SWAMI VIVEKANANDAJI HAVE NICELY EXPLAINED THE DEFECTS OF PRESENT DAY EDUCATION.

1. SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S EDUCATION
• Vivekananda points out that the defect of the
present-day education is that it has no definite
goal to pursue. A sculptor has a clear idea
about what he wants to shape out of the
marble block; similarly, a painter knows what
he is going to paint. But a teacher, he says, has
no clear idea about the goal of his teaching.

2. SWAMIJI’S EDUCATION
• Swamiji attempts to establish, through his words
and deeds, that the end of all education is man
making.
• He prepares the scheme of this man-making
education in the light of his over-all philosophy
of Vedanta. According to Vedanta, the essence of
man lies in his soul, which he possesses in
addition to his body and mind. In true with this
philosophy, Swamiji defines education as ‘the
manifestation of the perfection already in man.’

3. AIM OF EDUCATION
• The aim of education is to manifest in our lives
the perfection, which is the very nature of our
inner self.
• This perfection is the realization of the infinite
power which resides in everything and every-
where-existence, consciousness and bliss
(satchidananda).

4. EDUCATION ONLY BY IGNORING EGO
After understanding the essential nature of
SOUL’S perfection, we should identify it with
our inner self.
For achieving this, one will have to eliminate
one’s ego, ignorance and all other false
identification, which stand in the way.

5. MEDITATION & MORALITY IS MUST
Meditation, fortified by moral purity and passion
for truth, helps man to leave behind the body,
the senses, the ego and all other non-self
elements, which are perishable. He thus
realizes his immortal divine self, which is of
the nature of infinite existence, infinite
knowledge and infinite bliss.

6. ALL RELIGION’S ARE ONE
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
• It was reserved for America to proclaim to all quarters of
the globe that the Lord is in every religion.
• May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura-
Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists,
the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the
Christians, give strength to you to carry out your noble
idea! The star arose in the East; it travelled steadily
towards the West, sometimes dimmed and sometimes
effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world; and now it is
again rising on the very horizon of the East, the borders
of the Sanpo, a thousandfold more effulgent than it ever
was before.
• c.f. Compete Works, VOL.:1

7. CHARACTER - DEFINED

8. BALANCED EDUCATIONAL OUTPUT

9. METHOD OF SUCCESS

10. WHY WE DISAGREE
I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause of this variance.
A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there
and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. One day another frog
that lived in the sea came and fell into the well.
"Where are you from? “I am from the sea.“ "The sea! How big is that? Is it
as big as my well?" and he took a leap from one side of the well to the
other.
"My friend," said the frog of the sea, "how do you compare the sea with
your little well?"Then the frog took another leap and asked, "Is your sea so
big?“ "What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!"
"Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can be bigger than my well;
there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out."
That has been the difficulty all the while.
I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole
world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the
whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks
that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great
attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of
ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your
purpose.

11. WHY WE DISAGREE
I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause of this variance.
• A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and
brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. One day another frog that lived
in the sea came and fell into the well.
• "Where are you from? “I am from the sea.“ "The sea! How big is that? Is it as big
as my well?" and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other.
• "My friend," said the frog of the sea, "how do you compare the sea with your
little well?"Then the frog took another leap and asked, "Is your sea so big?“
"What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!"
• "Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can be bigger than my well; there
can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out."
• That has been the difficulty all the while.
• I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world
is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is
his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole
world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to
break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future,
the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.

12. SELF-RESPONSIBILITY
• We are responsible for what we are; and
whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have
the power to make ourselves.
• If what we are now has been the result of our
own past actions, it certainly follows that
whatever we wish to be in future can be
produced by our present actions;
• So we have to know how to act.