Baba
Namaskar,
In western countries, nowadays some primary and high school students are paid money by the government - and even by educators and parents - as an incentive for attending class, studying, and doing their homework. And some are even paying children money to refrain from eating or drinking junk food like soda and sugary drinks etc. We should think: Is this appropriate or not?
On this very matter, Baba teaches us that children should not be given a monetary incentive or forced to learn. They will not retain any of that knowledge if it is forced upon them.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Ways children are ruined
In the general society, there are three main ways that parents and educators force learning upon today's children:
(a) Offer students money and gifts for studying and achieving academic attainment;
(b) Punish students in various ways if they do not study by employing fear tactics or taking away their favourite food and dessert etc;
(c) Give the allurement of prestige, professional status, or guarantee a bright future.
These are the common ways that parents and educators pressure or force students to study. But, according to Ananda Marga philosophy, this is not the way to motivate students. This notion of pressuring them to study creates bad habits that will carry on throughout their life, in all realms of existence.
For instance, regarding point (a), if you give kids money as a means of motivating them to study, that type of psychology will spill over to other arenas of life. The day their mother is sick, they will only go to the store to get medicine if they get paid handsomely by their sick mother. So this idea of paying students to study will just make them spoiled and indulgent. It will wipe out their ability to grow into idealistic, sacrificing, and socially responsible human beings. When they are young is the time to teach them these core values, but those are not inculcated. Instead, parents train them with monetary incentives. So children adopt materialistic, business relations as their ideal. In that case, everything is done for a monetary return, and they are never given the chance to cultivate a more meaningful, inner drive to help and serve others.
Second, about point (b), if punishment or fear tactics are used to force kids to study, then the day that fear is gone, they will neither remember what they learned, nor retain any of that information. For example, if a father threatens a child to study then the moment that father is not there, that child will not study. So this approach of forcing a child to learn is not effective. More about this is detailed below.
Third, the matter of (c) prestige does not work with kids aged 5 - 11; and for teenagers this is not the right incentive because they will become prestige oriented and not care what is proper. They will indulge in whatever will make them popular, regardless of what effect it has on them. They will do everything for the sake of getting more prestige. So if their parents do not have prestige in society then those kids will not go out in public with their parents. Additionally, those teens will leave Ananda Marga because the majority of their classmates are not margiis. For them Ananda Marga means "no prestige."
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Awaken a thirst for knowledge
So these three aforementioned techniques do not work. What then is Baba's guideline for motivating students? Baba clearly states that the "thirst for knowledge" should be aroused. That is the main approach that teachers and parents should adopt.
It is nature's law: Every child has the capacity to develop a great thirst for knowledge. It is the duty of parents, family members, teachers, and school officials to cultivate this longing - and not to extinguish it. The child's inquisitiveness and intellectual growth should be wholeheartedly encouraged.
Unfortunately, due to defective educational strategies and human misunderstanding, often such educators and parents stifle that inner drive in students. How does this happen? Well, when children are very small and start speaking, they ask all kinds of questions: What is this? How does it work? Children at that age are extremely inquisitive and pose innumerable queries. Often times parents and caretakers become overwhelmed. To quiet children, they terrorise them, or give false answers, or scare them. In that way, children become timid and lose their curiosity and zest for knowledge.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Conclusion
Baba guides us that the best way to help the child and foster their growth is to answer their questions truthfully. So, either give an honest answer based on the facts; or, if you do not know the answer, then directly say, "I do not know, but when you grow older you will engage in study and research and get the solution." That will be extremely helpful and will advance the child's learning. Whereas, scaring them or telling them lies is very dangerous, and indeed quite harmful, with long-term negative repercussions.
Every child enters this world with the potential for so much inquisitiveness and a strong desire to learn. That quality should be encouraged in a very natural way. Then the child will develop the inner inspiration to learn and grow as a human being. Then there will be no need to offer some type of external incentive to learn - such as giving them money.
If that innate longing is already crushed, then it must be rekindled. Then it is the job of parents and educators to awaken that thirst for knowledge through story, queries, or other ways that interest and challenge the child. That will create hunger to learn in which case the then real learning process will start. This should be done by parents, family members, caretakers, teachers, and general citizens - all are involved in raising the child.
Ananda Marga philosophy guides us, "The thirst for knowledge will have to be awakened among students, and reverence, devotion, orderliness and discipline will have to be taught as well." (1)
In Him,
Arun
~ In-depth study ~
Forcing students to study does not work
Here is Baba's teaching that employing fear tactics to force children to study is a defective approach. Rather it is important to cultivate a genuine desire to learn.
"It is improper to extort anything from students through undue pressure and intimidation. Intimidation appears to work to some extent, but it does not yield lasting results. Whatever students learn from their parents and teachers out of fear fades into oblivion as soon as the agencies of fear disappear. The reason is that their learning and their fear were inseparably associated, so with the disappearance of fear, the knowledge that they had acquired in the course of their education also disappears from the more developed parts of their minds. As soon as the bullying teacher leaves the classroom the students heave a sigh of relief. Within a few hours, whatever they had committed to memory starts growing hazy. Out of fear of failing their examinations students work hard, poring over books, and accomplish ten days’ work in one hour. But after completing their examinations and playing a game of football or visiting the cinema, they forget much of what they had learned, due to the absence of fear."
"People in many countries throughout the world are painfully experiencing the detrimental effects of education through the medium of fear. Most educated people lose the abilities they acquired through education after they graduate from school or university and enter their field of work. If I were to assess the value of the education these people received, I would say that most of their time, ability and labour had been wasted or had been spent meaninglessly."
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
"So as I was saying, it will not do to impart education through intimidation. A thirst for knowledge must be awakened, and, to quench that thirst, proper education must be given. Only then will education be worthwhile and develop the body, mind and ideals of the student." ۠(2)
Here is report about this growing phenomenon
~ Courtesy of NEA . org ~
1. Problems of the Day, Point #33
2. Human Society - 1, Education
Went away with the promise
Note: Those who don't do 6th lesson sadhana cannot understand this song.
Ásbe bole gecho je cale, keno ele ná, bolo ámáy..." (Prabhat Samgiita #0301)
Purport:
Parama Purusa, after assuring me that You’d return, You left me and went away with the promise that You’d again be by my side. Alas, You did not come back. Are You facing some problem, and that is why You have not returned. My Lord, ages and ages have passed waiting for You with a bouquet in my hand, and the flower petals of this garland which I threaded for You - for Your reception - have become one with the dust. Those blossoms have wilted and dried up. Alas, You did not come back.
Supreme One, I cannot fathom Your liila. You are the embodiment of prema, but what is this new way You are relating with me. When You have pretended to leave me, then why do You remain awake showering immense bhakti in my mind and heart, day and night - all the 24hrs - making me yearn for You. That gives me pain in my mind.
Parama Purusa, the more I want to forget You, it becomes more difficult to escape my remembrance of You. When I think about You then in longing I desire and wish to have You more close. To remove that feeling, I try not to think about You. But as much as I try, the more I ideate on You. Wherever I cast my glance, I see You shining in my mental abode. Whichever direction I look, I see You are all around. Why have You tied me with the jingle of Your melody, of every string of ideation of Your mental viina of prema. Baba, You have captivated me with Your exquisite song...
अवश्य help करेंगे
“अब यहाँ परमपुरुष की इच्छा क्या है ? “बच्चा परमपुरुष के पास पहुँच जाए” | तो बहुत अच्छा है, उनकी इच्छा जब तुम्हें मालूम हो गया, तो तुम उसके अनुसार काम करो | तुम साधना करो, आगे बढ़ते रहो | वे तुम्हें अवश्य help करेंगे | बच्चा गिर जाता है, पिता ऐसा-ऐसा [ताली बजाया] करता है | वह आवाज़ जो है, वह आवाज़ जब बच्चे के कान के पास आ जाती है, तो बच्चे का उत्साह बढ़ जाता है | वह फिर उठ जाता है | बच्चा जब कान में सुनता है (आवाज़ ऐसे), और ताक कर देखता है, “ऐसा-ऐसा पिता कर रहे हैं”, तो सुनना और देखना, दोनों मिलकर क्या होता है ? उनका उत्साह बढ़ जाता है |
तो, तुम जैसे आगे बढ़ोगे, साधना में भी तरह-तरह की अनुभूति होगी | वे अनुभूतियाँ क्या हैं ? “परमपिता का ऐसा-ऐसा” |
[यह प्रवचन-अंश, बाबा के कैसेट से सीधे लिखा गया है । बाबा का यह असली प्रवचन, अमृतोपदेश है। आनन्दमार्ग हिन्दी पुस्तकों में छपे प्रवचन तो नक़ली प्रवचन हैं, असली नहीं हैं -- बंगालीकरण (बँगलाइजेसन) के तहत उनकी बर्बादी की गई] (1)
Reference
1. सर्वाजीवे-अमृतत्वमेति, Sarva’jiive-Amrtatvameti,NP,GD, Allahabad,may be 1/1/1968, Date unknown
সারূপ্য লাভ করৰে
“স্থূল থেকে সূক্ষ্মের দিকেও মন যায়, আর সূক্ষ্ম থেকে স্থূলের দিকেও যায় | যদি স্থূলত্বের দিকে মানুষের গতিটাকে উত্সাহিত করা যায়, তার শুধু মন নয়, তার সমগ্র সত্তাই স্থূলে matter-এ, জড়ে পর্য়বসিত হয়ে যাৰে, পাথর হয়ে যাৰে | অহল্যা পাষাণী হয়ে যাৰে | স্থূল থেকে সূক্ষ্মত্বের দিকে গতিকে যদি উত্সাহ দেওয়া হয়, সাধনা মার্গের ক্রম অনুয়ায়ী মানুষ এগিয়ে চলে তাহলে তার সমগ্র সত্তা, সামগ্রিক অস্তিত্ব কি হৰে ? সূক্ষ্মত্বের পর্য়বসিত হয়ে ভূমা মনে একীভূত হৰে অথবা চরম জ্ঞা-সত্তার সঙ্গে সারূপ্য লাভ করৰে |”
Reference
1. “১ জানুয়ারি ১৯৮৬, কোলকাতা, আস্তিত্বিক গতিধারা ও তার চরম লক্ষ্য, চরম পরিণতি”
Which religions claim this worldview
Ananda Marga philosophy states, "At one time people were told that this world is for human enjoyment only, so the existence of all the plants, of all the birds and animals, in the world is intended merely to provide objects of enjoyment for human beings. Their hopes and aspirations, their intense desire to live, their pains and pleasures, their affectionate family or community lives are simply without value. However much a baby goat may wish to live, the main consideration is how much meat that kid carries on its frame. This defective philosophy has made people ruthlessly violent – even more dangerous than blood-thirsty tigers. Tigers kill only to fill their stomachs, to preserve their physical existence; whereas human beings kill animals mostly out of greed. Generally people have resorted to hypocrisy to camouflage this instinct of greed; they have killed animals on the pretext of pleasing the gods, while actually their main motive in doing so was to please their own tongues. These are all the inevitable results of such defective philosophies." (1)
Answer: Baba is talking about the Semitic religions.
Reference
1. Namah Shivaya Shantaya, Shiva's Teachings – 2 (continued) (Discourse 14)
Recent postings Other topics of interest
How to ruin a child’s education
Namaskar,
In western countries, nowadays some primary and high school students are paid money by the government - and even by educators and parents - as an incentive for attending class, studying, and doing their homework. And some are even paying children money to refrain from eating or drinking junk food like soda and sugary drinks etc. We should think: Is this appropriate or not?
On this very matter, Baba teaches us that children should not be given a monetary incentive or forced to learn. They will not retain any of that knowledge if it is forced upon them.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Ways children are ruined
In the general society, there are three main ways that parents and educators force learning upon today's children:
(a) Offer students money and gifts for studying and achieving academic attainment;
(b) Punish students in various ways if they do not study by employing fear tactics or taking away their favourite food and dessert etc;
(c) Give the allurement of prestige, professional status, or guarantee a bright future.
These are the common ways that parents and educators pressure or force students to study. But, according to Ananda Marga philosophy, this is not the way to motivate students. This notion of pressuring them to study creates bad habits that will carry on throughout their life, in all realms of existence.
For instance, regarding point (a), if you give kids money as a means of motivating them to study, that type of psychology will spill over to other arenas of life. The day their mother is sick, they will only go to the store to get medicine if they get paid handsomely by their sick mother. So this idea of paying students to study will just make them spoiled and indulgent. It will wipe out their ability to grow into idealistic, sacrificing, and socially responsible human beings. When they are young is the time to teach them these core values, but those are not inculcated. Instead, parents train them with monetary incentives. So children adopt materialistic, business relations as their ideal. In that case, everything is done for a monetary return, and they are never given the chance to cultivate a more meaningful, inner drive to help and serve others.
Second, about point (b), if punishment or fear tactics are used to force kids to study, then the day that fear is gone, they will neither remember what they learned, nor retain any of that information. For example, if a father threatens a child to study then the moment that father is not there, that child will not study. So this approach of forcing a child to learn is not effective. More about this is detailed below.
Third, the matter of (c) prestige does not work with kids aged 5 - 11; and for teenagers this is not the right incentive because they will become prestige oriented and not care what is proper. They will indulge in whatever will make them popular, regardless of what effect it has on them. They will do everything for the sake of getting more prestige. So if their parents do not have prestige in society then those kids will not go out in public with their parents. Additionally, those teens will leave Ananda Marga because the majority of their classmates are not margiis. For them Ananda Marga means "no prestige."
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Awaken a thirst for knowledge
So these three aforementioned techniques do not work. What then is Baba's guideline for motivating students? Baba clearly states that the "thirst for knowledge" should be aroused. That is the main approach that teachers and parents should adopt.
It is nature's law: Every child has the capacity to develop a great thirst for knowledge. It is the duty of parents, family members, teachers, and school officials to cultivate this longing - and not to extinguish it. The child's inquisitiveness and intellectual growth should be wholeheartedly encouraged.
Unfortunately, due to defective educational strategies and human misunderstanding, often such educators and parents stifle that inner drive in students. How does this happen? Well, when children are very small and start speaking, they ask all kinds of questions: What is this? How does it work? Children at that age are extremely inquisitive and pose innumerable queries. Often times parents and caretakers become overwhelmed. To quiet children, they terrorise them, or give false answers, or scare them. In that way, children become timid and lose their curiosity and zest for knowledge.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Conclusion
Baba guides us that the best way to help the child and foster their growth is to answer their questions truthfully. So, either give an honest answer based on the facts; or, if you do not know the answer, then directly say, "I do not know, but when you grow older you will engage in study and research and get the solution." That will be extremely helpful and will advance the child's learning. Whereas, scaring them or telling them lies is very dangerous, and indeed quite harmful, with long-term negative repercussions.
Every child enters this world with the potential for so much inquisitiveness and a strong desire to learn. That quality should be encouraged in a very natural way. Then the child will develop the inner inspiration to learn and grow as a human being. Then there will be no need to offer some type of external incentive to learn - such as giving them money.
If that innate longing is already crushed, then it must be rekindled. Then it is the job of parents and educators to awaken that thirst for knowledge through story, queries, or other ways that interest and challenge the child. That will create hunger to learn in which case the then real learning process will start. This should be done by parents, family members, caretakers, teachers, and general citizens - all are involved in raising the child.
Ananda Marga philosophy guides us, "The thirst for knowledge will have to be awakened among students, and reverence, devotion, orderliness and discipline will have to be taught as well." (1)
In Him,
Arun
~ In-depth study ~
Forcing students to study does not work
Here is Baba's teaching that employing fear tactics to force children to study is a defective approach. Rather it is important to cultivate a genuine desire to learn.
"It is improper to extort anything from students through undue pressure and intimidation. Intimidation appears to work to some extent, but it does not yield lasting results. Whatever students learn from their parents and teachers out of fear fades into oblivion as soon as the agencies of fear disappear. The reason is that their learning and their fear were inseparably associated, so with the disappearance of fear, the knowledge that they had acquired in the course of their education also disappears from the more developed parts of their minds. As soon as the bullying teacher leaves the classroom the students heave a sigh of relief. Within a few hours, whatever they had committed to memory starts growing hazy. Out of fear of failing their examinations students work hard, poring over books, and accomplish ten days’ work in one hour. But after completing their examinations and playing a game of football or visiting the cinema, they forget much of what they had learned, due to the absence of fear."
"People in many countries throughout the world are painfully experiencing the detrimental effects of education through the medium of fear. Most educated people lose the abilities they acquired through education after they graduate from school or university and enter their field of work. If I were to assess the value of the education these people received, I would say that most of their time, ability and labour had been wasted or had been spent meaninglessly."
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
"So as I was saying, it will not do to impart education through intimidation. A thirst for knowledge must be awakened, and, to quench that thirst, proper education must be given. Only then will education be worthwhile and develop the body, mind and ideals of the student." ۠(2)
Here is report about this growing phenomenon
~ Courtesy of NEA . org ~
"Long a tactic of fed-up parents, the idea of paying for good grades has migrated from the family room to the school house. In states ranging from Texas to Massachusetts, a growing number of students are pocketing cold cash for good grades or test scores on Advanced Placement and SAT exams, typically through privately funded programs. In Houston, a three-month-old, privately funded $1.5 million program will reward fifth-graders – and, notably, their parents – when they master basic math standards. Each family stands to earn $1,050, not a small amount, especially in a community where 80 percent of kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Meanwhile, down the road, more than 10,000 Dallas students have earned up to $400 for taking and passing Advanced Placement tests in a newly expanded $1.5 million program funded by a private foundation.” (Courtesy of NEA (dot) org - www. nea. org/ home / 42011)References
1. Problems of the Day, Point #33
2. Human Society - 1, Education
== Section 2: Prabhat Samgiita ==
Went away with the promise
Note: Those who don't do 6th lesson sadhana cannot understand this song.
Ásbe bole gecho je cale, keno ele ná, bolo ámáy..." (Prabhat Samgiita #0301)
Purport:
Parama Purusa, after assuring me that You’d return, You left me and went away with the promise that You’d again be by my side. Alas, You did not come back. Are You facing some problem, and that is why You have not returned. My Lord, ages and ages have passed waiting for You with a bouquet in my hand, and the flower petals of this garland which I threaded for You - for Your reception - have become one with the dust. Those blossoms have wilted and dried up. Alas, You did not come back.
Supreme One, I cannot fathom Your liila. You are the embodiment of prema, but what is this new way You are relating with me. When You have pretended to leave me, then why do You remain awake showering immense bhakti in my mind and heart, day and night - all the 24hrs - making me yearn for You. That gives me pain in my mind.
Parama Purusa, the more I want to forget You, it becomes more difficult to escape my remembrance of You. When I think about You then in longing I desire and wish to have You more close. To remove that feeling, I try not to think about You. But as much as I try, the more I ideate on You. Wherever I cast my glance, I see You shining in my mental abode. Whichever direction I look, I see You are all around. Why have You tied me with the jingle of Your melody, of every string of ideation of Your mental viina of prema. Baba, You have captivated me with Your exquisite song...
== Section: Hindi Quote ==
अवश्य help करेंगे
“अब यहाँ परमपुरुष की इच्छा क्या है ? “बच्चा परमपुरुष के पास पहुँच जाए” | तो बहुत अच्छा है, उनकी इच्छा जब तुम्हें मालूम हो गया, तो तुम उसके अनुसार काम करो | तुम साधना करो, आगे बढ़ते रहो | वे तुम्हें अवश्य help करेंगे | बच्चा गिर जाता है, पिता ऐसा-ऐसा [ताली बजाया] करता है | वह आवाज़ जो है, वह आवाज़ जब बच्चे के कान के पास आ जाती है, तो बच्चे का उत्साह बढ़ जाता है | वह फिर उठ जाता है | बच्चा जब कान में सुनता है (आवाज़ ऐसे), और ताक कर देखता है, “ऐसा-ऐसा पिता कर रहे हैं”, तो सुनना और देखना, दोनों मिलकर क्या होता है ? उनका उत्साह बढ़ जाता है |
तो, तुम जैसे आगे बढ़ोगे, साधना में भी तरह-तरह की अनुभूति होगी | वे अनुभूतियाँ क्या हैं ? “परमपिता का ऐसा-ऐसा” |
[यह प्रवचन-अंश, बाबा के कैसेट से सीधे लिखा गया है । बाबा का यह असली प्रवचन, अमृतोपदेश है। आनन्दमार्ग हिन्दी पुस्तकों में छपे प्रवचन तो नक़ली प्रवचन हैं, असली नहीं हैं -- बंगालीकरण (बँगलाइजेसन) के तहत उनकी बर्बादी की गई] (1)
Reference
1. सर्वाजीवे-अमृतत्वमेति, Sarva’jiive-Amrtatvameti,NP,GD, Allahabad,may be 1/1/1968, Date unknown
== Section: Bangla Quote ==
সারূপ্য লাভ করৰে
“স্থূল থেকে সূক্ষ্মের দিকেও মন যায়, আর সূক্ষ্ম থেকে স্থূলের দিকেও যায় | যদি স্থূলত্বের দিকে মানুষের গতিটাকে উত্সাহিত করা যায়, তার শুধু মন নয়, তার সমগ্র সত্তাই স্থূলে matter-এ, জড়ে পর্য়বসিত হয়ে যাৰে, পাথর হয়ে যাৰে | অহল্যা পাষাণী হয়ে যাৰে | স্থূল থেকে সূক্ষ্মত্বের দিকে গতিকে যদি উত্সাহ দেওয়া হয়, সাধনা মার্গের ক্রম অনুয়ায়ী মানুষ এগিয়ে চলে তাহলে তার সমগ্র সত্তা, সামগ্রিক অস্তিত্ব কি হৰে ? সূক্ষ্মত্বের পর্য়বসিত হয়ে ভূমা মনে একীভূত হৰে অথবা চরম জ্ঞা-সত্তার সঙ্গে সারূপ্য লাভ করৰে |”
Reference
1. “১ জানুয়ারি ১৯৮৬, কোলকাতা, আস্তিত্বিক গতিধারা ও তার চরম লক্ষ্য, চরম পরিণতি”
== Section: Important Teaching ==
Which religions claim this worldview
Ananda Marga philosophy states, "At one time people were told that this world is for human enjoyment only, so the existence of all the plants, of all the birds and animals, in the world is intended merely to provide objects of enjoyment for human beings. Their hopes and aspirations, their intense desire to live, their pains and pleasures, their affectionate family or community lives are simply without value. However much a baby goat may wish to live, the main consideration is how much meat that kid carries on its frame. This defective philosophy has made people ruthlessly violent – even more dangerous than blood-thirsty tigers. Tigers kill only to fill their stomachs, to preserve their physical existence; whereas human beings kill animals mostly out of greed. Generally people have resorted to hypocrisy to camouflage this instinct of greed; they have killed animals on the pretext of pleasing the gods, while actually their main motive in doing so was to please their own tongues. These are all the inevitable results of such defective philosophies." (1)
Answer: Baba is talking about the Semitic religions.
Reference
1. Namah Shivaya Shantaya, Shiva's Teachings – 2 (continued) (Discourse 14)
== Section 3: Links ==
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