In the series of articles on Sanatan Dharma, another article on the value-based Vedic education system is posted herewith which envisions to make better citizens. The Vedic education system was prevalent in ancient Bharat which aimed at developing character, physical, ethical, intellectual and spiritual powers of the students. It dedicated the first stage of life for education. The acquisition of education and the holistic development of student followed the principles of simple living and living together with the teacher in Gurukuls. Unlike modern education bought at hefty fees and other expenses, Gurukul education system was based on teacher-disciple system without any fee; where rich and poor, royal and pauper studied together. Shree Rama in treta studied in the ashram of Rishi Vashistha with Nishadraj (King of Fishermen) who was from other backward caste and Shree Krishna educated in the ashram of Rishi Sandipani with Sudama who was born into a poor Brahmin family. Unfortunately, the modern system of education brought to India in the year 1835 by Lord Macauley was commercial in nature; developed competition among students rather than personality development, laid less stress on personality development & creation of moral conscience. It was aimed at making students job-oriented which gradually wiped-out various professional skills. Guru in Vedic Education: Guru is Gu and Ru; Gu is darkness and Ru is remover. Guru dispels darkness, sin, and ignorance. Once Guru purifies himself both externally and internally and assumes the body of the deity he worships and propitiates, the body of the Guru is the same as the deity; his disciple receives a bit of the effulgence from the grace of the Guru. Guru is Brahma, Vishnu and Siva all rolled into one. In Vedic education system, teacher disciple relationship was ideal. There are three levels at which learning takes place. There are subjective knowledge, objective knowledge and meta-knowledge. Subjective knowledge teaches one about self, it is useful as it promotes wellness and peace in an individual, makes them better leaders and affords them with better social organization skills. A few verses are mentioned as under: -
First stage of life dedicated for Education: In ancient India an ideal life was considered to pass through four stages, and Brahmacharya, the first stage of life is considered as the period of education. The rules and conduct of a Brahmachari are given in Manusmṛti, Chapter 2. The four stages in life are – first ashram i.e., Brahmacharya (upto 25 years), second ashram i.e. Grahastha (25-50 years), third ashram i.e., Vanaprastha (50-75), fourth ashram i.e., Sannyasa. A few verses are mentioned as under: -
Gurukul System of education: The basic principle of Vedic Sanatan Dharma transmission from one generation to the next is the gurukul education, the parampara (lineage) of Guru – disciple relationship. Gurukul is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms guru and kula (कुल). Gurukul refers to “centres of learning around great teachers (Guru)” and forms part of the ancient Indian education system, which aimed at both the inner and the outer dimension of a person. Gurukul system was a comprehensive and all-encompassing system of education viz. Mathematics, Science, Astronomy, Languages, Early Medicine etc. This system of Education aimed at overall personality development and character formation. The Vedic school of thought prescribes the gurukul (sacred rite of passage) to all individuals before the age of 8 at least by 12. From initiation until the age of 25 all individuals are prescribed to be students and to remain unmarried, a celibate. Students were divided into three categories:
The fee of the Guru or Acharya was called ‘Guru Dakshina’. Begging was an important part of the celibacy fast thus being compulsory for all to follow. This helped the Guru run the Kul. Also, subsidies from the kings and the government, along with generous donations from the people around helped the financial administration of the Gurukul. अभिषेचनोपवास ब्रह्मचर्यगुरुकुलवासवानप्रस्थ यज्ञदान प्रोक्षणदिङ्नक्षत्रमन्त्रकालनियमाश्चादृष्टाय ॥ ६.२.२ ॥ Meaning: Ablution, fast, brahmacharya, residence in the family of the preceptor, life of retirement in the forest, sacrifice, gift, oblation, directions, constellations, seasons, and religious observances conduce to invisible fruit. (Vaiseṣika sutra 6.2.2)
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Every Syllable of Sanskrit & Hindi language has science & meaning. The research shows distinctive advantages of Devanagari script in brain activity. Sanskrit too has this advantage as it is written in Devanagari script. The National Brain Research Centre (NBRC) scientists have discovered that reading Devnagari script involves more areas of human brain than roman scripts. All European languages like French, German Spanish etc use roman script. This means learning Sanskrit and Hindi are more advantageous for human brain. No wonder Indian students are excelling intellectually all over the world.
The scientists at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have acknowledged that Sanskrit is the most scientific language in which the words are written exactly in the manner they are spoken or thought of. If talking computers become a reality in the future, Sanskrit would be the most useful language for them. A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins. Syllables are often considered the phonological "building blocks" of words. They can influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic metre and its stress patterns. Sanskrit alphabets contain 46 letters (13 vowels - अ, आ, इ, ई, उ, ऊ, ऋ, ऋ, लृ ए, ऐ, ओ, औ & 33 consonants - क्, ख, ग, घ, ङ् च्, छ, ज्, झ्, ञ् ट्, ठ, इ द्, ण् त्, थ्, द्, ध्, न् प्, फ्, ब, भ म् य् र् ल्, व् श्, ष्, स्, ह्) and Hindi Alphabets contain 52 letters (13 vowels - अ, आ, इ, ई, उ, ऊ, ए, ऐ, ओ, औ, ऋ अं अः, & 39 consonants - क, ख, ग, घ, ङ, च, छ, ज, झ, ञ, ट, ठ, ड, ढ, ण, त, थ, द, ध, न, प, फ, व, भ म श, ष, स, ह य’, ‘र’, ‘ल’ व क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ, श्र ड’ एवं ‘ढ)). The writing direction is Left-To-Right, Horizontal. Sanskrit was the classical literary language of the Indian Hindus and Panini (6th – 5th BCE) is considered the scholar who standardised the grammar of Sanskrit language and founded classical Sanskrit. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit. The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda. from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. The official Hindi alphabet has 46 letters divided into 11 vowels and 35 consonants. On the other hand, the traditional Hindi alphabet has 46 letters including 13 vowels and 33 consonants. Hindi uses more consonants than English does, and some of them have no direct equivalent in English.
Hindi Vowels & Consonants are governing scientifically in their pronunciation. Vocal cords and use of tongue are scientifically designed. Vowels –
Sanatan Dharma is the outcome of collective wisdom and research done over thousands of years by ancient rishis (scientists). The beauty of Sanatan Dharma is nectar of scientific process viz. observations, calculations, testing and resultant values.
Sanatan Dharma is based on the premise of well-being of entire humanity, peace and progress. This is the ideal situation, anyone can envisage. It counts not only human beings, but also animals, plants and entire universe. It, not only postulate the principles for living ones and but also after death. The dynamics of body, mind, self and universal self has been lucidly explained to achieve the liberation from cycle of re-birth and agonies of births. A few verses are been selected to explain the core of spirituality in Sanatan Dharma as under: - Spirituality:
Meaning: The rivers do not drink their own water; the trees do not eat their own tasty fruits; the clouds do not eat the crop themselves, Wealth of the virtuous ones (should be) for helping others.
Meaning: Nobility is the ornament of greatness; restraint over speech, of courage; Calmness, of knowledge; obedience, of learning; wise spending of wealth; Control of one’s anger, of penance; patience, of efficiency, straight-forwardness, of dharma; Good character is the base for all the above qualities and is the greatest ornament of all.
Meaning: Age, knowledge, fame and strength of a man increase who greets elders and a person who constantly serves the elderly.
Meaning: Ornament of hand is charity, ornament of neck is truth, ornament of ear is listening what is need of other ornaments.
Meaning: Truth is God. The goddess of wealth always takes refuge in truth. Truth is the root of everything. It is supreme and there is nothing above it.
Meaning: Skill is superior to material things; knowledge is superior to wealth; Health is superior to profits and contentment is the best form of happiness.
Meaning: Anger destroys love, pride destroys modesty, hypocrisy destroys friendship, while greed destroys everything.
Meaning: A preceptor is more than ten ordinary teachers, our father is superior to a hundred such preceptors, but our mother surpasses the glory of a thousand fathers.
Meaning: Meaning: There is no eye like knowledge, no penance like truth, no sorrow like attachment and there is no happiness like a sacrifice.
Meaning: Respectability comes from giving and not collecting. Clouds (attain) a higher position and the oceans, a lower one.
Meaning: Dharma arises from Truth. Through compassion and offerings, it grows. Through forbearance, it endures (remains in existence). Through anger and greed, it disappears.
Meaning: There is no penance like peace, no happiness like contentment, no disease like lust and there is no Dharma like kindness.
Meaning: Whole beings are born from food, food originates from rain, rain comes from sacrifice and yajna is to be produced by prescribed actions.
Meaning: Who has knowledge then He cannot have ego. one who has ego then He doesn't have the knowledge.
Meaning: The human-body is the chariot, the soul (intellect) is its charioteer, the senses are its horses. The person who holds them carefully, cleverly and wisely travels happily in the world like a superior Rathwan.
Meaning: There are ten characteristics of 'Dharma' - patience, forgiveness, self-control, non- stealing, purity, control of senses, intelligence, knowledge, truth, non-anger.
Meaning: A person who is not educated, who is not ready to work hard, who does not donate whatever he has, who does not have knowledge, who does not have a good character, good qualities and one who does not obey dharma, such a person on this earth is just a useless person, he is as good as any other animal.
Meaning: One who wishes to prosper in this world, should keep back the following six faults sleep (too much sleep or ignorance), lethargy, fear, anger, laziness and miserliness (stinginess or procrastinate i.e., one who is slow in acting, takes too long for decisions etc.).
Meaning: Calf recognizes its mother among the herd of thousands of cows; the same way, karma of previous birth (good and bad deeds) goes with the doer.
Meaning: The cows of different colours produce milk of one colour, in the same way, the principle taught by different religions is one.
Meaning: The old age snatches away the beauty, hope takes away the courage, death defeats the life, hatred will destroy one’s noble attitude (dharmic behaviour), anger will lead to poverty, being in the company of bad people and helping them will take away ones 'sheela-bhava', uncontrolled desire will take away the shyness and false pride will take away all the good things!
Meaning: Signs of good human being - Getting delighted and feeling friendly by seeing others joys, getting dejected by seeing others sorrows, feeling happiness and satisfied by seeing others good work ('punya karma') and feeling ignorant on the bad deeds of others.
Meaning: The whole purpose of worship (Like chanting 'mantras', performing 'puja' etc.) is for purifying the mind and not for attaining the spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge can only be attained by deep thinking and reading and would not be attained even if anyone chants millions of 'mantras'.
Meaning: Immortality and death both these reside in the body only. Death comes because of temptation; and immortality by the truth.
Time & its Component:
The shloka explains five components - Tithi, Var, Nakshatra, Yoga & Karan. This is Panchang. Moon travels around earth which is Tithi. Time between sunrise to the next sunrise is called a day, Half of the day is Karan. The difference of a constellation between the Sun and the Moon is yoga. Yoga is ending moment for the angular relationship between the Moon and Sun. One Yoga also equals 13 degrees and 20 minutes and there is 27 Yogas in 360 degrees. There is a total of 27 nakshatras and 27 yogas and 11 karans.
Dynamics of Life:
Dynamics of body-mind-breath:
Meaning: Body parts are purified by water. Mind is purified by truth. Soul is purified by learning and penance. While intelligence is purified by knowledge.
Meaning: The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and the soul is even higher than the intelligence. Liberation from rebirth:
Universal Being:
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