Dr. V.K. Maheshwari, Ph.D

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A. (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D.

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

For the realist, the world is as it is, and the job of schools would Thus, the realism has brought great effect in various fields of education. The aims, the curriculum, the methods of teaching the outlook towards the child, the teachers, the discipline and the system of education all were given new blood. Realism in education dragged the education from the old traditions, idealism and the high and low tides to the real surface.

REALISM IS THE REFINEMENT OF OUR COMMON ACCEPTANCE OF THE WORLD AS BEING JUST WHAT IT APPEARS TO BE. According to it, things are essentially what they seem to be ,and, furthermore, in our knowledge they are just the same as they were before entering our consciousness, remaining unchanged by our experiencing them.

Historical Retrospect

Although some of the early pre-Christian thinkers dealt with the problems of the physical world (most notably the early Greek physicist- philosophers, Democritus and Leucippus) the first detailed realistic position is generally attributed to Aristotle. Reality, according to Aristotle was distinguishable into form and matter. Matter is the substance that all things have in common. For Aristotle these to substance were logically separable although always found together in the empirical world.

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century:

John Amos Comenius emphasizes the primary importance of the gathering of knowledge or sense data.. Comenius felt that the human mind, like a mirror, reflected everything around it.

John Locke was a philosopher as Comenius was an educator. Locke’s greatest contribution both to philosophy and to philosophy of education was his doctrine that ideas are not innate but that all experience is the result of impressions made on the mind by external objects. The implication of this are spelled out in his concept of the tabula rasa or the mind as a blank sheet on which the outside world must leave its impressions. All ideas, according to Locke, must come from either sensation or reflection.

American Realism: The New Realists and the Critical Realists

New Realists, particularly the American school, rejected this notion, giving mind no special status and viewing it as part of nature. For them things could pass in and out of knowledge and would in no way be altered by the process. Existence, they argued, is not dependent upon experience or perception, thus mind ceases to be the central pivot of the universe.

Herbart the new rationalist, argued that all subjects are related and that Knowledge of one helps strengthen knowledge of the others. The relationships between new ideas and old ideas occurred in what Herbart called the apperceptive mass. Within the mind, new apperceptions or presentations united with older apperceptions and struggled to rise from the unconscious level of mind to the conscious.

Philosophical Rationale of Realism

Realism is interested in objects and facts. In general, realists believe in the independent existence of the experiential universe. They have a healthy respect for the “facts” of both the sciences and the social sciences.

Let us look at the old question about the falling tree on the desert island for a moment. The question is usually as follows: “If a tree falls on a desert island and there is no one there to hear it, is there any sound?” How would the idealist and the realist differ in looking at and answering this particular question? If objects exist independent of any knowledge about them, it is obvious that we have an irreconcilable dispute between the realists and the idealists. Where an idealist would say that a tree in the middle of the desert exists only if it is in some mind, or if there is knowledge of it; the realist would hold that whether or not anyone or anything is thinking about the tree, it nonetheless exists. The realist has revolted against the doctrine that things that are in the experiential universe are dependent upon a knower for their existence.

The Universe (Ontology or Metaphysics)

There is great variety in the metaphysical beliefs of realists. There is so much variety, in fact, that realists could never be grouped together if they did not have certain common ground. They believe that the universe is composed of matter in motion. It is the physical world in which we live that makes up reality. We can, on the basis of our experiences, recognize certain regularities in it about which we generalize and to which we grant the status of laws. The vast cosmos rolls on despite man. It is ordered by natural laws which control the relationships himself with it or not. It is not unlike a giant machine in which man is both participant and spectator. This machine not only involves the physical universe, it operates in the moral, social and economic sphere as well. The realist sees the immutable laws governing man’s behavior as part of the machine; they are natural law.

The realist may be a monist, believing in one substance; a dualist, believing in two; or a pluralist, believing in many. Whichever he is, he believes that all substances have a real existential status independent of the observer. He sees the world as having an orderly nature and composition which exists independent of consciousness but which man may know.

Of the several, different answers to the problem of GOD, it is likely that everyone is upheld by some member of the family of realists. Of course, there are realists who are atheistic. Those who define mind in terms of matter or physical process, and who think of the cosmos in the thoroughly naturalistic sense,ofcourse have no place for God in there metaphysics.

Knowledge and Truth (Epistemology)

. Basically, there are two different schools of epistemological thought in the realist camp. While both schools admit the existence and externality of the “real” world, each views the problem of how we can know it in a different way. The realists have been deeply concerned with the problems of epistemology. Realists pride themselves on being “hard-nosed” and not being guilty of dealing with intellectual abstractions

The first position or presentational view of knowledge holds that we know the real object as it exists. This is the positions of the New Realists. When one perceives something, it is the same thing that exists in the “real” world. Thus, mind becomes the relationship between the subject and the object. In this school of thought there can be no major problems of truth since the correspondence theory is ideally applicable. This theory states that a thing is true is as it corresponds to the real world. Since knowledge is by definition correspondence, it must be true.

These real entities and relations can be known in part by the human mind as they are in themselves. Experience shows us that all cognition is intentional or relational in character. Every concept is of something; every judgment about something.

Concept of Good  (Axiology)

The realist believes in natural laws. Man can know natural law and live the good life by obeying it. All man’s experience is rooted in the regularities of the universe or this natural law. In the realm of ethics this natural law is usually referred to as the moral law. These moral laws have the same existential status as the law of gravity in the physical sciences or the economic laws which are supposed to operate in the free market. Every individual has some knowledge of the moral and natural law.

Realist believes that those qualities of our experience, which we prefer or desire, and to which we attach worth, have something about them which makes them preferable or desirable. But according to the second theory, the key to the evaluation is to be found in the interest.

Social Value- The moral good can be defined from the vantage point of society as “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.”

Religious Value

One aspect of the relation of axiology and metaphysics can be seen by looking again at what has been said about realism and belief in God,. For those who do not believe in God, experience will not be rooted in a Divine Being whom we can worship, reverence, and in whom we can place our trust. Faith and hope will not have validity as religious attitudes because they will have no real object.. But there are also realists who believe in God: and for them many traditional religious values are rooted in realty and therefore are valid.

Concept of Beauty (Aesthetics)

There is a close relation between the refinement of perception and the ability to enjoy aesthetic values. It holds that ultimate values are essentially subjective. In other words, he believes that no goal or object is bad or good in itself. Only the means for acquiring such goals or objects can be judged good or bad insofar as they enable the individual or the group to attain them.

Since the realist place so much value on the natural law and the moral law as found in the behavior or phenomena in nature, it is readily apparent that the realist will find beauty in the orderly behavior of nature. A beautiful art form reflects the logic and order of the universe. Art should attempt to reflect or comment on the order of nature. The more faithfully and art form does this, the more aesthetically pleasing it is.

Logic of Realism

It can be seen that for realism there is logic of investigation as well as a logic of reasoning. The one functions largely at the level of sense perception, the other more especially at the conceptual level. Both are important in any effective adjustment to the real world and in any adequate control of our experience.

Montague suggests still other ‘ways of knowing’ which have their contribution to make to the material of logic

(1)The accepting of authoritative statements of other people, he says ‘ must always remain the great and primary source of our information about other man’s thoughts and about the past

’(2)Intuition, of the mystical sort, ay also be a source of truth for us, but we should always be careful to put such knowledge to the test of noninituitative methods before accepting it

.(3) Particularly in the realm of practical or ethical matters, the pragmatic test, ‘how effective it is in practice’ may be a valid source of truth

(4) And even skepticism also has its value in truth-seeking; it may not yield any positive truth for us but it can save us from cockiness and smugness, and help us to be tolerant and open minded.

Bertrand Russell, who came to philosophy by way of mathematics, has always held that particular science in high repute as an instrument of truth. As is the case with many realists. He feels that traditional logic needs to be supplemented by the science of mathematics because of the inaccuracy and vagueness both of words and grammer.He thinks that if logical relations are to be stated accurately .they must be represented by mathematical symbols and equations, words are too bungle some.

Concept of Society

From the foregoing, it should now be apparent that the social position of this philosophy would closely approximate that of idealism. Since the concern of this position is with the known, and with the transmission of the known, it tends to focus on the conservation of the cultural heritage. This heritage is viewed as all those things that man has learned about natural laws and the order of the universe over untold centuries. The realist position sees society as operating in the framework of natural law. As man understands the natural law, he will understand society.

Realism: in Education

From this very general philosophical position, the Realist would tend to view the Learner as a sense mechanism, the Teacher as a demonstrator, the Curriculum as the subject matter of the physical world (emphasizing mathematics, science, etc.), the Teaching Method as mastering facts and information, and the Social Policy of the school as transmitting the settled knowledge of Western civilization. The realist would favor a school dominated by subjects of the here-and-now world, such as math and science. Students would be taught factual information for mastery. The teacher would impart knowledge of this reality to students or display such reality for observation and study. Classrooms would be highly ordered and disciplined, like nature, and the students would be passive participants in the study of things. Changes in school would be perceived as a natural evolution toward a perfection of order.

For the realist, the world is as it is, and the job of schools would be to teach students about the world. Goodness, for the realist, would be found in the laws of nature and the order of the physical world. Truth would be the simple correspondences of observation. The Realist believes in a world of Things or Beings (metaphysics) and in truth as an Observable Fact. Furthermore, ethics is the law of nature or Natural Law and aesthetics is the reflection of Nature.

Aims of Education:

Realists do not believe in general and common aims of education. According to them aims are specific to each individual and his perspectives. And each one has different perspectives. The aim of education should be to teach truth rather than beauty, to understand the present practical life. The purpose of education, according to social realists, is to prepare the practical man of the world.

The science realists expressed that the education should be conducted on universal basis. Greater stress should be laid upon the observation of nature and the education of science.Neo-realists aim at developing all round development of the objects with the development of their organs.

The realist’s primary educational aim is to teach those things and values which will lead to the good life. But for the realist, the good life is equated with one which is in tune with the overarching order of natural law. Thus, the primary aim of education becomes to teach the child the natural and moral law, or at least as much of it as we know, so that his generation may lead the right kind life; one in tune with the laws to the universe. There are, of course, more specific aims which will lead to the goals already stated. For example, realists set the school aside as a special place for the accumulation and preservation of knowledge.

Realists just as other philosophers have expressed the aims of education in various forms. According to John Wild the aim of education is fourfold to discern the truth about things as they really are and to extend and integrate such truth as is known to gain such practical knowledge of life in general and of professional functions in particular as can be theoretically grounded and justified and finally to transmit this in a coherent and convincing way both to young and to old throughout the huEducation should guide the student in discovering and knowing the world around him as this is contained in the school subjects.

Russell follows the same line of reasoning in his discussion of educational objectives. He too would not object to the school’s assisting the child to become a healthy happy and well-adjusted individual. But he insists that the prime goal of all school activities should be the development of intelligence. The well-educated person is one whose mind knows they would as it is. Intelligence is that human function which enables one to acquire knowledge. The school should do all in its power to develop intelligence.

Concept of Student:

Realism in education recognizes the importance of the child. The child is a real unit which    has real existence. He has some feelings, some desires and some powers. All these cannot be overlooked. These powers of the child shall have to be given due regarding at the time of planning education. Child can reach near reality through learning by reason. Child has to be given as much freedom as possible. The child is to be enabled to proceed on the basis of facts; The child can learn only when he follows the laws of learning.”

Broudy describes the pupil by elaborating four principles which, according to him, comprise the essence of the human self. These are the appetitive principle the principle of self-determination the principle of self-realization and the principle of self-integration.

The appetitive principle, mentioned first, has to do with the physiological base of personality. Our appetites disclose the need of our tissues to maintain and reproduce themselves. Physiological life, and therefore the life of personality, cannot go on unless these necessary tissue needs are supplied. In order for us to do anything about our tissue needs, except on an animal level, we must be aware of them; and in being aware of them, we realize that pleasure and pain are central.

The self has continuity formal structure antecedents in the past and a yearning toward the future. Our experience has some continuity throughout changing events and places and in order to explain this we must recognize that the self is a common factor in all of these experiences even though there are gaps in consciousness such as when we are asleep or under anesthesia. The self has form as well as continuity. As for determinism rationality requires that we recognize the validity and dependability; of cause-and-effect relations but we do not need to hold to determinism with the meaning that all of our experience is the result of physical forces. Our power to symbolize is one element of our experience that does not bear out the truth of this kind of determinism.

The third principle of selfhood, self-realization supplements freedom as such with value concerns. Freedom does not carry built-in guarantees that it will be turned to good ends. In order to be freedom it must be free to make us miserable. The how of choosing, as well as the what which is chosen is a necessary ingredient of the good life.

The child is to be understood a creature of the real world there is no sense in making him a God. He has to be trained to become a man only.  To the realist, the student is a functioning organism which, through sensory experience, can perceive the natural order of the world. The pupil, as viewed by many realists, is not free but is subject to natural laws. It is not at all uncommon to find realists advocating a behavioristic psychology. The pupil must come to recognize and respond to the coercive order of nature in those cases where he cannot control his experiences, while learning to control his experiences where such control is possible. At its most extreme, the pupil is viewed as a machine which can be programmed in a manner similar to the programming of a computer.

Concept of Teacher

From this very general philosophical position, the Realist would tend to view the Learner as a sense mechanism, the Teacher as a demonstrator, the Curriculum as the subject matter of the physical world (emphasizing mathematics, science, etc.), the Teaching Method as mastering facts and information, and the Social Policy of the school as transmitting the settled knowledge of Western civilization. The realist would favor a school dominated by subjects of the here-and-now world, such as math and science. Students would be taught factual information for mastery. The teacher would impart knowledge of this reality to students or display such reality for observation and study. Classrooms would be highly ordered and disciplined, like nature, and the students would be passive participants in the study of things. Changes in school would be perceived as a natural evolution toward a perfection of order.

For the realist, the world is as it is, and the job of schools would Thus, the realism has brought great effect in various fields of education. The aims, the curriculum, the methods of teaching the outlook towards the child, the teachers, the discipline and the system of education all were given new blood. Realism in education dragged the education from the old traditions, idealism and the high and low tides to the real surface.

The teacher, for the realist, is simply a guide. The real world exists, and the teacher is responsible for introducing the student to it. To do this he uses lectures, demonstrations, and sensory experiences, The teacher does not do this in a random or haphazard way; he must not only introduce the student to nature, but show him the regularities, the “rhythm” of nature so that he may come to understand natural law. Both the teacher and the student are spectators, but while the student looks at the world through innocent eyes, the teacher must explain it to him, as well as he is able, from his vantage point of increased sophistication. For this reason, the teacher’s own biases and personality should be as muted as possible. In order to give the student as much accurate information as quickly and effectively as possible, the realist may advocate the use of teaching machines to remove the teacher’s bias from factual presentation. The whole concept to teaching machines is compatible with the picture or reality as a mechanistic universe in which man is simply one of the cogs in the machine.

A teacher should be such that he himself be educated and well versed with the customs of belief and rights and duties of people, and the trends of all ages and places. He must have full mastery of the knowledge of present life. He must guide the student towards the hard realities of life. He is neither pessimist, nor optimist. He must be able to expose children to the problems of life and the world around.

The Curriculum:

According to humanistic realism, classical literature should be studied but not for studying its form and style but for its content and ideas it contained.

Sense-realism- attached more importance to the study of natural sciences and contemporary social life. Study of languages is not so significant as the study of natural sciences and contemporary life.

Neo-realism- gives stress on the subject physics and on humanistic feelings, physics and psychology, sociology, economics, Ethics, Politics, history, Geography, agriculture varied arts, languages and so on, are the main subjects to be studied according to the Neo-realists

Subject matter is the matter of the physical universe- the Real World- taught in such a way as to show the orderliness underlying the universe. The laws of nature, the realist believes, are most readily understood through the subjects of nature, namely the sciences in all their many branches. As we study nature and gather data, we can see the underlying order of the universe. The highest form of this order is found in mathematics. Mathematics is a precise, abstract, symbolic system for describing the laws of the universe. Even in the social sciences we find the realist’s conception of the universe shaping the subject matter, for they deal with the mechanical and natural forces which bear on human behaviour. The realist views the curriculum as reducible to knowledge position espoused by E.L. Thorndike that whatever exists must exist in some amount and therefore be measurable.

John Wild, while differing slightly from the foregoing analysis, describes the ordering of the curriculum in such a way as to indicate his philosophical orientation toward realism.

There is certainly a basic core of knowledge that every human person ought to know in order to live a genuinely human life…..First of all the student should learn to use the basic instruments of knowledge, especially his own language. In order to understand it more clearly and objectively, he should gain some knowledge of at least one foreign language as well. In addition, he should be taught the essentials of humane logic and elementary mathematics. Then he should become acquainted with the methods of physics, chemistry    and biology  and the basic facts so far revealed by these science. In the third place he should study history and the sciences of man. Then he should gain some familiarity with the great classics of his own and of world literature and art.

Finally in the later stages of this basic training, he should be introduced to    philosophy and to those basic problems which arise from the attempt to integrate knowledge and practice.

Wild goes on to point out the orderly nature of the universe and indicate that it is possible to find certain “solidly grounded” moral principles, and that these, along with the core of subject matter “based on the nature of our human world, should be given to everyone.”

The Instructional Methodology:

The method of the realists involves teaching for the mastery of facts in order to develop an understanding of natural law. This can be done by teaching both the materials and their application. In fact, real knowledge comes only when the organism can organize the data of experience. The realist prefers to use inductive logic, going from the particular facts of sensory experience to the more general laws deducible from these data. These general laws are seen as universal natural law.

When only one response is repeated for one stimulus, it conditioned by that stimulus. Now wherever that situation comes, response will be the same; this is the fact.

For Herbart, education was applied psychology. The five-step method he developed was as follows:

Preparation: An attempt is made to have the student recall earlier materials to which the new knowledge might be related. The purpose of the lesson is explained and an attempt to interest the learner is made.

Presentation: The new facts and materials are set forth and explained.

Association: A definite attempt is made to show similarities and differences and to draw comparisons between the new materials and those already learned and absorbed into the apperceptive mass.

Generalization: The drawing of inferences from the materials and an attempt to find a general rule, principal, or law.

Application: In general this meant the working of academic exercises and problems based on both the new information and the relevant related information in the appreciative mass.

“(There are and can be only two ways for investigation and discovery of truth. One flies from senses and particulars, to the most general axioms and from these principles and infallible truth determines and discovers intermediate axioms….the other constructs axioms from the senses and particulars by ascending continually and gradually, so as to teach most general axioms last of all.)” – Bacon.

In their method, the realist depends on motivation the student. But this is not difficult since many realists view the interests of the learner as fundamental urges toward an understanding of natural law rooted in our common sense. The understanding of natural law comes through the organizing of data through insight. The realist in their method approves anything which involves learning through sensory experience whether it be direct or indirect. Not only are field trips considered valuable, but the realist advocates the use of films, filmstrips, records, television, radio, and any other audiovisual aids which might serve in the place of direct sensory experience when such experience is not readily available. This does not mean that the realist denies the validity of symbolic knowledge. Rather it implies that the symbol has no special existential status but is viewed simply as a means of communicating about, or representing, the real world.

A teacher should always keep in mind-

• Education should proceed from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract.
• Students to be taught to analyze rather than  to construct.
• Vernacular to be the medium of instruction.
• Individual’s experience and spirit of inquiry is more important than authority.
• No unintelligent cramming. More emphasis on questioning and understanding.
• Re-capitulation is necessary to make the knowledge permanent.
• One subject  should be taught at one time.
• No pressure or coercion be brought upon the child.
• The uniformity should be the basic principle in all things.
• Things should be introduced first and then the words.
• The entire knowledge should be gained after experience.
• There should be a co-relation between utility in daily life and education.
• The simple rules should be defined.
• To find out the interest of the child and to teach accordingly.

Concept of Discipline:

Discipline is adjustment the individual in the educational program. Such preoccupation with the individual flouts the reality to objectivity. It is necessary in order to enable the child to adjust himself to his environment and concentrate on his work. Bringing out change in the real world is impossible. The student himself is a part of this world. He has to admit this fact and adjust himself to the world.

A disciplined student is one who does not withdraw from the cruelties, tyrannies, hardships and shortcomings pervading the world. Realism has vehemently opposed withdrawal from life. One has to adjust oneself to this material world.

The student must be disciplined until he has learned to make the proper responses. Wild says of the student that it is. His duty…. to learn those arduous operations by which here and there it may be revealed to him as it really is. One tiny grain of truth is worth more than volumes of opinion.

The School:

John Amos Comenius in his great didactic describes the unique function of the school in a manner which will symbolize modern realism. He said that man is not made a man only by his biological birth. If he is to be made a man. Human culture must give direction and form to his basic potentialities. This necessity of the school for the making of man was made vivid for Comenius by reports which had come to him of children who had been reared from infancy by animals. The recognition of this by Comenius caused him to consider the education of men by men just as essential to man birth, as a human creature, as is procreation. He therefore defined education as formation and went so far as to call the school ‘a true forging place of man’

Evaluation of  Realism  in Education:

In educational theory and practice, the scientific realists might be criticized for the following reasons:

Realism treats metaphysics as meaningless. The realists make no provision for the world of supernature and takes an agonistic view towards it. Most  of the propositions of traditional metaphysics are relegated to the realm of irrelevancy.

There is no role for functions as creative reason in realism. One reason for  this flows from the monoistic assumption that the known and the knower are of the same nature. There is no role for such functions as creative reason- in the sense that reason can form abstractions from sense data.

The epistemology of the realists is inadequate. In realism only empirical knowledge is recognized as valid with in their system. The passive aspects of the knowing process are overemphasised by realists.

There is too much emphasis on the individual in realism .Some of them place too much emphasis on of the complexity and interdependence of modern society.

Stress on content much more than the methods: The scientific realists with the exception or Russell stress content much more than the methods of acquiring knowledge. This emphasis often leads to rote memorization one of the major weaknesses of the traditional school. Thus lip service may be paid to the goals of developing critical thinking understanding and other complex intellectual functions but little is done by the student to attain these goals.

In realism there is little attention for developing an educational theory. Most of the philosophical realists of this school pay little or no attention to developing an educational theory consistent with their basic philosophical beliefs as Dewey, broody, Adler, And Martian have done.

There is too much emphasis on sense experience in realism .The realist does not accept the existence of transcendental ( not based on experience or reason ) being. How could be know the non-existence of that which does not exist? Has non-existence got  no existence ?  Void ness and non-existence also are the parts of existence. Here the realist is dumb completely.

The realist recognizes the origin of knowledge from the datum achieved by senses and asserts that only objects are main and it is through their contact that knowledge is acquired. Then how does our illusion arise ? How does knowledge become fallacious? Where does the external object go in dream ? The realist is unable to answer these questions satisfactorily.

The curriculum proposed by most realist is one-sided. Today the effect of realism has given rise  to the wave of science. It is right, but there should be no indifference towards art and literature. The realist supports this negligence The curriculum proposed by most scientific realists is one-sided since empirical knowledge holds a position superior to that of the humanistic studies. This neglect is evident in the absence of a well defined theory of age and art education.

There is no place to imagination ,pure thoughts  and sentimentsin realism. Realism admits real feelings and needs of life on the one hand, gives no place to imagination and sentiment, on the other. What a contradiction? Are imaginations, emotions and sentiments not real needs of human life? Is emotionless life not almost dead life? Can life be lead on the basis of facts only?

The realist claims to be objective. Objectivity in knowledge is nothing but the partnership of personal knowledge. Knowledge is always subjective.”

Realism recognizes only the real existence of the material world. This recognition remains not objected to unless he says that only material world really exists. The question arises- Is there no power behind this material world? Does it have its own existence? What is the limit of the universe? The realist does give reply to these questions but these replies are not found to be satisfactory. The real existence of material world may be admitted but how can the existence come to an end in the world itself.

Realism enthuses disappointment in students and teachers. No progress can be made by having faith in the facts of daily life and shattering faith in ideals. Life is but full of miseries and struggles. Sorrow is more predominant than joy in the world. A person becomes disappointed by this feeling. That is why realists often appear to be skeptics, Pessimists and objectionists,

Realism encourages formalism. The Herbartian movement in the United States reached its peak in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Because of its formalism it allowed a teacher to substitute technique for knowledge a long distance. It became a popular technique to impart to future teachers in normal schools and in other institutes for teacher preparation. Its very formalism was also its greatest weakness since it allowed a teacher slavishly to develop a lesson with allowed the rigid teacher to teach rigidly. Herbart himself would probably have shuddered at the misuse of what he conceived of as creative method for teaching children.

Both the New Realists and the Critical Realists failed to provide a satisfactory answer to the problem of error. The New Realist position is the weaker of the two since direct cognition does not permit error and the rationale employed by Wild, that “Error is the creation of the erring subject” is most unsatisfactory if the mind is viewed purely as relational with no contents of its own with which to create error. The Critical Realists have solved the problem of error, but in doing so through the use of an intermediary or vehicle of knowledge; they have created a whole new host of problems in terms of defining and explaining the nature of the vehicle. Whether it is of the substance of mind, matter, or some neutral substance is unclear and varies with the particular philosopher one is reading. Both positions, despite their differences, create problems for the educator. The New Realist position with regard to error is manufacture unable, and the

There is danger of encouraging elitism. Finally, the same criticism of absolutes applies to the realists as applied to the idealists. There is the constant danger that there will arise a class of persons who be the ones with the responsibility of identifying and arbitrating questions concreting absolutes. These may be priests in an idealist society or scientist in a realist society, but whatever they are, they become an external source of authority in an area in which people should be speculating and the danger of an inquisition is always inherent in such a social structure. Whenever we allow any person or group of persons to tell us what is Truth and what is not Truth, and permit them the authority to force this point of view on us, we are in danger of losing the very essence of the truly democratic society.

Realism depends on cause- effect  relationships. The next criticism deals directly with the philosophical underpinnings of the realist position. Almost all the laws of nature that the realists stress are dependent upon cause- effect relationships. Most philosophers and scientists are chary of such absolutes. They prefer to deal in the realm of probability. Past activity is no guarantee of future activity. Because the sun rises in the East every day is no guarantee that it will rise there tomorrow, although the probability is ridiculously high. Thus, to teach moral absolutes and natural laws is a highly questionable procedure.

Realism fails to deal with social change. Like the idealists, the realists are basically conservative in education. Rather than concern themselves with social change and educational progress they are most concerned with preserving and adding to the body of organized truth they feel has been accumulated. In a period when there was little social change occurring this type of philosophy may have been adequate. But in an increasingly automated society operating on an ever-expanding industrial base, many educators feel that education must be a creative endeavour, constantly looking for new solutions to problems. This role appears to be incompatible with the realist’s fundamental conception of the role of education in the society.

In short realism rejects or disregards the supernatural, and likewise denies duality in man’s nature or any distinction of cognitive powers into sensory and intellectual. Realists hold that man can know reality, and that he does so through inductive experience.

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A. (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D.

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

“‘Knowledge’ is defined as what we know: knowledge involves the mental processes of comprehension, understanding and learning that go on in the mind and only in the mind, however much they involve interaction with the world outside the mind, and interaction with others.” (Wilson, 2002)

According to Wilson, knowledge can only be in the minds of people. Although not directly expressed, the definition includes the empiricist (“interaction with the world) and the rationalistic (“comprehension, understanding and learning”) viewpoint on the creation of knowledge. Adding to his knowledge definition, Wilson (2002) says that knowledge is bound to the thinking structures of each individual and when these wish to share it, they compose messages which are then decoded by another individual. However, “the knowledge built from the messages can never be exactly the same as the knowledge base from which the messages were uttered”.

In an organizational context, knowledge is the sum of what is known and resides in the intelligence and the competence of people. “Information in context” is knowledge. Context is thereby defined differently. Rationalists see it as the coherent whole and ultimately true body of knowledge while pragmatists see it as the usefulness in a particular situation. The concept of context can supply information with meaning but does not necessarily include either usefulness (pragmatist viewpoint) or absolute coherence with the total body (rationalist viewpoint).

Allee (1997 ) has the viewpoint that “we literally cannot know anything without a word to describe it” and therefore binds knowledge exclusively to information. Her view on knowledge is very limited as language is only one out of many information channels such as visuals, sounds or practical demonstration. A defeater of her definition would be the fact that it is still possible to transfer knowledge without the use of language and often necessary when two individuals don’t speak the same language. Since these definitions are based on understanding of experience, and the criteria of usefulness for social action, these definitions represent the pragmatist’s view of knowledge.

“Knowledge, while made up of data and information can be thought of as much greater understanding of a situation, relationships, causal phenomena and the theories and rules (both explicit and implicit) that underlie a given domain or problem”

“Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices and norms” (Davenport & Prusak, 1998).

“Knowledge is experience or information that can be communicated or shared” (Allee, 1997) is based on experience and information. However, to say that “knowledge is information that can be shared” is problematic since this leads to the question which information is not shareable. But as information consists out of data which is always shareable, the definition equals information and knowledge, neglecting the difference of these two concepts.

This definition concentrates on the definition of organizational knowledge which due to the authors does not only include experience and contextual information, expert insight  but also values. The element of truth and justification is missing, leaving out the criteria of validation of knowledge claims. The statement that knowledge can be embedded in documents and repositories shows that knowledge is seen as tangible which other academics would call information.

Knowledge is human faculty resulting from interpreted information; understanding that germinates from combination of data, information, experience, and individual interpretation. Facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

Knowledge includes the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association ,it is the  acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique.  The fact or condition of being aware of something ,  the range of one’s information or understanding,   the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning :   It is  the sum of what is known :  the body of truth, information, and principles acquired by humankind.

The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned: In an organizational context, knowledge is:

acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study orinvestigation; general erudition:

• familiarity or conversance, as with a particular subject or branch oflearning:
• acquaintance or familiarity gained by sight, experience, or report:
• the fact or state of knowing; the perception of fact or truth; clear andcertain mental apprehension.
• awareness, as of a fact or circumstance:
• something that is or may be known; information:
• the body of truths or facts accumulated in the course of time.

Thus knowledge is the sum of what is known and resides in the intelligence and the competence of people

In Indian context,the words knowledge, buddhi, and consciousness are used synonymously. Four means of valid knowledge are admitted: perception, inference, comparison, and verbal testimony. Perception is defined as the knowledge that arises from the contact of the senses with the object, which is nonjudgmental, or unerring or judgmental. Inference is defined as the knowledge that is preceded by perception (of the mark) and classified into three kinds: that from the perception of a cause to its effect; that from perception of the effect to its cause; and that in which knowledge of one thing is derived from the perception of another with which it is commonly seen together. Comparison is defined as the knowledge of a thing through its similarity to another thing previously well-known.

Areas of Knowledge

There are subject areas or disciplines into which knowledge is frequently classified. They may be seen as an application of Ways of Knowing, perhaps shaped by methodology, to particular subject matter.

There are eight different Areas of Knowledge

Arts

Ethics

History

Human Sciences

Natural Sciences

Mathematics

Indigenous

Religion

Art- Art is the expression of creative skill through a visual medium such as painting or sculpture.  The product of such a process; paintings, drawings, and sculpture collectively. It has various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, and drama. Art includes subjects of study primarily concerned with human culture (as contrasted with scientific or technical subjects).

Ethics-The branch of knowledge concerned with moral principles. The moral principles governing or influencing conduct. Ethics or moral philosophy is the branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. In practice, ethics seeks to resolve questions of human morality, by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime..

The three major areas of study within ethics are:

1.         Meta-ethics, concerning the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions, and how their truth values (if any) can be determined

2.         Normative ethics, concerning the practical means of determining a moral course of action

3.         Applied ethics, concerning what a person is obligated (or permitted) to do in a specific situation or a particular domain of action

History -The branch of knowledge dealing with past events. A continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to particular people, country, period, person, etc., usually written as a chronological account; chronicle .History a continuous record of past events or trends. It is the study of past events. Here the past considered as a whole. It believe that the past events connected with someone or something.

Human Sciences- Human science is the study and interpretation of the experiences, activities, constructs, and artifacts associated with human beings. The study of the human sciences attempts to expand and enlighten the human being’s knowledge of their existence, its interrelationship with other species and systems, and the development of artifacts to perpetuate the human expression and thought. It is the study of human phenomena .Human science is the objective, informed critique of human existence and how it relates to reality.  The human sciences corresponds to humanities and social sciences, but also includes aspects of psychology and even mathematics, as one of the key things we are concerned with is how we gather information in our study of human behaviour.

Natural Sciences- Natural science is a branch of science concerned with the description, prediction, and understanding of natural phenomena, based on observational and empirical evidence. Validity, accuracy, and social mechanisms ensuring quality control, such as peer review and repeatability of findings, are amongst the criteria and methods used for this purpose.

Natural science can be broken into two main branches: life science (or biological science) and physical science. Physical science is further broken down into branches, including physics, astronomy, chemistry, and Earth science. All of these branches of natural science are divided into many further specialized branches (also known as fields), and each of these is known as a “natural science”

Mathematics - The branch of science concerned with number, quantity, and space, either as abstract ideas (pure mathematics) or as applied to physics, engineering, and other subjects (applied mathematics). Mathematics is the science that deals with the logic of shape, quantity and arrangement. Math is all around us, in everything we do. It is the building block for everything in our daily lives, including mobile devices, architecture (ancient and modern), art, money, engineering, and even sports.

Indigenous- Originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native.

Religion-A particular system of faith and worship, the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods, a pursuit or interest followed with great devotion.

Areas of Knowledge in Indian context

The term ‘Jnana’( gyaan ) mean the same as education in its wide sense in Indian philosophy. In Indian philosophies, the term ‘Jnana’ is not used for only information or facts, though in the west, this sense is quite prevalent. In the Amarkosha, the terms ‘Jnana’ and ‘Vijnana’ (Vigyaan) have been distinguished saying that is related with emancipation while ‘Vijnana’ is reated with crafts. In other words,Jjnana or knowledge is that which develops man and illuminates his path to emancipation, while whatever is leant and known in practical life is called Vijnana or science.

The Indian concept of education can be understood from the prescribed list of subject on the concept of reality.

Vidya and Avidya

The terms Vidya and Avidya represent opposites. Vidya refers to knowledge ,learning, and to the different sciences – ancient and modern. So Avidya would mean the opposite – ignorance, absence of learning, and illiteracy

The Mundakopanised says :

Tasmai sa uvacha ha –dve vidye veditavye eti hasma yad brahmavido vadanti, para chaivapara cha

“…..There are two kinds of knowledge worthy to be known, namely, the higher(para) and the lower (Apara).”

The lines which follow the above quotation explains that the lower knowledge consists of the Vedas, phonetics, grammar, astronomy etc. and the higher knowledge is that by which the imperishable is known

The Sanskrit words Vidya is a shortened of forms of Para Vidya. The root Vid means to know. Para Vidya is knowledge of the Absoute or spiritual knowledge.

Avidya

Apara Vidya or it shortened from Avidya is knowledge of any sector or worldly knowledge in the wider sense.

Etymologically avidya is the antithesis of knowledge, ie., the absence of knowledge. But the word is not used in the negative concept. All knowledge or Apara Vidya which envelopes the phenomenal world is turned Avidya.

Isa – Upanishad explains the idea in the following verse:

Vidyam Cha avidyam cha

Bah tad veda upayam saha

Avidyaya mrutyum tirtva

Vidyaya-amrutam-asnute

It is through Avidya that one crosses the great stream of death which through Vidya one attains immortality.

Adi Shankara on avidya says in his Introduction to his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, “Owing to an absence of discrimination, there continues a natural human behaviour in the form of ‘I am this’ or ‘This is mine’; this is avidya. It is a superimposition of the attributes of one thing on another. The ascertainment of the nature of the real entity by separating the superimposed thing from it is Vidya (knowledge, illumination)”. In Shankara’s philosophy Avidya cannot be categorized either as ‘absolutely existent’ or as ‘absolutely non-existent’.

In the Mundaka Upanishad, a student reverentially questions a Rishi about Truth: ‘Revered Sir, what is that by knowing which everything (in this universe) becomes known?’ (2) The Rishi begins his reply by classifying knowledge or Vidya into two categories: Para(higher) and Apara (lower). Apara Vidya refers to the four Vedas and the six accessories of Vedic knowledge (the vedaigas): phonetics, the ritual code, grammar, etymology, prosody, and astrology. The compass is clearly very wide: the process of creation, the nature of gods and goddesses and their relation to creation, the nature of the soul and of God, the rituals that procure worldly and heavenly enjoyments, and the way of release from the series of birth and death; in short, religious or scriptural knowledge and the ways of living prescribed by different religions are all subsumed under Apara Vidya. Para vidya, the Rishi informs his student, is that ‘by which the immutable Brahman (akshara) is attained’. This Brahman is imperceptible, eternal, omnipresent, imperishable, and the source of all beings. Scriptural study is Apara Vidya, secondary knowledge. To know Brahman (or God) directly and in a non-mediate fashion is the primary aim of life, and is therefore termed Para Vidya.  If the scriptures tell us about life, then what about the other sciences – physical science and technology, and the social and political sciences? They do play a very valuable role in our lives, and are classed as Apara Vidya. But they are secular sciences. What do we get through secular knowledge? Wealth, power, luxury, and pleasure, but not the bliss that results from spiritual knowledge. The Apara Vidya that comprises scriptural knowledge helps us know that this world is not the only world, that there are other divine worlds accessible to human beings. The keeping of religious injunctions and performance of scriptural activities are prescribed as means for attaining enjoyment in these higher divine worlds. But these gains are transient and ephemeral. However, if the obligatory duties prescribed by one’s faith are performed with the aim of cultivating love of God and love of people of all faiths, the performer gets his or her mind and heart purified, and can attain the realization of that immutable Brahman which secures eternal bliss.

The Upanishads remind people with dogmatic and fanatic tendencies that scriptural injunctions also lie in the domain of ‘lower knowledge’. The Mundaka Upanishadsays that people devoted to mere scriptural ritualism are ‘deluded fools’: ‘dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, [they] wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind’. They think of their way as the best and delude themselves into believing that they have attained fulfilment, and so continue to suffer the ills of life .

How does one overcome Avidya Through Vidya, for ‘through the help of Vidya one cultivates such virtues as the taste for holy company, knowledge, devotion, love, and renunciation.’ Sri Ramakrishna  explicates the nature of Avidya: ‘Avidya consists of the five elements and the objects of the five senses – form, flavour, smell, touch, and sound. These make one forget God’

So Avidya is nothing but human ignorance about God’s nature, by which one is perpetually deluded into doing the rounds of Samsara, the cycle of transmigration. This Avidya again is nothing but misidentification of real knowledge, which is one’s real nature. Therefore, religious scriptures ask humans to purify their heart, mind, intellect, and ego. Real human nature is pure and divine; each soul is potentially divine. Maya personifies our illusory perception. This phenomenal world is the longest dream come out of cosmic mind, of which the individual is a part.

‘According to the Advaita philosophy,’ says Swami Vivekananda, ‘there is only one thing real in the universe, which it calls Brahman; everything else is unreal, manifested and manufactured out of Brahman by the power of Maya. To reach back to that Brahman is our goal. We are, each one of us, that Brahman, that Reality, plus this Maya. If we can get rid of this Maya or ignorance, then we become what we really are.’  While lecturing on ‘The Real Nature of Man’ Swamiji dwelt upon the nature of ignorance, Avidya:

Ignorance is the great mother of all misery, and the fundamental ignorance is to think that the Infinite weeps and cries, that He is finite. This is the basis of all ignorance that we, the immortal, the ever pure, the perfect Spirit, think that we are little minds, that we are little bodies; it is the mother of all selfishness. As soon as I think that I am a little body, I want to preserve it, to protect it, to keep it nice, at the expense of other bodies; then you and I become separate. As soon as this idea of separation comes, it opens the door to all mischief and leads to all misery . Swamiji also makes a distinction between objective knowledge that is in the domain of avidya, and para vidya, which is our very Self: ‘Knowledge is a limitation, knowledge is objectifying. He [the Atman, the Self] is the eternal subject of everything, the eternal witness in this universe, your own Self. Knowledge is, as it were, a lower step, a degeneration. We are that eternal subject already; how can we know it? It is the real nature of every man’ .

Types of knowledge

There is so much disagreement over what are, exactly, the different types of knowledge that an agreed upon “master list” simply does not exist.

Here is a master list of the different types of knowledge and theories of knowledge that are out there

1. A Priori

A priori literally means “from before” or “from earlier.” This is because a priori knowledge depends upon what a person can derive from the world without needing to experience it. This is better known as reasoning.

2. A Posteriori

A posteriori literally means “from what comes later” or “from what comes after.” This is a reference to experience and using a different kind of reasoning (inductive) to gain knowledge. This kind of knowledge is gained by first having an experience  and then using logic and reflection to derive understanding from it. In philosophy, this term is sometimes used interchangeably with empirical knowledge, which is knowledge based on observation.

3. Explicit Knowledge

Explicit knowledge is similar to a priori knowledge in that it is more formal or perhaps more reliable. Explicit knowledge is knowledge that is recorded and communicated through mediums. The defining feature of explicit knowledge is that it can be easily and quickly transmitted from one individual to another.

4. Tacit Knowledge

Whereas explicit knowledge is very easy to communicate and transfer from one individual to another, tacit knowledge is precisely the opposite. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to communicate tacit knowledge through any medium.

The biggest difficult of tacit knowledge is knowing when it is useful and figuring out how to make it usable. Tacit knowledge can only be communicated through consistent and extensive relationships or contact.

5. Propositional Knowledge (also Descriptive or Declarative Knowledge)

Propositional and non-propositional knowledge,  share similarities with some of the other theories already discussed. Propositional knowledge has the oddest definition yet, as it is commonly held that it is knowledge that can literally be expressed in propositions; that is, in declarative sentences  or indicative propositions.The key attribute is knowing that something is true.

6. Non-Propositional Knowledge (also Procedural Knowledge)

Non-propositional knowledge (which is better known as procedural knowledge, is knowledge that can be used; it can be applied to something, such as a problem. Procedural knowledge differs from propositional knowledge in that it is acquired “by doing”; propositional knowledge is acquired by more conservative forms of learning.

Ways of knowing

Philosophers have identified these four ways of knowing: Sense Perception, Language, Emotion/intuition and Logics/Reason.

Sense Perception: You know certain things because you can see and perceive them yourself. Empiricists consider sense perception so important that they will say that all knowledge comes from the senses.

Language/Authority: You know certain things because someone (an authority who knows more than you) told you personally or you read it somewhere. A person who had more knowledge than you passed on his/her knowledge with the help of language.

Emotion/intuition: You know certain things because you feel them emotionally. You know that certain things are ethically not right. Some decisions in your life are so complicated that you have to rely on your intuition.

Logics/Reason: You know certain things because you can apply logics and reasoning Rationalist consider reason and logics so important, that they say that all sources of our knowledge comes from our ability to use reasoning.

Five ways of knowing

The two inter-related concepts, knowing and knowledge, are defined the concept of knowing is about perceiving and understanding ourselves within our environment; whereas,knowledge is about being able to communicate the knowing (this is making it public). Bothconcepts are inter-related. Multiple ways of knowing contribute to the knowledge ofteachers. There are five ways of knowing. the first four from Carper (1978) and the fifth from Chin and Kramer (2008).

1. Empirical – . It is about what we can experience through our physical senses: hearing, seeing, touching. It is about seeking the truth; it draws on traditional science and is expressed as scientific knowledge. It is conscious reasoning and problem solving, predicting, explaining and describing to develop formal theories and descriptions or use them to substantiate actions. This is about laws, theories and explanations that are generalizable and allow prediction; it is consistent  and verifiable. These are educational theories .

2. Ethical – Ethics is the moral knowledge. It is about how teachers act or conduct themselves in their roles. It requires experiential and empirical knowledge of social norms and values as well as ethical reasoning. The goal is to know your responsibility and know right from wrong. It is being able to solve a conflict of values, principles or norms. Other sources of ethical knowing may be different philosophical positions including duty and social justice. These are all based on the premise that teaching is a service, is available to everyone, and in some countries considered a right. It goes beyond the code and considers all actions that are deliberate and involve a decision of right and wrong. In different philosophical positions designed to deal with moral judgment and notion of service.

3. Personal – It is about having an authentic relationship with the learner and the knowledge where the student and teacher are seen as open systems that interact and move toward what Maslow calls self actualization or growth of human potential . It is based on the assumption that when we engage or interact with students, we bring our personal biases; in contrast to empirics, where the teacher is objective. It is about recognizing that individuals are not objects and fixed entities but continue to develop so both students and teachers develop through all interactions .

4. Aesthetic – Aesthetic knowing recognizes the practical skills that are required to be an educator. When considering possibilities and outcomes, they draw from their previous experiences and not necessarily empirical framework.  In contrast to empirical knowing,in aesthetics, educators draw on what has worked in the past, but do not respond toa similar situation in exactly the same way. It may involve intuition. It is the art of teaching that leads to transformation and creativity and new knowledge in a very particular context, that is an open system. This is done by experienced educators, and excellent educators do this automatically even if they are not conscious of the process.

5. Emancipatory – Emancipatory knowing is knowing that critically examines the context or the environment in which the teaching and learning experience occurs. It is about understanding the  social barriers to education. It requires teachers to have capacity to recognize hegemony and the changes that are required to ‘right the wrongs’ that exist. Emancipator y knowing is developed through action in and on reflection or praxis.

The five ways of knowing are all inter-related and overlapping. All these ways of knowing are necessary in understanding the role of the teacher.

Modes of Knowledge:

Abstract and concrete

Abstract terms refer to ideas or concepts; they have no physical referents, while Concrete terms refer to objects or events that are available to the senses. The terms concrete and abstract are also used to suggest how practical or impractical an idea might be. In this sense, concrete ideas are those that have relevance to action

Abstract and concrete are classifications that denote whether a term describes an object with a physical referent or one with no physical referents.  . An abstract object is an object which does not exist at any particular time or place, but rather exists as a type of thing.

Abstract knowledge is about things that is removed from the facts of the “here and now”, and from specific examples of the things or concepts being thought about. Abstract thinkers are able to reflect on events and ideas, and on attributes and relationships separate from the objects that have those attributes or share those relationships

People always think differently. Some may think in concrete terms and some in abstract terms. Concrete thinking refers to the thinking on the surface whereas abstract thinking is related to thinking in depth.

Concrete knowledge does not have any depth. It just refers to thinking in the periphery. On the other hand, abstract knowledge goes under the surface. Concrete knowledge is just regarding the facts. On the other hand abstract knowledge goes down below the facts. While some mental process is involved in abstract knowledge, no such effort is evolved in concrete knowledge. A person with concrete knowledge does not think beyond the facts. They do not have the ability to think beyond a certain limit. Concrete knowledge only have a generalized concept for all things. On the other hand, abstract knowledge have a very specific concept of things.

When compared to concrete knowledge, abstract knowledge is about understanding the multiple meanings.

When abstract knowledge is based on ideas, concrete thinking is based on seeing and also on facts. Abstract knowledge may be referred to the figurative description whereas concrete knowledge does not think so.

Abstract and concrete are classifications that denote whether a term describes an object with a physical referent or one with no physical referents. An abstract objectis an object which does not exist at any particular time or place, but rather exists as a type of thing, i.e., an idea, or abstraction.

Concrete words are nouns; they describe things you experience through your senses: smoke, mist, a shout. Abstract words name qualities: beauty, justice, truth. Concrete words help us describe things; abstract words help us classify them.

A word or phrase is concrete if:

1. It is specific, particular, real and tangible
2. It is characterized by or belonging to immediate experience of actual things or events
3. It provides specific meaning.

A word or phrase is abstract if:

1. It is insufficiently factual
2. It has only intrinsic form
3. There is little or no attempt at written pictorial representation or narrative content
4. It is unclear, indefinite, imprecise, indistinct, slight, hazy, vacant or obscure
5. The words or phrases do not provide specific meaning

Theory vs. Practical

When it comes to knowledge there are different kinds of knowledge and different ways of acquiring each kind. On one side is theory and on the other side is the practical application of theory. Both types of knowledge are important and both make you better at whatever you do.

Theoretical knowledge — teaches the why. Theoretical knowledge can often lead to a deeper understand of a concept through seeing it in context of a greater whole and understanding the why behind it..

It helps in understanding why one technique works where another fails. It shows  the whole , builds the context, and helps in  setting strategy. Where self education is concerned theory prepares  to set a direction for  future education. Theory teaches  through the experience of others.

Practical knowledge — Practical knowledge can often lead to a deeper understanding of a concept through the act of doing and personal experience. It helps in acquiring the specific techniques that become the tools of  trade. It sits much closer to  actual day-to-day work. There are some things that can only be learned through doing and experiencing. Where theory is often taught in the ideal of a vacuum, the practical is learned through the reality of life.

Both of the above are important. One won’t survive in any career unless he bring results and to do that one need practical knowledge. There’s no avoiding it.

A distinction is usually made between practical and practicable. Practical refers to a person, idea, project, etc., as being more concerned with or relevant to practice than theory: he is a very practical person; the idea had no practical application. Practicable refers to a project or idea as being capable of being done or put into effect: the plan was expensive, yet practicable

At the same time learning how to solve a specific problem only teaches you how to solve that same problem again. Practice can only take you so far. Theory helps you apply what you learned solving one problem to different problems.

But if theoretical and practical knowledge cannot be adequately differentiated on the basis of the character of their goals, the source of movement (change) in their subject matter, or the exactness/inexactness of their subject matter . There are no major epidemiological differences between the types of knowledge..

Thus, although pointing only to the differences in the goals of practical and theoretical disciplines may not by itself help in identifying in what way the character of practical knowledge differs from that of theoretical, the implications the goals have may do so. One difference, then, between practical and theoretical disciplines is this: While the latter kind of disciplines can be solely constituted by general or abstract accounts, those of the former kind must, in virtue of their goals, also include particular, specific, or detailed accounts.

Universal knowledge and Local knowledge

Universal knowledge is  versed in or embracing many or all skills, branches of learning, etc. adapted or adjustable to meet varied requirements universal  Universal knowledge is affecting, concerning, or involving all and used or understood by all.

Universal knowledge is relating to, or characteristic of all or the whole, affecting, concerning, or involving all and used or understood by all: Universal knowledge is present and   applicable everywhere or in all cases; general: of, affecting, or done by all people or things in the world or in a particular group; applicable to all cases. Universal knowledge is   related to the universe, all nature, or all existing things:

It is something  may be applied throughout the universe to many things, usually thought of as an entity that can be in many places at the same time. Universal knowledge is  a trait, characteristic, or property, as distinguished from a particular individual or event, that can be possessed in common.

Universal Knowledge is simply a collection of frequencies, just like any other, that you can learn to access. You can ask questions and you can absolutely receive answers.Universal knowledge is that which is known to be true everywhere in the Universe and all of the time.  Physics and math are the two primary fields of study related to this type of knowledge.  It doesn’t matter where you are or what your situation you can rely on mathematics to remain stable.  Equalities will always be equal.  All of the functions of mathematics remain constant all the time. that can be used for a great many or all kinds, forms, sizes, etc, intended to be used, or understood by all.

Universal knowledge is   related to the universe, all nature, or all existing things: It is experienced by everyone : existing or available for everyone existing or true at all times or in all places including or covering all or a whole collectively or distributively without limit or exception;   existent or operative everywhere or under all conditions ,  embracing a major part or the greatest ,  comprehensively broad and versatile,   affirming or denying something of all members of a class or of all values of a variable,  denoting every member of a class .

Local knowledge, contrary to Universal knowledge local knowledge Is not  versed in or embracing many or all skills, branches of learning, etc.It is not adapted or adjustable to meet varied requirements universal  local knowledge is not affecting, concerning, or involving all and   is not used or understood by all. Local knowledge  is not relating to, or not characteristic of all or the whole, affecting, concerning, or involving all and  is not used or understood by all: local knowledge is not present and   applicable everywhere or . It is not affecting, or done by all people or things in the world an inapplicable in a particular group. Like  Universal knowledge it  is not   related to the universe, all nature, or all existing things: It is not something  which may be applied throughout the universe.

Local knowledge is not  experienced by everyone , existing or available for everyone existing or true at all times or in all places without limit or exception. Local knowledge is not   existent or operative everywhere or under all conditions.

School-knowledge and Non School-knowledge

School-knowledge describes the learning of academic facts and concepts through a formal curriculum. School knowledge includes  learning activities that are voluntary and self-directed, life-long, and motivated mainly by intrinsic interests, curiosity, exploration, manipulation, fantasy, task completion, and social interaction.

School knowledge is  organized knowledge guided by a formal curriculum, leads to a formally recognized credential such as a high school completion diploma or a degree, and is often guided and corresponds to a systematic, organized education model, structured and administered according to a given set of laws and norms, presenting a rather rigid curriculum as regards objectives, content and methodology.

School knowledge includes a   hierarchically structured, chronologically graded ‘education system’, running from primary school through the university and including, in addition to general academic studies, a variety of specialized programmes and institutions for full-time technical and professional training.

Out-of-school-knowledge includes those that operate before and after school, on weekends and holidays. Knowledge that are intended to  help develop and nurture their talents, improve their academic performance and provide opportunities for them to form bonds with adults and older youth who are positive role models. This knowledge include a wide array of models and approaches. Some are focused exclusively on boosting academic achievement through special courses, tutoring and homework help. Others are specifically focused on providing cultural enrichment in the visual, performing and culinary arts; recreational activities and athletics; or leadership training and community service. . It corresponds to the education process normally adopted by our schools and universities. .   Out-of-school setting and can be linear or non-linear and often is self-paced and visual- or object-oriented.  It provides an experiential base and motivation for further activity and learning.  The outcomes of  out-of-school-knowledge learning experiences in science, mathematics, and technology include a sense of fun and wonder in addition to a better understanding of concepts, topics, processes of thinking in scientific and technical disciplines, and an increased knowledge about career opportunities in these fields

Acquiring out of school knowledge is truly lifelong process whereby every individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educative influences and resources in his or her environment – from family and neighbours, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media.

Out-of-school-knowledge  describes learning about cultural values, norms, and expected behaviors by participating in a society. This type of learning occurs both through the formal education system and at home. Our earliest learning experiences generally happen via parents, relatives, and others in our community.

Contextualized knowledge and Textual knowledge

Contextualized knowledge is a proven concept that incorporates the most recent research in cognitive science. It is also a reaction to the essentially behaviorist theories that have dominated American education for many decades. The contextual approach recognizes that learning is a complex and multifaceted process that goes far beyond drill-oriented, stimulus-and-response methodologies.

According to contextual learning theory, learning occurs only when students process new information or knowledge in such a way that it makes sense to them in their own frames of reference (their own inner worlds of memory, experience, and response). The mind naturally seeks meaning in context by searching for relationships that make sense and appear useful.

Building upon this understanding, contextual knowledge focuses on the multiple aspects of any learning environment, whether a classroom, a laboratory, a computer lab, or a worksite. It encourages educators to choose and/or design learning environments that incorporate many different forms of experience in working toward the desired learning outcomes. In such an environment, students discover meaningful relationships between abstract ideas and practical applications in the context of the real world; concepts are internalized through the process of discovering, reinforcing, and relating.

The term context to refer to an immediate linguistic environment (rarely detached or isolated) in which a particular word occurs. Since it is not always explicit, it may be hidden within the neighboring members of a word used in a piece of text. Taking these factors into consideration, Miller and Leacock (2000) have classified context into two types: (a) local context, and (b) topical context., the. According to these scholars, reference to the two contexts is more of less sufficient in understanding the actual contextual meaning of the knowledge  used in a text.

Dash (2005) classify contexual knowledge  into four broad types (): (a) Local Context, (b) Sentential Context, (c) Topical Context, and (d) Global Context

Local Context- The local context refers to the immediate environment of the KW in a sentence where it has occurred, encompassing its immediately preceding and succeeding words. While the local context refers to one or two words immediately before and after the key word (KW) under investigation.

Sentential Context- The sentential context refers to a sentence where the KW has occurred. It supplies syntactic information to know if the KW has any explicit or implicit syntactic relation with the other words used in the sentence.

Topical Context- The topical context refers to the topic of discussion and focuses on the content of a piece of text. Topical context refers to the topic of the text where the KW has been used Quite often, it is found that the actual meaning of the KW depends heavily on the topic which has a strong role to alter etymological meaning of the knowledge.

Global context- The global context deals with a huge chunk of information available from the external world, that supplies vital cues of place, time, situation, interpretation, pragmatics, discourse, demography, geography, society, culture, ethnology, and various other things . Since the global context builds up a cognitive interface between language  and reality, we often refer to it to understand: who says, what is said, to whom it is said, when it is said, where it is said, why it is said, and how it is said. Thus, the global context becomes a valuable source of information for meaning disambiguation of words, and it helps us to understand if the knowledge has any meaning variation, and if so, what it .

Textual knowledge, comes from the Latin word textualis, the adjective form oftextus, (“text”).  it is always related to some written material or relating to or based on a textor  This word is most commonly used in the study of religion, literature, philosophy, or the law — any field requiring the careful examination of various texts.Definitions oftextual

Anything textual has to do with writing. A textual analysis, comparison, or interpretation, has something to do with what is in a particular piece of writing (or text). A word, when used in a piece of text, usually denotes only one meaning out of multiple meanings it inherently carries. Although it is still unknown to us how does it happen, the general observation is that it is the context that determines which meaning of the word should be considered. This observation, as a logical consequence, leads us to identify the context responsible for meaning variation of a word.

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A. (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D. Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

Mrs Sudha Rani Maheshwari, M.Sc (Zoology), B.Ed. Former Principal.A.K.P.I.College, Roorkee, India

The Hindu Bible (Bhagavad Gita), the Christian Bible, and the greatest book on yoga (Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras) unanimously declare the Cosmic Sound to be the outward manifestation or witness of the Lord in creation. Krishna, Jesus, and Patanjali all taught that man must receive the Holy Ghost (the Comforter) in order to reach the Christ Intelligence within it and God the Father existing beyond it (beyond Aum or vibratory creation). Paramahansa Yogananda (bg p.617

Most religions indicate that creation began with sound– In the beginning was the word… For the Hindus & Buddhists, Om is the primordial sound, the first breath of creation, the vibration that ensures existence. Om sign signifies God, Creation, & the One-ness of all creation. It has also been adopted by the other three main religions of India – Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. OM is also referred to as “Omkara” which literally means “OM syllable” and “Pranava” which literally means “The primal sound.” In Tamil “Om” literally means “Yes”, or “Yes, it is”.

The Om (or Aum) sign is the main symbol of Hinduism. India’s genius has packed this word aum with far-reaching meanings and immense significance.Aum became tremendously meaningful – so much so that it has no more any meaning. And its significance is limitless, infinite. This aum is an extraordinary word, a rare word. It is extraordinary just because it has no meaningwhatsoever. Every word has some meaning, this aum has none. For this reason this word cannot betranslated into any other language of the world, there is no way. This is perhaps the only word on earth which has no meaning whatsoever.People who discovered aum were in search of something which could be a bridge, a link betweenthe word and silence. While the word has a meaning, silence is neither meaningful nor meaningless;it is beyond both, it is the beyond. Really aum came as a bridge between the word and silence.

Variants of aum are found in other lands and languages. Interestingly, even the word ‘Amen’ used by Christians and of ‘Ameen’ used by Muslims to conclude a prayer seems to be akin to Om. In western culture both the spoken word and the written symbol have become synonymous with eastern spirituality, meditation and the very concept of peace itself. The English language has three words: omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent – all of which are constituted with the word aum. Philologists may not be aware that omniscient means that one who has known the aum, omnipresent means the one who is present in the aum, and omnipotent means the one who has become as powerful as the aum.

Om is also used to signify authority as well as divinity. Its similarity with the Latin  ‘M’ as also to the Greek letter ‘Omega’ is discernible; this implies a common origin of these latter languages from Sanskrit as well as the importance assigned to the word. Zen sages ask their disciples to go and find out the sound of one hand clapping. The sound of one hand clapping is something unheard of! This is Zen’s own way of saying the same thing – the anahat, the unstruck sound. So Zen Masters direct seekers to go in search of one hand clapping which really means the uncaused sound. Clapping with two hands make for sound, and one hand clapping is aum or amin.

The aum has been found in many forms all the world over. It is available in both the ancient sources of religion – Hinduism and Judaism. If there is anything common between Hinduism and Jainism it is the aum. Aum occupies the same exalted place in Buddhism as in Jainism. It is the one universal word. Amin and aum are words that are not manmade; they have been heard in the depth of meditation. It is difficult to say which of the two, amin and aum, is the more authentic, but one thing is certain that they are one and the same. It is the ultimate sound. When all caused sounds disappear the uncaused aum comes into being. It is the cosmic sound.

The scriptures of Hinduism teach that OM is the symbol of Brahman. Brahman is a term for the Supreme Self, the Infinite, the Absolute, the Divine Allness, the Ultimate Reality. Brahman is all and in all. There is nothing but Brahman.Katha Upanishad “I will give you the Word all the scriptures glorify, all spiritual disciplines express, to attain which aspirants lead a life of sense-restraint and self-denial. It is OM. This symbol of the Godhead is the highest. Realizing it one finds complete fulfillment of all one’s longings. It is of the greatest support to all seekers. When OM reverberates unceasingly within the heart, that one is indeed blessed and deeply loved as one who is the Self.” –

Similarly Chandogya Upanishadholds, “This is the essence of essences, the highest, the eighth rung, venerated above all that human beings hold holy. OM, the imperishable OM, is the Self of all.” –

Mandukya Upanishad considers Aum as “AUM stands for the supreme Reality. It is a symbol for what was, what is, and what shall be. AUM represents also what lies beyond past, present, and future. Brahman is all, and the Self is Brahman.” – “The mantra AUM stands for the supreme state of turiya, without parts, beyond birth and death, symbol of everlasting joy. Those who know AUM as the Self become the Self; truly they become the Self.”  Prashna Upanishad  explains“ These three sounds when they are separated cannot lead one beyond mortality; but when the whole mantra, a, u, and m, indivisible, interdependent, goes on reverberating in the mind, one is freed from fear, awake or asleep. … Established in this cosmic vibration, the sage goes beyond fear, decay, and death to enter into infinite peace.”

There are two main perspectives from which the A-U-M can be understood in its deeper meaning and significance.

The passage quoted above from the Mandukya Upanishad states that AUM stands for “the supreme state of turiya.” The Vedanta (which is the philosophical core of Hinduism) teaches that there are three main states of consciousness which the human being experiences. These are called the Avastha-Traya and are…

* Jagrat- The waking state –When in the waking state (Jagrat-avastha) we are functioning in the gross body, the dense physical body, which Hinduism calls the Sthula Sharira. Jagrat corresponds to Sthula Sharira and to the A.

* Svapna- The dreaming state – In the dream state (Svapna-avastha) we function in the subtle body, referred to as the Sukshma Sharira. . Svapna corresponds to Sukshma Sharira and to the U.

* Sushupti- The dreamless sleep state – In the state of deep and dreamless sleep (Sushupti-avastha), we are functioning in the causal body, called the Karana ShariraSushupti corresponds to Karana Sharira and to the M.

Transcending all of these three states of consciousness is a fourth state of consciousness called Turiya. This is Pure Consciousness. It is God-consciousness. It is the Superconsciousness “the state beyond time and space.”. Above the gross body, the subtle body, and the causal body, is the Self.. Turiya is the permanent state of bliss, the constant and unchanging state of the Self. Turiya corresponds to the Atman (remember that Atman = Brahman) and to the AUM in its entirety.

Now we can understand why it is said that “AUM [or OM] stands for the Supreme Reality” and why it is Brahman. The correct pronunciation is “oh-m”…like “foam” but obviously without the F.

The other main perspective in which it can be understood is in regard to the three stages of manifestation. This can be represented as follows…

A – Beginning (Adimatva) – BRAHMA (Evolution)

U – Progress (Utkarsha) – VISHNU (Preservation)

M – Limit or End (Miti) – SHIVA (Dissolution)

This threefold divine energy of the manifested universe comes forth from Brahman, which is forever unmanifested, unconditioned, and undifferentiated. Thus AUM in its entirety represents and corresponds to Brahman, the One Supreme Reality.

In Jainism, Aum is regarded as a condensed form of reference to the fiveparameshthis, by their initials A+A+A+U+M (o3m). The Dravyasamgrah quotes a Prakritline: “Aum” is one syllable made from the initials of the five parameshthis. It has been said: “Arihanta, Ashiri, Acharya, Upadhyaya, and Muni“. . Thus, ओं नमः (oṃnamaḥ) is a short form of the Navkar Mantra.

Aum is a very holy name in Jainism. It is an abbreviation of Namaskar.”A” incorporates “Namo Arihantanam” & Namo Sidhanam & Namo Ayariyanam“U” stands for Namo Uvajhayanam“M’incorporates Namo Lowe Sayva Sahunam, (all munis)

The Buddhists place om at the beginning of their Vidya-Sadaksari or mystical formulary in six syllables (viz., om mani padme hum). As a seed syllable (bija mantra), it is also considered holy in Esoteric Buddhism.

Guru Nanak’s concept and vision of the Supreme Being is embodied  in the Sikh Fundamental  Mool Mantra, literally meaning the Root Formula. “Ek Onkar Satnam Karta Purush Nirbhau Virvair Akal Murat, Ajuni Saibhang Gurprasad. There is One and only One God who is transcendent as well as immanent. True and Eternal Name. Creator and Person. Without Fear and without Enmity. Timeless Form, Unborn, Self-existent. Realized by Divine Grace.

Besides Mool Mantra there is another term Bij Mantra (Seed Formula) which is occurs in Guru Arjun’s composition ‘Sukhmani’ (Pearl of Peace). The original text where it appears runs as:“Bij Manter sarab ko Gyan. Chahu Varona meh japey kou Naam.”All can be enlightened with Bij Mantra. Anyone from four castes can meditate on it.

The term Bij Mantra signifies any word or phrase out of which develops a prayer meant to be meditated upon or chanted to invoke Divine blessing. Almost all the Sikh scholars and theologians are unanimous in recognizing Ek-Onkar as the Bij Mantra out of which has emanated Guru Nanak’s vision of the Supreme Being in the form of Mool Mantra. It is constituted of two components – Ek and Onkar. Ek means one, and is written as a numerical figure ’1′. Onkar stands for the Primal mystical Divine Name of God referred to as Brahma in the Vedic literature. In order to grasp fully the underlying spiritual significance and meaning of Ek-Onkar each of its components needs to be studied in depth, beginning with Onkar.

The root of Onkar is traceable to the Hindu sacred syllable Om, also written as Aum. Historically, in the beginning, Om was used as a reply of approval or consent. So Guru Nanak’s revealed Scripture place numerical figure ’1′ before Onkar thus enhancing his firm conviction in the unity of God.. It was Guru Nanak’s own inspired vision that transformed AUM into Ek-Onkar representing the Supreme Being, the Sole Absolute Eternal Reality which, while manifesting itself in multiplicity as Onkar, is still in its essence ‘Sole and Absolute’; Transcendent as well as Immanent. Impersonal is also Personal in Ek-Onkar.

In conclusion, it can be said that Ek-Onkar is the true symbol of Sikhism given to us by Guru Nanak based on his spiritual experience and inspired vision at the very inception of the Sikh faith.

Thus Om mystically embodies the essence of the entire universe. This meaning is further deepened by the Indian philosophical belief that God first created sound and the universe arose from it. As the most sacred sound, Om is the root of the universe and everything that exists and it continues to hold everything together.

But aum is not meant to be uttered and chanted; it has to be really heard and experienced. Whenyou go deep into meditation, when all words disappear, the sound of aum will begin to vibrateThis real aum is heard when all words disappear, all noises cease. When mind and intellect, thoughtand word all come to an end and silence begins, then an extraordinarily subtle vibration remains,which this country has interpreted as aum. It can be interpreted in other ways too, but they all willbe our interpretations. When the immense emptiness comes into being, it has its own sound, its own music. It is calledthe sound of the cosmic silence, it is called the anahat, the unstruck, the uncaused sound. It is not caused by anything. It is the aum. When you clap your hands, the sound of clapping is created bystriking one hand against the other. This sound is caused; so is the sound of a drum which you beat with your hands. But meditation is a journey into silence; when all sounds disappear, when there is no duality, when you are utterly alone, then the causeless sound comes into being. India’s sages have called it aum.

During meditation, when we chant Om, we create within ourselves a vibration that attunes synchrony with the cosmic vibration and we start thinking of universatality. The momentary silence between each chant becomes palpable. Mind moves between the opposites of sound and silence until, at last, the sound ceases. In the silence, the single thought, Om, is quenched and there is no thought. This is the state of trance, where the mind and the intellect are transcended as the individual self merges with the Infinite Self in the pious moment of realization. It is a moment when the petty worldly affairs are lost in the desire for the universal. Such is the immeasurable power of Om.

Om is not a word but rather an intonation, which, like music, transcends the barriers of age, race, culture and even species. It is constituted with the help of three basic sound forms: a, u, and m. A, u, and m are the basic sounds of the science of phonetics: all other letters of the alphabet are their extensions and combinations. And the same a, u, and m constitute the word aum, although it was not written as a word; it remains a distinct and distinguished symbol. Aum in its original form is available in Sanskrit, where it is a pictorial representation of aum; it is neither a word nor a letter. Aum is not a word but a picture. And it represents the space where the finite world of the word – of sound – ends, and the infinite world of silence begins. It forms the fron-tier, the borderline between the word and the wordless; there is no word beyond aum.

It is made up of three Sanskrit letters, aa, au and ma which, when combined together, make the sound Aum or Om It is believed to be the basic sound of the world and to contain all other sounds. It is a mantra or prayer in itself. Repetition of the word Om is said to slow the breathing, calm the nervous system and send the glands and organs of the body a gentle.  If repeated with the correct intonation, it can resonate throughout the body so that the sound penetrates to the centre of one’s being, the atman or soul. As a sacred sound also, the pronunciation of the three-syllabled AUM is open to a rich logical analysis. The first alphabet A is regarded as the primal sound, independent of cultural contexts. It is produced at the back of the open mouth, and is therefore said to include, and to be included in, every other sound produced by the human vocal organs. Indeed A is the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet.

The open mouth of A moves toward the closure of M. Between is U, formed of the openness of A but shaped by the closing lips.

AUM thus also encompasses within itself the complete alphabet, since its utterance proceeds from the back of the mouth (A), travelling in between (U), and finally reaching the lips (M). Now all alphabets can be classified under various heads depending upon the area of the mouth from which they are uttered. The two ends between which the complete alphabet oscillates are the back of the mouth to the lips; both embraced in the simple act of uttering of AUM.

The last part of the sound AUM (the M) known as ma or makar, when pronounced makes the lips close. This is like locking the door to the outside world and instead reaching deep inside our own selves, in search for the Ultimate truth.

The symbol of AUM consists of three curves (curves 1, 2, and 3), one semicircle (curve 4), and a dot. The large lower curve 1 symbolizes the waking state (jagrat), in this state the consciousness is turned outwards through the gates of the senses. The larger size signifies that this is the most common (‘majority’) state of the human consciousness.

The upper curve 2 denotes the state of deep sleep (sushupti) or the unconscious state. This is a state where the sleeper desires nothing nor beholds any dream.

The middle curve 3 (which lies between deep sleep and the waking state) signifies the dream state (swapna). In this state the consciousness of the individual is turned inwards, and the dreaming self beholds an enthralling view of the world behind the lids of the eyes.

These are the three states of an individual’s consciousness, and since Indian mystic thought believes the entire manifested reality to spring from this consciousness, these three curves therefore represent the entire physical phenomenon.

The dot signifies the fourth state of consciousness, known in Sanskrit as turiya. In this state the consciousness looks neither outwards nor inwards, nor the two together. It signifies the coming to rest of all differentiated, relative existence This utterly quiet, peaceful and blissful state is the ultimate aim of all spiritual activity. This Absolute (non-relative) state illuminates the other three states.

Finally, the semi circle symbolizes maya and separates the dot from the other three curves. Thus it is the illusion of maya that prevents us from the realization of this highest state of bliss.

The semi circle is open at the top, and when ideally drawn does not touch the dot. This means that this highest state is not affected by maya. Maya only affects the manifested phenomenon. This effect is that of preventing the seeker from reaching his ultimate goal, the realization of the One, all-pervading, unmanifest, Absolute principle. In this manner, the form of OM represents both the unmanifest and the manifest,  and the phenomenon.

The Bhagavad Gita (9.17) recites: Krsna says to Arjuna – “I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable Oḿ.

How to Type it on your Computer

Try this! To get the Om symbol on your computer screen, open MS Word and key in backslash ( \ ) in Wingdings font. You will type in Om!

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D.

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

The marriage of Sahaji to Jijabai appears, in spite of the

differences between Maloji Bhosle and Lakhoji Jadhavrao, to

have been for the first few years happy enough. In 1623, Jijabai

bore her lord a son, three years after their marriage. He was

called Sambhaji and became a great favourite of his father,

just as Shahaji had been of Maloji. On April 10, 1627

, (Marathi Itihasanchi Sadhane, pp. 42-43.)

after an interval of four years, she bore Shahaji a second son. Several

stories are told in support of the general belief that the baby

boy was an incarnation of the god Shiva. A charming one is

to be found in the Shedgavkar Bakhar. During the stormy years

that followed the birth of Sambhaji, Shahaji, engaged in the

warlike enterprises entrusted to him by Malik Ambar, found

no time to pay his wife conjugal attentions. One night he

dreamt that he saw a Gosavi or Hindu anchorite, clad in rags

and smeared with yellow ashes, stand by his bedside and put a

mango in his hand. ” Share the fruit with your wife,” said

the anchorite, ” and you will become the father of a son who will

be an incarnation of the god Shiva. You must never force him

to salute a Musulman and after his twelfth year you must leave

him free to act as he pleases.” When Shahaji awoke from his

dream, he found a mango in his hand, visited his wife and shared

it with her. The offspring of this reunion was the boy Shivaji,

bom on April 10, 1627. Convinced that the anchorite whom he

had seen in his dream was the god Shiva, Shahaji gave the new born

child the name of Shivaji, just as Maloji had called Shahaji

after the Musulman saint Shah Sharif. According to another

story, Shahaji had a vision of Shiva after Shivaji’s birth and was

then told by the god that the new-born boy was his own reianrnation

.( Sabhasad Bakhar, p. 2.)

When Shivajiwas born,his mother Jijabaiwas living

in a house on the top of the Shivner fort close to Junnar. A

ruined wall still stands on the site where the house stood and a

marble tablet, inserted in it under the orders of the Bombay

Government by the late Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, keeps alive the

memory of the greatest of Indian kings and of one of the wisest

and best of modern Englishmen.

Even Shivaji’s early days were not free from peril and

adventure. Before his birth, his grandfather LakhojiJadhavrao

had joined the Moghuls, and Shahaji by refusing to follow his

example had incurred his bitter enmity. The quarrel was taken

up by the other nobles in the Moghul service. And although

Lakhoji Jadhavrao died in 1629, treacherously assassinated at

Daulatabad by Murtaza Nizam Shah II,the hatred borne by the

Moghuls to Shahaji survived Lakhoji Jadhavrao’s death. A

certain Mhaldar Khan, originally appointed by Murtaza Nizam

Shah II to be governor of Trimbak, deserted to Shah Jehan.

Wishing to secure the favour of the emperor, he arrested Shahaji’s

wife (A.D. 1633). Jijabai succeeded in hiding Shivaji but she

herself was confined in the fort of Kondana. During the three

years, 1633 to 1636, in which Shahaji defied the Moghuls, they

made every effort to find out Shivaji’s hiding place,that they

might hold him as a hostage for his father. But Jijabai’s wit

baffled them, and Shivaji remained safe until Shahaji’s final

surrender. Even then Shivaji could not enjoy his father’s

protection. In 1630 Shahaji had contracted a second marriage

with Tukabai, a girl of the Mohite family. This family, although

of ancient descent, was inferior in rank to that of Lakhoji

Jadhavrao, and after his second marriage, Jijabai seems to

have broken off all but formal relations with her husband.

When Shivaji was ten years old (1637),it became time according to

the custom of the day to arrange his marriage; for that

purpose Jijabai took her son to Bijapur. There he was wedded

to one Saibai, the daughter of Vithoji Mohite Newaskar,

(Another account makes Saibai daughterof Jagdevrao Nimbalkar.)

Even at this earlyage the boy is said to have shown symptoms

of what his future career was to be. He made a public protest

when he saw some Musulman butchers driving cattle to the

slaughterhouse and he refused to bow to the king of Bijapur

in the manner required by the etiquette of the court. Fearing

that the unruly boy might injure  his prospects

Shahaji was glad to send Shivaji with his mother out of

Bijapur (A.D. 1638). He ordered Jijabai to reside at his fief

of Poona and Supa. To assist her in its management he appoint a

trusted Brahman officer named Dadoji Kondadev.

In Shivaji ‘youth the scene was very different. Poona was

then a cluster of tiny huts on the rightbank of the Muta.

.In Shivaji’schildhood it was a barren wilderness.DadojiKondadev met the

dangerby arming bands of hillmen from the Sahyadris,who,

with a little training,soon made a raid on Poona a perilous

undertaking. His success attracted Shahaji’s notice and he

added to Dadoji’s charge two new estates recently given him by

the Bijapur government.

Of the resources of his new trust Dadojimade the

fullest use. With the surplus revenue he planted mango and

other fruit trees. Between Shirwal and Poona, where the mango

orchards throve better than in other places,he founded a village

and named it after his master’s son. It is known as Shivapur

to this day. To great energy, thrift and experience, Dadoji

added what was rarer still in those times,namely ,perfect honesty.

A charming tale has been handed down which illustrates this.

One day as Dadoji strolled through one of the shady groves at

Shivapur,a large and luscious mango caught his eye. The day

was hot ; he was tired and thirsty with labour. Unconsciously he

stretched out his hand and plucked it. Then he realized too late

that he had stolen fruit which belonged to his master. In

an agony of remorse he begged his companions to cut off the

offending right-hand that had made him sin. They very properly

refused and bade him think no more of the matter. Nevertheless

it still so weighed on his mind that for many months he

wore coats without a sleeve for his right arm.

” For,” so he would say,

” if my right arm had had its deserts, it would have been cut off as a punishment.”

At last the

story reached Shahaji’sears. He, not without difficulty,

persuaded his retainer to forget and wear coats

like other people.

Shivaji was between ten and eleven years old ( ShivdigvijayaBakhar ) when he first went to Poona with his mother Jijabai .Unhappily no portrait

survives of the great king when he was still a boy. But he had

suffered troubles early. He had long been separated from his

father and to avoid captivity he had lived for years hidden

in woods and caves. It is possible,therefore,that, although

his cheeks were rounder and his skin smoother, he did not much

differ in boyhood from the pictures which still exist of Shivaji

in manhood. The brow is wrinkled as if with grave and constant

thought. The cheeks are burnt with long exposure to sun and

rain and deeply furrowed as if with anxiety and care. But

the nose is curved like a falcon’s beak. The eyes are large

and bold. The thin lips are compressed .

The whole face speaks eloquently of trouble bravely

borne and dangers triumphantly surmounted. Shivaji’ body was

short but broad and strongly built. And a legend survives that,

like those of Arjmia,the epicarcher,the fingers of his long sinewy

arms reached below his knees. Dadoji Kondadev had the good

sense to understand that he owed a duty to his master’s son as

well as to his master’s lands. He collected round Shivaji other

boys of his own age. The best known were Tanaji Malusare,

a petty baron of Umrathe village in the Konkan, BajiPhasalkar,

the deshmukh of the valley of Muse, and YesajiKank, a small

land-holder in the Sahyadris. Dadoji had Shivaji and his companions

instructed in all the warlike exercises of the time. He had

himself seen a good deal of fighting and no doubt supplemented

the teaching of the paid instructors by tales of his own experiences

in the field. He also realized that an exact knowledge of the

wild lands in the Mawal, of the passes to the Konkan and of the

folds in the Sahyadri hills was at least as valuable as skill in

martial exercises or an acquaintance with the tactics of the day.

Encouraged by Dadoji Kondadev, Shivajiand his companions

wandered for days together through the Krishna valley,through

the forests on the banks of the Koyna, along the winding course

of the Indrayani,or followed the Bhima River to its source upon

the shaggy sides of mighty Bhimashankar. But Dadoji Kdeonvdawas

not onlyan efficient land agent and a veteran of Shahaji’s

wars ; lie was also,as became a Brahman, a profomid scholar.

He had built a roomy house for Jijabaiand Shivaji, which he

named the Raj Mahal, close to the right bank of the Muta,

where stretches now the Municipal Garden to the east of the

Shan war Wada. There on winter evenings he would gather

round him Shivaji and his friends and expound to them the

teachingsof Dnyandev and of the other saints of Pandharpur.

When they grew weary of abstruse doctrines,he would take up

the Sanskrit scrolls and by the smoky hght of a wick soaked in

oil,he would firstread and then translate to them tales of Bhima

the strong,of the archeryof Arjuna,of the chivalrous courage

of Yudhishthira. Or he would repeat to them the wise sayings

of Bhishma, in which are contained the experienceand wisdom

of two thousand years of Indian war, statesmanship .

There were other influences too at work on Shivaji’s character.

The scenery round Poona is of the most inspiring kind. To

the west are the tremendous barrier ranges of the Sahyadris.

Only twelve miles to the south stands out the colossal fortress

of Sinhgad. To the south-west may be dimly seen the peaks

of Rajgad and Torna, which, when illumined against the setting

sun, arouse even to-day emotion in the phlegmatic Englishman.

But thirteen miles to the north of Poona lies Alandi,the spot

where Dnyandev entered his living tomb and to which, now,

as in Shivaji’s time, thousands of pilgrims bearing yellow flags

make their way from Pandharpur. But there was yet another

influence more powerful than either DadojiKondadev’s teachings

or the grandeur of the landscape. Jijabai ,fatherless,deserted

by her husband and by her eldest son founed a solace for her

grief in Shivaji,the one possession left her. She lavished on her

son and more than all a mother’s love. At the same time she

bade him never forget that he was descended both from the

Yadavas of Devagiri and the Ranas of Udaipur. She recited

to him the Puranas with their marvellous feats of war and daring.

But she wished to see him pious as well as brave. She made

him pray constantly at the little village shrine which still may

be seen in Poona not far from the site of Jijabai’ home. There

too she welcomed Kathekaris or religiou preachers to translate

and expound to him, better than even Dadoji could do, the

various virtues and merits of Krishna. ‘ Thus grew Etruria

strong’; and Shivaji at eighteenwas a man tireless,fearless

and deeplydevout.

It was now time for Shivajito choose a career. As the son

of the former regent of Ahmadnagar, as the grandson of Lakhoji

Jadhavrao, as a near kinsman of the ancient house of Phaltan,

Shivajiwas one of the natural leaders of the Maratha people.

There were several courses open to him. Like some of the

barons of the time he could live on Shahaji’s estate, amuse his

leisure with strongdrink,fillhis zanana with the rustic beauties

of the neighbourhoodand perform just as httle miUtary sveicr-e

as would enable him to retain such fiefsas he might inherit

from his father. But to the son of Shahajiand the grandson

of Malojisuch a life probably never ofEered much temptation.

The second course was that favoured by Dadoji Kondadev.

He could go to Bijapur,jointhe king’sservice as a subordinate

of Shahaji,as Sambhaji had done, and with him rise to a high

placeamong the factious nobles who surrounded Mahomed Adil

Shah. But Shivajiwas well aware of the weakness of the Bijapur

government. He knew that behind the glitterof the court

there were waste, mismanagement and incapacity. At Bijapur,

Justas there had been at Ahmadnagar, there was a constant

and furious rivalry between the Deccan and the foreign parties.

Either faction,in order to gratify privatespite,were prepared

to call in the Moghuls and ruin their country. Shivaji realized

that sooner or later a house so divided must fall a prey to the

disciplined Moghuls,whose forces were led by royalprinces who

were among the first captains of the time. A third course open

to Shivaji was to seek his fortune at Delhi. The son of Shahaji

Bhosle would no doubt have received a high post in the Moghul

army. There his natural gifts would certainly have won him

most honourable distinction. But to adopt this course would

have been to desert his country and to stand by while Aurangzib’s

armies enslaved the Indian peoples and insulted their religion

from the Bhima to Rameshwaram. There was yet another

course open to the young noble and that was to attempt the

liberation of the Maratha race. It was a well-nigh hopeless

task. After three centuries of slavery the wish for freedom

was all but dead and hved, if at all, in a few hill tracts in the

Mawal and the Konkan. He could expect no aid from other

Maratha nobles. All that the Ghorpades, the Mores, the Manes,

the Savants and others aspired to was their own advancement

at court or the enlargement of their fiefs at theexpense

of their neighbors. Without resources he must raise an army. He

must inspire it by his own words and acts with high ideals. He

must fight against his own relatives and countrymen. He must

incur charges of treason and charges of unfilially conduct. In

the end, he would most likely see his hopes shattered, his friends

butchered, and himself condemned to a cruel and a lingering

death. Yet this was the course which Shivaji resolved to adopt.

He did so, not with the rash presumption of youth, but after

deep dehberate thought, after long discussion with the friends

of his boyhood, with Dadoji Kondadev and with his mother

Jijabai. Having once adopted it he never swerved from it

until his work was done. More than 2500 years before, three

immortal goddesses had called on another eastern prince to

decide questions verysimilar to those which now confronted

Shivaji. But far other than that of Paris was the judgment

of Shahaji’s son. He turned aside from the rich promises of

Hera and the voluptuous smiles of Aphrodite and without

a single backward glance placed the golden fruit in the hands

of Pallas Athene.

Referance-

Shubhi Maheshwari

Washington D.C

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

Alexander the Great (21 July 356 BCE – 10 or 11 June 323 BCE) was a brilliant leader who efficiently and successfully conquered most of the known world.  He took over the Macedonian Empire at a very young age after his father, King Philip, was assassinated.  Alexander was very wise, having been taught by famous scholars such as Aristotle. Although he was just starting out, his conquests led him to greatness until his early death at age 32. Some believe that Alexander was not really great, and that he just craved power and wealth. However, because of his ingenious military tactics and strategies, his openness and toleration for newly conquered people, and his spreading of Hellenistic culture, he is widely considered to be a compassionate and wise leader and a military genius.

Alexander the Great was a renowned commander due to his brilliant military tactics and strategies. He used the famous phalanx formation in battle which by definition is “in military science, tactical formation consisting of a block of heavily armed infantry standing shoulder to shoulder in files several ranks deep” (Encyclopedia Britannica).  This formation developed early on and stayed as a top battle strategy until the Roman legion.  The phalanx allowed the armed men to stay united, creating a greater force.

Although he was one of the many generals that used the phalanx formation of battle, Alexander and his father, King Philip, modified the form to work faster and more efficiently.  Adopting the original phalanx’s basic idea, they changed the positioning to sixteen men deep instead of eight men deep to create a stronger united force (Encyclopedia Britannica). Alexander also almost never exceeded 40,000 soldiers in his army. This gave the army faster speed and mobility, advantageous in battle (Changing Minds). His army consisted of warhorses and a strong cavalry which he would use for river battles and other tough terrains.  Surrounding the phalanx formation would be a minor infantry which was made up of slingers, javelin men and archers. The hoplites (soldiers) were armed with tall pikes called hasta to use in a thrusting motion and wore iron and bronze breastplates for protection (Britannica Encyclopedia). Using this powerful defense force, he conquered areas from Europe far into Asia.

Alexander’s army was also very reliable and resourceful because of the strategies the great military commander used. He was unlike other generals, ruthless and brutal with everyone and everything. Alexander showed compassion towards his men and treated them almost as equals. Although the salary of the soldiers wasn’t much, he paid them promptly. Soldiers were well-fed and had many incentives for winning battles. To gain his soldiers allegiance even further, he usually dressed like his soldiers and walked around camp listening to them. Alexander also spent time with his men showing concern and love for his army. However, when a soldier would betray him or do wrongdoing, he would not hesitate to punish them for what they deserve (Changing Minds). This strategy of maintaining discipline and loyalty within his military was a very successful approach.

Alexander was a brilliant military strategist. He used many unique tactics like surprising the opposition using quick moves and speed, making unplanned decisions, using deception, aiming for leaders to disorganize enemy combatants and attacking at the opponent’s weakest point among others to be victorious. Some of his techniques are shown in the Battles of Granicus River, Issus, and Gaugamela.  Alexander knew the exact time to attack his enemies; when they were at their weakest and most fatigue state. In the famous battle of Gaugamela, he surprised his enemies by using unplanned moves and deceived the Persians into believing there would be a night attack. Instead, Alexander never attacked at night and weakened the Persian army because of fatigue which led to an easy victory for the Greeks (Donald J. Wasson). In the battle of Granicus River, Alexander diminished the enemy’s confidence by targeting enemy leadership. This resulted in the opponents being disorganized, giving the Greek-Macedonians an advantage and a simple victory (Donald J. Wasson).

The opposition would never be ready to battle Alexander’s strong army when he unexpectedly attacked. Due to his small but potent army size, he was able to move quickly from one place to another during battle. With such a cunning and clever mind, Alexander suddenly made battle plan changes during the wars and these decisions changed their outcome dramatically. Alexander’s military brilliance was incomparable, but he is also known for his openness and toleration for new conquered lands.  When he conquered a new area, Alexander would incorporate his Greek laws and government into the societies, but allowed the native people to continue their customs and traditions. Alexander was also religiously tolerant and did not force anyone to change their beliefs. All the religious groups were able to worship as they pleased as long as it did not interfere with Alexander’s rule. Alexander also prohibited his troops from raping and or pillaging in the areas they had conquered .Although Alexander would mercilessly take the throne from competitors in the newly conquered lands, he did not change the ways of life for the people (Tejvan Pettinger). Many societies welcomed him as leader and other did not mind him. One example of his tolerance is the ancient Egyptian kingdom. During his ongoing conflict to conquer the Persian Empire, Alexander needed a more strategic place to rule from which he could control the multiple areas around him and attack the Persians. He chose Egypt, on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, and stayed there for six months. The Egyptian mayor accepted him as leader and from there Alexander continued his fight against Persia. After relieving Egypt from Persian rule, the Egyptians welcomed Alexander as their liberator and savior and named him their pharaoh.  Alexander was very accepting of the culture and religion of Egypt and even worshipped the Egyptian gods. He also listened to teachings from Egyptian philosopher, Psammon, and studied Egyptian law. He even helped rebuild religious centers and temples (Fildes and Fletcher). This example shows how Alexander was able to accommodate his own needs and the people’s needs in a very peaceful and well-organized way.

Alexander conquered the entire world in less than a decade and along the way he spread Hellenistic culture; which made his rule known as the Hellenistic Period. Hellenism The world at the time was very spread out and a lot of it was under Persian rule. When the Greeks had defeated the Persians, these little areas separated and needed centralization.

One of Alexander’s grandest visions was for everyone to be one unified group; no differences between anyone and no judgment of others.

“Now that the wars are coming to an end, I wish you to prosper in peace. May all mortals from now on live like one people in concord and for mutual advancement. Consider the world as your country, with laws common to all and where the best will govern irrespective of tribe. I do not distinguish among men, as the narrow-minded do, both among Greeks and Barbarians. I am not interested in the descendance of the citizens or their racial origins. I classify them using one criterion: their virtue. For me every virtuous foreigner is a Greek and every evil Greek worse than a Barbarian. If differences ever develop between you never have recourse to arms, but solve them peacefully. If necessary, I should be your arbitrator.” –Alexander (Goodreads)

This quote illustrates Alexander’s vision and how he wanted everyone to live. Alexander was tolerant of others’ ways of life allowed them to have individuality and personal lives. Nevertheless, he still believed in overall unity and wanted this idea to reach everyone he dominated.

To make his vision come to life, he spread his hometown Greek culture in the entire world and this period was called the Hellenistic period. The word Hellenistic derives from the ancient Greek word “hellas” meaning Greece.  This was the time period in which Greek culture was original and unaffected by other cultures and it is when Greeks came in contact with new cultures. The blending of these many cultures with Greek culture is the Hellenistic society and Alexander the Great is held accountable for this.  The Hellenistic period influenced the world in many ways. This is the time when many new thinkers came to the top like Euclid, Hero and Archimedes. There were also much revolutionary advancements made in the subjects of architecture, math, science and art.  This whole era gave people a sense of serenity and tranquility which helped everything move smoothly and productively. Trade and travel increased a lot during this era and many impressive cities grew like Antioch in Syria, Pergamum in Asia Minor and lastly Alexandria in Egypt; the great city of Alexander the Great (Giotto).

Alexandria was founded by Alexander himself and contained some of the greatest works and architecture. The Library of Alexandria was a place filled with a vast amount of information and creations, still used today. Even though all these cities were not located in Greece, they all were made with Greek architectural styles and designs (Giotto).

Even after Alexander’s death, his legacy continued. He did not leave any capable leader to rule the immense empire, so there were several struggles for power. Four of his best generals took control of the areas and almost separated from the rest (World Book Encyclopedia). Alexander’s empire had almost fallen apart; the only thing that kept them connected were Alexander’s Hellenistic societies. This connection of cultures kept the different communities together and formed a bond. His legacy and Hellenism lasted a very long time and had much influence on the world.

With such an intelligent and innovative mind, Alexander the Great was able to conquer and dominate the entire world from Europe in the east to India in the west. He used his expertise and skills to take over his surrounding areas and ventured farther than anyone before him. With his efficient and deliberate military strategies and tactics, his toleration and acceptance of his conquered people, and his blending of cultures in the Hellenistic era, Alexander was able to be the man he is known to be today; an ingenious leader and military commander.

Bibliography

             Alexandria. Digital image. Best Museums. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.

             Alexander’s Conquests. Digital image. Classical Drama and Society. Creative

Commons Attribution, 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.

             “Alexander the Great.” Military Commanders:. Changing Minds, 2002-2013. Web. 05 Apr. 2014.

             Dorst, Sander Van. “Army of Alexander the Great.” Army of Alexander the Great. N.p.,    2000. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

             Fildes, Alan M., and Joann Fletcher. “Alexander in Egypt.” Egypt: Alexander the Great in Egypt. Tour Egypt, 1996-2013. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

             Giotto. “Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age.” Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age. SchoolWorld, 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

             Goodreads. “Alexander the Great Quotes.” Alexander the Great Quotes. Goodreads, 2014. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.

             Jacobsen, Barry C. Battle of Granicus. Digital image. The Deadliest Blogger: Military History Page. WordPress, 2 May 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.

             Macedonian Phalanx. Digital image. Ancient Life. Scott Mcculloch, 2 Dec. 2011. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.

             Pettinger, Tejvan. “Alexander The Great Biography.” Biography Online. N.p., 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 31 Mar. 2014

             Roisman, Joseph. “Alexander the Great.” World Book Advanced. World Book, 2014. Web. 9 Apr. 2014

             The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Phalanx (military Formation).” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.

             Wasson, Donald L. “Battle of Gaugamela.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 27 Feb. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

             Wasson, Donald L. “Battle of Gaugamela.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 27 Feb. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D.

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

“the Mohammedans used the greatest violence” and he asserted: “You know that the Hindu religion never persecutes. It is the land where all sects may live in peace and amity. The Mohammedans brought murder and slaughter in their train, but until their arrival peace prevailed.” (source: Complete Works – Swami Vivekananda volume 5 p. 190 and volume 8 p. 217).

The troubles of Mathura began with the Muslim invasions. The Muslim invaders found a great opportunity in the gold laden temples of India to amass wealth and discredit the native religions.The first to invade the city was Mahmud Ghazni in 1015 AD. . The original source of information respecting Mah- miid’s campaigns is the Tari’kh Yamini of Al Utbi, who was himself secretary to the Sultan, though he did not accompany him in his expeditions. He mentions by name neither Mathura nor Maha-ban, but only describes certain localities which have been so identified by Firishta and later historians He left behind him a trail of destruction. His army plundered the city and burnt the temples. They broke up several statues including a large golden image (probably of the Buddha or Krishna) weighing 98300 miskals or rapproximately456kilgorams and carried away a sapphire weighing 450 miskals or approximately 2.09 kilograms. .The Sultan obtained by this victory 185 fine elephants besides other booty.” In the neighboring holy city, identified as Mathura, ” he saw a building of exquisite structure, which the inhabitants declared to be the handiwork not of men but of Genii The town wall was constructed of hard stone, and had opening on to the river two gates, raised on high, and massive basements to protect them from the floods. On the two sides of the city were thousands of houses with idol temples attached, all of masonry and strengthened throuo-h- out with bars of iron ; and opposite them were other buildings supported on stout wooden pillars. In the middle of the city Avas a temple, larger and finer than the rest, to which neither painting nor description could do justice. The Sultan thus wrote respecting it :— ‘ If any one wished to construct a building equal to it, he would not be able to do so without expending a hundred million dinars, and the work would occupy two hundred years, even though the most able and experienced workmen were employed.’ Orders were given that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire, and levelled with the ground.” The city was given up to plunder for twenty days. Among the spoil are said to have been five great idols of pure gold with eyes of rubies and adornments of other precious stones, together with a vast number of smaller silver images, which, when broken up, formed a load for more than a hundred camels. The total value of the spoil has been estimated at three millions of rupees ; while the number of Hindus carried away into captivity exceeded 5,000. Nizam-ud-din, Firishta, and the other late Muhammadan historians take for granted that Mathura was at that time an exclusively Brahmanical city. It is barely possible that such was really the case ; but the original authorities leave the point open, and speak only in general terms of idolaters, a name equally applicable to Buddhists. Many of the temples, after being gutted of all their valuable contents, were left standing; probably because they were too massive to admit of easy destruction. Some writers allege that the conqueror spared them on account of their exceeding beauty, founding this opinion on the eulogistic expressions employed by Mahmud in his letter to the Governor of Gazni quoted above. It is also stated that, on his return home, he introduced the Indian style of architecture at his own capital, where he erected a splendid mosque, upon which he bestowed the name of ‘ the Celestial Bride.’ But, how- ever much he may have admired the magnificence of Mathura, it is clear that he was influenced by other motives than admiration in sparing the fabric of the temples ; for the gold and silver images, which he did not hesitate to demolish, must have been of still more excellent workmanship.

Ghajni’s plunder and destruction did not dampen the spirit of the people of the city. While the new rulers of the Delhi Sultanate were busy spreading their empire, religious activity continued at Mathura though perhaps in a subdued manner. A brilliantly white temple of magnificent height was built in 12the century AD in the honor of Vishnu at the site of Krishna’s birth place . It was destroyed by the infamous Sikinder Lodi of the Delhi Sultanate 300 years later. of Sultan Sikandar Lodi ( 1516 A.D.), one of the most able and accomplished of all the occupants of the Dellii throne : ” He was so zealous a Musalman that he utterly destroyed many places of worship of the infidels, and left not a single vestige remaining of them. He entirely ruined the shrines of Mathura, that mine of heathenism, and turned their principal temples into saries and colleges. Their stone images were given to the butchers to serve them as meat-weights, and all the Hindus in Mathura were strictly prohibited from shaving their heads and beards, and performing their ablutions. He thus put an end to all the idolatrous rites of the infidels there; and no Hindu, if he wished to have his head or beard shaved, could get a barber to do it.”

During the reign of Akbar, Mathura witnessed some restoration activity. The temple of Radhakrishna (Krishna¬Janma¬bhoomi) was visited by at least two European travelers during the Mughal period. While Francois Bernier made a passing comment on the magnificent pagan temple at Mathura, Jean Baptiste Tavernier (1605 – 1689), described it at length interspersing his comments with his distaste for the native religion. At Mathura Tavernier saw a temple of immense height, which could be seen from a distance of six miles. It was built entirely with red sandstone, on an octagonal sandstone plinth. Its base was adorned with two rows of animal motifs in relief. The temple occupied half of it while the other half was empty. Two narrow staircases led to the main entrance of the temple and a choir. The temple had one large central dome and two smaller side domes. Its outer walls were covered with various. All the idols were dressed in richly embroidered clothes and adorned with pears and precious stones. A processional chariot was kept in the temple and used to carry the deities on ceremonial occasions through the streets of the city.

The reign of tolerance which Akbar had initiated was of very short duration ; for in 1636 we find Murshid Kuli Khan made a commander of 2,000 horse, and appointed by the Emperor Shah-jahan Grovernor of Mathura and Maha- ban with express instructions to be zealous in stamping out all rebellion and idolatry. But the climax of wanton destruction was attained by Aurangzeb,

the Oliver Cromwell of India, who, not content with demolishing the most sacred of its shrines, thought also to destroy even the ancient name of the city, by substituting for it Islampur or Islamabad. Thus it is only from the days when the Jats and Mahrattas began to be the virtual sovereigns of the country, that any series of monumental records exists.

Aurangazeb , the most infamous rulers of the Mughal dynasty, was notorious for his religious intolerance and fanatic zeal. He reversed the religious policies of his grand father Akbar and ordered for the destruction of several Hindu temples at Mathura and Varanasi .

In the very first year of his succession during the fast of Ramazan, the time when religious bigotry would be most infliamed, Aurangzeb had descended in person on Mathura. The temple, specially marked out for destruc- tion, was one built so recently as the reign of Jahaugir, at a cost of 33 lakhs, by Bir Sinh Deva, Bundela, of Urcha. The famous temple of Dehra Kesu Rai (Kesava Deo) was razed to the ground. Beyond all doubt this was the last of the famous shrines of Kesava Deva, of which further mention will be made hereafter. and in its place his provincial governor laid foundation for the building of a big mosque using its material which still stands today. His generals carried the temple deity to Agra, where it was broken into pieces and placed under the steps leading to the Nawab Begum Sahib’s mosque so that, in the words of the Mughal historians, the faithful could walk upon it and prove their faith. The name of Mathura was changed to Islamabad and remained so in the imperial documents of the Mughal era.  To judge from the language of the author of the Maasir, its demo- lition was regarded as a death-blow to Hinduism. He writes in the following triumphant strain: — ” In a short time, with the help of numerous workmen, this seat of error was utterly broken down. Glory be to God that so difficult an undertaking has been successfully accomplished in the present auspicious reign, wherein so many dens of heathenism and idolatry have been destroyed.

Mathura witnessed another wave of mindless destruction during the invasion of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan ruler, who succeeded Nadir Shah in 1747 AD and led several expeditions into India with an ambition to establish his rule in the country. In 1757 he invaded India for the fourth time and plundered many holy cities including Mathura and Vrindavan. According to the chroniclers of his time, to terrorize the vanquished people, he offered a reward of five rupees to his soldiers for every Hindu massacred and raised mountains of slaughtered bodies unleashing a great terror. After accomplishing his bloody mission, this religious fanatic returned to his country with a rich booty and many thousands of captives. The Marathas who rose to prominence after the decline of the Mughal power, established normalcy in the land of Braj. They built new temples and provided a sense of security for the people in the region.

The British, who seized the power from the Mughals and the Marathas, established a cantonment at Mathura in 1830 under the supervision of a local Magistrate. Frederick Salmon Growse was one such Magistrate who had an unmatched curiosity in the history and culture of Mathura. He took an active interest in the restoration of many ancient temples in the city and left his impressions in a memoir . It is considered to be an authoritative source on the modern history of Mathura and its temples. Under the British rule, Mathura regained its glory and became a popular pilgrim center. Mathura and Vrindavan witnessed the emergence of many new temples, including a new temple at the birth place of Krishna adjoining the mosque that was raised during the reign of Aurganzeb. The Temples and Sacred Places of Mathura Following are some of the important temples located at Mathura  Katra Kesha Dev temple. It is built over the place believed to be the prison cell where Lord Krishna was born. Standing adjacent to it is the Jama Masjid built by Abe¬In¬Nabir Khan, the local governor, in 1661 AD, on the ruins of the Keshav Deo temple destroyed under the instructions of Aurangazeb. Gita Mandir. A beautiful temple located on the MathuraVrindavan road it is frequented by many pilgrims. Its walls are inscribed with the verses of the entire Bhagavadgita. Dwarkadheesh Temple. Built by Seth Gokuldass of Gwalior in 1914, it is located within the city, near the Yamuna river, and considered to be the main temple of Mathura.

REFERANCE:

The British, who seized the power from the Mughals and the Marathas, established a cantonment at Mathura in 1830 under the supervision of a local Magistrate. Frederick Salmon Growse was one such Magistrate who had an unmatched curiosity in the history and culture of Mathura. He took an active interest in the restoration of many ancient temples in the city and left his impressions in a memoir . It is considered to be an authoritative source on the modern history of Mathura and its temples

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A(Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

The term avatar refers to a soul who has been freed from maya (delusion) and is sent by the will of God back into manifested existence to help others, like the founders of major world religions like Jesus Christ, Buddha, and Krishna.   Actually an avtar is born not to show us how great he was, but to give us hope that the state of consciousness he had attained, we too can attain. An avatar (from the Sanskrit avatāra: meaning “downcoming”) refers to a “descent” of the divine into the realm of material existence, usually for the purpose of protecting or restoring dharma (cosmic order, righteousness). .

.An Avatar is also called a Savior, that is a person who saves or rescues mankind from the danger of deterioration. When a savior appears on this Earth all are saved through his grace.In this aspect God manifests himself upon earth as an incarnated being. He lives amidst people, undergoes the same experiences as the earthly beings, distinguishes himself by his deeds and words and interacts with them as one of their own kind. Although an incarnated being lives amidst people and acts like them, he is not subject to the law of karma, nor bound by the limitations of nature. He may disguise his powers willingly, but not subject to the laws of Prakriti either. Through his actions and words, he personifies the highest ideals of mankind and serves as a role model for his devotees to follow

The term Avatara also mean  one who was descended. Avatar means those who descended to Earth from the Spiritual world for the establishment of Dharma, preservation of the human race. Avatar means the person who descends, as a fully or partially empowered incarnation of Divine Mother Adhiparasakthi, from the spiritual realm for a particular mission

An Avatar is also called a Messenger of Divine Mother because an Avatar transmits pure unselfish Divine Love from the Divine Mother to man and gives a taste of the unadulterated nectar of heavenly bliss to the arid souls scorched by the fire of worldliness. Avataris a fully freed soul incarnating directly from God on this physical planet or elsewhere. An Avatar fulfills a highly spiritual task in the name of God and returns to God after accomplishing his task. His Love for God and his creation is beyond description and imagination, his faith in God absolute as there is no difference between an Avatar and God.

Traditional Hindus believe an avatar to be a direct manifestation of God, rather than a re-incarnation or re-appearance on earth of a soul that has been liberated. This is somewhat analogous to the understanding that many Christians have of Jesus Christ, who they consider as having never been in human form before he was Jesus Christ. Avatar, is not that Divine Consciousness, which has never known imperfection, appears in human form to show us a reality completely alien to our own. Krishna, Jesus Christ, and all other avatars are not only manifestations of Spirit. They are descents also in the sense of knowing, from experience, what it is to be human beings who attained oneness with the Divine. Their example shows us our own divine potential.Krishna, who some Hindus consider to be a full incarnation (purna avatar) of Vishnu, stated to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita that “You and I, Arjuna, have passed through many births. I know them all, even if you do not.” (Thus Krishna himself declared that he had incarnated previously.

The standard list of the Dasavatars bears striking resemblances to the modern scientific theory of Evolution. Matsya, the fish, represents life in water, and Kurma, the tortoise, represents the next stage, amphibianism (although technically, a tortoise is a reptile, not anamphibian). The third animal, the boar Varaha, marks the development of life upon land. Narasimha, the Man-Lion, represents the further development of mammals. Vamana, the dwarf, symbolizes the incomplete development of human beings, while Parashurama, the forest-dwelling hermit armed with an ax, connotes completion of the basic development of humankind, perhaps in the form of barbarism. Rama indicates humanity’s ability to effectively govern nations, while Krishna, allegedly an expert in the sixty-four fields of science and art, indicates advancement in culture and civilization. Buddha represents the further intellectual advancement of man, culminating in the realization of even greater spiritual truths.

Thus, the avatars represent the evolution of life and society with each epoch from Krita Yuga to Kali Yuga. This progression of animal life from the sea creature to the intellectually enlightened human is not incongruent with modern evolutionary theory. This connection gets particularly interesting when taking into considerations descriptions of Kalkin, who has sometimes been described as being a yantra-manava, or a “machine-man,” which could be interpreted to suggest the future development some sort of technologically enhanced human being which is as of yet unknown.

Many religions speak of a coming leader who will consummate the fulfillment of the divine will on earth. He will manifest in his person the righteousness and compassion of God. The Hebrew title Messiah – ‘Christ’ in Greek means ‘anointed one,’ that person who will be specially chosen by God for this mission and empowered to accomplish it . Religions call him by various names: Jews long for the promised Messiah; for Christians the Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth, who has already come and ascended to heaven but will reappear (perhaps in a new guise) at his Second Coming. Muslims also expect the second advent of Jesus, who will come as a Muslim Imam, and among Shiite Muslims there are variousexpectations of a future Imam Mahdi. Buddhist sutras prophesy the coming of the Maitreya Buddha; Vaishnavite Hindu scriptures prophesy the future descent of an avatar named Kalki; Zoroastrian scriptures prophesy the coming of the Saoshyant; and some Confucian texts speak of a future True Man who will finally bring peace to the world by perfectly instituting the Way of Confucius.”

For Hindus, the concept of avatar is associated mostly with Vishnu, who represents the aspect of God as preserver in the Hindu trimurti. The other two aspects of trimurti are Brahma as the creator and Shiva as the destroyer, or dissolver of creation. There are also avatars of other Hindu deities in the Puranas, including avatars of Shiva, Devi (or Divine Mother), and Ganesha. The Linga Purana describes twenty-eight avatars of Shiva. The Devi Bhagavata Purana tells of the avatars of Devi, and the Ganesha Purana describes the avatars of Ganesha.

As per the doctrines of our ancient Rishis of yore, there are sixteen rays or sixteen digits or sixteen planes of manifestation or sixteen expanding Kalas emanating from Adhiparasakthi, the Supreme Brahman. One ray is needed to maintain the animal kingdom. Two rays maintain the animal kingdom and five to eight rays are required for human beings. One can rise from savage to a higher spiritual status only according to the number of rays. For Avatars, nine to sixteen rays emanate from the Supreme Mother. Avatars are classified according to the number of rays. The different kinds of Avatars are as follows:

Purna Avatar
Amsa Avatar
Lila Avatar

Purna Avatar means full Avatar, in whom all sixteen rays are present. Lord Krishna was a Purna Avatar. There are also Amsa Avatars with partial incarnations. Sri Sankaracharya was an Amsa Avatar. Lord Rama was a Lila Avatar with fourteen rays. Ancient Rishis, modern philosophers, and theosophists mention seven rays, twelve rays and so on when they describe the stage of spiritual development of their Gurus, Spiritual Masters and Adepts.There is a decline of righteousness from the Satya Yuga, or Golden Age, to Treta Age, Dvapara Age and Kali Age respectively. In the Satya Age, Dharma, or righteousness, flourishes. In Treta Age the decline begins and becomes rapid in Dvapara Age. In Kali Age, the most evil of the ages, unrighteousness or Adharma prevails. In this age the God,  manifests Herself for the establishment of righteousness.

Types of incarnation/Avatars

The Hindu  Vishnuites classify the incarnations of God variously as direct and indirect, or major and minor or primary and secondary incarnations. In the former God descends into our plane either fully or partially, described as purnavataras and amsavataras respectively For the purpose of clarity and understanding, his main incarnations are called Vibhavas and his minor incarnations vibhavantaras. The major incarnations are ten in number and known as the ten incarnations (dasavataras) of Vishnu.

They are:

1. Matsyavatara.

In this incarnation In Hindu mythology, Matsya saved Manu Vaisvasta, the eventual creator of the human species, by rescuing him from tempestuous waters during a great flood which ravaged the primordial earth  by carrying his boat to the top of a mountain.

2. Kurmavatara.

In this incarnation, Vishnu assumed the form of a tortoise, the kurma. Kurma offered his broad shell so the mighty churning stick could be firmly set upon it. and held the Mandhara mountain from beneath as the gods and demons used it to churn the oceans for the sake of amrit, the elixir of life.

3. Varahavatara.

In this incarnation He assumed the form of a boar and slew a demon named Hiranyaksha Varaha  battled and defeated the demon Hiranyaksa beneath the cosmic ocean, then proceeded to rescue the earth goddess Prthivi from a watery grave by placing her on his tusk and swimming to the surface. when he carried away the goddess earth to the nether worlds.

4. Narasimhavatara.

In this incarnation He helped his young devotee Prahlada when he was tortured by his demon father, Hiranyakasipu for his intense devotion. Listening to the calls of his young devotee, He sprang out of the pillar of a building as Man¬Lion (Nara-Simha) and slew the demon.Narasimha used his status as neither fully human nor fully beast to defeat Hiranyaksipu, another oppressive demon who was invulnerable to both human beings and animals.

5. Vamanavatara.

In this incarnation Vishnu took birth as a dwarf to sl ay the demon Bali and restore the heavenly kingdom of Indra back to him. Vamana asked Bali for all the territory he could encompass in three strides. Bali gladly agreed,. Vamana assume his cosmic form as Vishnu and traverse the entire universe with his three steps. With one step he covered the whole earth. With another he covered the whole empyrean and with his third he pushed Bali’s head deep into the world.

6. Parashuramavatara.

In this incarnation He assumed the birth of a priestly warrior to exterminate the Kshatriyas who grew wicked and tyrannical and neglected their duties in upholding the dharma and protecting the people.. In a number of battles, Parashurama defeated the Kshatriyas, and restored the priority of the priestly caste, the Brahmins, who had been oppressed by their traditional underlings, the warriors.

7. Sri Ramavatara.

In this incarnation He took birth as the prince of Ayodhya to kill the demon Ravana who became invincible by virtue of the boons he got from Lord Siva and became a menace to the three worlds and their inhabitants. Rama, defeated Ravana and thereby freed the world from the demon’s clutches, instituting a reign of virtue and prosperity. This kingdom would serve as an ideal societal structure for rulers in every generation that followed.

8. Sri Krishnavatara.

The eighth incarnation, Krishna (meaning “dark colored” or “all attractive”), is the only avatar to have appeared in the Dwapara Yuga. During his appearance on earth, Krishna defeated the oppressive demon Kamsa while aiding the Pandava brothers to victory over their malevolent cousins, the Kauravas. This battle is recorded in the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, which is best known for a poem included within it, the Bhagavadgita, wherein Krishna elucidates the path of righteousness for Arjuna, a Pandava warrior.

9. Buddhavatara.

The identity of the ninth avatar is disputed. Normally, the Buddha is listed as the ninth avatar but sometimes Krishna’s brother Balaramais listed instead. For instance, the Bhagavata Purana claims that Balarama was the ninth incarnation.^[2] However, traditionally it is the Buddha who fulfills this role as the ninth avatar, albeit it should also be noted that Buddhists do not accept this doctrine and deny that the Buddha was an avatar of Vishnu. Some scholars suggest that the absorption of the Buddha into the Vaisnavite theological framework was a polemic effort to mitigate the appeal of Buddhism among the Hindu masses.

10. Kalkyavatara

The tenth avatar, Kalkin (“Eternity” or “The Destroyer of foulness”) has set to arrive at the end of the Kali Yuga,. Due to his pending arrival, Kalki is the most mysterious of the avatars, though he is described as a rider upon a white horse wielding a comet-like sword. It is said that Kalki will bring the world to its end, rewarding the virtuous, while punishing the wicked.

Vibhavantaras,

the Minor Incarnations are partial or minor incarnations of God in which He imparted His knowledge, powers or qualities to several advanced Jivas, either directly or indirectly, for the benefit of the mankind. The list of minor incarnations of Vishnu is exhaustive. The following contains some of his most important vyuhantaras. Trivikrama Gopi¬Krishna Dattatreya Dhanvantari Hayagriva Kapila Mohini Nara¬Narayana Vyasa Yajna Visvakshena Sri Varadaraja Prsnigarbha Rishabha.

The Avatars of the Puranas

The Puranas list twenty-five avatars of Vishnu in total. In addition to the ten listed above, these avatars include the Catursana, the four sons of Brahma who are together considered one incarnation;

Narada, the traveling sage; Yajna, an incarnation within whom Vishnu temporarily assumed the role of Indra; Nara-Narayana, twin brothers; Kapila, the philosopher; Dattatreya, the combined avatar of theTrimurti); Hayagriva, a horse; Hamsa, the swan; Prsnigarbha, creator of the planet known as Dhruvaloka; Rishabha, father of King Bharata; Prithu, monarch of the solar pantheon who introduced agriculture to humankind; Dhanvantari, father of ayurveda; Mohini, a beautiful woman; Ramachandra, the king of Ayodhya; Vyasa, writer of the Vedas, and Balarama, Krishna’s elder brother.

In current times, the famous south Indian guru, Sathya Sai Baba (c. 1926-present), is believed by his devotees to be an avatar of Shiva,Shakti, and Krishna.

Some Hindus with an inclusivist outlook perceive the central figures of various non-Hindu religions to be avatars. Some of these religious figures include: Jesus (4 B.C.E.-c. 33 C.E.), the founder of Christianity, Zoroaster (a.k.a. Zarathustra), the founding prophet of Zoroastrianism, Mahavira (599-527 B.C.E.), promulgator of the tenets of Jainism, , as well as Bahá’u'lláh (1817–1892 C.E.) the founder-prophet of the Bahá’í Faith, who is believed to be Avatar.

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A(Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

The Bhagavad-gītā is just like a cow, and Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is a cowherd boy, is milking this cow. The milk is the essence of the Vedas, and Arjuna is just like a calf. The wise men, the great sages and pure devotees, are to drink the nectarean milk of Bhagavad-gītā.

The Bhagavad-gītā is the best known and the most frequently translated of Vedic religious texts. Bhagavad-gītā is also known as Gītopaniṣad. It is the essence of Vedic knowledge and one of the most important Upaniṣads in Vedic literature.  The Bhagavad-gita is universally renowned as the jewel of India’s spiritual wisdom. Spoken by Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead to His intimate disciple Arjuna, the Gita’s seven hundred concise verses provide a definitive guide to the science of self realization. No other philosophical or religious work reveals, in such a lucid and profound way, the nature of consciousness, the self, the universe and the Supreme.

The Bhagavadgita is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. The philosophy, concepts andteachings of the Bhagavadgita can help us lead a stress free life and deal with our problems peacefullyand confidently.. It teaches us how to maintain inner stability and sameness even while performing the mostcomplex tasks, accept the vicissitudes of life with detachment and overcome the uncertainty and anxietyabout one’s future with faith in God and by renouncing ownership and doer ship.

Bhagavadgita contains profound philosophy, whichis based mostly upon the philosophy contained in the Upanishads. The concepts of the Bhagavadgita arederived mostly from the concepts present in Vedanta Philosophy only.

The Bhagavad¬Gita is one of the most ancient religious scriptures of the world. It contains the direct message of God. It is a dialogue between God and his closest devotee

The Gita is not meant for any one person or creed or nation; it is meant for humanity. It speaks to a mind that has fought in life, a mind that is dissatisfied with constant want, a mind that is alert and thinking, and that has many conflicts. Swami Dayananda from the Teaching of the Bhagavad Gita.

The book is a discourse of immense spiritual value, for people engaged in daily battles of life, symbolically or even truly reflected by the episode of Arjuna, who was stricken with sorrow and confusion, being taught and assisted by God himself, in the middle of the battle field of Kurukshetra where good and evil forces stood in confrontation with each other.

It has drama, for its setting is a scene of two great armies, poised for battle. It has ambiguity, and the fact that Arjuna and his charioteer Kṛṣṇa are carrying on their dialogue between the two armies suggests the indecision of Arjuna about the basic question: should he enter battle against and kill those who are friends and kinsmen? It has a properly complicated view of the ways of the religious life and treats of the paths of knowledge, works, discipline and faith and their inter-relationships.

The purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence. Every man is in difficulty in so many ways, as Arjuna also was in difficulty in having to fight the Battle of Kurukṣetra. Arjuna surrendered unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and consequently this Bhagavad-gītā was spoken.

Lord Kṛṣṇa descends specifically to reestablish the real purpose of life when man forgets that purpose. Here the Lord informs Arjuna that this system of yoga, the Bhagavad-gītā, was first spoken to the sun-god, and the sun-god explained it to Manu, and Manu explained it to Ikṣvāku, and in that way, by disciplic succession, one speaker after another, this yoga system has been coming down. But in the course of time it has become lost. Consequently the Lord has to speak it again, this time to Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra.

The Bhagavad¬Gita contains 18 chapters and 700 verses.Each verse is considered to be a very sacred mantra. The subject of the Bhagavad-gītā entails the comprehension of five basic truths. First of all, the science of God is explained and then the constitutional position of the living entities, jīvas. So in the Bhagavad-gītā the subject matter deals with the īśvara, the supreme controller, and the jīvas, the controlled living entities. Prakṛti (material nature) and time (the duration of existence of the whole universe or the manifestation of material nature) and karma (activity) are also discussed..

Chapter one introduces, the scene in the sacred plain of Kuruksetra. The setting is a battlefield. The circumstances is war. The main characters are the Supreme Lord Krishna and Prince Arjuna,. After naming the principal warriors on both sides, Arjunas growing dejection is described due to the fear of losing friends and relatives in the course of the impending war and the subsequent sins attached to such actions. Arjuna had no desire to fight with his cousins and brothers, but he was forced to come onto the battlefield by the obstinacy of Duryodhana, who was never agreeable to any peaceful negotiation.

Herein Sañjaya informed King Dhṛtarāṣṭra that his unwise policy of deceiving the sons of Pāṇḍu and endeavoring to enthrone his own sons on the seat of the kingdom was not good.

In chapter two Arjuna as a disciple of Lord Krishna requests the Lord to instruct him in how to dispel his lamentation and grief. This chapter is often deemed as a summary to the complete Bhagavad-Gita. Here many subjects are explained such as: karma yoga, jnana yoga, sankhya yoga, buddih yoga and the atma which is the soul. Predominance has been given to the immortal nature of the soul existing within all living entities and it has been described in great detail. Thus this chapter is entitled: The Eternal Reality of the Souls’ Immortality. . This chapter instructs  in self-realization by an analytical study of the material body and the spirit soul, as explained by the supreme authority, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization. This realization is made possible by working with the furtive being situated in the fixed conception of the real self.

The third chapter is entitled: The Eternal Duties of Human Beings. Lord Kṛṣṇa elaborately explained karma-yoga, or work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness . This chapter establishes the fact by various points of view that the performance of prescribed duties is obligatory for everyone. Here Lord Krishna categorically and comprehensively explains how it is the duty of each and every member of society to carry out their functions and responsibilities in their respective stage of life in accordance to the rules and regulations of the society in which one lives. The Perfect Karma The karmayogi, who, regulating his senses by his mind, begins karmayoga (yoga of action) without any attachment is the best. The man of knowledge knowing well the difference between action and qualities of nature

and that qualities move amidst qualities is never attached to actions. Further the Lord explains why such duties must be performed, what benefit is gained by performing them, what harm is caused by not performing them. Plus what actions lead to bondage and what actions lead to salvation. All these points relating to duty have been described in great detail.

In chapter four Lord Krishna reveals how spiritual knowledge is received by disciplic succession and the reason and nature of His descent into the material worlds. Herein we find the history of the Bhagavad-gītā traced from a remote time when it was delivered to the royal order, the kings of all planets. “In the beginning of the Tretā-yuga [millennium] this science of the relationship with the Supreme was delivered by Vivasvān to Manu. Manu, being the father of mankind, gave it to his son Mahārāja Ikṣvāku, the King of this earth planet and forefather of the Raghu dynasty in which Lord Rāmacandra appeared. Therefore, Bhagavad-gītā existed in the human society from the time of Mahārāja Ikṣvāku.” Here He also explains the paths of action and knowledge as well as the wisdom regarding the supreme knowledge which results at the culmination of the two paths. Thus this chapter is entitled: Approaching the Ultimate Truth.

This chapter is entitled: Action and Renunciation In chapter five Lord Krishna delineates the concepts of action with detachment and renunciation in actions explaining that both are a means to the same goal. Here He explains how salvation is attained by the pursuance of these paths. The work in devotional service is better than dry mental speculation. Devotional service is easier than the latter because, being transcendental in nature, it frees one from reaction.

The sixth chapter is entitled: The Science of Self-Realization.In this chapter Lord Krishna reveals astanga yoga, and the exact process of practicing such yoga. The Lord explains that the process of the eightfold yoga system is a means to control the mind and the senses. However, this is very difficult for people in general to perform, especially in the age of Kali.  He explains in detail the difficulties of the mind and the procedures by which one may gain mastery of their mind through yoga which reveals the spiritual nature of a living entity.

To act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the duty of every living entity because all are constitutionally parts and parcels of the Supreme. The parts of the body work for the satisfaction of the whole body. The limbs of the body do not act for self-satisfaction but for the satisfaction of the complete whole. Similarly, the living entity who acts for satisfaction of the supreme whole and not for personal satisfaction is the perfect sannyāsī, the perfect yogī.

In chapter seven Lord Krishna gives concrete knowledge of the absolute reality as well as the opulence of divinity. This chapter is entitled: Knowledge of the Ultimate Truth.In this  Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, the nature of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is fully described. Kṛṣṇa is full in all opulences, and how He manifests such opulences is described herein. Also, four kinds of fortunate people who become attached to Kṛṣṇa, and four kinds of unfortunate people who never take to Kṛṣṇa are described in this chapter.

He describes His illusory energy in the material existence called Maya and declares how extremely difficult it is to surmount it. He also describes the four types of people attracted to divinity and the four types of people who are opposed to divinty. In conclusion He reveals that one in spiritual intelligence takes exclusive refuge of the Lord without reservation in devotional service.

The chapter eight is entitled: Attainment of Salvation In this chapter Lord Kṛṣṇa answers these different questions of Arjuna beginning with, “What is Brahman?”. The Lord also explains karma, fruitive activities, devotional service and yoga principles, and devotional service in its pure form. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that the Supreme Absolute Truth is known as Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. In addition, the living entity, individual soul, is also called Brahman. Arjuna also inquires about ātmā, which refers to body, soul and mindLord Krishna emphasizes the science of yoga. Revealing that one attains whatever one remembers at the end of one’s life the Lord emphasizes the utmost importance of the very last thought at the moment of death. Also he gives information on the creation of the material worlds as well as establishing a distinction between them and the spiritual world. Here he explains the light and dark paths in regards to leaving this material existence, the destination to which they each lead to and the reward received by each.

The chapter nine   is entitled: Confidential Knowledge of the Ultimate Truth. In this chapter Lord Krishna reveals that the sovereign science and the sovereign secret. He explains how the entire material existence is created, prevaded, maintained and annihilated by His external energy and all beings are coming and going under His supervision. The subjects matters covered subsequently are primarily concerned with devotional service and the Lord Himself declares that these subject matters are most confidential.

In this Chapter the glories of the Lord will be delineated.The matters which are described in this Chapter deal with unalloyed, pure devotion. Therefore this is called the most confidential. One who is situated in the most confidential knowledge of Kṛṣṇa is naturally transcendental; he therefore has no material pangs, although he is in the material world. In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu it is said that although one who has a sincere desire to render loving service to the Supreme Lord is situated in the conditional state of material existence, he is to be considered liberated. Similarly, we shall find in the Bhagavad-gītā,

The devotees who  are constantly engaged in the Supreme Lord’s service. The Lord understands the mentality and sincerity of a particular living being and gives him the intelligence to understand the science of Kṛṣṇa.

Knowledge (idaṁ jñānam) refers to pure devotional service, which consists of nine different activities: hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshiping, praying, obeying, maintaining friendship and surrendering everything. By the practice of these nine elements of devotional service one is elevated to spiritual consciousness,

As a devotee hears more and more about the Supreme Lord, he becomes enlightened. This hearing process is recommended inGita: “The messages of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are full of potencies, and these potencies can be realized if topics regarding the Supreme Godhead are discussed amongst devotees. This cannot be achieved by the association of mental speculators or academic scholars, for it is realized knowledge.”

The chapter  ten is entitled : The Opulence of the Absolute. Chapter reveals Lord Krishna’s exalted position as the cause of all causes. Also specifying His special manifestations and opulences. Arjuna prays to the Lord to describe more of the opulences and the Lord describes those which are most prominent. . Now in this chapter He explains His specific opulences to Arjuna. in this chapter He tells Arjuna about His manifestations and various opulences. One who is full in six opulences, who has full strength, full fame, wealth, knowledge, beauty and renunciation, is paramam, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. While Kṛṣṇa was present on this earth, He displayed all six opulences.

The chapter eleven is entitled: The Vision of the Universal Form. Lord Krishna is beseeched by Arjuna to reveal His universal form showing all of existence . Thus this chapter reveals Kṛṣṇa as the cause of all causes. He is even the cause of the Mahā-Viṣṇu, and from Him the material universes emanate. Kṛṣṇa is not an incarnation; He is the source of all incarnations.

Now, as far as Arjuna is concerned, he says that his illusion is over. This means that Arjuna no longer thinks of Kṛṣṇa as a mere human being, as a friend of his, but as the source of everything. Arjuna is very enlightened and is glad that he has a great friend like Kṛṣṇa, but now he is thinking that although he may accept Kṛṣṇa as the source of everything, others may not. So in order to establish Kṛṣṇa’s divinity for all, he is requesting Kṛṣṇa in this chapter to show His universal form.

The chapter twelve is entitled: The Path of Devotion. Lord Krishna extols the glory of transcendentalist’s devotion to God. Along with this he explains the different forms of spiritual disciplines and discusses the qualities of the devotees who by performing their activities in this way become very dear to Him. Kṛṣṇa has now explained about the personal, the impersonal and the universal and has described all kinds of devotees and yogīs. Generally, the devotees can be divided into two classes. One is the impersonalist, and the other is the personalist. The personalist devotee engages himself with all energy in the service of the Supreme Lord. The impersonalist engages himself not directly in the service of Kṛṣṇa but in meditation on the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested.

The different processes for realization of the Absolute Truth, bhakti-yoga, devotional service, is the highest. If one at all desires to have the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he must take to devotional service.

Those who worship the Supreme Lord directly by devotional service are called personalists. Those who engage themselves in meditation on the impersonal Brahman are called impersonalists. Arjuna is here questioning which position is better. There are different ways to realize the Absolute Truth, but Kṛṣṇa indicates in this chapter that bhakti-yoga, or devotional service to Him, is highest of all. It is the most direct, and it is the easiest means for association with the Godhead.

In chapter thirteen Lord Krishna reveals the distinct difference between the physical body and the immortal soul. This chapter is entitled: The Individual and Ultimate Consciousness. The chapter deals with Nature, the Enjoyer, and Consciousness  He explains that the physical is transitory and perishable whereas the soul is immutable and eternal. The Lord also gives precise knowledge about the individual soul and the ultimate soul.

Arjuna was inquisitive about prakṛti or nature, puruṣa, the enjoyer, kṣetra, the field, kṣetrajña, its knower, and of knowledge and the object of knowledge. When he inquired about all these, Kṛṣṇa said that this body is called the field and that one who knows this body is called the knower of the field. This body is the field of activity for the conditioned soul. The conditioned soul is entrapped in material existence, and he attempts to lord over material nature. And so, according to his capacity to dominate material nature, he gets a field of activity. That field of activity is the body. And what is the body? The body is made of senses. The conditioned soul wants to enjoy sense gratification, and, according to his capacity to enjoy sense gratification, he is offered a body, or field of activity. Therefore the body is called kṣetra, or the field of activity for the conditioned soul. Thus there is a difference between the knower of the field of activities and the actual field of activities. A living conditioned soul can thus understand that he is different from the body. It is described in the beginning-dehe ‘smin-that the living entity is within the body and that the body is changing from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth and from youth to old age, and the person who owns the body knows that the body is changing.

Now, how the living entity comes into contact with material nature, how he is delivered by the Supreme Lord through the different methods of fruitive activities, cultivation of knowledge, and the discharge of devotional service are explained. Although the living entity is completely different from the material body, he somehow becomes related. This also is explained.

The chapter fourteen. is entitled; The Three Qualities of Material Nature. Lord Krishna reveals matters pertaining goodness, passion and nescience which everything in the material existence is influenced by. He gives pertinent details on the essential characteristics of each individually, their cause, the level of their potency, how they influence a living entity affected by them as well as the signs of one who has risen above them. Here he clearly advises to relinquish oneself from ignorance and passion and adopt the path of pure goodness until acquiring the ability to transcend them. Now, the Lord Himself is further enlightening Arjuna. If one understands this chapter through the process of philosophical speculation, he will come to an understanding of devotional service.

Now, in this chapter, the Supreme Personality explains what those modes of nature are, how they act, how they bind and how they give liberation. The knowledge explained in this chapter is proclaimed by the Supreme Lord to be superior to the knowledge given so far in other chapters. By understanding this knowledge, various great sages attain perfection and transfer to the spiritual world. This knowledge is far, far superior to all other processes of knowledge.

The chapter fifteen is entitled: Realization of the Ultimate Truth.In  this chapter Lord Krishna reveals the virtues, the glories and transcendental characteristics of God being omnipotenet, omniscient and omnipresent. Also He explains the purpose and value of knowing about God and the means by which He can be realized.

It is explained in this chapter that the purpose of Vedic study is to understand Kṛṣṇa. Therefore one who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, who is engaged in devotional service, already knows the Vedas.

The entanglement of this material world is compared here to a banyan tree. For one who is engaged in fruitive activities, there is no end to the banyan tree. He wanders from one branch to another, to another, to another. The tree of this material world has no end, and for one who is attached to this tree, there is no possibility of liberation. The Vedic hymns, meant for elevating oneself, are called the leaves of this tree. This tree’s roots grow upward because they begin from where Brahmā is located, the topmost planet of this universe. If one can understand this indestructible tree of illusion, then one can get out of it.

This tree, being the reflection of the real tree, is an exact replica. Everything is there in the spiritual world. The impersonalists take Brahmā to be the root of this material tree, and from the root, according to sāṅkhya philosophy, come prakṛti, puruṣa, then the three guṇas, then the five gross elements (pañca-mahābhūta), then the ten senses (daśendriya), mind, etc. In this way they divide up the whole material world.. The material world is the perverted reflection, so the spiritual world must have the same variegatedness, but in reality. The prakṛti is the external energy of the Supreme Lord, and the puruṣa is the Supreme Lord Himself, and that is explained in Bhagavad-gītā. Since this manifestation is material, it is temporary.

In chapter sixteen Lord Krishna describes explicitly, explaining seperately and in detail the divine properties, conduct and actions which are righteous in nature and conducive to divinity. Thus this chapter is entitled: The Divine and the Demoniac Natures Defined. Also he delineates the evil propensities and ill conduct which are unrighteous in nature and which determine the unrighteous and which are antagonistic to divinity.

In this Chapter the Lord explains both the transcendental nature and its attendant qualities, as well as the demoniac nature and its qualities. He also explains the advantages and disadvantages of these qualities.

Abhijātasya ,the word abhijātasya in reference to one born of transcendental qualities or godly tendencies is very significant.

The next item is charity. Charity should be given to the right receiver. There are different kinds of charitiescharity in the modes of goodness, passion and ignoranceThen as far as damaḥ (self-control) is concerned, it is not only meant for other orders of religious society.

Sacrifice is another item The best sacrifice recommended in this age is called saṅkīrtana-yajña.

Then svādhyāyaḥ, Vedic study, and tapas, austerity, and ārjavam, gentleness or simplicity and the study of Vedic literature for cultivation of spiritual knowledge. This is called svādhyāyaḥ.

Ahiṁsā means not arresting the progressive life of any living entity. Real ahiṁsā means not checking anyone’s progressive life.

Satyam. This word means that one should not distort the truth for some personal interest.

Akrodhaḥ means to check anger. Even if there is provocation one should be tolerant, for once one becomes angry his whole body becomes polluted. Anger is the product of the modes of passion and lust, .

Śaucam means cleanliness, not only in mind and body but in one’s dealings also.All these sixteen qualifications mentioned are transcendental qualities.

The chapter seventeen is entitled: The Three Divisions of Material Existence.  Lord Krishna classifies the three divisions of faith, revealing that it is these different qualities of faith in the Supreme that determine that character of living entities. These three types of faith determine one’s consciousness in this world.

Arjuna is putting some questions to Kṛṣṇa like, if one, with faith, follows some rules which are not mentioned in the scriptural injunctions, what is his position? Are those who create some sort of God by selecting a human being and placing their faith in him worshiping in goodness, passion or ignorance? Do such persons attain the perfectional stage of life? Is it possible for them to be situated in real knowledge and elevate themselves to the highest perfectional stage? Do those who do not follow the rules and regulations of the scriptures but who have faith in something and worship gods and demigods and men attain success in their effort?. These doubts of Arjuna is cleared by Kṛṣṇa.

In chapter eighteen is entitled: Final Revelations of the Ultimate Truth  Lord Krsishna sums up the conclusion of the previous chapters and describes the attainment of salvation by the paths of karma in chapters one through six and in jnana yoga section which are chapters thirteen through eighteen. The Lord explains that while doing so one must offer without reservation everything to God. The knowledge revealed gets progressively more and more confidential then in all the previous chapters.

The Eighteenth chapter is a supplementary summarization of the topics discussed before. In every chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa stresses that devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life. This same point is summarized in the Eighteenth Chapter as the most confidential path of knowledge.

Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A(Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D

Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India

In 1917 I became very friendly with a Jesuit father. We used to have long talks on matters of common interest. In the Jesuit order founded by Ignatius Loyala I then found much that appealed to me, for instance, their triple vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience. ( There is some analogy to the triple prayer of the Buddhists which has to be repeated daily——”I take refuge in Buddha; I take refuge in Dharma (Truth); I take refuge in the Sangha (Ordei-).”)

Unlike many Jesuits, this father was not dogmatic and he was well versed in Hindu philosophy. In our discussions he naturally took his stand on Christian theology as interpreted by his church, while I took my stand on the Vedanta as interpreted by Shankaracharya. I did not of course comprehend the Shankarite Doctrine of Maya( In brief, this theory implies that the world as we perceive it through our senses is an illusion. It is a ease of the rope being mistaken for a snake, the snake being the world of the senses.) in all its abstruseness, but I grasped the essential principles of it——or at least I thought I did. One day the Jesuit father turned round to me and said–”I admit that Shankara’s position is logically the soundest but to those who cannot live up to it, we offer the next best.”

There was a time when I believed that Absolute Truth was within the reach of human mind and that the Doctrine of Maya represented the quintessence of knowledge. Today I would hesitate to subscribe to that position. I have ceased to be an absolutist (if I may use that word in my own sense) and am much more of a pragmatist. What I cannot live up to—what is not workable I feel inclined to discard. Shankara’s Doctrine of Maya intrigued me for a long time, but ultimately I found that I could not accept it because I could not live it. So I had to turn to a different philosophy. But that did not oblige me to go to Christian theology. There are several schools of Indian philosophy which regard the world, crea¬tion, as a reality and not as an illusion. There is, for example, the theory of Qualified monism according to which the ultimate reality is One and the world is a manifestation of it. Ramakrishna’s view is similar, that both the One (God) and the Many (Creation) are true. Several theories have been advanced to explain the nature of creation. According to some the universe is the manifestation of Ananda or Divine Bliss. Others hold that it is the manifestation of Divine Play or ‘Leela’. Several attempts have also been made to describe the One-the Absolute God in human language and imagery. To some, like the Vaishnavas, God is Love ; to some like the Shaktas, He is Power; to others He is Knowledge; to still others He is Bliss. Then there is the traditional conception of the Absolute in Hindu philosophy as ‘Sat-Chit-Ananda’, which may be translated as ‘Existence-Consciousness (or Knowledge)-Bliss’. The more consistent philosophers say that the Absolute is indescribable or inexpressible (anirvachaneeya). And it is reported of Buddha that whenever he was questioned about the Absolute he remained silent.

It is impossible to comprehend the Absolute through our human intellect with all its limitations. We cannot perceive reality as it is objectively as it is in itself we have to do so through our own spectacles, whether these spectacles be Bacon’s ‘Idola’ or Kant’s ‘forms of the under-standing’ or something else. The Hindu philosopher will probably say that as long as the duality of Subject (Jnata) and Object (Jneya) remains, knowledge is bound to be imperfect. Perfect knowledge can be attained only when Subject and Object merge into oneness. This is not possible on the mental plane the plane of ordinary consciousness. It is possible only in the supra-mental plane in the region of super consciousness. But the conception of the supra-mental, of the super-conscious, is peculiar to Hindu philosophy and is repudiated by Western philosophers. According to the former, perfect knowledge is attainable only when we reach the level of the super conscious through Yogic perception, i.e., intuition of some sort. Intuition as an instrument of knowledge has, of course, been admitted in Western philosophy since the time of Henri Bergson, though it may still be ridiculed in certain quarters. But Western philosophy has yet to admit the existence of the supra-mental and the possibility of our comprehending it through Yogic perception.

Assuming for a moment for argument’s sake that we can comprehend the Absolute through Yogic perception, the difficulty about describing it will still remain. When we attempt to describe it, we fall back into the plane of normal consciousness and we are handicapped by all the limitations of the normal human mind. Our descriptions of the Absolute of God are consequently anthropomorphic. And what is anthropomorphic cannot be regarded as Absolute Truth. Now can we comprehend the Absolute through Yogic perception? Is there a supra-mental plane which the individual can reach and where the Subject and the Object merge into Oneness? My attitude to this question is one of benevolent agnosticism ~if I may coin this expression. On the one hand, I am not prepared to take anything on trust. I must have first- hand experience, but this sort of experience in the matter of the Absolute, I am unable to get. On the other hand, I cannot just rule out as sheer moonshine what so many individuals claim to have experienced in the past. To repudiate all that would be to repudiate much, which I am not prepared to do. I have, therefore, to leave the question of the supra mental open, until such time as I am able to experience it myself. Meanwhile I take up the position of a relativist. I mean thereby, that Truth as known to us is not absolute but relative. It is relative to our common mental constitution to our distinctive characteristics as individuals and to changes in the same individual during the process of time.

Once we admit that our notions of the Absolute are relative to our human mind, we should be relieved of a great deal of philosophical controversy. It would follow that when such notions differ, they may all be equally true the divergence being accounted for by the distinctive individuality of the subject. It would follow, further, that the notions of the same individual with regard to the Absolute may vary with time along with his mental development. But none of these notions need be regarded as false. As Vivekananda used to say, “Man proceeds not from error to truth but from truth to higher truth.” There should accordingly be scope for the widest toleration.

The question now arises: Granting that reality as known to me is relative and not absolute, what is its nature? In the first place, it has an objective existence and is not an illusion. I come to this conclusion not from a priori considerations but mainly from the pragmatic point of view. The Doctrine of Maya does not work. My life is incompatible with it, though I tried long and hard to make my life fit in with it. I have, therefore, to discard it. On the other hand, if the world be real (not, of course, in an absolute but in a relative sense) then life becomes interesting and acquires meaning and purpose.

Secondly, this reality is not static but dynamic it is ever changing. Has this change any direction? Yes, it has; it is moving towards a better state of existence. Actual experience demonstrates that the changes imply progress and not meaningless motion.

Further, this reality is, for me, Spirit working with a conscious purpose through time and space. This conception does not, of course, represent the Absolute Truth which is beyond description for all time and which for me is also beyond comprehension at the present moment. It is therefore a relative truth and is liable to change along with the changes in my mind( There is nothing wrong in this-—for, as Emerson said, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Moreover, what is progress if it does not involve change?) Nevertheless, it is a conception which represents my utmost effort to comprehend reality and which offers a basis on which to build my life.

Why do I believe in Spirit? Because it is a pragmatic necessity. My nature demands it. I see purpose and design in nature; I discern an ‘increasing purpose’ in my own life. I feel that I am not a mere conglomeration of atoms. I perceive, too, that reality is not a fortuitous combination of molecules. Moreover, no other theory can explain reality (as I under stand it) so well. This theory is in short an intellectual and moral necessity, a necessity of my very life, so far as I am concerned.

The world is a manifestation of Spirit and just as Spirit is eternal so also is the world of creation. Creation does not and cannot end at any point of time. This view is similar to the Vaishnavic conception of Eternal Play (Nitya Leela). Creation is not the offspring of sin; nor is it the result of ‘avidya’ or ‘ignorance’ as the Shankarites would say. It reflects the eternal play of eternal forces——the Divine Play, if you will.

I may very well be asked why I am bothering about the ultimate nature of reality and similar problems and am not contenting myself with experience as I find it. The answer to that is simple. The moment we analyse experience, we have to posit the self the mind which receives-and the non-self—the source of all impressions, which form the stuff of our experience. The non-self reality apart from the self—is there and we cannot ignore its existence by shutting our eyes to it. This reality underlies all our experience and on our conception of it depends much that is of theoretical and practical value to us.

No, we cannot ignore reality. We must endeavour to know its nature though, as I have already indicated, that knowledge can at best be relative and cannot be dignified with the name of Absolute Truth. This relative truth must form the basis of our life even if what is relative is liable to change.

What then is the nature of this Spirit which is reality? One is reminded of the parable of Ramakrishna about a number of blind men trying to describe an elephant—-each giving a description in accordance with the organ he touched and therefore violently disagreeing with the rest. My own view is that most of the conceptions of reality are true, though partially, and the main question is which conception represents the maximum truth. For me, the essential nature of reality is LOVE. LOVE is the essence of the Universe and is the essential principle in human life. I admit that this conception also is imperfect for I do not know today what reality is in itself and I cannot lay claim to knowing the Absolute today-even if it be within the ultimate reach of human knowledge or experience. Nevertheless, with all its imperfection, for me this theory represents the maximum truth and is the nearest approach to Absolute Truth.

I may be asked how I come to the conclusion that the essential nature of reality is LOVE. I am afraid my epistemology is not quite orthodox. I have come to this conclusion partly from a rational study of life in all aspects partly from intuition and partly from pragmatic considerations. I see all around me the play of love; I perceive within me the same instinct; I feel that I must love in order to fulfil myself and I need love as the basic principle on which to reconstruct life. A plurality of considerations drives me to one and the same conclusion.

I have remarked above that the essential principle in human life is love. This statement may be challenged when one can see so much in life that is opposed to love; but the paradox can be easily explained. The ‘essential principle’ is not fully manifest yet; it is unfolding itself in space and time. Love, like reality of which it is the essence, is dynamic.

What, now, is the nature of the process of unfolding? Firstly, is it a movement forward or not? Secondly, is there any law underlying this movement?

The unfolding process is progressive in character. This assertion is not quite dogmatic. Observation and study of nature point to the conclusion that everywhere there is progress. This progress may not be unilinear; there may be periodic set-backs but on the whole, i.e. considered from a long period point of view, there is progress. Apart from this rational consideration there is the intuitive experience that we are moving ahead with the lapse of time. And last but not least, there is the necessity, both biological and moral, to have faith in progress.

As various attempts have been made to know reality and to describe it so also have attempts been made to comprehend the law of progress. None of these efforts is futile; each gives us a glimpse of the truth. The Sankhya Philosophy of the Hindus was probably the oldest endeavour to describe the evolutionary process in nature. That solution will not satisfy the modern mind. In more recent times, we have various theories, or perhaps descriptions, of evolution. Some like Spencer would have us believe that evolution consists in a development from the simple to the complex. Others like von Hartmann would assert that the world is a manifestation of blind will—from which one could conclude that it is futile to look for an underlying idea. Bergson would maintain his own theory of creative evolution; evolution should imply a new creation or departure at every stage, which cannot be calculated in advance by the human intellect. Hegel, on the contrary, would dogmatise that the nature of the evolutionary process, whether in the thought world or in reality outside, is dialectic. We progress through conflicts and their solutions. Every thesis provokes antithesis. This conflict is solved by a synthesis, which in its turn, provokes a new antithesis–and so on.

All these theories have undoubtedly an element of truth. Each of the above thinkers has endeavoured to reveal the truth as he has perceived it. But undoubtedly Hegel’s theory is the nearest approximation to truth. It explains the facts more satisfactorily than any other theory. At the same time, it cannot be regarded as the whole truth since all the facts as we know them, do not accord with it. Reality is, after all, too big for our frail understanding to fully comprehend. Nevertheless, we have to build our life on the theory which contains the maximum truth. We cannot sit still because we cannot, or do not, know the Absolute Truth.

Reality, therefore, is Spirit, the essence of which is Love, gradually unfolding itself in an eternal play of conflicting forces and their solutions.

REFERANCE-

N E T A J I’ S – LIFE and WRITINGS – PART ONE- AN INDIAN PILGRIM OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE ,WWW.HINDUSTANBOOKS.COM

Calcutta 23rd January 1948