Why knowledge is the real strength?

From childhood days, I’m listening to one proverb “Knowledge is strength”, but I did not care about the exact meaning of the sentence and of course like everyone else, I was in the RAT RACE of getting myself equipped for the competitive world. However, I was fortunate enough to have my granny as my first teacher who took me in to the world of VALUES.

By blessings of almighty, I commenced my schooling in a boarding school which helped me to strengthen the pillar of values which was under construction. I will take name of one mentor Devan, my GURU, because I will not address him as teacher. I will share some imperative aspects in our modern life which is very important to be understood before we understand what the real knowledge is. GURU means –guhyad rudhyathe ithi guru, true meaning of Guru is “one who dispels darkness of ignorance”. I hope most of us will be new to the concept of difference between GURU and TEACHER. And the problem lies here in today’s generation, its teaching which is going on in full throttle, but what about values and morals? I will not blame the teachers but it’s our society, WE, who must be blamed. Every parent wants his son or daughter to be successful in life, but are they becoming really successful? Are they being allowed to pursue what they really want in life? We have to think on these lines and it’s better to be late than never. Parents always interfere with the process of education which actually has to be VALUE CENTERED, by pushing their wards in to the stream of competition, denying him or her opportunity to experience the GURU and VALUES.

Education has become a business now and any business is cheating (Kapatya). Primary school of any human being is their family. Matha, Pitha, Guru, Deivam – which means God has got the last priority in life, first is mother, then father and then guru.

It is sad that in today’s nuclear context the child is sent to play school and not being taken care off by the parents in the way it should be. So the foundation itself is weak, now we must think how values can be instilled in a child. The childhood days should be targeted in molding the limbic brain of a human being through stories setting examples and experiences which is almost not happening and is dying in new generation.

As Education is concerned, it should enlighten and provide knowledge. What is knowledge? It’s VIDYA (not the name of a girl), which literally means knowledge or clarity. So why knowledge is the real strength?

NA RAJAHARYAM NA BRATHRBHAJYAM
NA CHAURAHARYAM NA CHA BHARAKARI
VYAYE KRITHE VARDHATHA EVA NITHYAM
VIDYA DHANAM SARVA DHANAT PRADHANAM

It means, Knowledge is the only asset in this world for which you don’t have to pay taxes, which will not be partitioned, which cannot be stolen and it is weightless. Most important quality of the asset is that, the more you spent it, the more you will gain or it will increase. That’s why Knowledge is the most important asset in the world.

I hope, the entire article has helped some amongst us to understand the value of right education, which will help us to gain KNOWLEDGE or VIDYA.

 SASIN TIPCHAI