Life in INDIAN view

Is there an Indian view of life? Let us explore if one such thing exists, if yes what are its features and how it can be seen in various facets of life.

Education

Education aims at self-mastery and not just knowledge. As Swami Vivekananda defines, Education is the manifestation of divinity already present in man. It is not how many texts one has mastered, it is how well one has internalized a single text that matters.

Traditionally children are taught at early stages to by heart. This is to train Chitta, the memory. A well trained Chitta forms the basis for self-mastery, not just good education. This does not mean that analytical faculties are not trained. But memory is trained ahead of them so that it forms a basis for other faculties.

How does better memory help better analysis? Analysis in itself is a processing of facts to derive inferences. Thus, considering more relevant facts results in a better analysis. And a person with better trained memory can consider more facts for his analysis. Thus, training memory ahead of training analytical faculties is beneficial. Explicitly training memory as a part of primary education is very essential.

Another important aspect of education is imparting moral education. The seeds of morality along with trained memory are going to stay with the student for life. Mythology and stories of great personalities inspire children and help them mould their character in their footsteps.

Indians are far ahead of others in Consciousness studies. How to master one’s own mental faculties, senses and body, is a very important aspect in leading a successful life. But if that training comes implicitly along with a good education, that is the best way it can happen, since it is practically not possible to train one in consciousness studies at a young age. To train those faculties while they are young and let them master those by the time they grow up, is exactly what the traditional system aims at.

Economics

The first paragraph we find in any economics text would be something like this: "Man has desires. To fulfill them he earns money. His desires multiply, so do his earnings, thus grows economics." But the traditional Indian principle says: "Desire is like a burning fire. The more clarified butter you pour into it to fulfill them, the greater they flame. Therefore the way is not to fulfill them; the way is to transcend them".

It also says, "idam evahi pandityam, caturyam idam evahi, idam evahi subuddhitvam, adaya alpataro vyayah" - meaning all wisdom lies in spending less than what one earns. This is the basis for conservative economics. But one is never discouraged from earning. In fact, earning is prescribed for many sections of society. But one is encouraged to spend not more than what is required to live modestly and use the remaining for the benefit of society. In such a society where everyone is ready to help each other, there is no scope or fear of poverty.

This does not mean that such an arrangement encourages parasites. Such a system only encourages people to work for the betterment of themselves as well as others. Ours is a society that does not know what centralized social security is. Social security exists, totally at a private level. The west is doing its best to privatize social security, as its fears of bankruptcy due to social securities from Governments are going higher every year.

We know how volunteer organizations work - there are some people who work for the cause and the funds they get to support those volunteers are from the society - private contributions. That is, people work for society and society supports those individuals. Thus, such arrangements do not inherently encourage unemployment the way publicized social security systems do.