|
How are we going to transmit all this to the next generation? It can be done only by planting the seeds of it all in the school curriculum. We have to invade into school time. But first of all there must be the political will to do this. In different countries of the world there are different reasons why it is difficult to garner this political will. The Indian reason is very transparent. The political world in India does not agree on what these lessons of spirituality are. The problem arises because the political world identifies spirituality with religion. It is certainly true that it was religion and religious philosophy that originally introduced and motivated the concept of spirituality. But today religion, at least in India, has almost degraded into a vast fund of apparently meaningless rituals and rites, coupled sometimes with fundamentalist dogmatic attitudes. And on top of this it has come to be massively used as an alibi for acquiring political power and economic domination. In this setting , we should know what to emphasize as the lessons of spirituality, without falling into the trap of propagandist politics. It is necessary to carry through this emphasis consciously in order for humanity to proceed in its great evolutionary upward rise. |
|
|
It has been forecast by great historians that the middle of the 21st century would see the world veer round to the nobler ancient thought processes of the East, among which India has always been counted as a mjor contributor. The 20th century began with a peak period in the history of colonial domination of the Natives by the Imperialists. And it is ending up, at least in India, with a corruptive domination of the Natives by the Natives themselves. When the 21st century catches up with the historians' forecast, is India going to be in the forefront, both with its heritage of ancient values and with its potential for rising up to the challenges of modern science and technology? Or is it going to be a repetition of the 20th century when, by falling back on a rejuvenated value system in the first half of the century, we regained our independence, most honourably, but in the second half of the century have lost it all by forgetting our moorings and falling a prey to the charms of prostitution of democracy? If we do not want history to repeat itself, it is necessary to draw up a master plan for reconstructing our educational system by building into it a steady, healthy and consistent dose of spiritual and human values right from the lowest levels. Once we take care to isolate the concept of Spirituality from religion and religious politics, it will not be difficult to agree on something like the following as the basic lessons of spirituality and their implications for education. |