Swami Vivekananda, a great spiritual luminary of India had such progressive views on Education that even UNESCO acknowledged him as one of the eminent educationists in the world. Reading his quotes, even now gives the idea that he was so much ahead of his time. In current times when Indian parents are clamoring to attach the fanciest prefix to their children’s degrees, Swami Vivekananda’s quotes on Education can act as a sharp reminder to them. Meaning, the fundamental duty and perspective that parents mustn’t miss. That is to say, raising good sincere children with great value, self confidence and great work ethic, primed to realize service for their family and the nation above all.
Without further ado, presenting 50 of Swamiji’s fiery thoughts on Education
Swami Vivekananda quotes on Education as Character building not Information gathering
1.Education isn’t filling the mind with a lot of facts!
The Education that does not help the common mass of people Or equip them for the struggles of Life…That does not bring out a Strength of Character or a Spirit of Philanthropy or the Courage of a Lion… Is it worth its name?!
2. Education is not the amount of information put into your brain that runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas.
3. Real Education is that which enables one to stand on his own legs!
4. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by-heart a whole library!
5. If education is identical with information, the libraries are the greatest Sages in the world, and the encyclopaedias the Rishis!
6. The present system of education is all wrong. The mind is crammed with facts before it knows how to think
Swami Vivekanandas quotes on Education and the Role of Heart
7. Always cultivate the heart.
8. Learning and Wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, it is the Heart that is the seat of all Power!
9. I would a hundred times rather have a little heart and no brains, than be all brains and no heart! He who has no heart and only brain dies of dryness!
Swami Vivekanandas quotes on Education and the role of Thoughts
10. Let Positive, Strong Helpful thoughts enter your brains from very Childhood. Lay yourself open to these thoughts and not to weakening and paralysing ones.
11. In language and literature, in poetry and the arts, in everything we must point out not the mistakes that people are making in their thoughts and actions. But the way in which they will gradually be able to do better. Pointing out mistakes, wounds a man’s feelings.
12. Negative thoughts weaken men. If you can give them positive ideas, people will grow up to be men and learn to stand on their own legs.
13. Each thought is a little hammer blow on the lump of iron which our bodies are, manufacturing out of it what we want it to be.
14. Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you and out of that will come great work.
15. If the fisherman thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a better fisherman; if the student thinks he is the Spirit he will be a better student, If the lawyer thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a better lawyer.
Swami Vivekananda’s quotes on Education and the role of Concentration and Knowledge
16. What a man ‘learns’ is really what he ‘discovers’ by taking the cover off his Soul- which is the mine of Infinite Knowledge!
17. All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the Mind! The Infinite Library of the Universe is in your own Mind. The falling of an apple gave the suggestion to Newton, and he studied his own mind. He rearranged all the previous links of thought in his mind and discovered a new link among them, which we call gravitation.
18. There is only one method by which to attain knowledge, that is concentration. The very essence of education is concentration of mind.
19. From the lowest man to the highest Yogi, all have to use the same method; and that method is concentration. The more this power of concentration, the more knowledge is acquired.
20. All success in any line of work is the result of this. High achievements in art, music etc are results of concentration.
21. The practice of meditation leads to mental concentration.
22. All knowledge depends upon calmness of mind. Instinct, Reason and Inspiration are the three instruments of mind.
23. Books are infinite in number and time is short; therefore, the secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it.
Swami Vivekanandas quotes on Education and the role of a teacher
24. The greatness of a teacher consists in the simplicity of his language.
25. The only True teacher is he who can immediately come down to the level of the student and transfer his Soul to the student’s Soul … See through the student’s eyes, hear through his ears and understand through his mind.
26. All teaching implies giving and taking, the teacher gives and the taught receives, but the one must have something to give and the other must be open to receive.
27. No one was ever really taught by another, each of us must teach himself. The external teacher offers only the suggestion which rouses the internal teacher to work to understand things.
28. He alone teaches who has something to give, for teaching is not talking, teaching is not imparting doctrines, it is communicating.
29. You cannot teach a child any more than you can grow a plant. You can only help. You can only take away obstructions.
30. You cannot make a plant grow in soil unsuited to it. A child teaches itself. But you can help it go forward. Loosen the soil a little, so that it may come out easily. Put a hedge round it; see that it is not killed by anything. The rest is a manifestation from within its own nature
Swami Vivekananda’s quotes on Education and the role of hard work in student life
31. Arise, Awake and Stop not till the goal is reached.
32. No great work can be achieved through humbug. It is through love, a passion for truth and tremendous energy that all undertakings are accomplished.
33. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Think of it. Dream of it. Live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea. Leave every other idea alone. That is the way to Success.
34. When one works with concentration, losing consciousness of oneself, the work done will be infinitely better.
35. To succeed you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. ‘I will drink up the ocean.’ Says the persevering Soul; ‘At my will mountains will crumble.’ Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard and you will reach that goal.
36. We may read books, hear lectures and talk miles, but experience is the one teacher, the one eye-opener. It is best as it is. We learn through smiles and tears.
37. Practice is absolutely necessary. You may sit down and listen to me by the hour every day, but if you do not practice, you will not get one step further
Swami Vivekananda’s quotes on Education and the importance of continence (Brahmacharya) in a student’s life
38. Every boy should be trained to practice absolute Brahmacharya and then Shradda, Faith will come.
39. Chastity in thought, word and deed, always and in all conditions is called brahmacharya.
40. The chaste brain has tremendous energy and gigantic willpower. Without chastity there can be no spiritual strength.
41. Continence gives wonderful control over mankind. The spiritual leaders have been very continent, and this is what gave them power.
42. Complete continence gives great intellectual and spiritual power.
43. The Yogis claim that of all energies that are in the human body the highest is what they call ‘Ojas’. This Ojas is stored in the brain and the more Ojas in a man’s head, the more powerful he is, the more intellectual, the more spiritually strong. Part of the human energy expressed as sex energy, in sexual thought when checked and controlled, easily becomes Ojas.
44. All the senses, external and internal, must be under the disciple’s control. By hard practice he must arrive at the stage where he can assert his mind against the senses, against the commands of nature. He should be able to say to his mind, ‘You are mine; I order you, do not see or hear anything.’
Swami Vivekananda’s quotes on Education and willpower in student’s life
45. From the highest God to the meanest grass, the same power is present in all- whether manifested or not.
46. Within each of you there is the power to remove all wants and all miseries. Believe this and that power will be manifested.
47. Will power is necessary not only to conduct the learning process, but also to strengthen one’s character.
48. The disciple must have great power of endurance. The mind behaves well when everything is going well. But if something goes wrong, your mind loses its balance. Bear all Evil and Misery without one murmur of hurt, without one thought of unhappiness, resistance, remedy or retaliation. That is true endurance!
Swami Vivekananda’s quotes on Education and vanities associated with it.
49. Bring light to the ignorant and more light to the educated for the vanities of the education of our times are tremendous.
50. We are always trying to polish up the outside. What is the use polishing up the outside when there is no inside? The end and aim of all training is to make the Man grow.
51. Getting by-heart the thoughts of others in a foreign language and stuffing your brain with them and taking some university degrees, you consider yourself educated?! What is the goal of your education? What good will it do to you or the country at large? Open your eyes and see what a piteous cry for food is rising in the land of Bharata, proverbial for its wealth! Will your education fulfil this want? Never.
52. Educate our people so that they may be able to solve their own problems. Until that is done, all these ideal reforms will remain ideals only.
53. If the poor cannot come to education, education must reach them at the plough, in the factory, everywhere.
References:
The complete works of Swami Vivekananda
My idea of education, Swami Vivekananda compiled by Kiran Walia
