Tulsi Prajna 1993 01

SR No.: 524573
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1993
Total Pages: 156
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 9 MB

Page 55

Moral values and Education
49
the Jaina thinkers have declared when they said that samyakjnana inevitably leads to samyak caritra. Socrates and Jesus Christ also meant the same when they said that the sinner does not really know what the good is.
From the above it is evident that wisdom or true knowledge is not devoid of action, that it consists in a practical sense of values, and that virtue being knowledge can be taught and acquired. What is needed is to train the individual in a proper way to know the good and to act upto it. And here comes the role of education. This is what is called the educational theory of goodness.
The Indian seers were all the while conscious of this fact that a man devoid of wisdom can never be noble. "Dhiya vihino nahi yati dhanyatam'. So the task of education must be to inculcate in him wisdom or a practical sense of values. The words samskara. samskrti, dvija, sattva-samshuddhi, visuddhatna. nididhyasan cic./used for education which was imparted in those days. The famous convocation address in the Taittiriya Upanisad starts with “Satyam Vada,” “Dharmam cara” etc. All this emphasises that wisdom can be acquired by him alone who has moral and spiritual qualifications. At present under the western influencewe concentrate only on the measures (pramanas) of knowledge and do not take into consideration the most significant part played by the measures of knowledge (pramatr). The various instruments of knowledge like sound sense organs, sharp intellect. adequate methodology. etc. do play their role in the acquisition of knowledge, but more important is the knower sho uses these instruments. The moral and spiritual character of the knower influences his capacity of acquiring the truth. The fivefold gradation of knowledge in the Jain epistemology, the sadhana calustaya of the Advaita Vedanta, the sadhana saptaka of Ramanuja's philosophy etc. all evince the more certain is knowledge.
The upshot of the above consideration is that the prime need of the day is a re-orientation of our nature of education. Instead of being mere job-oriented let it also be character-oriented. If our system of education fails to turn over a man into a nan it has outlived its utility and is more than a dead weight.
January-March 1993