Last

     Universities and institutes are aplenty. ….. No one teaches the technique of a joyous life, or the art of noble conduct, or the awakening and management of the latent energies of the personality. Indeed the profound matters connected with the inner core of life remain completely untouched in these campuses.

Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya (DSVV) is a non-conventional center of higher learning, education and training for holistic growth of youth – heart, head and hands. Universities and institutes are aplenty. Each one of these has its own distinctive feature. Some are known for their academic excellence, some for their sporting achievements or for their infrastructure and other facilities. Many have distinguished themselves for their vocational/technical degrees which fetch handsome pay packages for their products. But none is concerned with the task of refining and shaping the personality, of straightening the tangled strands of life. No one teaches the technique of a joyous life, or the art of noble conduct, or the awakening and management of the latent energies of the personality. Indeed the profound matters connected with the inner core of life remain completely untouched in these campuses. The whole potential and consciousness of the youth is focused on sharpening of intellect and memory. Consequently the students of these institutions are surely able to impressively articulate their views on myriad topics but the overall quality of their lives remains practically unrefined.

Experts on youth affairs have conducted many studies in this regard and almost all of them have put a question mark against the present system of education. In their opinion a majority of the youth keeps perilously floating like a rudderless ship on the surface of a rough sea during their university education period. But why is this so? Studies also reveal the surprising fact that the alumni of renowned management institutes are unable to properly manage their own lives. The companies they have joined are prospering day by day but the personal lives of these management ‘gurus’ are mostly in shambles, their pay-packages in lakhs notwithstanding. Their bodies are in the grip of diseases, family life strife-torn and the children becoming uncultured and delinquent. This ‘mis-management’ in the lives of “management experts” is baffling indeed. More or less the same situation obtains in the lives of technologists. The reason is obvious. They have received knowledge of the subject-disciplines in their educational institutions but have been left ignorant of the true art of living – which alone makes life worthwhile and meaningful.

This is an all-pervasive tragedy with the present-day youth – they are devoid of the understanding of the purpose of life. The DSVV, unlike other universities, has resolved to guide its students in developing holistic personalities – fully manifesting in a harmonious whole the dormant potentials of their hearts, heads and hands. The teachers and administrators here have very carefully devised a system of instruction which addresses the personal lives and social duties of the students as well as their employment needs. That is why while the students at other institutions think of their future only in terms of personal and material progress; DSVV students, besides spiritually enriching their lives, make noble plans for upliftment of their country and society and then also engage themselves actively in the execution of these plans.

The whole emphasis of DSVV is on chiseling and refining the lives of the youth. The theoretical and practical methods adopted here for teaching and training are special. Each course of study is carefully crafted with a definite purpose. It aims at inspiring the youth to do something new and fresh, and not simply follow the beaten track. Whatever subject they study here, they are constantly led to reflect upon and realize what its importance is in their personal life and in the wider context of the society. The techniques of teaching and learning at DSVV inculcate in students a deep understanding rather than rote-based superficial knowledge. A scheme of research projects, creative writing and many other such activities is intrinsically woven into the teaching process to nurture and develop originality in students.

The distinguishing feature for which this university is earning increasing fame is the applied methodology adopted to make the students conscious of the innate powers of their personalities and learn how to develop and use these powers effectively. Recently a professor from a reputed management institute, along with a group of his students visited the DSVV campus. It was evening. The students were going to the mess for their evening meal. After the meal they strolled for a while and then suddenly all the boys and girls headed in the direction of a big hall. The curious professor asked a student, “Are night classes too run here?” The student replied, “No, Sir, we too have our classes in the day time. This is our dhyan class.” The professor was a bit perplexed. A class on dhyan in the university! He probed further, “Has some mahatma been invited for discourse?” The answer perplexed him still more when he learnt that the “Chancellor” himself took classes on the dhyan and Gita twice a week.

Oh! Even the chancellor takes classes here! He teaches dhyan, and Geeta too! The professor stood silent for a moment and then entered the dhyan class. When he came out after an hour-and–a-half, he was in a contemplative mood. He sat near the Mahakala temple on the campus for a long time and then started strolling around. He addressed his students: “Frequently I have been reading that India’s future is very bright. But nowhere do I find written how it will be so. Here, at this place, I can see how the future of India is going to be bright. Here the youth are being given samskar, they are being taught love for their country and society. And most of all, here they are developing a deep understanding of their personalities. Through the medium of dhyan they are awakening their internal energy centers of head, heart and soul”.

The professor told his students about an anecdote which the President APJ Abdul Kalam has narrated in his book Wings of Fire. At one place in the book Swami Shivanand tells young Kalam, “The longing which takes birth in the depths of your heart and inner self, the will which is generated in a pure mind bears an amazing kind of electro-magnetic energy. Every night when the mind is in a sleeping state this energy goes into space, and the next morning re-enters the body carrying the cosmic consciousness with it. Whatever your pure mind has conceived will surely materialize. Young man, you can eternally believe in the truth of this fact as you do in the fact of sunrise.” Quoting this portion of Wings of Fire the professor told his students, “Who in the world can diminish the sparkling quality of the lives of these students who daily purify their minds with evening dhyan and who are taught regularly to think sublimating thoughts?”

The professor went back along with his students but with the remark, “If only the whole country could emulate the education system of this university! Nowhere else is seen in the youth such intensity of interest, such abundance of noble emotions. There is no doubt at all that if this university continues on its radically different path, the trained and educated alumni of this institution will be in the vanguard of the movement for bringing about a transformative revolution in society.”


A rich man was extremely miser. He had instructed even the ladies of his house never to give alms to the beggars. One day a crippled beggar came to the house. The newly - wed daughter-in-law of the house was from a noble family. She told the beggar that the house had nothing to give him. The beggar asked, “Then what do you people eat?” Came the reply, “We eat the left overs and stale foods, and when even these will be consumed, we too will start begging like you.”

The master of the house upstairs was overhearing this dialogue. He was greatly annoyed. The daughter-in-law explained, “Whatever we have earned as a result of good deeds in our previous births, we are reaping and consuming only that. We in this life are adding nothing to that asset, devoid as we are completely of the qualities of charity and munificence. Naturally when the previously acquired wealth of ‘punya’ is exhausted, we too will be left destitute. The rich man highly appreciated the wisdom of the young damsel and thence onwards started devoting his time and money towards the general weal.

_______________________________________________________

Last