Nimesh Bastola
“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” -James Baldwin
To understand those words of Baldwin and the given topic of this piece, first we have to remember all the sufferings that we all have been walking through, all our agony and dissatisfaction towards life. And with that, we have to equally acknowledge the fact that all those turmoil and the wastefulness are the driven factor of our childhood. In other words, our present condition is a long way production of our childhood that how we were reared or to what extent we were introduced. And if we are sensitive to the living and compassionate in any degree we can simply comprehend that.
Last month, I watched ‘Hope’, a Korean movie, directed by Joon-ik Lee. I was not been able to watch more than twenty five minutes from the opening. Because of its highly sensitive content plotted for the commercial purpose, taking a heartbreaking real incident of an eight years child and modifying with an intention for the box office. I do not appreciate even the writers who write and try to show the pain that human beings have to bear through children in such a painful way. Merely watching twenty five minutes I quitted. It was unbearable. Only a cunning and dead writer can do such who just manipulate someone’s emotions.
Children should not be subjected to suffering. A single man is capable of bearing any burden. We can impose anything upon him. Children are sensitive and naïve, while we possess some level of rationality and strength to endure almost anything, even the unbearable. We are essentially more resilient than children.
Life is suffering and if there is a way to handle it, it is by choosing a right kind of suffering. But the tragedy in man is that he inholds no character to choose but flows into the ever running matrix which compiles autonomously. The children should be kept aware about that without imposing them by any sets of practices. Freedom is the ultimate attainment and children should be nurtured only by objective to set them free. And the indication of having a character to be free is always the ability to choose what is worthy and what is not in their own way.
When I was a child, my mother often emphasized that only achieving the first rank in class mattered to her; the second and third places were not considered significant in her eyes. Now, as I’ve matured, I’ve come to realize that my mother may not have fully understood the true essence of education – that it’s about more than just academic achievement. Education should impart qualities that liberate individuals from constraints, mediocrity, and superficial hardships. Despite her care, she may have been unaware of this deeper aspect of education. Similar to her, I wonder how many parents are there who are dissatisfied with the acquired grades of their children and frequently visit the principal’s room with a high dissatisfaction about their examination result and about everything that they lack in their children! And the headmaster, the certifiably educated one, pledge everything they shared with agony would not be forsaken in children anymore. In this manner, schools engage in competitive practices that follow superficial patterns, sometimes mirroring the values of those who may lack a deeper understanding of education.
If there’s one practice in this world that I believe should be changed swiftly, it’s teaching. The more I reflect on this, the more I perceive teachers as being at the heart of the conflict. Childhood is a time of innocence and wonder, but when that innocence and wonder are entrusted to the hands of ignorance, influenced by the superficial norms of society, only illusion flourishes. This perpetuates countless trivial human sufferings.
True education arises from self knowledge, after realizing the mechanism of our thoughts. Even a glimpse of astonishment or a single inspiration towards the truth can introduce a child to their true self. But the average Joe inspires nothing greater than the trend, producing a heard morality that will do nothing more than paying tax, encircling with all the normal human suffering. They do not even introduce them to the books, to the open source of knowledge where knowledge retains in the wilderness. They never know that the average leads to the average and even the highest goal of an average is also an average.
I waste no respect to the teachers when I see the students are getting wasted, wasting more than a decade into the inexplicable fallacy.
It can be challenging to be a truly effective parent or caregiver to a child without an understanding of the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti. While this might sound like an exaggeration to some, I believe it holds great worth and truth. Krishnamurti offers profound insights into life that surpass those of anyone else in human history. Those who have delved into Krishnamurti’s teachings will immediately grasp the depth of his wisdom regarding education and the nature of human instinct, transcending mere psychology and spirituality.
Indeed, Krishnamurti’s perspective on education is remarkable. Upon contemplating his thoughts, we may come to realize that what we once considered education may not have been truly educational at all. His teachings encourage us to question our perceptions and understand that the world may be far more distinct and unfamiliar than we had previously imagined.
Now let’s dive into some profound ideas of Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher on education and children by the extracts of his book, ‘Education and the Significance of Life’.
“To understand a child we have to watch him at play, study him in his different moods; we cannot project upon him our own prejudices, hopes and fears, or mould him to fit the pattern of our desires. If we are constantly judging the child according to our personal likes and dislikes, we are bound to create barriers and hindrances in our relationship with him and in his relationships with the world.”
“To educate the student rightly is to help him to understand the total process of himself, for it is only when there is integration of the mind and heart in everyday action that there can be intelligence and inward transformation.”
“The right kind of educator, seeing the inward nature of freedom, helps each individual student to observe and understand his own self-projected values and impositions; he helps him to become aware of the conditioning influences about him, and of his own desires, both of which limit his mind and breed fear; he helps him, as he grows to manhood, to observe and understand himself in relation to all things, for it is the craving for self-fulfillment that brings endless conflict and sorrow.”
Most of us are born by our parents without having any concern of bringing a new man into this bizarre and complex world. A new man is born by the ignorance and the biological desire and further weaves himself into the patterns of life that had been running before his birth and that further runs after his death. So he survives without wondering, with no quest and bravery. He follows everything the mass follows and insists others to follow the same. In this way, man walk down the superficial pattern of survival and so on, he breeds a new man, recurring the spoiled faith of human.
Childhood is valuable. Children should be treated like they are everything. They should be kept at higher. And we should manifest our presence by subsiding our value, like we are nothing. We should have that kind of generous heart which beats no more than in the triumph of well beings of children. We should learn from their innocence, their depth of honesty and should behave them more like companion. They should be treated like everything. In parallel, we should be brave enough to take us as nothing.
Childhood is a position of remain learning. It is a state of being pure and flexible. It is wonderful. It is a state of godliness.
And let’s end this piece by remembering the reflection of Osho on children.
“A child is a rebirth of God. He should be respected, and he should be given every opportunity to grow, and to be – not according to you but according to his own potential.”
