Acharya Tulsi
Student life is a golden and invaluable period which if utilized with care will be very progressive and fruitful. The question will be: What is the meaning of utilizing with care? It means that each moment of a student's life should be used to imbibe the moral values of life because it lays the foundation of healthy and progressive life.
Awakening of Self-discipline
Self-discipline is the foremost and a valuable essence. Winning over your desires and acquiring a control over your senses is more difficult than winning over your enemies. Hence, acquiring control over your mind, soul and senses is real/true victory. In short, winner-of-self is indeed the real winner. Thus a student is expected to make efforts to practice self- discipline and make their lives much brighter and content.
Growth of Character
The other thing to talk about is character. If after reading the scriptures and gaining titles, the character is not awakened then the knowledge is like a burden of a bundle of books loaded on the back of a bull and is thus purposeless. This fact could be a little complex but given a serious thought, one would realize the practicality of this truth.
By character I mean having faith in truth, non-violence, good conduct, honesty, good behaviour and humility. Students on one hand should be conscious establishing these values in their lives and at the same time should be careful from the poisonous and bad elements around them. I believe that this awareness would be a boom to their own lives and at the same time it plays an important role in building a healthy society and a prosperous nation.
Teachers Should Teach from Real Lives
A teacher is a very important constituent of our society. Thus, the choice of becoming a teacher is like accepting an important responsibility of moulding the life of a student. Their life is a living example of inspiration for students. Students do not learn from what their teachers say but from what their teachers do. Teaching has no impact on their lives until their teachers follow what they teach. Thus, a teacher is not only expected to teach and lecture with books but also from their principles of life, ideas and conduct. Thus, a teacher is expected to lead and not get lead. It is easy to get carried away by the ordinary and petty things of life just like a small particle. It is difficult to get carried away by lawlessness, bad conduct and dishonesty which are predominant in the society. On the other hand truth, laws, honesty and morals are difficult to follow. By accepting this secret, I not only hope but certainly believe that the teachers would shoulder efficiently the responsibility of moulding the life of their students which is the other way of building a healthy society and a strong nation.
A student is like a seed. The main element of a huge banyan tree is its seed. In the same way a student's life is the seed of his life. It is important for that seed to grow completely. A bad element should be destroyed the moment it enters in life before it gets rooted. We see a river flowing but when it is flooded it destroys the whole village. But if controlled this destruction can be avoided. In the same way if the bad element is controlled then a person's life can be saved from its bad effects.
But if they take over your values and get rooted, then it becomes difficult to uproot them. The foundation of life is laid during childhood. Do not get panicked by his naughtiness instead try to observe the values and qualities along with it. What a child wants to become and what we want him to be.
The future of a nation lies in its children. Encouragement and guidance at right time is important during childhood. If opposed, the children may become rebellious, rowdy and erratic. A new born is neither rowdy nor rebellious. He imbibes the values from his environment of upbringing, his parents and his teachers. If the parents and teachers have high moral values and a strong character then it is quite obvious that a child will also be like them. Thus, to improve the life of students, the teachers as well as the parents will have to improve themselves.
According to a saint: "Tamaso maa jyotirgamay" - take me from the darkness to the light. What is darkness? Darkness is ignorance. Take me from darkness is to go from ignorance to light of knowledge. If the soul is enlightened then darkness will vanish and there shall be brightness all over.
What is True Knowledge?
In Indian tradition, the knowledge of books has not been considered as a true knowledge. Real knowledge is that which awakens your consciousness, enlightens your soul and spirit. Right knowledge lays the foundation of a progressive life, if not then it becomes a burden. For a donkey, a bundle of sandalwood on its back is like a burden as the donkey is ignorant about the qualities of sandalwood. In the same way, the bookish knowledge is mere an appearance and doesn't have specialized usefulness.
Story of Yudhisthira
According to Mahabharata, king Yudhisthira was taught a lesson on "Control of Anger". All his classmates read the same lesson but Yudhisthira was unable to do so. His teacher Dronacharya was thus annoyed and scolded him. Still he could not learn the lesson. Finally, one day Drona slapped him. Even after being slapped Yudhisthira was not angry. Thus he pleaded to his teacher that now he has read the lesson. What does it mean? Yudhisthira was practicing to win over anger. The true sense of reading a lesson is to follow it in your daily life instead of learning it by heart. He did not believe in what he had read until he practiced it. This is the model of Indian education. The students should also accept this fact heartily that their aim should not only to read the book but to follow it in their daily life. This is the real study.
Indiscipline is an obstacle in learning and should thus be avoided by the students. The student should follow an ideal educational method to gain the knowledge. Very often being disrespectful, disobedient and revolting in front of your teachers doesn't suit them. Involvement in petty politics deviate them from their focus and this is also unfavourable for the students. During the school days the students should not refrain from getting deviated from their pious objective. While doing the distinctive worship towards the knowledge they should devote their life for creation and development and should make it more meaningful. Their success lies in it only.
Law does not Change Mind
A human being plays different roles. Sometimes he acts as a politician with tact and at times his actions are in the realm of social and religious aspect. Whatever path one chooses the goal remains the same for the achievement of happiness and peace. Everybody wants happiness and to achieve that they pursue different paths.
We neither have to touch political field nor economic. Our chosen field is spiritual and moral. To lift up the downtrodden, becoming a driving force for them, to motivate in achieving the self control and to bring out guidelines for establishing moral values - its embodiment is Anuvrat (small vow).
There are two aspects of life-theism and atheism. Those who are atheist believe in what they see. If they have to think for anything then it is present. But those who are theist, whose conscious is awaken, duty bound and believe in immortality of soul. For them the soul is only the important element. They think a lot about past, present and future. Their thoughts give rise to three elements - self realization, self examination and self regulation. If these three elements are absent in a human, he will not be able to recognize himself.
The numerous laws exist for the development of the society and nation. The law doesn't have much value if it lacks the intentions of self-improvement. I have seen in Mumbai - drinking is prohibited there as per the law. Still people drink alcohol openly. What is the reason behind this? As far as I have understood, a law can create an order and rules but cannot change the mind and heart of a man. It cannot create hatred towards bad elements. If this hatred is created they will vanish today or tomorrow. To uproot the bad elements, transformation of heart and modification of values is essential which is possible only with self realization.
Right Way of Improvement
Some people are progressive and they want to change/improve the whole world at once. I agree that their intentions are sanctimonious but the right path of improvement is self correction. Individual wise improvement can only improve the society, nation and world. Ignoring the self correction doesn't have any meaning in improving the society, nation and world.
A teacher once gave the different parts of a world's map and asked his students to assemble them into a proper map. They tried to join the parts to make the map of the world but an hour passed still they could not do it. If America was done properly, Africa was spoilt. If Africa became proper then Asia got disarranged. When Asia was done properly then Europe got disorganized. All students were now surprised. Then the teacher guided them that behind each part there exists an image of a human. Arrange the parts to make a correct picture of a human. The students were well aquatinted with human picture. Very soon they arrange all the different parts of the human body to make a picture. The teacher then asked them to turn over the picture. The students were surprised to see a well self arranged map of world in front of them.
Same fixation applies in the case of improvement of the world. World and nation will improve only when people will be remoulded and reformed. Anuvrat (small vow) aandolan (movement) is a curriculum of self correction. It focuses on improving the people and subsequently improving the nation and the world.
Vow is a Great Power
India has become independent. There is an unexpected progress in the fields of education, art and science in independent India. If these domains are progressing so don't we require progress in the field of character building? Whenever there is a question of self-improvement and character development, we do not move forward. This is not a good situation. Today self improvement is highly essential. For this vow is essential. Vow has great strength. Without its development the path of happiness and peace can't be followed. Thus, the students are expected to increase their power of vow in accordance with Indian traditions and lead their lives towards the path of progress.
