The colonial mental setup which was imposed on us by the British rule has done its devastating act by slowly poisoning our roots. We are now habitual to criticizing our ancient knowledge treasures and there has been a complete paradigm shift in the way we look at them. The severity of contemporary scenario can be judged on the basis of lack of self confidence in the youth. Their creativity is at stake. The mental faculty is programmed by the endless expectations of the people around. The creativity crisis is a loss to the nation’s intellectual capital.
Our Vedic school of thought emphasizes on the holistic learning module that facilitates all the senses to be utilized in total. It beautifully integrates the head, hand and heart and inspires the odyssey of learning process to knowledge acquisition and finally to wisdom, and this wisdom translates in to a blissful living. The question is, is there a need for the revival of current school of thoughts in the educational system? The answer is a big yes if not now, then when?
When initiatives are on to integrate and make a uniform course structure, the policy making authority must ensure that many more career options need to be simultaneously created; and education be given a Vedic perspective of holistic learning. Knowledge acquisition in the learning environment must not end up in a job seeking endeavor rather the starving creativity within should be satiated and consequently nurtured. It should also serve as a strong tool for independent thinking. In the dynamically changing competitive setup of the society it must be sown deep in the conscience of every individual that there is no dearth of opportunity. Sincere effort should be on skill development and enhancing the capability and not merely on success.
The first school of a child is mother, and as such, great responsibility lies on her shoulders too. High expectations lead to pressure and the stress kills creative initiative. His problem solving capability is brutally castrated. Thus the child succumbs to the situation and life no more remains a pursuit for joyful learning, rather it becomes a forced painful journey often culminating in to rat race. Mothers need not sympathize in such a scenario but should empathize in true sense. Paper qualification cannot justify the trauma of slowly poisoning and destroying the creativity inherently endowed in a child.
Be it movies like “Taare Zameen Par” or “Three Idiots” the underlying message portrayed is the same. Pressure sabotages the power of imagination and creativity and if passion overrules pressure then miracles can happen. Lets crystallize these thoughts and animate them into reality, preparing a ground where long gestation can end and recalcitrant seeds blossom in to beautiful flowers. Let us demystify our own treasures of knowledge and become a knowledge based evolving society.
The writer is a research scholar by profession working at CDRI Lucknow, a freelancer and poet by passion.