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.’ 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). After understanding the essential nature of this 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. 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. Hethus realizes his immortal divine self, which is of the nature of infinite existence, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss
Physical Development-.
In his scheme of education, Swamiji lays great stress on physical health because a sound mind resides in a sound body. He often quotes the Upanishadic dictum ‘nayamatma balahinena labhyah’; i.e. the self cannot be realized by the physically weak. Physical weakness is the cause of at least one third of our miseries. We are lazy; we cannot combine. We speak of many things parrot-like but never do them. Speaking and not doing has become a habit with us. What is the cause? Physical weakness. This sort cf weak brain is not able to do anything. We must strengthen it. First of all our young men must be strong. What our country now wants are muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and secrets of the universe and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion, even if it meant going down to the bottom of the ocean, meeting death face to face Religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends, that is myadvice to you. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Gita.
You will understand Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a little stronger. You will understand the mighty genius and the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little strong blood in you Keep aside for the present the Vrindavan aspect of Sri Krishna and spread far and wide the worship of Sri Krishna roaring out the Gita with the voice of a lion, and bring into daily use the worship of Shakti the Divine Mother, the source of all power. We now mostly need the ideal of the hero with the tremendous spirit of Rajas thrilling through his veins from head to foot the hero who will dare and die to know the truth, the hero whose amour is renunciation, whose sword is wisdom. We now want the spirit of the brave warrior in the battle-field. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman, when your body stands firm on your feet and you feel yourselves as men.
The weak have no place here, in this life or in any other life. Weak- ness leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery, physical and mental. Weakness is death. There are hundreds of thousands of microbes surrounding us, but they cannot harm us unless we become weak, until the body is ready and predisposed to receive them. There may be a million microbes of misery, floating about us. Never mind ! They dare not approach us, they have no power to get a hold on us, until the mind is weakened. This is the great fact : strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal ; weakness is constant strain and misery; weakness is death.
Never allow weakness to overtake your mind. Remember Mahavira, remember the Divine Mother, and you will see that all weakness, all cowardice will vanish at once Make the character of Mahavira your ideal. At the command of Ramachandra he crossed the ocean ! He had no care for life ideal of or death it was a perfect master service. of the senses and wonderfully sagacious. Build your life on this great ideal of personal service. Through that ideal all the other ideas will gradually manifest themselves in life. Obedience to the Guru without questioning and strict observance of Brahmacharya this is the secret of success. As on the one hand Hanuman represents the ideal of service, so on the other he represents leonine courage, striking the world with awe. He has not the least hesitation in sacrificing his life for the good of Rama. A supreme indifference to everything except the service of Rama. Only the carrying out of Sri Rama’s behest is the one vow of his life. Such whole-hearteddevotion is wanted.
A the present time the worship of the divine play of Sri Krishna with the Gopis is not good. playing on the flute and so on will not. regenerate the country Playing on the dhol and kartal and dancingin the frenzy of the kirtana has degenerated the whole people. In trying to imitate the highest sadhana, the preliminary qualification for which is absolute purity, they have been swallowed in dire tamas. Are not drums made in the country ? Are not trumpets and kettle-drums available in India ? Make the boys hear the deep-toned sound of these instruments. Hearing from boyhood the sound of effeminate forms of music, the country is well converted into a country of women. The Damaru and horn have to be sounded, drums are to be beaten so as to raise the deep and martial notes, and with Mahavira, Mahavira ‘ on our lips and shouting Kara, Kara, Vyom, Vyom ‘, the quarters are to be reverberated. The music which awakens only the softer feelings of man is to be stopped now for some time. The peopleare to be accustomed to hear the Dhrupad music. Through the thunder roll of the dignified Vedic hymns life is to be brought back into the country. In everything the austere spirit of heroic manhood should be revived. If you can build your character after such an ideal then a thousand others will follow. But take care that you do not swerve an inch from the ideal. Never lose heart. In eating, dressing or lying, in singing or playing, in enjoyment or disease, always manifest the highest moral courage.
Cultivation of will-power
Similarly, the Swami also wanted students to cultivate will-power. According to him, will-power is developed when ‘the current and expression of will are brought under control and become fruitful’ (CW, vol. IV, p. 490). Learning through mistakes- The child should be allowed to commit mistakes in the process of character formation. He will learn much by his mistakes. Errors are the stepping stones to our progress in character. Strong will, is the sign of great character. Will-power is necessary not only to conduct the learning process, but also to strengthen one’s character Strength, strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. It is the only literature in the world, where you find the word Fearlessness. ‘ Abhih ‘, ‘Fearless 1, used again and again. In no other scripture in the world is this adjective applied either to God or man .And in my mind rises from the past the vision of the great emperor of the West, Alexander the Great, and I see as it were in a picture thegreat monarch standing on the banks of the Indus, talking to one of our sannyasins in the forest : the old man he was talking to, perhaps naked, stark naked, sitting upon a block of stone, and the Emperor astonished at his wisdom tempting him with gold and honor, to come over to Greece. And this man smiles at his gold and smiles at his temptations, and refuses. And then the Emperor standing in his authority as Emperor says, ’ I will kill you if you do not come ‘, and the man bursts into a laugh, and says, You never told such a falsehood in your life as you tell just now. Who can kill me ? For I am spirit unborn and undecaying.’ That is strength !
There are thousands to weaken us, and of stories we have had enough. Therefore, my friends, let me tell you strength. that we strength, strength, every time strength. And the Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein lies strength enough to invigorate the whole world. The whole world can be vivified, made strong, energized through them. They will call with trumpet voice upon the weak, the miserable and the down-trodden of all races, all creeds and all sects to stand on their feet and be free. Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom and spiritual freedom are the watchwords of the Upanishads.
Acquisition of Truthfulness.-
Tell the truth boldly. All truth is eternal. Truth is the nature of all souls. And here is the test of truth : anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject as poison. There is no life in it, it cannot be true. Truth is strengthening. Truth is purity, truth is all knowledge. Truth must be strengthening, must be enlightening, must be invigorating. Go back to your Upanishads, the shining, the strengthening, the bright philosophy. Take up this philosophy. The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your own existence. The truths of the Upanishads are before you. Take them up, live up to them and the salvation of India will be at hand
Following Brahmacharya,
Brahmacharya, in a nutshell, stands for the practice of self-control for securing harmony of the impulses However, along with physical culture, he harps on the need of paying special attention to the culture of the mind. According to Swamiji, the mind of the students has to be controlled and trained through meditation, concentration and practice of ethical purity. All success in any line of work, he emphasizes, is the result of the power of concentration. By way of illustration, he mentions that the chemist in the laboratory concentrates all the powers of his mind and brings them into one focus-the elements to be analyzed-and finds out their secrets. Concentration, which necessarily implies detachment from other things, constitutes a part of Brahmacharya, which is one of the guiding mottos of his scheme of education.
Acquisition of knowledge-
By his philosophy of education, Swamiji thus brings it home that education is not a mere accumulation of information but a comprehensive training for life. To quote him: ‘Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there undigested, all your life.
In his words: ‘Thus Vedanta says that within man is all knowledge even in a boy it is so and it requires only an awakening and that much is the work of a teacher.’ To drive his point home, he refers to the growth of a plant. Just as in the case of a plant, one cannot do anything more than supplying it with water, air and manure while it grows from within its own nature, so is the case with a human child
Enabling to face the struggle for life,.
The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle for life, which does not bring out strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion – is it worth the name? Real education is that which enables one to stand on one’s own legs (CW, vol. VII, pp. 147–148)., the education system should take on two responsibilities:
(i) it should help a person build a healthy and dynamic frame of mind to enable him to meet the challenges of life; and
(ii) it should try to prevent, through proper training of its present students, any future evils in people and society which are likely to further complicate the problems of human beings.
Character is intimately connected with habits. Habits express character Good habits make for good character will makes men great- Vivekananda himself was an ideal teacher. His words worked like magic upon men and women. Vivekananda asked the people to build up their character and manifest their real nature which is the Effulgent, the Resplendent the Ever Pure.