Be yourself, love yourself;
And lift yourself — by yourself.
— Mantra for Young India
Are we challenging our children with the fundamental questions on how they should live their lives and make the right choices? Correct choice is the key to positive outcomes. Our life is defined by the choices we make. We are all unique individuals with different characteristics, attitudes and beliefs, but it is not the unique package that determines the enjoyment and effectiveness of our life, but how we choose to use it. For instance, we do not become good by trying to be good. We have to find the goodness that is already within us and permit that goodness to emerge and permeate our thoughts, words and deeds.
The Latin root derivative of the word ‘education’ is educere, meaning to draw out from within. We all need a spotter in our lives to spot our innate tendencies and latent talents. Once spotted, like saplings, the child’s growth needs to be supported, watered, fertilised and even de-weeded.
Our education and upbringing do not teach you what you really are; these teach you what you want! And ‘wants’ translates into endless desires and mindless actions of road rage, radicalisation of youth, environmental degradation, even suicides. Why this destructive behaviour of continually making poor life choices that reflect an absence of self-regulation, ethics and a sense of social responsibility? Because the bondaged mind has been programmed to do so. Lack of adequate discerning ability between right and wrong during early childhood makes you inadvertently absorb negative life experiences that form your belief system and paradigms of recurrent negative behaviour.
Life is an eternal fight between the Good and Evil, and it is in the nature of man to always land up at the crossroads. In our hand lies the power to choose.
Awareness is the indispensable key that unlocks your true potential and helps you to discover who you really are. It gives a new perspective outside the constant I, Me and Mine syndrome of the ego. Once there, there is an opportunity for real change. You then develop a holistic approach to learning, one that seeks to open the mind, nurture the spirit and awaken the heart. An open mind embraces the new and the unfamiliar, unleashes your creative potential and aligns the head that reasons and the heart that feels. There is harmony between what you think, what you say and what you do. You evolve and develop an outlook, a new nazariya, of viewing the world inside out. There is balance and harmony in your behaviour and relationships at work, at home and at play. In this awareness of who you really are, you also see the sameness in what the others are. This expands your horizon and a symphonic life follows that urges oneness of humanity, transcending man-created hurdles of religious, racial, cultural, geographical and ideological differences.
Every being is a bundle of energy and vibrations, and so is the universe. You make the right choice, your thoughts and beliefs can work wonders, even miracles, provided you master the art of thinking — how to think and how not to think. People improve their standard of living, but not their standard of thinking. We exercise selectivity and choice in all our transactions, be it grocery items, clothes, cuisine, seeing films or visiting restaurants. Why not do the same with our thoughts? Let us begin the day by greeting the sunrise with awe and a sense of wonder. The sun presents a breathtaking spectacle and does its productive duty towards the creation religiously. The flowers, plants and trees eagerly wait to receive the sun’s rays to bloom in their glory and splendour, and spread fragrance, joy and cheer to all the bystanders. Such sensory delights rejuvenate the mind, the spirit and your creativity.
When you are close to yourself, you are in meditation. You feel the environment and you enjoy your company. You begin to love yourself and live consciously, and life changes magically for the better.
Students are not vessels to be filled, but lamps to be lit. The purpose of education is to actualise the already existing potential in every child. The author is looking at the greater vision of what the end product, a youth stepping into young adulthood, may look like — a balanced person who abides by harmony. This necessitates working on him during childhood and adolescence with a method. Education from playschool to college must be viewed as a whole in keeping with the stated vision and progressively imparted in an organised manner.
The first seven years of a child at playschool and primary level becomes a fertile period to expose the child’s inborn spirituality to nature, earthy activities and the glory of creation. The child’s natural curiosity absorbs the interdependence between people, plants, animals and the earth. They imbibe values of oneness, love, empathy, care and compassion. This helps in building a child’s relationship to a higher purpose, whether that is nature, God, universe or even a tree. The base thus created facilitates a holistic approach to learning and prepares the student to recognise the connectedness of mind, body and spirit in all activities at the adolescent stage with ease. Every child has the urge ‘to be recognised’. This urge upgrades to high ‘self-esteem’ in a youth with aforementioned schooling, because he now learns to be the true expression of who he really is. As you sow in the subconscious mind, so shall you reap in your body and environment, and make the right choices.