Assalamu aleikum! Peace be upon you!
As you enter last phase of your school education, I am privileged to greet you with peace! Finally, it is peace that you - we all - seek. May you have that! I have remembered you in my prayers today.
Our Vice Principal narrated his experience at your age - the contrast in the enviroment and the privileges you have now. Even today, the case in many parts of India is still much the same or even worse. We ought to be grateful. I would quote some famous author of positive literature: "Count your blessings". Gratefulness to be shown forth in our behaviour - our dealings with others, with the planet. My experience at your age, was also very different.
I opted to join a religious order and I had shift to North India from Kerala, and had to start learning my subjects in Hindi medium, and learn improve hand writing, and churn out pages and pages within limited time, as we were expected to write a lot, and our classes basically got confined to writing down the dictation by the teachers at a very fast pace.
What we share is that unlike those times where the pre-university or intermediate education was basically that of lectures and then being left to our fate, now this is still school, a cared for atmosphere, constant support being rendered for learning.
Our Principal warned you of the tough terrain you have to traverse! And we wonder whether we are tough enough - we may breakdown, we may get dissipated. The task is to ourselves - if not born tough, we ought to make ourselves tough to withstand. A deliberate entry into the tough terrain. Though there is the consolation that there are hundreds of thousands of boys and girls of your age doing the same. Yes, we can!! And yes, we shall overcome!!
I was heading a project in Kochi while I was the Principal of Sacred Heart College. We found ourselves much constrained for space, and we thought as we completed 75 years, we should have greater space for excelling as a HEI. So we started off with the project, Building Space for Excellence (BSE). It was conceived in 2012, final plans and approval by the college administration took one year. Next five years went in securing government permisisons - with periodical alterations to comply with the stipulations of various bodies, finally, the work began in September 2018, and whole year went in laying the foundation, looking into all future prospects, sanitation, lift, water storage etc etc. the piling, columns etc had to be accordingly made strong. Some of the piles were dug as deep as 60 meters!! And of teh allocated budget of 30 crores, about 11 crores went into the foundation!! The rest of the task was faster. In another 20 months five floors were built and furnished. for another 15 crores. But many felt that the foundation had consumed too much money! But no, it is indeed required - the initial plan is for 8 floors. If warranted it could be raised to another 4 more. All these are visualised in the foundation.
In the present thinking, school education is considered to be the foundation for life. You were in the long process of laying a foundation - almost twelve years gone, now another two more years, to ensure that your foundation is pukka, stable, fool-proof and adaptable (to any model to be built on it). So it is very significant that we pay close attention to this last unretrievable phase... learn well, learn to the maximum extent possible. Our edifice of knowledge and future life is built on what we consolidate in the next two years.
This is not an individual effort - but a collective one.
I recall two beautiful sayings in this regard:
आचार्यात् पादं आदते पादं सह ब्रह्मचर्येभ्य:
पादं शिष्य स्वमेधया पादं कालक्रमेण च ||
The learning process can be conceieved in four quarters - one quarter comes from the Acharya, one quarter from the fellow learners (saha brhamacharins), another quarter is to be by the students themselves - it could also be svadhyaya in the wider sense. Self-learning. Then the rest of it is through the life (Kalakramena). This may just happen through the experiences of life. But today, it is more of a requirement. You have to update yourself, learn new things, undergo new courses, shift careers ... all these imply 'learning throughout life'.
सह नौववतु सह नौ भुनक्तु सह वीर्यं करवावहै
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विष्वावहै
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः
The learning process is described in the ancient sanskrit prayer: Let us - teacher & student - move together - take this trip of great discovery and adventure - together.
Let us enjoy (make use of, consume) the good things of this world together. Let us utilise them optimally and sustainably.
Let us do our duties together with vigour and enthusiasam (filled with God).
Let our what we grasp in our intellect (our understanding) be bright! And may that be such that we will not hate anyone. Let there peace within us, let there be peace among the human beings, let there be peace with the planet. Let our collective endeavour to seek knowledge result in all embracing peace!
The story is told about the ancient Guru, Prajapati sending away his disciples with the final mantra for life. To each of the three disciples approached, he gives the mantra, separately, 'Da'. And ensures that the Shishya has grasped it. The first one was a deva, and he understood 'da' as the mantra for 'damyatam' - self control which he must possess in his life. The second disciple is a human being and he realises it as the need to go beyond his selfish inclinations and share his possessions, daanam. The third disicple also understands the exclusive teaching for him as 'dayadhwam', the need to grow beyond his tendency to be 'cruel' in dealings and grow in 'kindness' and compassion. Now the 'deva', the 'manav' and the 'dasyu' are all the human propensities - education is to lead us 'self conquest' (as being sung in the popular bhajan : दूसरों की जय से पहले खुद की जय करें), sharing generously what we have received, and in being kind to all beings on the planet. These are to be the final outcomes of our education. Let us pledge to cultivate them, and grow in them.
A Prayer as we begin the new phase:
O God, who cares for us more than our father
and our mother, we entrust US, your children to your care and protection
Be you our ruler and guide and strength
Guide us in the right path,
in the path of SELF DISCOVERY & SELF
CONTROL
In the path of SHARING AND SACRIFICE
In the path of COMPASSION TO OTHERS, in service
to planet and people.
May we all, the teachers, parents, the students
and the administration, walk together to
the great goal of building up the future of world!
May we all see goodness, may we all feel goodness, may we all find goodness, and may we all spread goodnes
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