Man is finally reduced to an immoral mechanism, trained to survive in an alien universe in which, in order to live, he must eliminate those who threaten his survival.
The most distinguishing factor that stands apart among human beings is the Joy of Creativity. Creativity is the imaginative component of a man’s being, when he enjoys affinity with the Creator. The greatest moment in the life of a man and a woman is the moment of creation, which lends them the privilege of being a progenitor. All other joys are subordinate to this great feeling which is marked by creative joy. Creative joy imparts us wings which make men fly like a privileged creation of God, when we leave the earth, and start our trek towards gods. In the absence of these imaginative faculties, we are mere crawlers on the earth. Insects just like prawns, full of fat, for physical consumption, or as feeders of somebody’s greed.
Education, as it was conceived, had twin purposes. Of extending the moral perspective to the growing up kids, and to enable them to get jobs, and lead fulfilling lives. Intellectualism and emotional upliftment were a part of the educational exercise. There was hardly anyone who did not know of great poets, novelists, and philosophers. Everyone had a taste of Rumi and Kahlil Gibran. People often read about spiritual leaders like Guru Nanak Dev and Swami Vivekananda. The making of great serials like Ramayana and Mahabharata set off a great moral and spiritual churning among the Indian masses across all sections of society. Every enlightened citizen of the world knows something about the great Indian texts like Guru Granth Sahib and The Gita which are a part of the emotional texture and spiritual being of every Indian.
However, over the years, the spiritual and emotional component of education declines, replaced by a powerful push towards commercialization. The spiritualizing processes suffer a great setback. Suddenly, modern thought overtakes the entire society, and we start feeling, that all that was taught was worthless, because the modern world needs technocrats and IT wizards. It pushes the Humanities to the margins. Suddenly we find Shakespeare and William Wordsworth folded away. And from our studies, the focus on spiritualizing process is removed, and a sharp focus on training or skills aimed at employment takes the centre stage.
Soon, it is universally recognized that young men should be armed with life-skills, and education simply means degrees which can earn them jobs. Keeping alive, and survival is the most important issue before a man, and education must subserve that end. Train young men to enable them to earn their livelihood. There is no need for any moral framework. Man is finally reduced to an immoral mechanism, trained to survive in an alien universe in which, in order to live, he must eliminate those who threaten his survival even if they happen to be his old parents.
This down-to-earth existential philosophy of sheer survival is best known to crawlers, insects, animals, and even to vegetation, for whom nature has not opened any educational institutions, nor are there any degrees, nor they need any jobs to survive. Men should have been better served, better equipped, and better trained mentally and morally to think, feel and realize they have some divine content in them. Men have erroneously confused human living with existential processes, and brought down the imaginative quotient of the human race, to the level of crawlers, by lifting away the elevating equipment from the conceiving and receiving faculties of mankind.
A young man of today, as he emerges from his University, is obsessed with getting a job, and for this, he is ready to sell himself and his property. The highest property that a man has is his body. There was a time, he had a soul which told him what is wrong and what is right. Modern youth does not possess this discriminating apparatus. Everything that helps him land at a job is morally upright. Then, marriage, that too is a highly calculated affair. If all goes well, a few kids. Making them grow up. And in this process, the young man is admired if he is able to purchase more land, more flats. After all, he has to prove he is a success.
This is a plain philosophy of existential survival far removed from the considerations of right and wrong. They have nothing to go back to in their syllabus which was filled with theorems, and theories which instructed them in scoring highest marks. The teachers who taught them, were highly targeted, highly trained in learning for whom Victor Hugo, Thomas Hardy or William Shakespeare were mere absurdities and distractions.
The focus has been shifted from Life to Living. From thought to action. Education has been reduced to learning. And learning is targeted at job-making. . In a way, education which believed in building minds, and philosophies, in order to give a positive direction to society, has been reduced to build legs and hands only. From creation to mere action is a great fall for the descendants of Adam.
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand is an Indian author with 180 books to his credit.