Essay On Sources Of Knowledge

SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE- CONCEPT OF EDUCATION

1. Due to western influence, we Indians have started to think like the western world in many ways. Take for example ‘Source of knowledge’. We have started believing that if a person is educated i.e. has a lot of college degrees, then he or she is a knowledgeable person. That an illiterate person, for example a farmer is uneducated. Is it true? What are the sources of knowledge? A westerner would say ‘Books and Internet’. Let us see from the point of view of Indian philosophy. Knowledge is gained by an individual and society from:- o The Mother. o The Father. o Elders. o Friends. o Society. o Folk tales, legends, traditional songs. o Traditional sayings. o Nature (Trees, plants, animals, birds etc.) o Own life experience. o Last but not the least, from ‘past lives’. We display latent skills and talents acquired in past lives. Lord Buddha had perfected love, compassion and self sacrifice in previous five hundred

As per Indian philosophy, world civilization moves in cycles. From Satya Yuga (Age of truth / Golden Age) to Kali Yuga (Dark Age/ Iron Age). We are just coming out of the Dark Age. This is just the beginning of the upward cycle of civilization. We call a person who cannot read and write as illiterate. But it is said that in Satya Yuga there was least need for writing. Why? Because human memory, concentration and intelligence was on a high order. Anything once heard would never be forgotten. Hence the Vedas(which literally means – knowledge)were never written down but memorized. A child could understand and memorize hundreds of thousands of verses without forgetting. In the Dark Age, written script became necessary due to low human memory and concentration ability. A person has to read a book tens of times to understand and memorize. Hearing once from a teacher is not enough! So as per Indian philosophy, knowledge is not gained from mere books, but from social environment. Beyond knowledge is