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Letter to dear students -

On the Philosophy and Psychology of life –

And

Our education - is it Education or Literacy ?

I hope this post finds you in sound health and happiness. For a long time I wanted to write to you and was procrastinating on the task. Today I thought I must write. And here I am. People generally

classify me as a philosopher. – As I am generally seen reflecting and in deep thought on everything that happens in life and about life in general. Some thoughts crystallized in recent days and I thought I must write them down. So this piece is on – The Philosophy and Psychology of Life.

Well, I must admit that life is not always a bed of roses either for you or for me. Certain distressing incidents do occur in every person’s life at one time or another. Illnesses of near and dear ones, a personal loss, an accident, hospitalization of those close to you-all of which really take a roll on one`s emotional stability.

However, these occurrences are few and far between and as you may have realized, the impact wanes gradually with the passage of time. Time is a great healer.

With the gradual passage of time, life does return to normalcy. That is how God has made all of us. It does take time, but eventually we all come out of our traumas.

Barring such rare mishaps, which are very, very few in your entire life the remaining 90 per cent of a person's life, such as material, professional and emotional, need to be always smooth, peaceful satisfying and full of happiness.

I repeat that these are in your control and depend entirely on you. You can achieve them and can continue achieving them throughout life if you want to, if you learn to and if you really work hard to attain such bliss.

EVERY HUMAN IS UNIQUE BY HIMSELF

The uniqueness of nature is in the creation of different species. In so far as humans are concerned, it is a fact that every human face, every human mind, the inner self of a human and its development are different.

Every human being is unique. Each person is like a wholly different book with chapters and pages in his or her life that do not resemble anyone else’s. And it is so important to realize this. However accomplished or successful a person may be, he cannot claim that his views are universally correct while those of others are flawed. Nobody should try to read others' pages with his own. We should not expect that if we think, act and react in a particular manner the other person should also think, act and react likewise. Once this basic truth is recognized, imbued and accepted, a number of life's problems get nicely resolved on their own.

I consider myself fortunate that my colleagues, friends and students give me the opportunity to share with them their personal problems. Quite frequently these friends, colleagues and students would approach and spill their hearts out to me. I would patiently hear them out and involve myself wholeheartedly in the ensuing discussions trying, to work out a solution. I love doing so. These were the discussions that helped me arrive at balanced solutions and helped me understand life better. And like the petals of a lotus flower, life unfolded gradually before me…….

All that you have to do is to understand life deeply. The more you know about life, the closer will you be to this intangible treasure called ‘no tension and happiness forever'.

PSYCHOLOGICAL OR EMOTIONAL ASPECTS OF LIFE

Life is beautiful. It certainly is. Every moment of life is beautiful; believe me every moment of it. l am not saying this just to impress you. You will be convinced if you understand what I am trying to say.

So, whenever I talk about making life beautiful, I want you to understand the basics. For a positive outcome you have to learn the psychological aspects of life or the emotional aspects of life. In other words, you may call them realities of life or the entire philosophy of life.

It is generally said that philosophy is not the subject of normal people working in different professions but of the highly intellectual sort. So the first step towards better understanding of life is to clarify word ‘spiritualism’, which is known in Hindi as ‘adyatma’. It is considered a very heavy and confusing word. People think only sages, saints and intellectual persons can understand and practice it. This is absurd. This word means the study of self or the study of one’s ‘I', or the study of one's internal characteristics. In other words, it means the knowledge of the basic truths with which we are born or of the basic instincts inherent in us all. Philosophy of life, emotional aspects of life and psychological aspects of life are all similar expressions and they mean the realities of life with which we are born.

When you feel hungry you eat something. This is a reality. You have to eat to take care of your biological hunger. So the knowledge of what to eat and how to eat is also a part of the philosophy of life. Similarly if you feel thirsty you have to drink water. So this too is a part of the philosophy of life.

Some so called intellectual persons tend to misguide the common man. They create an impression that they are superior to others. They try to portray that philosophy is beyond the reach of a commoner. This isn’t true. As I said, you quench your thirst when you are thirsty eat when hungry; this is a simple reality which is part of the philosophy of life.

In fact, in colleges and universities, philosophy and psychology are studied as separate subjects. It is very difficult to understand their respective text books as most of the thought goes above your head. But here I am talking about applied philosophy and applied psychology which are applicable in our day-to-day lives.

Actually the psychological or philosophical studies have been made complex and difficult to understand because they lack simple day to day examples or applications and probably that is the reason why these studies are not helping mankind beyond a certain level.

Development of a Logical Muscle

Now I want to point out one more issue. In every religion, there are very well written holy texts. You talk about the Gita, the Koran, the Bible or the Guru Granth Sahib or other such books, they all contain righteous content. They try to give you the right directions or show you a path which, if you follow, will make you a happy person. There are dos and don’ts in these books. Dos and don’ts have been emphasised upon in these holy books.

For example, the Gita says- 'The right is to work, but never to its fruit’. It simply means you continue doing your work, perform your duties but neither should you expect benefits from it nor results. To this expression in the Gita, your immediate reaction would be, ‘why should I not expect the benefits when I have been working with the intention of getting something from it’. What the Gita says is perfectly right but not elaborated upon so as to facilitate its easier understanding. This particular expression quoted from the Gita may take hours to explain in detail. It has to be explained in the context of which it was uttered, to understand its appropriateness. At the same time one should be able to debate on its content and not follow it blindly.

In the older days, there were no schools and colleges and hence no means to impart formal education. The result was a mass of God-fearing individuals who needed to be told what is the right thing to do and what is not. Most classes of people were unable to develop a logical mind and thus followed instructions blindly. Unless you train your mind into long years of educational exercise the logical muscle doesn’t develop.

The gurus or religious leaders simply instructed people about the dos and don’ts to be rigidly followed. For example, ‘do this and it will give you a good result and you will be happy, if you don’t, it will be a sin and you shall have to face the consequences of it. And people followed this blindly.

These kinds of dos and don’ts are there in abundance in such holy scriptures but answers to questions like why, when, what, where, whose and how, concerning specific directions have not been provided in them.

As I said earlier, when a person attends school or college, his mind is trained to think logically or in other words, a logical muscle evolves. This is comparable to a body muscle, the more you exercise a muscle in a gym or outdoors, the stronger and the more capable it becomes. In the same manner, formal education of schools and colleges help develop the logical muscle.

So, as I said, every individual has the potential to develop this logical muscle, however, it is not always explored and exploited. This was especially true in the olden times.

When the Gita says, perform your duties and don’t expect any benefits of it, your logical muscle, which is the strength of your mind, immediately poses the question, ‘Why?’, ‘Why shouldn't I expect benefits?’ Though, I repeat, this line in the Gita is absolutely correct, one is unwilling to accept it as a blind follower, especially with the development of the mental or the logical muscle following long years of study in schools and colleges. It is this strength of you logical muscle which stops you from following or obeying the do an don'ts blindly.

In rural India, due to lack of education or more appropriately the lack of opportunities of good formal education, the logical muscle which l spoke about is missing even today. If you happen to make a suggestion to a person in a distant rural area, which you believe would be beneficial to him, you might still get a reply which goes something as, ‘No Sir, we cannot follow your suggestion, we are not interested in it. It may be beneficial to us, yet we will stand by what we have learnt from our parents and forefathers.’ These are the people who blindly follow dos and don’ts without applying their minds.

A logical mind like yours and mine cannot and should not be comfortable in the blind acceptance of dos and don’ts. The holy scriptures of all religions have a lot to give to enrich human lives but only if these are very well elaborated upon. As I said before, a single line in the Gita could be a book by itself if properly exemplified and explained. All the holy scriptures are now kept wrapped in a red cloth which people do not read but only worship with candles, flowers and incense sticks. In fact, all the holy books need to be re-written with logical detailing and elaboration, otherwise they will remain only as objects of worship.

The holy scriptures being difficult to follow may well be the core reason behind so many people leading unhappy and stressful live. They are confused about the directions their lives are taking and are beset with the worry that they may continue to be so- unhappy, dissatisfied and hence, unworthy of living.

Life, however is extremely beautiful and I shall help you understand this.

Every one of us is engaged in some field or the other as a means of livelihood. It is essential to be aware of certain useful points and realities in successful managing things at your workplace as well as on your home front. When you have studied these realties, you will realize whether or not, you are capable of becoming a good manager, a good worker, a good son, a good brother, a good father, a good citizen, a good spouse or a good human being. The theories and the politics remain the same in any role. You just have to understand these realities well, practice them as much as possible. In no time will the pleasant realization drawn upon you that they work as effectively everywhere.

So don't get confused that it is meant only for your personal life or only for your professional life, it is for both. If you desire to become good it will help you anywhere. As I said, if you wouldn't know that you have to eat when you are hungry, how would you survive, how would you be happy? So it is universal whether you are the president of the country or a beggar on the streets, the rules are the same, the realities are the same.

IN SCHOOL, COLLEGE YOU ARE NOT EDUCATED BUT SIMPLY ATTAIN LITERACY-BUT BOTH ARE REQUIRED

Insofar as school and college education in concerned, I would like to point out a difference between education and literacy. Schools and colleges impart literacy but not education in its true sense.

The most important education is imparted by the family, the parents and the elders. However, in many an instance parents themselves lack good quality education and understanding of the realities of life. It is in such cases that the person could well stray away from an ethical path and remain confused and insecure in his thinking. He will then miss out on a golden opportunity of a successful and a happy future.

The point I want to make is that education is important in life and not mere literacy. In schools and colleges, we become literate in certain subjects and that helps us in getting and holding on to a suitable job for our livelihood. Knowledge of life, education of life gives us a peaceful, happy and contented life.

I would like to add one more observation to prove my point. If you have followed history over the years, you may have read or heard about school drop-outs who went on to become iconic figures in their careers.

In professional or personal life, in small, tiny or big issues, ‘man management’ is the most important factor. Only the right education, the right knowledge of life, the right knowledge of the philosophy or the psychology of life, the emotional aspect and the realities of life give a person perfect man management abilities. I had written something once which many people did not appreciate, 'In business you must study “man management” and if at all you get extra time, you may (or may not) study Business Management’. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not at all against high literacy but even an appreciably high level of literacy without proper and adequate knowledge of life, cannot be productive, blissful on a continuous basis.

Therefore, we can conclude that unless one strives to be a perfect human being, one cannot be successful in any field in spite of the best of college and university qualifications.

For example, you see a chartered accountant, a doctor, an engineer, a management person and many others who have qualified for certain jobs by doing specific courses. After completing such a course, these qualified people certainly have value and insofar as qualification goes, are better equipped than others. So they definitely have a specific high value.

I put it this way, you can weigh them by kilos, kilos of literacy. However, many of these people are unable to rise beyond a certain limit as they find it very difficult to do so. After a certain level they are unable to make further progress, the way they are expected to. Here don’t think I am suggesting that one should not go to school or college. Yet, if somebody is literate and educated as well, that would be the best combination. He will achieve better results than anybody else in the field.

But ‘education’ is more important than literacy. No doubt, with literacy you acquire proficiency in language, you acquire certain knowledge of a subject and both help you. Language helps you in communication, while the knowledge of the subject helps you in your profession. But in conclusion, I would say education that is proper, effective and derailed in all aspects, carries much more importance than mere literacy.

Take Care !!!! God Bless !!!!

I hope this post finds you in sound health and happiness. For a long time I wanted to write to you and was procrastinating on the task. Today I thought I must write. And here I am. People generally classify me as a philosopher. – As I am generally seen reflecting and in deep thought on everything that happens in life and about life in general. Some thoughts crystallized in recent days and I thought I must write them down. So this piece is on – The Philosophy and Psychology of Life.