Learning, understanding and realisation

THERE IS a general uneasy sense of inadequacy in the prevailing pattern of higher education in India. There has been commendable expansion of opportunities for higher education since Independence. Regrettably, however, it was at the cost of excellence. For over 50 years we have subscribed to a policy of drift, a belief in automatic adjustment of our educational system to the changing circumstances and needs. The British had a vision of spreading their cultural empire through the instrument of education. Independent India lacked a vision of its own and did little to fashion education as a tool for national reconstruction.

There is also a widespread discontent with the existing system of education, which is largely a western legacy. While many agree on the need to promote a national system of education rooted in native tradition and relevant to current realities, few seem to agree on what that system should be.

The old system was allowed to continue without any serious attempts to change it. It got entrenched further and became a controlling influence on the growing minds. The result was a crisis of identity among the educated young and a lack of a sense of participation in the ongoing social process. A paralysis of sorts precipitated the conflicting conditions in the classroom and society at large. Much of what we do in our colleges and universities has little relevance to national needs or the native ethos. For example, psychology in developing countries like India has become an imitative discipline, based on the Western models, concepts, methods, and tools without any regard to their appropriateness to the Indian context. So, we have a discipline that has become essentially irrelevant to national needs and therefore continues to be largely ignored.

Psychological knowledge has played little role in the process of national planning and development in India. Psychological services are simply non-existent. Where they are available, they are little appreciated. This state of affairs is not confined to psychology alone. Almost all social sciences and humanities are similarly crippled at the stage of learning itself. Therefore, there is a crying need for a national system of education, a need that Gandhiji had repeatedly stressed upon.

The national system of education does not consist in teaching the Vedas, Tripitakas or such other ancient Indian scriptures. Nor does it consist in teaching Sanskrit or in Sanskrit. Learning our traditional texts is undoubtedly important. So is the teaching of Sanskrit in our schools and colleges. The national system of education is one that grows out of native intellectual traditions and addresses meaningfully existential questions as encountered in current life. It would be a harmonious blend of tradition and innovation. It is education that connects the classroom with the community around it.In India, knowledge was accorded the highest place. It is the ultimate goal of all. Knowledge has three aspects - sravana, manana, and nididhyasana. Sravana is hearing the truth. In the context of education it is knowing what others have said about a subject. It is the state of existing knowledge, the information content of a subject. Manana consists in doubting, questioning, reasoning and arguing about what one gathers from sravana. Manana gives the student an understanding of the truth he has learnt.

Education as practised today involves at its best these two principles, sravana and manana. The student listens to the lectures of his teachers, reads books and journals and hopefully assimilates the knowledge through discussion.

In the native Indian tradition there is another step called nididhyasana, meditation on the truth learnt through sravana and manana. Nididhyasana, involving an unceasing flow of knowledge (Jnanadhara), takes one beyond understanding the truth. It gives one realisation of truth in his/her being.

Realisation is different from understanding. Our thoughts and actions are sometimes dissociated. One may know and believe that smoking is bad for health; he may still continue to smoke. He has in this case understanding and not realisation of truth. Scholars may understand truth; scientists may even discover truth.

They may not realise truth. If they did, there would be no destructive consequences of their learning and achievement. Unlike the mere scholar, a true saint realises truth in his being.When this happens, one's being and knowing become identical. At its highest level, knowledge blends with the being; it transforms the person. The individual would no longer be an information machine, a robot like scientist digging blindly to unearth hidden treasures of truth. He is truth himself. A physician who goes beyond understanding medicine lives the life of a physician, which means that he would be what an ideal doctor should be.

Now the question is how we may bring about realisation of knowledge on the part of students, scholars and scientists. In ancient India, only a few sought higher education. Meditational practices, preceded by strict observance of a precise code of conduct, were rigorously undertaken.

Since the subject matter of study itself is limited to a few texts and their interpretation, nididhyasana was not difficult. However, today with greatly expanded knowledge and immensely large number of students seeking higher education, we require less rigorous and more practical methods to add the realisation dimension to education.

We need to have a national dialogue along with extensive discussions among educationalists and intensive experimental investigation of certain models.

We may explore a variety of training strategies to achieve the goal of preparing the student in all the three aspects of education - learning, understanding and realisation. These strategies include combining learning with service, and emphasising learning by doing.

Focussing on the concrete individual rather than the abstract and the general and an in-depth exploration of case studies and micro planning rather than mere exposure to massive statistical data, and finally incorporating appropriate professional ethics at every stage of learning.

It is hoped that there would be an increasing realisation that what is taught is no more important than how it is taught. Truth is not merely to be known but realised in one's being.

K. RAMAKRISHNA RAO

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