True Education

True Education is that which unfolds the latent sublime DIVINE ENERGY already in man. Sri Sathya Sai Education Programme marks the dawn of a new era. The golden rays of this dawn assure a bright future for our students and for our nation which was dreamt by great minds during the last century. Various Schools and Colleges established by Bhagavan are offering Integral, Value-based education for the total personality development. The various aspects of this educational programme are combined with the regular scholastic and collegiate curriculum.

The three unique features of the Sai system of Education:

1. Free Education

Education is not a commodity to be sold. The society has the responsibility to make the educational opportunity available to all the individuals. When education becomes a business, the teacher – student relationship becomes artificial and without roots in the heart. The bond between the teacher and the taught should not be money, but Love, Reverence and Affection. This confers the fullest benefits of true education.

2. Integral Education

Integral Education aims at the development of all aspects of human personality in a manner that it leads to Total Human Excellence (Development of the body, mind and the Spirit)

3. Residential Education

In the ancient Indian Education, the pupil stayed with the preceptor while learning. The master transformed his wholesome personality and divinised each aspect of his conduct, behaviour and character. In the residential type of education, the Institution has a maximum time to mould the students and work upon each aspect of their personality, individual traits and social behaviour. The various programmes of integral education can be effected only in a residential system.

Philosophical Basis of the Sai system of Education

The modern education has neglected the concern for Human Values. It has merely become a professional training to prepare man as a money making machine. It triggers the sense of competition to acquire position and money. The result is the erosion of moral values in the Society. The present education system has to bear the responsibility for restlessness in man, Terrorism, corruption, Social irresponsibility, and related such evils.

Great thinkers and sincere educationists have been pleading for a serious change in the objectives of education. Education should reassert its great responsibility of inculcating values in man. A new revolution should bring a change in the present education system and prepare itself to bring out a complete individual in man with noble qualities and necessary skills to be self-dependent and useful to the society. Swami Vivekananda said, Education should combine the scientific knowledge of the West with the spiritual wisdom of the East. Education should be built on a spiritual foundation. Till then, there is no salvation for the people. Only such education could discipline the intellect, nourish fellow feeling and develop social responsibility.

The traditional Gurukula system of education transformed the wholesome personality of the students and prepared them to lead a better life as responsible and useful citizens who could contribute to the welfare of the society. It developed great levels of insight and moulded them as balanced individuals who could understand and make use of the great energy that flowed from their inner spirit.

Bhagavan Baba says, the present educational system is polluting the social organism with narrowness and crookedness. Education cannot be got by merely mastering reading, writing and arithmetic. What is learnt in the books must be confirmed and corrected by practising it in social living. Then only learning is transformed into true Education.

Bhagavan Baba says, Promotion of human values should become an integral part of education. Education should strive to achieve national unity and national integration. Teachers and educationists should shed narrow loyalties and serve the society. By instilling human values in students and teachers, India can become an ideal country and example to the whole world.

The Goal of Education & the Goal of life: Earning money cannot be the purpose of true education. Acquiring good qualities is the only purpose of education. The goal of human life is not just eating, sleeping and enjoying. Even birds and animals do that. Man must realize his innate divinity. Only then he can get peace and fulfillment.

Sharp intellect and acquiring information alone cannot help the progress of the world. If desires multiply with knowledge, man becomes hero in words and zero in action. Without training him to lead a good life, teaching him various skills only make him a danger to himself and others.

The purpose of education: Transformation and not just information; Construction and not just instruction. Education is the basis for leading a purposeful life in the world, in the realm of mind and society. Education is complete when one is perfectly clean inward and outward.

True education should train you to control your mind and sense organs and make them grow in the right direction. Education should teach Unity, cooperation and equanimity. It should destroy the narrowness of mind and promote world peace.

One should learn such education which promotes good conduct, right mind, quest for truth, devotion, discipline and sense of duty. Bhagavan Baba says, Sai Schools and Colleges shall produce a generation of youth who will live ideal lives. They shall plunge into the society with thirst for service as a spiritual duty and proclaim the real worth of their humanness.

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