4 minute read

The Way of Learning

The Way of Learning

If you want to teach your children the process of making tea
then you don’t force them to memorize s for sugar,
g for ginger, t for tea, w for water, m for milk, b for boil, etc.
And if they don’t memorize you punish them?
You don’t offer them tea?
You don’t allow them to come into the kitchen till they remember the complete vocabulary?
If this is your way of teaching then it is horrible,
Children don’t need any jail or hell
You are Yamraj and they are living in hell.

Similarly, how do you teach agriculture to your children?
Memorize the name of all the seeds, agricultural types of equipment,
and different types of sand?
Till the time children do not know s for seed, t for tomato, p for potato, etc,
you will not take them to a field?
Then you are nothing but an agriculture teacher and not a farmer?

How do you teach trading to your children?
Force them to memorize books on trading, pass all the exams,
Memorize s for sales, p for profit, d for discount, and c for customer?
Force them to memorize the business concepts?
If you are doing so then you are an MBA professor, not a Baniya or trader.

How do you teach any foreign language to children?
Memorize a for apple, b for banana, and c for cat?
This way, neither you learned English nor your children will learn!
If you are doing this then you are an English teacher
who have memorized the dictionary and all the rules of grammar
but when you have to express yourself or explain some idea then
you are struggling to do a mental translation.

Unfortunately, our education system where we want to standardize education,
So that people can choose their careers and
do whatever they wish to do in their life, is killing lives and creating machines.

Children are asking by doing what I can make more money?
What should I do so that I become famous?
What should I do so that I have all the power in my hands,
so that I can control everything and everybody?
Not only children, but even so-called mature people are also asking these questions!

All questions like these are nonsensical
but still, there are people around us who try to give answers to these questions!
Like you learn Data Science, AI, Acting, Music, Politics,
Nanotechnology, Bio-Technology, Robotics etc because these are current trends.
After listening to the advice, children go to universities and learn these things.
And, how are our universities teaching?
A for apple, b for bat, c for cat.
Even after you complete your four or five years degree
you have not put a single seed in the ground,
you have not plowed the field
but you are an agriculture engineer!
You have not done a single good business deal but you are a Master in Business!
You have not created a single software that solves your problem
but you are a Software Engineer!
You have not created a single machine to solve your problem
but you are a mechanical engineer!

If we open our ancient Sanskrit knowledge sources,
we know hundreds of tools, techniques,
and processes are discussed in detail to do
engineering, administration, and business work.
But how did those people create that huge body of knowledge?
Not from university research or filing white papers or patents?
How did those people impart that knowledge, through theoretical lectures?

In ancient times we had the Jaati System and Varna System.
Because of this system, a child of a farmer will learn farming by going to a farm,
without going to an agriculture university.
A child of a goldsmith will learn his ancestor’s work from his elders.
A child of Vaidhya will learn his work from his elders.
A child of Purohit will learn his work from his elders, etc.

This way parents are the first teacher (Pratham Guru).
They are respected.
A family is united.
Society is cooperative and not in competition with each other.
Knowledge is practical and not theoretical.
What people say, they mean it. They don’t speak out of the hat.
So, business commitments are serious and doable.
There is a center of excellence around every technology.

But today an IAS officer’s child wants to become a doctor.
A Doctor’s child wants to become a Mechanical Engineer
Mechanical Engineer’s children want to start a trading business.
Trader’s children want to do agriculture and so on.
Due to this, there is no knowledge transfer from parents!
Children up to 14 years are learning a for apple, b for bat,
memorizing all the history, math, geography, physics, etc.
After that, they go to Engineering or Medical college to learn the subject
from teachers and not from professionals!

Now, you decide, what will be the outcome of this entire ecosystem?
Job dissatisfaction, job instability, virtually no skill,
Choosing the wrong career but you have to do that work
because of family responsibilities.
Stress, madness, restlessness.
This all can be addressed by giving them all kinds of drugs, smoke, and alcohol.
One day or two days or two and half days off from the seven days!
To address that we need pubs, police, NGOs, and political rallies!

This is a crazy ecosystem. Where everyone feels helpless.
Even those people who have money and other resources feel succumbed to this.

I think a wiser person is one who learns to look inside and work on that path.
Following society, government, and the words of holy books
is a sure-shot way of getting mad.
They are teaching us everything,
but that which really works.

Hari Om Tat Sat
Yours Truly Hari