Education for a New Age: New Education for Establishing Peace and Harmony in the Globe

Introduction

Our planet is a hotspot where problems keep rising every day and man is constantly worried about finding probable solutions. Little do we think of the root cause. We are facing the crisis of depletion of world resources, green house effect, global warming, natural disasters and, in the social front: terrorism, poverty, unknown diseases, nuclear war, intolerance, jealousy, suspicion, threats posed by modern armaments (conventional, chemical, biological and nuclear), vast inequalities of opportunities, wealth and power round the globe, rapid increase in population, and even the AIDS epidemic. All these distinctively modern crises have been made possible by modern science dissociated from the rational pursuit of wisdom. Isaac Asimov rightfully says “the saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom” (Asimov, 1988, p.281). If we are to avoid in this century the horrors of the last one – wars, death camps, dictatorships, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, malnutrition, environmental damage – we urgently need to learn how to acquire more wisdom, which in turn means that our institutions of learning need to become more responsive, sympathetic, people-centric, practical and rationally effective. In the words of Abdul Kalam (2010, p. 199), “Enlightened citizenship has three components: education with value system, religion transforming into spiritual force, and creating economic prosperity through development.” If we examine the crisis of our times, which is behind all our ills and maladies, it is the crisis of science without consciousness, which is restricted to acquiring knowledge and more knowledge. Hence, Kalam (2010, p. 249) said, “Science is the best boon that God has bestowed upon mankind. Science with reasoning becomes the capital of society…The convergence of science and technology with spirituality is touted to be the future for both science and technology, and spirituality.” The irrationality of knowledge-inquiry further damages our ability to find solutions. The crux of our crisis is that we are living in man-made, non-dynamic, intellectual systems where we teach social science but not social philosophy, technology but not humanities, facility and rights but not responsibility and reason, while we exploit natural resources without any thought of conserving them. The root of the problem is the rebellious nature and the ignorance of mankind. Hence. American Philosopher Glenn Martin (Semashko, 2013, p. 296) aptly called it, “Our new planetary paradigm, the fundamental revolution in science and paradigm shift in human consciousness.”

Now we are living in a digital age, where it seems everything can be possible in a hurry. We have produced super computers, Akash tablets, i-pad, i-phone, e-learning, e-governance etc. No doubt it helps to quicken our services. It also helps us to destroy our lovely world. If we ask a child for any calculation, he replies within a few seconds, having not known the addition, multiplication or division. (He must have a busy schedule! There is no time for leisure, introspection and also no time for inner journey and having wisdom. Is it not reflected in the poem of W.H. Davies, “Leisure” (Davies, 1925)? The visions of progress include new consumer markets and unbridled profits, nuclear weapons, human cloning, satellite television, polluting factories, waste levels, pragmatic corruption, etc. Under their influence our modern educational system has assigned no respect or space to locally wise persons, wise languages, wise customs and wise institutions that existed outside the framework of formal/non-formal schools in the globe. Educational systems are still engaged in destroying the system by borrowing and superimposing deadened educational methodologies. The mind is moving faster than a storming wind, making a thousand wrongs. Rather, it is wise to stop and think for a few minutes and think deeply: “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” (See Jackson & Miller, 2009)

Translation: That (pure consciousness) is full (perfect); this (the manifest universe of matter; of namesand forms being illusion) is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness.