Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Digambar Jain Acharya Pragyasagar Maharaj delivered a special lecture on revolution in education at Vikram Kirti Mandir in Vikram University on Monday.
Pragyasagar Maharaj said that education has always been important and glorified with time. Earlier mothers used to be the teachers of religion and tradition. Today grown up children are facing ideological tussle. To tackle this tussle, education is in dire need of a revolution.
New generation must be taught humanity to bring about a change, he said and added, “There is a need to awaken faith in the younger generation. It is important that schools teach human religion.”
He further said that in every religion of the world “the God says be human.” The focus should be on direction of developing a place of faith. People should be made prudent instead of disciplined. Education helps in awakening the sense of discretion like a swan. And with this awakening of discretion, a person will be able to say yes for yes and no for no.
He said that along with knowledge of principles in educational institutions, practical education should also be imparted. In the Gurukuls, the students were taught to work along with education. They used to strengthen the children in body, mind and life. Gurukul’s education needs to be revived in the new era. A teacher filled with morals and values makes a student great but teaching deprived of morals and values only makes a student graduate. We need to think in a proper manner about education. This is the glory of ascetics in India, not the ruling. The government is working to change the education policy, which is important. There is a need to emphasize education in the mother tongue.
Vice-chancellor Prof Akhilesh Kumar Pandey presided over the programme. He said that Maharaj Pragyasagar has been continuously talking about the role of education in nation-building. Postgraduate courses focused on Jainism will be started at the Centre for Indic Studies of Vikram University. This course will give direction to the nation and society.
In the programme, a MoU was signed between Vikram University and Mahavir Tapobhoomi Trust, Bhadrabahu Pragyapith. On this occasion, Sachin Kasliwal, secretary of Digambar Jain Social Parliament proposed to start a postgraduate course in Jainism, on which the vice-chancellor gave his consent. This course will start from the next session. The programme was conducted by Dr Arihant Jain. The gratitude was expressed by Registrar Dr Prashant Puranik.
