Go India Take Education

Indian Education is matter of prime concern for the government of India. The University Grants Commission (UGC) coordinates, determines and maintains the standards of education at various levels. There are many professional bodies, which are responsible for accreditations of the courses, as well as providing grants to the different undergraduate courses.

India, with its diversity fascinates one and all. Indian Education has recently gained world recognition. Many students from foreign countries are eyeing the country for gaining higher qualifications. Though, illiteracy is a problem in India, the country amazes outsiders with its vast pool of talent.

The Indian economy has grown in leaps and bounds in the recent years and hence there is a necessity to educate the masses to accelerate the growth process. It is interesting to note how the Indian education machinery works. 

Title Professional Councils in India are:

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR)

Distance Education Council (DEC)

National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE)

Bar Council of India (BCI)

Medical Council of India (MCI)

Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI)

Indian Nursing Council (INC)

Central Council of Homeopathy (CCH)

Pharmacy Council of India (PCI)

Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM)

Dentist Council of India (DCI)

Education System of India

Till the recent past it was believed that premier education is not available in India, but the current development in the educational sector has led to the belief that quality education is indeed available in India. Research done in the past has highlighted loopholes in the curriculum and methodologies but these criticisms had acted upon and amendments were made. These included changes in the syllabus, introduction of new courses and dynamic methodologies. Modern infrastructures and teachers with adequate training are facilitating cutting-edge delivery of content; connected E-learning (called C- learning) is in vogue and today, India is attracting students from South Africa, China, Canada, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, UK and USA. 

This unbelievable progress in the educational scenario also includes low costs of tuitions as compared to the western countries. The basic divisions in the academics include primary, secondary, senior secondary and higher education. Elementary education is till standard 8 while secondary and higher secondary education consists two years each. Graduation is between three to five years depending on the course after which there is an option for post-graduation (a two-year course) and research. 

Today education system in India can be divided into many stages.

Pre- Primary - It consists of children of 3-5 years of age studying in nursery, lower kindergarten and upper kindergarten. At this stage student is given knowledge about school life and is taught to read and write some basic words.

Primary - It includes the age group of children of 6-11 years studying in classes from first to fifth.

Middle - It consists of children studying in classes from sixth to eighth.

Secondary - it includes students studying in classes ninth and tenth.

Higher Secondary - Includes students studying in eleventh and twelfth classes.

Undergraduate - Here, a student goes through higher education, which is completed in college. This course may vary according to the subject pursued by the student. For medical student this stage is of four and a half years plus one year of compulsory internship, while a simple graduate degree can be attained in three years.

Postgraduate - After completing graduation a student may opt for post graduation to further add to his qualifications.

Education Governing Bodies

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE): This is the main governing body of education system in India. It has control over the central education system. It conducts exam and looks after the functioning of schools accredited to central education system.

The Council of Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE): It is a board for Anglo Indian Studies in India. It conducts two examinations 'Indian Certificate of Secondary Education' and 'Indian School Certificate'. Indian Certificate of secondary education is a k-10 examination for those Indian students who have just completed class 10th and Indian school certificate is a k-12 public examination conducted for those studying in class 12th.

The State Government Boards: Apart from CBSE and CISCE each state in India has its own State Board of education, which looks after the educational issues.

The National Open School: It is also known as National Institute of Open Schooling. It was established by the Government Of India in 1989. It is a ray of hope for those students who cannot attend formal schools.

The International School: It controls the schools, which are accredited to curriculum of international standard.

Present Scenario of Education System

The present educational system of India is an implantation of British rulers. Wood's Dispatch of 1854 laid the foundation of present system of education in India. Before the advent of British in India, education system was private one. With the introduction of Wood's Dispatch known as Magna Carta of Indian education, the whole scenario changed. The main purpose of it was to prepare Indian Clerks for running local administration. Under it the means of school educations were the vernacular languages while the higher education was granted in English only. British government started giving funds to indigenous schools in need of help and thus slowly some of the schools became government-aided. Contemplating on the new system which was introduced Mahatma Gandhi expressed his anguish in following words, "I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished. The village schools were not good enough for the British administrator, so he came out with his program. Every school must have so much paraphernalia, building, and so forth. Well, there were no such schools at all. There are statistics left by a British administrator which show that, in places where they have carried out a survey, ancient schools have gone by the board, because there was no recognition for these schools, and the schools established after the European pattern were too expensive for the people, and therefore they could not possibly overtake the thing. I defy anybody to fulfill a program of compulsory primary education of these masses inside of a century. This very poor country of mine is ill able to sustain such an expensive method of education. Our state would revive the old village schoolmaster and dot every village with a school both for boys and girls. " 

The recent initiatives of the government include the following

An Information Technology teacher should be appointed in every school.

The ICSE and CBSE curriculums have gained eminence.

Unit tests from Class 1 till Class 8 has been done away with in Maharashtra.

Foreign universities are being given green signals to open campus in India. These universities are also collaborating with Indian institutions to disperse combines curriculums.

Historical Background of Indian Education

Traditional Indian education boasts of the Vedas, the Puranas, the Ayurveda, the Arthasashtra, and many more and is a marvel of the Indian intellect. In the system of Gurukula (ancient Indian system of dispersing knowledge) the adolescent boys stayed in the house of the teacher (guru) to gain knowledge over a stipulated time-period. The Brahmacharya (celibacy) state was observed till a certain age while women and lower caste people had no access to education in the Middle Ages. The reform movement spread by the Sufi, Bhakti, Jain and Buddhist religions reduced the pain of the oppressed segments of the society and educational reforms gained eminence in the nineteenth century. 

After independence, education for all was the mission of the government. The unhealthy practice of discriminations was removed by the 86th Constitutional Amendments and education has been made compulsory for the age group 6 to 14. The significant gap between the rate of urban and rural literacy is being bridged and the UGC was set up in the year 1953 to regulate the processes of educational development in the country. 

Currently, there are 17000 plus colleges, around 20 universities (central), 217 universities (state), and many deemed universities as well as national institutions. The national institutions of international fame are the IIT's and the IIM's. The Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad holds a global rank of 15 in the field of management education. 

However, the efforts of upgrading the standards of Indian Education are not meeting with success, due to hurdles in accessibility, poverty and other factors. Due to widespread poverty the government of India is not able to achieve higher success in the implemented projects. The 11th 5- year plan alleviates the importance of development in the education sector and primary education as well as higher education is given equal importance in this plan.

Professional Colleges in India

Engineering Colleges in India

IIT Delhi

IIT Guwahati

IIT Hyderabad

IIT Kanpur

IIT Kharagpur

IIT Madras

IIT Mumbai

IIT Rajasthan

IIT Roorkee.

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All in All God Krishna

Once upon a time, as now, mother earth was overburdened with the weight of millions of arrogant kings. Assuming the form of a cow, her face overflowing with tears, she approached Brahma, the god of creation for protection.

Realizing her piteous condition, Brahma, accompanied by the earth and all the other gods, went to the ocean of milk, the abode of the Supreme Lord Narayana. There, Brahma venerated the Lord by chanting the Purusha Sukta from the Rig-Veda.

While he was thus contemplating, Brahma heard a voice in the sky: "God already knows the affliction of the earth. He will manifest Himself as Krishna and reduce the burden of the earth."

Hence, saving the earth from the clutches of evil kings was the part motive for Krishna's birth. Another primary reason was to give blissful joy to the simple cowherds of Vrindavan, their women, and cows. In Vrindavan, Krishna behaved much as a normal child of His age would do. He teased the gopis, respected His elders and also picnicked with His friends.

No sooner had Krishna also walked in following His friends, than the serpent closed his mouth. Caught inside, Krishna expanded Himself within the throat of the demon. Soon, the demon was choking and struggling for breath.

His prana, restricted within the body, finally burst out through his skull (brahmarandhra), and a bright and strange light illuminating the directions emerged from him, and waited in the sky. As soon as Krishna came out of the serpent's body, the light merged into Him. Now, this is the kind of end only high-class yogis achieve. The Taittriya Upanishad describes this

'The nerve called Sushumna passes upwards from the heart to the mid-region between the two palates and also through that flesh that hangs like a breast between these two palates. From there it stretches up to the crown of the head where the roots of the hair divide. Those whose prana pass out through this Sushumna nerve, breaking open the skull in the middle, dividing it into two regions, they attain to the Supreme God Brahman.'

In the meanwhile, Krishna had all but finished with the Aghasura episode and was now picnicking merrily with His friends. The Shrimad Bhagavatam gives a vivid picture of this outdoor lunch:

'The cowherds were seated on the ground and Krishna was at the center. They opened the lunch boxes they had brought from home. All the boys had their faces towards Krishna, who was at the center of the concentric circles. Due to their intense love for Him, all the cowherds boys wanted to face Krishna. He fulfilled their desire by making His face and limbs appear in all the directions at once; i.e. every boy thought that He was face-to-face with Krishna. Thus they were all eating their food and also constantly tasting the bliss of seeing Krishna face to face. Krishna looked like the whorl of a lotus flower and the boys surrounding Him appeared to be its petals.'

This is in keeping with the description of Krishna given in the Bhagavad Gita:

'He has hands and feet in all directions. He has eyes, heads, mouths and ears everywhere.'

While thus enjoying with His friends, Krishna was Himself picturesque enough to be meditated upon. His flute was pushed within the belt of His silken cloth on the right side, and His bugle and cane were tucked under His left armpit. He was holding a soft morsel of rice mixed with curd and various pickles, which could be seen through His petal-like fingers.

Meditating upon this Lila of the Lord, sages complain to Him: "You play in the dusty courtyards of these cowherds but are shy of coming to the yagyas (Vedic sacrifices) of pure Brahmins? When the cows moo and burp, you talk to them, but you do not care to speak the mantras of the Vedas.

Leaving aside all shame, You walk behind these rustic gopis, but feel shy to come before saints and sages? Oh Lord, now we understand. You are not bound by any laws which govern us. You submit only to love. It is only by love that you are attained."

Brahma is the master of intellect. That is why he is shown with a beard, which signifies his experience in worldly matters and wisdom. His four heads represent the four Vedas.

Hence anything which seems even slightly contrary to the scriptures disturbs him to no end. Here he could see the five year old Krishna, merrily playing with his friends. What was more disturbing to him was the fact that Krishna was engaging in informal engagements with His friends, even as much as eating their leftover, or offering them his own, without any consideration for the rules of purity prescribed in the scriptures.

Thus arose in Brahma's mind a doubt: "Is this little one truly the Supreme Lord? Or is He just an imposter displaying His yogic powers?" Brahma's doubt is not surprising. Throughout the Shrimad Bhagavatam we find male members of Krishna's inner circle doubting His divinity. After the great war of Mahabharata, Yudhishtra was inconsolable.

When Krishna tried to pacify Him, it was of no avail. However, he was consoled when his great-grandfather Bhishma preached to him. Similarly with Arjuna, who in the Bhagavad Gita doubts: "O' Krishna, the sun was born before you. How is it possible for you to have imparted knowledge to the sun?"

It is only the women who due to their immense faith, having surrendered themselves completely to Krishna, could see Him as He truly was.

Krishna's aunt Kunti, while venerating Him, did not shy away from recognizing that even though His delightful and playful childish antics could confuse some into not recognizing His divinity, His Supreme and Absolute divinity remained undiminished. She says:

"Angry at your mischief, mother Yashoda took out a rope to bind you. It bewilders me that even though fear itself fears you; you stood in front of your mother like an ordinary child with your head down.

Your face was displaying fear, and tears blackened with the kohl in your eyes were rolling down your cheeks."  The women-folk never had any doubt. What did the women of Hastinapur do when they saw Krishna leaving their city? Desiring to lay their eyes on Him, they climbed on to the ceilings of the buildings, and viewing their beloved Krishna with bashful loving smiles, showered flowers on Him saying: "Krishna is the Primal Man, who is One without a second.

He is the Supreme God. Lucky is Vrindavana, which He has blessed with His childlike activities. Blessed are the ladies who taste the sweet nectar of His lips, the mere memories of which made the young gopis of Vrindavana faint with ecstasy."

Throughout we find women easily accepting Krishna as the Supreme Lord because of their faith. Men, because of their 'thinking nature' relying too much on logic and calculation, are often seen holding ambivalent views on Krishna.

We have seen above Kunti eulogizing Krishna when He was about to leave their city. What did her son Yudhishtra do when Krishna finally left the city? He asked a large army to accompany Krishna for protection on the way.

The Upanishads clearly say that it because of the fear of the Supreme Lord that the sun rises and sets on time. It is because of His fear that fire heats and it is due to His fear that the wind blows. To this Supreme Ruler of the world did Yudhishtra offer his protection! The same Krishna who plays joyful childish pranks with His friends is the Supreme God ruling the universe.

The great Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita:

 "Those who think that Krishna is not the Supreme God are fools."

Hence it is not surprising that Brahma, gifted with the most efficient brain in the cosmos, began to harbor doubts regarding the divinity of Krishna. He decided to do what one should never do; he decided to test God.

As the cowherd boys, their minds absorbed in Krishna, were enjoying the feast, their calves ventured far off in the search of greener pastures. When the boys saw that the calves had gone out of sight, they were fearful for their safety. Seeing them worried and looking up to Him for help, Krishna said: "Friends don't worry.

 I will go and get the calves back. You continue with your meals." Thus with His uneaten morsel of rice and yogurt within His fingers, Krishna set out to search for the lost calves. That was the start of troubles. We see this phenomenon explained throughout the life of Krishna.

Trouble comes whenever we shift our attention away from Krishna. Putana too lifted up Krishna when mother Yashoda began to look at her (Putana) rather than the Lord.

 In another episode when mother Yashoda got engrossed with her household chores a hurricane came and carried away Krishna. The same thing happened here. Where had the calves gone? Brahma Ji had kidnapped them.

When Krishna went to look for the calves, Brahma promptly took away Krishna's cowherd friends also to his abode, and held all of them there in suspended animation (yoga nidra). When Krishna realized that neither the calves nor His friends were to be found, He understood what had happened: "So this is Brahma's doing.

 He wants to see my lila." But which lila should Krishna show Brahma Ji? There is no use displaying one's mathematical skills in front of a grammarian. It is proper to display one's skills in the field of the other's specialty. What is Brahma's special talent? He is skilled at creating the world. However, here we must remember that Brahma doesn't create the five basic elements making up the material world. These five elements are the sky (akasha), air, fire, water and earth.

When Brahma sets out to create the physical world, he not only has at his disposal these five elements provided by God, but also the residue of the karma performed by the beings during their previous births. His job is to merely assemble the parts to create bodies based on the previous karma. However, Krishna's ability is wonderful He is the Ultimate Source of everything.

The Brahma Sutras clearly establish that just as the making of a pot requires an efficient cause (the potter) and a material cause (the clay); in the case of the manifested world, the Supreme Lord is both the efficient and material cause.

So in order to display His lila, Krishna decided to create a new world of His own. Without any matter to mould or foundation to build upon, without any pen, canvas or color He created a picture. He created out of Himself as many boys and calves as Brahma

had stolen. Each of these had different facial features, bodies, clothes and ornaments. Each had different tastes, activities and behavior. Krishna became all that had been stolen by Brahma in all its diversity. Indeed, as the Bhagavad Gita says:

'Everything is Krishna. The Chandogya Upanishad says: 'He becomes one, He becomes two, two, three, five, seven, eleven, He becomes manifold.'  This episode in the life of Krishna is an awesome illustration of the Vedic fact that 'everything is a form of Krishna' So did the Lord create, merely by deciding to do so.

The residents of Vrindavan meanwhile had no knowledge of what had happened. When this group of calves and cowherds, which were not different from Krishna,

reached back, the mothers of the boys heard the sweet melodies of flute and rushed out to embrace their respective children. Overflowing with maternal affection, milk oozed out of their breasts, and they immediately set out to feed

them this milk. Similarly the cows, their udders overflowing with milk, licked their calves with their tongues and fed them their milk. This practice continued for one year. The cows' affections for their calves and the gopis affection for their children increased day by day. Earlier on, before this episode had taken place, the cows and women had greater affection for Krishna than they had for their own offspring. Now however, they harbored for their children the same

amount of affection they had for Krishna. One day, as Krishna and Balarama were tending to the calves, they saw some cows grazing at the top of Govardhana hill. Suddenly on sighting the calves, the cows began to run towards them. They leaped downhill so swiftly that it seemed that front and rear legs had been joined together. Overflowing with affection the cows approached the calves with their udders so full of milk that they were almost touching the ground. Now what was surprising was that the calves these cows so lovingly wanted to feed their milk were not their own offspring. Even then they felt towards them the same affection they had for their own.

What's more, many of them had outgrown the age for their mother's milk and were now content eating grass. Yet, the cows generously, and out of immense affection, granted them their own milk; and the calves too eagerly began to suck milk from their udders. Here is another lofty Upanishad philosophy rendered into earthly terms by the Shrimad Bhagavatam. The Brihadaranayaka Upanishad puts it as follows: 'A husband is not loved because of love for him.

 A wife is not loved because of love for her. A son is not loved because of love for the son. Everything in this world which we love is not for the sake of that thing, but rather because they are pleasurable to our own self, which is what we love most in this world' ; and Krishna is none other than our very own self. Thus it is not at all surprising that the gopis and cows of Vrindavana felt this surge of supreme emotion towards their children, who as Krishna the Supreme Soul were none other than their own selves.

 After one year was over, Brahma thought of going back to Vrindavan and checking out what had happened all this while. There he was astonished to see all the cowherds and calves playing with Krishna as if nothing had happened. Brahma began to think: "All the boys and calves taken away by me are still sleeping under the spell of magical powers in my palace. Who then are these playing with Krishna?"

No sooner had he started meditating thus than he saw each of the cowherds and calves transformed into exact Vishnu figures, each with four arms, holding a conch, discus, mace and lotus. He saw that each figure was wearing a garland of Tulsi leaves, and several other Brahmas like him, and all the other creatures in the world, were singing, dancing and venerating these Vishnu forms.

Brahma realized that the transformation of the cowherds and calves to these Vishnu forms was not the result of the mystic powers of some yogi, but were actually the Supreme Lord Himself. Brahma was dazzled by this spiritual effulgence of the Lord and closed his eyes. Seeing the helplessness of Brahma, the compassionate Lord then removed the curtain of His Maya, and Brahma, on opening his eyes, saw spread before him the divine land of Vrindavana.

 Thus even though Krishna is the Highest Deity, He played the part of a child born in a 'low' family of cowherds. Even though He is the One and Only One, He has many friends. Though He is endless, even then He wanders here and there. He is Knowledge Incarnate, even then He searches around for His friends and calves.

 And lo! Brahma saw that same old Krishna he had left behind one year back, holding a morsel of food in His hands, searching around for His friends! Ecstatic beyond words, Brahma jumped down from his royal chariot and rolled in the dust of Vrindavana, touching each of his four Vedic crowns one by one at Krishna's feet. He then prostrated before Krishna like a stick lying horizontal on the ground and said:

"Lord, I don't know whether God is Nirguna (formless) or Saguna (with form). What I do know is that my allin- all is in front me with a handful of curd and rice in His hands, and a flute tucked into His waistband. Except the blue-colored son of the cowherd Nanda, I know nothing about the Supreme God.

O'Lord I desire only your grace. Fulfil my wish, make me some trifle object in Vrindavan." Krishna: "Why become a trifling here? Let me make you a Brahma again."

 Brahma: No Sir. I don't wish to be Brahma again and commit the same mistake. Make me anything in Vrindavana over which will fall the dust of the feet of its residents. Blessed are these inhabitants of Vrindavan.

While elaborate Vedic Sacrifices have failed to satisfy you since the dawn of creation, it is with relish that you drink the milk of the gopis and their cows; and they in the process taste transcendental bliss. You, who are here to destroy the evil demons plaguing this earth, are venerable even for the sun and the moon. My wish is keep saluting your glory throughout my life."

Conclusion:

When the young gopis and cows of Vrindavan used to see mother Yashoda feeding Krishna her breast, or when the older women saw Him dancing and playing pranks in her courtyard, they too wanted to the taste the bliss of this kind of direct engagement with Krishna that Yashoda was being blessed with. Krishna, the fulfiller of all wishes of His devotees, then set out to display this lila, which not only revealed the supreme Upanishadic truths in a vivid manner, but also ensured that all in Vrindavan got a taste of the transcendental bliss which till now had only been mother Yashoda's exclusive privilege.

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