GIST OF THE DISCUSSION held today ( 25th January, 2019, Friday)
Under the Vedavyaasa Restructuring Sanskrit Scheme of Dept. Of Skt & SDHDR&T Center, S D College, Ambala Cantt organized discussion * To DESIGN SANSKRIT- SHAASTRA BASED THE LIFE – LITERACY COURSE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN HARYANA, हरियाणा उच्च-शिक्षा के लिए संस्कृत-शास्त्राधारित जीवन-चर्या पाठ्यक्रम का समनुविधान”* which was presided over by Dr Uma Sharma and dr gaurav sharma, dr Paramjeet Kaur, dr J.P gupt, Sh B D Thaper, Prof Meenakshi, Sh Anil Mittal, Sh Ravi , Sh Manish, along with dr rajendra of GMN college , Sh Aman from Rohtak via video shared their ideas and thoughts on the issue.
Discussion was initiated by ppt presentation with a question – what is being taught about life in Haryana higher education system and how it proposes to train students to deal with two aspects of life i.e. अस्ति and भवति. Education as a tool is essentially meant to transform human life by enhancing the perception and deconditioning of behaviour in such a manner that one makes choices consciously and not compulsively but somehow education system / thinking is mistaking flowers for soil. This higher education system is trying to fix consequences without fixing the source of life which is consciousness. Emotions, attitudes, feelings, actions are not consciousness; they are the consequences of consciousness as it is the very source of existence. So Life cannot be understood with intellect (बौद्धिकता) alone which has been overly eulogized in education system. Nature of intellect is such that it dissects everything and by that one cannot understand life in pieces. One cannot see the whole with intellect as it cannot go beyond a certain limit. On the other hand intelligence (प्रातिभ-ज्ञान) has been missing in education system which was supposed to help to understand life as a whole. So Haryana higher education system lacks the source of life in its basic design.Degrees have brought confidence without clarity which is too dangerous for society, country and humanity as such and all institutions are avoiding to deal with life issues of students and no body is compitent to tell them what it means to acknowledge life and how to acknowledge it. No one tell them that body which is being fed externally eveolves from inside. So source of life is within ones’ own self. On weeds to know that body doesn’t lie to them but mind distorts the reality and most of the it lt misleads. Who teachers them how to handle mind and body and even to acknowledge the source of creation (not to be confused with god etc type of thing). Different subjects may have sharpen the intellect but utterly failed to enhance intelligence of students. This education system is failing to give exposure to explore beyond survival. Where is the place for genuine enquiry and aesthetic life in this system? Which subject promotes such issues? Education system of Haryana may be giving / investing money & technology to bring in more comfort / convenience for students & teachers but wellbeing is not happening at any level? So life literacy course needs to be designed in such a manner so that one knows/ understand how to acknowledge life and how to deal with it. The useless personality development courses, stress management courses are misleading and all are paying price of such courses. The starting line of life literacy course has to be अहमस्मि I.e identity and existence. Then move on with three levels of life literacy course 1. सत्यकाम स्तर, 2 नचिकेता स्तर, 3, श्वेतकेतु स्तर along with Yogic perspective, six limitations of individuals as per kashmir shaivism. Course will be initiated by showing two distinct approaches to life literacy between industrial and agrarian life-literacy models. This education system needs to be restructured urgently if we need to deal with human life. And surely sanskrit can help a lot in developing content of this course along with all other subjects.
It was decided to organize a workshop on this issue to make idea, concept and it’s context more clear, as and when dept of sanskrit is able to generate it’s own funds.
Your critical views are welcome.
Regards
Ashutosh Angiras
Dr. Rajinder Singh,Principal & Patron
