The innermost core of Education I look upon religion as the innermost core of Education.

i Swami Vivekananda made this significant statement about Education. We need to understand exactly what he meant by these words. If we draw our own conclusions, limited by our prejudices about the word Religion, without trying to understand Swami Vivekanandas import, we will be entering into the fundamentalists realm. There are indeed some Hindu organisations that have done this and they have already been black-labelled as such by the thinkers in society today. Religion and Education are words that are commonly used by everyone. Therefore they carry many shades of meanings to many people. Our aim in this article will be try and attempt to understand what Swami Vivekananda could have meant by the use of the word Religion and then try to understand the meaning of the above statement. Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism these are what we generally understand by religion. Each of these is a religion that has millions of followers. Which religion could Swami Vivekananda have meant when he said that religion is the innermost core of education? In one place, Swami Vivekananda said, Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God.ii When we look at the word religion from this generalised point of view, we find that the word has been made free from the trappings of any of the isms that is generally understood by the word religion. Hence we may understand that Educations innermost core is the idea that is raising a brute unto man, and a man unto God. Now, this makes sound sense. It is in fact possible although not an easy task, but possible to frame a complete educational philosophy based on this statement. Our task would have perhaps been easy, if this were the only statement that Swami Vivekananda had made on the meaning of religion. He has however also used the word religion on many different occasions in many different ways. We may need to consider all those ideas comprehensively before we can arrive at a conclusion of what he exactly meant when he said religion is the innermost core of education. Swami Vivekananda once said Religion is being and becoming.iii How is it possible for someone to be something and become that thing again? Or is it to be understood that Swami Vivekananda wants us to be one thing and become something else? How are we to resolve this conundrum? Furthermore, we all know that being and becoming are two transitive verbs; they always need a direct object to make sense. Hence, we can ask being what? and becoming what? One way of understanding this is to take the help of the Advaita Vedanta Philosophy. This school of thought holds that every person is capable of existing in a state of pure awareness. We are always aware of something or the other. Supposing we were to be able to be just aware and not aware of something; the Vedanta scholars hold that this is the highest state of existence
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to which every man can raise himself, and achieving which a man is said to have achieved the goal of human life. And that, they assert, is true religion. Thus, we may understand that this is what Swami Vivekananda, who was an avowed Advaitin himself, means by the term religion. But, what is interesting is that the Advaita Vedanta scholars do not give any importance to becoming. According to them, any act of becoming is the very antithesis of being. They are never tired of asserting that one can be only when one stops becoming. Here, however, we may have to take the help of some other schools of philosophical thought such as the Kashmir Shaivists who speak of manifesting and becoming along with being. But, this argument may seem farfetched since we do not find any references of Swami Vivekananda trying to incorporate ideas of these schools of Indian philosophy, which have been traditionally considered as the fringe schools, never having been the mainstream in the philosophical circles of India. Fortunately for us, Swami Vivekananda himself has clarified on this issue in atleast two places. He says, Try to be pure and unselfish that is the whole of religion;iv To be good and do good that is the whole of religion.v Thus, we find that religion, according to Swami Vivekananda, means being good and becoming good, being pure and becoming pure, being unselfish and becoming unselfish. We must however face the fact that there is an anomaly in this interpretation. How can someone be good and become good at the same time? If a person is good, then where is the question of his becoming good again? Similarly, if a person is already pure, then where is the question of his becoming pure once again? In order to resolve this conflict, we may have to elaborate a little on the conception of man that Swami Vivekananda has. Swami Vivekananda holds that man is a complex of many layers. Again, he seems to borrow this concept from the popular view held by the Advaita Vedanta school of thought. Man is conceived of as having many layers. Each layer has been given a name too. Man therefore is visualised as having the Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya and Anandamaya layers in himself. In layman terms, the Annamaya layer refers to the body, the last three layers correspond to the mind, while the Pranamaya layer is the layer that interlinks both the body and the mind. These five layers together with the inner core of pure awareness constitute the personality that we call man. A person will have to identify each of these layers in himself, then negate them progressively and finally get established in the innermost core of pure awareness, says Advaita Vedanta. When Swami Vivekananda says religion is being and becoming, we may understand it in this way: we have to identify each of these layers and negate them and get established in the innermost core of pure awareness. But we need not stop there. We will then have to re-assume each of the five layers. When we do that, a wonderful light seeps from the innermost core of our personality into each of the layers of our personality and transforms us. This re-assumption, this re-identification with the body and mind after knowing by personal experience that our core is pure, unalloyed consciousness is what is meant by becoming. Swami Vivekananda has used another word for this second phase of religion; Manifesting.
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We may need to clarify an important point in this connection. All the world-religions have dogmas. For the Christians, it is sufficient if one believes that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God and they hold that this belief has salvific value. Muslims hold the same belief regarding their Prophet. So do the Hindus about their innumerable gods and goddesses. With Swami Vivekananda, however, belief is not religion. Swami Vivekananda says elsewhere, Religion means realisation and nothing short of that. We may ask realising what? The above deliberation would now amount to this Religion means realising that the innermost core of our personality is pure, unconditioned awareness. Modern minds may ask what is exactly meant by the word realising in this context. This is because today, this word means merely to understand. The word however had a totally different connotation in the times when Swami Vivekananda used it. Swami Vivekananda himself clarifies the meaning of this word in his talks in Thousand Island Park when he says, Realising is making it a part of our lives by constant thinking of itvii. Thus, religion means knowing for sure, by personal experience, that I am pure consciousness; and knowing it so well that my entire life is henceforth governed by this knowledge. It is something like this: Suppose there is a street urchin. One day, some officers come along and take him away to the palace and tell him that he is actually a prince who had been kidnapped when he was a newborn baby and that now he has been brought back to the palace to take his rightful place as the prince heirapparent. Imagine the tremendous change in his entire personality that this knowledge brings about! Realisation can be understood as something like that.
vi

So, where does all this deliberation leave us now? Our aim was to understand what Swami Vivekananda meant when he said Religion is the innermost core of Education. For doing that, we started to unravel what Swami Vivekananda meant by religion. The first idea of religion was that it was an idea that progressively raised an uncultured brute to manhood and then that man unto Godhood. The second idea of religion elaborated on what that idea was. It consisted in realising that the core of our personality was pure consciousness and after knowing this fact by personal experience, to make all aspects of our personality shine with that knowledge. All these seemingly different thoughts on religion and education have been clarified by Swami Vivekananda himself. He once very famously said, Education is the manifestation of perfection already in manviii. The innermost core of a person is pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is what is called divine in common parlance. Since it is pure, unalloyed with any modifications, it is perfect. That divinity will have to be manifested, or allowed to shine forth, through all the layers of his personality. The process of discovering that innermost core of divinity within us is religion and the process of manifesting that divinity through all the layers of our personality is education. Now, the question that arises is this Education is always with reference to the teacher and taught; in whom should this personalised experience be present for the process of education to happen? Swami Vivekananda says My idea of education is personal contact with the teacher Gurugriha vaasa. Without the personal life of a teacher there would be no education. ix Thus, the teacher has to have a personal experience that he is neither the body nor the mind but that he is
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pure consciousness and then he has to bring to bear the light of that realisation onto every aspect of his personality. When such a person teaches, then education as envisaged by Swami Vivekananda happens. If any of us feel that this is too utopian a conception, then we may point out that such a process of education did happen quite recently in Dakshineshwar where Sri Ramakrishna trained his disciples. The Dakshineshwar phenomenon shows us however that when such a qualified teacher teaches, then similar transformations occur in the taught too. One may rightly ask as to what will be the case when the teachers are not of the calibre of Sri Ramakrishna. Indeed, Sri Ramakrishnas case was an exception, meant to b e the ideal. We hold that in all other cases, the very process of teaching others will be the vehicle of personal unfoldment for the teacher. By means of participating in the teaching process in a formal school or college environment, with a particular attitude, a teacher will gradually identify the various layers of his personality, then negate them and then get established in the innermost core of pure awareness. Furthermore, using the formal school or college environment itself, in which he has been placed by a complex set of social forces in play, he will then re-assume each of the five layers and continue to teach others. The details of exactly how this formal, present day educational set-up can be used profitably for the personal unfoldment of a professional teacher is a very big topic that will be dealt with in a later article. But, for now, we suffice by holding that it is in this light that we must understand Swami Vivekanandas words I look upon religion as the innermost core of Education.
Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda, Vol5, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Page 231 Ibid, Page 409 iii Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda, Vol3, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Page 253 iv Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda, Vol6, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Page 244 v Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda, Vol6, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Page 245 vi Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda, Vol3, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Page 377 vii Inspired Talks by Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, Entry On Monday July 8th, 1895 viii Letters of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Page 70 ix Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda, Vol5, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Page 224
i ii

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