. The ambrosial content in Ujjain was hallowed by the gurukula of Lord Krishna here in the Ashram of Sage Sandipani. That Bhagavan Krishna himself should have set the pace for learning Vidya in Ujjain makes the place twice blessed. Mahakavi Kalidasa has also immortalized this place by receiving grace from the Goddess of learning. What better place is there for us to hold the Seminar.
In formulating a blue print for our future education we can visualize a broad plan of action. However, a concerted effort is needed to collect and put together in an organized form all the threads of perennial knowledge scattered in many places as remainder out of the visions of our seers and sages of the past beginning from the Vedic age. Those threads are to be organized in such a way as to form a complete and all comprehending discipline of intuitive knowledge. It ought to be so comprehensive as to be applicable to all walks of life. The requisite wisdom in this regard is lying enshrined in ancient Indian literature. Indeed it is out of this oceanic stock that some of it was taken from time to time to other countries and cultural milieus of the world and was adapted to their local circumstances and traditions. These are to be recovered to the extent possible and included in our discipline of knowledge. This indeed would be the real ambrosia not only capable of serving as the suitable antidote against the prevailing poison of materialistic self-conceitedness but would also inaugurate a new era of human understanding and transformation.
The urgent need for a thorough overhauling of our educational system is not in doubt. The job-oriented approach to education is a residue of the colonial period, and unsuited to nation building. We have now to come back to our real nature and work in our own way to achieve the real objective of education. It is not that due thought has not been given in this regard by great sons of India. Even while groaning under the yoke of the alien rule, great thinkers like Swami Dayanand, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, B. G. Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo produced revolutionary ideas on the educational scenario which, if implemented, would have effected salutary change. In the words of Sri Aurobindo:
"That alone will be a true and living education which helps to bring out to full advantage, makes ready for the full purpose and scope of human life all that is in the individual man, and which at the same time helps him to enter into his right relation with the life, mind and soul of the people to which he belongs and with that great total life, mind and soul of humanity of which he himself is a unit and his people or nation a living, a separate and yet inseparable member."
Let us begin churning in Ujjain for the Nectar of Knowledge, Vidya and Jnana to gain a vision of the Supreme Being.
"The door of the True is covered with a golden disc. Open that. O Pushan, that we may see the nature of the True."
(Isa Upanisad 15)
The completion of this Seminar at Ujjain ushers the ceremonial preliminaries for establishment of the UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN CONSCIOUSNESS proposed to be located at Brindavan by the Vraja Academy. The East was the first to discover the germ of the Eternal in man. The East became the cradle for ancient religions, based on Vedic authorities, and for spreading profound philosophies, to bring spiritual enlightenment to enquiring minds. The proposed Institution is therefore aptly named, as the Orient has far outstripped the West in the advancement of religion and spiritual values. Lord Krishna returned to His Janma Bhoomi after his initiation into learning at Ujjain at Sage Sandipani's Ashram. The conclusions of the Seminar now held at the Kumbha venue in Ujjain will find fruitful fulfillment in the University to be founded in Krishna's Janma Bhoomi with the Grace and Blessings of the Lord of Brindavan.
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