Integral Education - Part-I

Sri Krishna tells Arjuna in the 13th chapter of Bhagwad Geeta 11th sloka :

Adhyatma-jnana-nityatvam
tattva-jnanartha-darsanam
Etaj jnanam iti proktam
ajnanam yad ato nyatha

(Constant application to the study of spiritual texts and practice of discipline and clear aim of the goal of enlightenment and destiny of man- all these constitute knowledge, everything else is ignorance)

The main aim of the education should be training of mind as an instrument of imparting knowledge and not simply to sight the lust of materialism . Does our modern education guarantees 'character' , 'social outlook' ?? Does our education stress on development of mind towards collective consciousness of uplifting Humankind ?? Does current education aggrandize wisdom?? We all know the answer, an affirmative NO. Is it not right time to ponder upon alternative model and sow the seeds of Integral Education ??

My friend Ravi.V used to talk of Integral Education. I never understood his botheration on such subject in to-days education system, where it has become a money making Industry. Aurobindo Society and Pragna Bharati held few training sessions for school teachers on "Integral Education" . I accompanied Ravi to few of them. These sessions made me believe that Education is not just about knowledge gaining but more about imbibing discipline and focusing on lasting values.

Ask youngsters what he or she like to become and they would reply saying anything that guarantee them a great future in terms of making money in shortest time. GenNxt was never made to understand the holistic concept that education is more about gaining knowledge to be union with Humanity rather means towards making money.

In this context perhaps it would be appropriate to evaluate the worth and utility of money or its potential in as much as the inducement to education is focused on more money in the shortest time as mentioned above.

I studied Business Management from Bhavan's college. In one of Bhavan's journal it published the following lines :

money can buy a bed, but not sleep
money can buy books, but not knowledge
money can buy fruits but not sweetness

(will be continued)

Bhu Devi , Please do not forsake us, save us from earthquake's

"prthivyam putraste janani bahavah santi saralah
param tesam madhye viralataralo ham tava sutah
madiyo yam tyagah samucitamidam no tava sive
kuputro jayeta kvacidapi kumata na bhavati."

O' Mother, on this earth you have many good sons and daughters but out of all these I am the most bad child of yours,  O' Goddess, you have forsaken me because I have not concentrated on you, this is not reasonable, Because a son can be bad, however, it is not in the Mother's nature to be bad.

Bhu Devi Lurch again , result is yet another earthquake in Nepal and Bihar two days back resulting nearly 100 deaths. This is gonna happen until we Human's realise the nature of Mother Earth, Bhu Devi. Pay respects to her as you do it with other Gods & Goddesses .

Remember Bhu Devi is personification of Goddess Lakshmi and married to Lord Vishnu ( Varhara). She along with Goddess Lakshmi resides on the chest of Lord Venkateshwara in Tirumala. We try to please Lakshmi mata for wealth and prosperity but ignore Bhu Devi whom we stomp upon. Bhu Devi who carries us, beholds us and tranform all our sin, garbage, dirt into pure is least recognised.

For how long Bhu Devi will allow us to tamper with her own existence? Lets be more responsible and sensitive towards Mother Earth. Lets be conscious of the fact that she is our Mother and we Her children. Lets not cut trees unnecessarily or pollute her with effluents/industry waste/non bio-degradable. Lets try to maintain equilibrium of Nature. Stop digging earth unnecessarily to pave way for concrete jungle.

We Humans should realise that we dont own nor creators of Mother Earth and all other living/non living beings do have equal right over Bhoomi. We Humans are insignificant in this marvelous divine creation. Remember She is the source of our existence not vice versa.

We are so pre-occupied in procuring wealth to give it to our descendants but in the process we forget that we have only one planet "Bhoomi" to live upon.

Did you ever notice a Indian Classical Dancer before his/her performance touches the ground with his/her hands and ask for forgiveness for stomping the feet on her . Lets consummate the same sensitivity by invoking ( and understanding) the below Prayer

"Samudra vasane devi parvata stana mandale
Vishnu patni namastubhyam paadasparsham kshamasvame"

O' Bhu Devi, who has the Ocean as Her garments and Mountains as Her breasts, who is the consort of Sri Vishnu, I bow to You. Please forgive us for touching You with our feet.

Muslim Husbands and Hindu Wives .

Bollywood, in India, is notorious for nurturing Hindu-Muslim marriages. This should not be surprising for us. The general mass thinking is that things/people are loose in Bollywood! Here are many instances of Bollywood and non-Bollywood marriages between well-known Muslim men with Hindu wives.
I culled this list from the site:
http://chalatmusafir.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/aaj-ke-jodha-akbar/

The compilation had 123 entries. I selected the most interesting ones. Hence, don't be surprised by the jumping serial numbers. Many of the entries will surprise you!
1. Actor Irrfan Khan is married to Sutapa Sikdar, an Assamese Hindu. They have two sons, Babil and Ayaan.
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2. Legendary bollywood actress Rekha has four sisters. One of them, Radha Ganeshan is married to Mr Usman Syed and is settled in USA.
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5. Music Director Anu (Anwar) Malik is married to Anju. They have two daughters, one of whom is named Anmol.
His elder brother Daboo Malik is married to Jyoti and has two sons, Amal and Arman.
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6. Famous bollywood cabaret dancer of 80s, Leena Das married singer Mohammed Rafi’s son, Shahid. They have two sons.
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8. Actor Zayed Khan recently married school friend Malaika Parekh, a Hindu. (His sister Suzanne is Hritik Roshan‘s wife. Other sister Simone is also married to a Hindu). They have two sons, Zidaan and Ariz.
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12. VJ and anchor Mini Mathur is married to film director Kabir Khan. They have a son, Vivaan and a daughter, Sairah.
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13. Actor Farooq Sheikh’s wife Rupa is a Gujarati Hindu. They have two daughters, Shaista and Sanaa.
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15. Mira Nair, director of the film ‘Monsoon Wedding’ is married to Professor Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University, a Ugandan Muslim. They have one son, Zohran.
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19. Director Muzaffar Ali married Subhashini Sehgal, daughter of freedom fighter Capt Laxmi Sehgal. They later divorced.
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20. Naina Balsawar, an ex- Miss India is married to Ahmad Dumpy, a Congress politician. She has been an MP herself. This is her second marriage. She has two daughters (Rivan and Rivka) from her first marriage, and a son, Azaan and a daughter, Aleah from Dumpy.
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22. Imtiaz Ali, director of the film ‘Jab We Met’ is married to Priti. Their daughter is Ida.
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24. Renowned Kathak dancer Sitara Devi married director K Asif (‘Mughal E Azam’). But they were divorced soon. Then she married Pratap Barot and divorced him too.
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25. Singer Sunidhi Chauhan, at the age of 18, eloped and married Bobby Khan, brother of choreographer Ahmed Khan. Her family never acknowledged the marriage and threatened to disown her. The couple fell apart in a year and she returned to her parents. She is now married to a Hindu.
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26. Late Sitar player Vilayat Khan was married to Bengali Brahmin, Monisha. They got divorced. Son Shujaat is a Sitar player married to a Muslim named Parveen and his son is Azaan.

27. His daughter Zila (sufi singer) is married to a Muslim while the other daughter Yaman married a Hindu Rajput (now divorced). Vilayat Khan’s second wife, was a Christian. From her. he had one son, Hidayat.
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33. Actor-director Farhan Akhtar‘s first wife was Riya Jain. They are now divorced. He is now married to Adhuna Bhabani, a Bengali Hindu. They have two daughters, Shakya and Akira and a son, Kalyan.

Javed Akhtar’s brother Salman is married to Monisha Nair. They both are psychologists based in UK.
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34. TV actor and anchor Husain Kuwajerwala (Anchor of Indian Idol) is married to Tina Darera.
39. Latika, Daughter of Sheila Dixit, present Chief Minister of Delhi, is married to Mr Syed, a Muslim.
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40. The household of Screen writer Salim Khan (of the Salim-Javed duo) is a virtual congregation of religions. He married Susheela, a Maharashtrian Hindu woman. Their children are actors Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail and a daughter named Alvira.
Arbaaz Khan married Malaika Arora (a Roman Catholic). They have a son named Arhan.
Actor Sohail Khan married Seema Sachdev, a Hindu. Their son is named Nirvaan.
Alvira is married to actor Atul Agnihotri, a Hindu. They have a daughter, Alizeb and a son, Ayaan.
Salim’s second wife is Helen, an Anglo-Indian Jew. They have an adopted Hindu daughter, Arpita.
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43. CNN IBN anchorperson Suhasini Haidar daughter of politician Subramaniam Swamy, is married to Nadeem, son of  former India bureaucrat Salman Haidar. They have two daughters.
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44. Aamir Khan maried Reena Dutta but they are now divorced. They had a son, Junaid and a daughter, Ira. Custody of the kids is with Reena. Aamir is now married to Kiran Rao. They have a son, Azad.
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45. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Muslim faces, Late Sikander Bakht (married to Raj Sharma), Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (married to Seema) and Syed Shahnawaz Husain (married to Renu Sharma) all married Hindu women.
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46. Sarod Player Amjad Ali Khan married Subhalaxmi, an Assamese Hindu. Their twin sons Ayaan Ali and Amaan Ali are also Sarod players and frequently appear on TV. Ayaan recently got married to Neema, daughter of Romesh Sharma, producer of Big B film ‘Hum’. In the film, Romesh also did a small role of Kimi Katkar’s brother who gets killed.
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50. Actor Arif Zakaria, known for his roles on TV and in art films, is married to journalist Namrata Sharma. They have a son.
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51. India’s most famous radio anchor Ameen Sayani married Rama, a Kashmiri Pandit. Their son, Rajil is married to Krishna.
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52. Actor Naseeruddin Shah is married to actor Ratna Pathak. They have a son, Imaad and a daughter, Heba. Both are actors.
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53. ‘Wipro’ tycoon Azim Premji’s son Rishad got married to a Hindu girl, Aditi in 2005. They have two children, Rhea (daughter) and Rohan (son).
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56. Music director Ismail Darbar (‘Devdas’, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’) is married to Priti Sinha (Ayesha after marriage).
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58. Legendary actress Meena Kumari (Mahjabeen Bano) was daughter of Allah Bux and Prabhavati Devi (Iqbal Begum after conversion to Islam). Her mother, Prabhavati herself was daughter of a Christian father and a Hindu mother. Meena Kumari’s sister Mehelka (Madhuri after marriage) married Kishore Sharma.
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61. Ghazal Singer Talat Aziz is married to Bina Adwani, a Sindhi Hindu. They have two sons, Adnan and Shayaan.
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63. Actor Shahrukh Khan married Gauri Chibber. They have a son, Aryan and a daughter, Suhana.
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66. ‘Indian Cowboy’ Feroze Khan married Sundari. She is the sister of actor Sonia Sahani who played Rishi Kapur’s mother in ‘Bobby’. They got divorced in 1985. Their children, Fardeen and Laila  both married Hindus.
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71. Music director Khayyam is married to a Sikh woman by the name of  Jagjit Kaur.
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76. Actress Dia Mirza’s mother, Deepa was Bengali Hindu and father, a German (Christian). They divorced and her mother remarried a Muslim, Ahmed Mirza when Dia was a child. He died in 2002. Dia chose to retain the surname Mirza, though she is not a Muslim.
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77. Liquor Tycoon Vijay Mallaya is married to Rekha. This is the second marriage for both of them.  Rekha was previously married to Mr Mahmood and had a daughter, Laila. Vijay and Rekha have adopted Laila and she is now called Laila Mallaya.
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82. Legendary singer Talat Mahmood’s son Khalid is married to Reena Pande. Talat Mahmood’s wife, Latika was a Christian.
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83. Kabir Bedi’s daughter, actress Pooja Bedi was married to Farhan Furniturewalla. They are now divorced. They have two children, Aliya and Omar.
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86. Music director Salim Merchant (of Salim-Sulaiman duo) is married to a Hindu woman.
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87. Indian Cricketer Saba Karim is married to Rashmi Roy. They have one son, Fidel.
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89. Classical percussionist Taufique Qureshi is married to vocalist Geetika Varde. Their son is Shikhar Naad.
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90. Politician LK Advani’s niece is married to a Muslim.
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93. Social activist Teesta Setalvad is married to Javed Anand. Their daughter is Tamara and son Jibraan.
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89. Actor Imran Khan is married to Avantika Malik. He is son of Anil Pal and Nuzhat Khan (Aamir Khan’s sister) who are now divorced. Imran prefers to use the surname Khan, perhaps for commercial reasons.
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103. Indian Cricketer Mohammed Kaif married Pooja Yadav.
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112. Vice President of India, Mohammed Hidayatullah (died 1992) who also served as the Chief Justice of Supreme Court, was married to Pushpa Shah. Their son Arshad is a lawyer.
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119. Late Indian Economist-diplomat Abid Hussain was married to Trilok Karki. They have two sons, Suhail and Rana  and a daughter, Vishakha.
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Every Day Is Mothers Day

"jaganmatarmatastava caranaseva na racita
na va dattam devi dravinamapi bhuyastava maya
tathapi tvam sneham mayi nirupamam yatprakuruse
kuputro jayeta kvachidapi kumata na bhavati"

O, Mother, I have never rubbed your feet or done any sort of service, I have not given you wealth, but even strangely enough, you are bestowing your grace on undeserving me Because a son can be bad, however, it is not in the Mother's nature to be bad.