Knowledge and Education- At Conjecture

न चौर हार्यम न च राज हार्यम | न भ्रात्रभाज्र्म न च भारकारी ||
व्र्र्ेकृतेवर्यतेननत्र्ं| ववद्र्ा र्नंसवेर्नंप्रर्ानम ्||
“Education is the best wealth of all. No one can steal it, no one can snatch it. It cannot be divided among the brothers and it’s not heavy to carry. As one consumes or spend, it increases as one share, it expands.”

The great Guru’s of India has widely explained, convinced and taught the people of India, the real value and perception of education. Swami Vivekananda quotes in their works, “Education is not filling the mind with a lot of facts. Perfecting the instrument and getting complete mastery of my mind [is the idea of education]”. The symphony of life is beautiful only if education has the phonetical vibration of Knowledge. Though the logical meaning merely the same, Knowledge is the base for Education. The possible phrases to quote, be it, uneducated, illiterate and uncultured, knowledge never plays a role as education is refining oneself, but not building oneself. Consider an instance in human life, when a child is born, the baby will be sensuous enough to express the feeling of detachment to the world from its mother. Well, How the knowledge is recognizable? Of course, the baby is not educated, but the knowledge of being sensuous is amazing to know! Education helps to build a house, whereas the knowledge helps to maintain the house and make it a home. Getting closer to the concept of uneducated people, they might lack the capability to handle the problem in a very diplomatic way, they might lack the skill of re-engineering the concept of problem and solution. With this, it’s very hard to conclude in a word that, uneducated are not knowledgeable.

Tackling a problem requires the presence of mind and application of the skill and mind synchronously. Well, knowledge will not have any such bound in this category. Taking up the illiterates, they lack the skill of representing the writing skill. They might not have enough skill to express their words through proper channel. Illiteracy is about being unable to read or write which can hardly judge the knowledge of a person. Literacy is required for a healthy society and needed to make a country grow. Here, knowledge is completely independent of literacy. Following the rituals or not being able to follow the culture does not define the character or the personality of a person. It is the level of the knowledge that the person possesses at that particular instance. Though society makes a prime contribution in enriching the knowledge, the question remains is, how? What is knowledge? And which takes on priority? The conscious, that’s active till life exists, makes a prime component to enhance the knowledge. If a child sees a person reading, the conscious of child questions to itself, Should I also read? Or being it a more elaborate, Should I understand what I read? When a child asks the first question, the quest is towards education. Contrarily, if the question is second, then the quest is towards knowledge. But the question still persists, which takes on priority?

A move towards the second level of understanding the knowledge, it’s the combination of character and capability of the mind. The instance can be, Swami Vivekananda, who used to read the books and could hold the content of it in mind which could last forever. Can a symbiotic bond between mind and soul, could achieve this? Concluding at the second level, knowledge is in the interest of the person who can either grab it or retrieve it. The best understanding of the knowledge could be said as: “It is easy to carry the words, but difficult to carry the thoughts”. The education lights the way to enrich the knowledge, and never betrays it. Serenity in understanding the difference is important to the youth as the education protects the career, whereas the knowledge strengthens the soul. When education questions the existence of the soul, the knowledge embraces the soul with hope. The concept of knowledge passing and sharing is far better rather share a word or two. The human is educated to see the objects, but less known to understand the object. Education is the propagation from mouth to mind, whereas the knowledge is propagation from mind to soul.

 Let the learning begin with education and end with Knowledge.
 Let the education be knowledge centred.

Courtesy: Works of Swami Vivekananda, Web Resources

Dattasmita Vasist
ICT Manager-Software,
Tumakuru Smart City Limited,
Tumakuru
hv.dattasmita@gmail.com