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A Vedic Guide to Character.

Preamble

The eye brow raiser adjective ‘Vedic’ in the title needs elucidation. ‘Sanskrit’ may make the nose roll up and hence direct references are avoided here. But reading this article demands an open attitude of pending discovery. The most ancient cultural record of humanity should draw our attention for that very reason. Let us see whether a few guide lines to the teaching community are available which have practical value and can gain currency again in the modern context.
The noun ‘Veda’ means living knowledge in the active memory of a people who have been inheriting it over thousands of years. The ‘drives’ of the Vedas contain two broad systems-Para and Apara- which pertain to and facilitate i) cultural literacy ii) academic literacy respectively. While latter takes care of employability and wealth generation, the former vouchsafes the quality of the individual in terms of character. It provides highly refined perspectives of life, broad spectrum world view and the tools of individual refinement and empowerment which assures all round well being and spiritual progress.
Due to prevalent errors in taste and errors in judgment regarding the purpose and perspectives of life, cultural literacy is rather ignored and the consequences are obvious. Moral indifference is the modern disease of human psyche. It is at this juncture we should afford to undertake an impartial study of what the Vedas offer to mankind in general and to teachers in particular.
One may wonder in what way this article is a training article! As this article shifts the attention from doing mode to being mode of the reader, it is indeed a training article. The over emphasis given to academic content and the neglect of cultural literacy are responsible for the pitfalls in the field of education today.

The Precepts

What follows is the concept clarification of cultural literacy, culture, teacher, character, discipline and Vedic tools in the light of my experiential learning and performance research in the Vedic tradition over forty years. It all began from the childhood by virtue of living in the Vedic cultural atmosphere. According to the Vedas being an instructor, a trainer, a demonstrator and an examiner who deals with eligibility criteria for making a living is only a secondary function involving the doing mode.
• The prime role of a teacher is to be the living link of intergenerational culture transfer. Vedic Culture is a system of values and meanings which maintain a healthy head and a rich heart in a strong physical body. Healthy body alone does not guarantee a healthy mind.
• A teacher is responsible for the correction and development of the character of a student in the larger context of a generation over which he/she is supposed to have moral and spiritual authority. This authority is established through cultural literacy and not mere academic scholarship.
• A teacher without character is an ordnance factory. A student without character is an explosive.
• Every discipline of science and branch of learning requires a teacher to perpetuate it. Such teachers should not lose sight of the humanity and its movement towards meaningful living and purposeful progress.
• Stuffing the brain should be preceded by lighting the heart for obvious reasons.
• Invocation is the Vedic tool to maximize the listening profile of the student and communicative mastery of the teacher. It creates the cultural ambiance for the teaching-learning process. The result is not only high credits, but also high credibility and trustworthiness.
• The moral and spiritual accountability of the teacher and the student is the result of thought-word-deed harmony deliberately maintained through frequent self-audit.
• What is character? Each individual is bundle of virtues and weaknesses of head and heart. The resulting individuality of a person from this balance sheet of good and bad qualities is his/her character.
• What is discipline? It is defined as “training which corrects, moulds or perfects the mental faculties and moral character; behaviour, which results from such training.”
• The real discipline is when it flows from the heart and is visible in an individual’s behaviour consistently all the time.
• Being good, seeing good, speaking good and doing good, this in a nutshell is the Vedic perspective of life. The Vedic world view is based on the realization of the Spiritual Reality by the Vedic Sages.

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