The document discusses the importance of having a vision for education. It provides the example of three stonecutters - one who sees his job as just making a living, one who sees it as cutting stones, and one who sees it as constructing a temple. Only the one with the vision of constructing the temple will do the best job. Similarly, to approach education properly requires having a vision beyond just gaining knowledge, such as developing thinking abilities or transforming oneself into an ideal person. The document emphasizes developing skills at the physical, mental, and spiritual levels in order to face life with confidence at every moment.

1. Vision of Education
Joshi C. Haran
Amrita School of Engineering
Amritanagar, Ettimadai
Coimbatore 641112
Email:joshic_ch@amrita.edu
Mob no: +919442843091
1. Introduction
To succeed in any endeavour we should first set a goal. We can just
shoot but success is when you make a mark and hit the mark. So
without a goal we cannot really know if we are successful or not.
When the goal becomes profound and deep then it becomes a vision.
And all the really successful people had visions and not just goals.
When we have a vision our life changes for the better. Our
attitude towards each action gets modified in a very positive way. The
following story will make the idea very clear.
Let’s consider the story of the three stonecutters. One traveller
asked the stonecutters who were cutting stones for the construction of
a temple what they were doing. The first stonecutter replied that he is
making a living. The second stonecutter said he is cutting stones and
the third said he is constructing a temple. The first stone cutter will
not be interested in the job because he has no idea of what he is doing
he is only making a living. The second person will do a better job
because he is at least aware of what he is doing. But the third person
who has a vision of what he is doing will even choose carefully the
stones to be cut because he knows that it has to form part of a temple
that has to stand the test of time.

2. 2. Vision of Education
If education has to take place properly we need to have a vision
of education. One who thinks of education as merely gaining
knowledge approaches it with a limited vision? But if he thinks of
education as developing the ability to think, he has a wider vision and
hence will do a better job. The student then will try to develop in him
the thinking process required to solve a particular problem and then
generalise and develop ideas on how to solve identical problems. But
when his vision expands and knows it as a process by which a person
is transformed into an ideal person he will take it as a very serious
job. He will not worry about how to pass an examination. Anything he
does is an effort to transform himself into an ideal person. And a
teacher has to help him understand this transformation.
The term ideal person does not convey much. To put an idea
into practice we need to know it concretely. We should define it in
such a way as to understand the required transformation. Ideal
person is one who can face each moment of his life confidently. Lord
Krishna is one who is shown as confident all through his life. From
birth to death he faced all problems with a smile. And now we should
understand the qualities that make a man confident each moment of
his life. .
3. Developing the Required Skills
To understand what makes a person confident each moment of
his life it is necessary to understand how he lives each moment of his
life. The each moment one lives is the present moment. Hence we
should first develop the ability to be in the present. If we understand
the ‘present or the ‘NOW’ we see that it opens up new situations. We
have to analyse each situation and act in the correct way.
The old proverb says: ‘To be a master you should learn to obey.’
This leaves us with the question obey what? To act correctly we need
to know the laws governing each situation. And in obeying the laws

3. governing the situation we become masters. That means we need to
develop the ability to obey also. The laws tell us how to behave but
skill we develop only will help us behave in the right way.
The knowledge of the laws of the situation and the objective of
right goal guides our discrimination and helps us to make the right
decision. And to implement the decision we need the skill. This aspect
is what is brought out in the story of the rats and the cat. The rats
found the solution to the problem of how to escape from the cat. They
decided they could bell the cat. But they did not have the skill to
implement the decision. So not only knowledge but the ability to
implement the knowledge also is equally important.
4. Knowledge at Three Levels
To tackle the problem of your life in its entirety it is necessary to
understand the laws of all the three levels i.e. the physical, mental
and the spiritual levels. The physical level itself has two components:
the material and the energy. The mental level also has two
components: intellectual and emotional. The modern education
mainly teaches you only about inanimate objects and that does not
tell you much about how to face life. It helps you to develop only part
of the physical level i.e. about material and part of the mental level i.e.
the intellectual part of it. You do not develop ability to tackle the
energy part of the physical level or the emotional part of the mental
level. And the spiritual aspects are completely ignored; not only that
sometimes you are even told it is all nonsense. It is also necessary to
understand the importance of developing the skills. To develop skills
to tackle energy and emotion we need to develop the spiritual
awareness.
5. The Need for the Spiritual Level
This need for the awareness of the spiritual level is what is
brought out in the first chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita. Arjuna was very
well trained in the secular knowledge. He was first rank throughout.

4. But when he faced the moment of his life at Kurukshetra he lost
confidence and decides not to fight. Though he tries to cover up with
arguments of compassion the symptoms he exhibits betrys him and
shows him up clearly.
What are the symptoms? “My limbs fail me and my mouth is
parched up. My body quivers and my hair stand on end. Gandiva is
slipping from my hand and my skin burns all over.” Have you any
doubt as to when you get a hair-raising experience like Arjuna had?
Next time you see a cobra on the way you will get that cleared. Do not
confuse this with the hair-raising experience of extreme happiness
And this situation is not anything special with Arjuna alone.
You prepare very well for the class and then that innocent looking boy
asks you a simple question that you are not prepared for it happens to
you also. For a student who has prepared very well, if the first
question he reads in the question paper is difficult it happens to him
also.
For Arjuna it took a different turn because Krishna was near
and he educated him on the spiritual aspects and he became
confident of victory. The first chapter we find Arjuna putting down the
bow and in the last chapter we find Arjuna with bow in hand ready to
fight. This transformation from despondency to alacrity was made
possible by the spiritual awareness given to him by Krishna. And that
is the teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita. So if you want to be confident
spiritual awareness is a must.
It also points out that secular knowledge is the first step in
gaining the discipline, which is required to gain the spiritual
knowledge. Krishna chose only Arjuna to give the knowledge.
6. Understanding the Spiritual Level
Spiritual is a confusing word today. It is not easily understood.
Everyone has a different idea of it and so it is treated as unscientific.
It is akin to the story of the fox and the grapes. The fox makes a few

5. halfhearted attempts to get the grapes and on being unsuccessful goes
away saying it is sour. Similarly most people make halfhearted
attempts at spirituality finds nothing and so calls it blind belief and
goes away.
Let us make a little more serious effort and try to understand
the realm of the spiritual; we could make use of our knowledge of
science and then make a little extrapolation.
The created world is made up of infinite number of compounds.
And these compounds are made up of around hundred elements.
Elements are made up of just three fundamental particles. From
Einstein’s theory of relativity we know that particles and energy are
one and the same and that wave particle duality is a fact. Hence we
know that energy is vibrations; the most common being the
electromagnetic radiations like the light and heat. Now let us
extrapolate. The vibrations when it becomes finer is endowed with
intelligence and become human consciousness. Still finer vibrations
can be called cosmic consciousness and Universal consciousness. The
finer most vibration which exists is called the AUM (Amen, Al Amin)
and beyond which is the Unmanifest perfect straight line with no dual
nature and hence this only one expands into the whole Universe. And
that is the only one God, which we refer to in all religions. In
meditation we first try to bring our human consciousness to the AUM
level and then slip into the perfect silence where you become one with
God and know God.
It is interesting to note that the compounds remain as
compounds in the matter and the elements retain their form when
they become compounds. The fundamental particles remain as they
are even when they join to form elements. Proceeding thus we can
state that the Unmanifest retain its unmanifest nature even when it
manifests. And we express the nature at the level at which our
consciousness is aware. We mostly let our consciousness be at the

6. created world level, rarely coming to the consciousness level. Hence
we think ourselves as physical beings.
7. Different States of the Mind
This is again a model to understand to some extend what the
different levels of consciousness could be. Everyone understands the
normal mind. You keep going from one thought to a connected
thought. When you become worried your thoughts become cyclic,
they repeat in the mind. And as you become neurotic the number of
thoughts in the cycle become lesser and lesser and a mad man is one
who has no freedom to go into a new thought. His mind will be just
one or two thoughts. To get him out of it even electric shock becomes
necessary.
From the normal mind if you go to the higher levels of
consciousness it is a stream of thoughts. They need not be connected
thoughts. It is one thought and then a new thought. So you are more
creative at this level because you get more new thoughts. Watching
your thoughts and then chanting a mantra at the end of each thought
can induce this stage because the connection between thoughts is lost
and a new thought is generated. That exactly is the power of Mantra
Japa. Another way to understand it is to know that an idle mind is a
devils’ workshop. You can keep it occupied with the Japa, so your
mind is not idle anymore that keeps your mind free from negative
thoughts which develop more attachments and bring down the mind
to the normal state of connected thoughts.
In the cosmic consciousness state the mind works only when it
is required to work. At other times it is perfectly still. And an
unperturbed perfect silence can be called the Universal
consciousness. Here, your awareness is still different from the
Unmanifest.

7. With the help of the following example we can see that the
spiritual level is always active in each one of us. To know a particle is
moving we need a stationary frame of reference. If we generalize this
concept we can state that to note a change we need to have something
changeless. We live continuously passing through changes and we
know this because of the changeless aspect in us, which is the spirit.
Because of the existence of the spirit only we are able to know and
record in our memory the way we pass through those changes or
experiences. But the problem is that one’s consciousness always
associates itself with the changes and is not aware of the changeless
witness within us. And it is possible to shift our awareness to be with
the spirit and by doing it we can become spiritual beings.
8. Implementing the Vision
Having understood this vision how do we put it into practice?
As a teacher, we have to make the student aware of the required
transformation and develop in him a desire to change. The desire in a
student is the most important component. That is why in India the
student is called a Vidyarthi, a person who seeks knowledge and not a
Vidyabhyasi, a person who practices to gain knowledge In addition, if
a student is interested the concentration is automatic. For instance,
no one complains of lack of concentration watching a movie or a game
of cricket.
Further let us imagine a situation where the student comes
back to hostel totally tired and is in addition having a headache. And
all that he can think of is just lie down. At that time if someone
announces that a well known actor has come to the hostel what do
you expect the boy to do? You think he will continue to lie down? He
will suddenly have all the energy in the world and will run to see the
actor. So if you have interest you will be charged with energy. When
you have interest all your faculties favour you and hence the learning
process becomes natural.

8. For the student of today, education means getting marks in the
examination. That has put in all wrong notions into the head of the
student and they think it is easier to beg and get marks or else do
some malpractice.
But when they know that a transformation has to take place,
they are sure that they have to work and that the teacher cannot just
dole it out. It becomes clear to them that they have to attain it by their
own hard work.
One who can work with the knowledge gets interested. One who
can write beautiful poems surely will enjoy learning a language. So to
develop interest in the student we have to teach the subjects to some
depth. They are exposed to the joy of learning only when they deeply
understand a subject.
But we should still keep in mind that it is not that we are
teaching a subject; but we are developing the awareness in the
student. It is actually a very difficult task. Awareness is of each
moment. To develop this awareness every moment of our life masters
of yore stipulated the rules like give with the right hand, enter with
the right foot first and so on. This awareness will always help you to
pause and analyse the situation before you act.
In the armed forces they have many rules to develop awareness
like salute a senior officer, do not walk but run to cross the parade
ground if you are not actually doing parade.
For our students it can be achieved by stipulating precise way
in which each thing should be done and ensuring that they are
followed. You would appreciate the importance of awareness if you
realise that mistakes are committed due to ignorance or indifference.
Ignorance can easily be removed but indifference or carelessness can
be removed only by developing complete awareness.
God also had originally planned the world to help you develop
this total awareness. Someone living in unprotected environment has

9. to be very alert and that develops in him total awareness. But now we
have created protected environments that we can afford to be careless.
Education hence is a process in which knowledge is a tool used
to develop the person. Presently, knowledge is given importance but
with this new vision the importance is shifted from knowledge to the
person or the student being transformed.