I am delighted to be here with you, my young friends and it is a pleasure to interact with a gathering of cross section of student and teacher community, representative of our entire population.

Education with value system

Younger generation below 20 years are nearly 300 million that is 1/3 of our population at any point of time and their learning process takes places during their education phase. The children work and live in the school for about 25000 hours before they complete 10+2. Though the whole learning process takes place in the school campus, the value addition to the learning process has to be provided by father, mother and the school teacher.

School design for a Perfect Learner

For perfect learner - what will be the type of schools that we have to design? It should facilitate learning through enquiry or research using the latest technologies like the internet to acquire the information. Creativity should flourish in the schools by students learning to teach themselves and by teaching the other students. Ethics of giving to others is cultivated by asking the question how my learning can benefit others? How can I contribute to my own development and at the same time to the development of others and the nation? For imbibing Moral development, values such as team work, fair play, cooperation, doing things right and doing the right thing, hard work and commitment to a cause larger than oneself are to be emphasized, while keeping in mind our cultural fabric and our own value systems.

Interactive Experiences

During last year I visited a number of States and interacted with a large number of people including academicians, professionals, entrepreneurs, activists, artists, spiritual leaders and students. Wherever I go, I meet school children. Recently on Teachers' Day, I interacted with students from different schools in Rajkot, Gujarat. There was a question from a young girl, "Sir, I have a dream to become like you. Will you please advice me?". I told her, "Put your 100% efforts in whatever activities you undertake and try to excel in each one of them. Do not get discouraged by intermediate failures and work constantly for the success. The Almighty will be with you." Another boy's question was, "On one hand we are talking about bringing 100% literacy in the country. On the other hand, day by day the education is becoming more and more expensive. How can a rational balance be brought about between the two. Is it possible? If so, how?" I replied, "There is a need to improve the quality of education in the State run schools where the cost of education is fairly low. For improving the quality of education, we have to use the modern technology backed by few good teachers and the dissemination has to take place with the use of tele-education. This is a good investment which should be met from the government budget and private agencies. Also, students of higher classes, should teach the lower class students, without any charges."

A thoughtful question came from a tenth class girl. She asked, "You have been visiting many States of India, meeting different people around. What have you achieved by such visits and meetings?" My reply was, "Through my visits to States, I have gained first hand knowledge about the aspirations of the people. I am able to interact with the common man and know his problems and challenges. I am also able to know about the core competence of each State and how it can be used to the advantage of the common man. I hope, to certain extent my interaction with the people brings unity of minds towards making India a developed country by 2020. I am acting as a binding bridge between the people and the administrators of the country to fulfill the aspirations of the people."

Friends, I feel happy when I see that our younger generation is thinking about what is happening around. Because thinking leads to development. We should note that human mind is a unique gift. You can enter into it only if you have curiosity and thinking. I suggest to all of you, thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life. Thinking is progress. Non thinking is destruction to the individual, organization and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge combined with sweat and perseverance brings success.

What can I do for you?

Every one of us has gone through the various phases of education from childhood to profession. A scene appears in front of me. A child, a teenager, an adult and a leader. How does each one react to a particular situation? The situation is human need. The child cries, it means, "I need it, you give me. The teenager says, "I want to do it alone and leave me alone". The adult proclaims, "let us do it together". The leader's quality is "what can I do for you". A child's attitude is 'you give me', the leaders attitude is 'what I can do for you'. So, the teachers have got a tremendous responsibility to convert the attitude of of child 'of you give me' to the attitude of a leader when they grow up - 'what I can do for you'. That will demand a teacher to be a visionary with an inspiring capability.

Here I would like to narrate the question of a young boy from Rajkot. He asked me, "How can we effectively and practically work for your and our mission of making India a developed and prosperous nation?" I was delighted when he wanted to know what students in general and he himself in particular can do for the nation. I told, "Students should fix a goal in their life, concentrate to combat and overcome the hurdles and achieve excellence. They must imbibe moral values. They should aspire to become entrepreneurs. During holidays students can teach poor and underprivileged children and create a mission for them. They can plant trees and contribute towards improving ecological balance. These activities will collectively lead towards development and prosperity."

I am sure, the best of creativity among the students will emerge by integrated influence of principals, teachers, parents and family as a whole.

Preserve your Divine light

My father Janab Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen, taught me a great lesson when I was a young boy. What was that lesson? It was just after India got independence. At that time panchayat board elections took place at Rameswaram. My father was elected panchayat board member and on the same day he was also elected the President of Rameswaram Panchayat Board. Rameswaram Island was a beautiful place with 30,000 populations. At that time they elected my father as panchayat Board President not because he belonged to a particular religion or a particular caste or spoke a particular language or for his economic status. He was elected only on the basis of his nobility of mind and for being a good human being. Dear students, I would like to narrate one incident that took place on the day he was elected President of Panchayat board.

I was at that time studying in School. Those days we did not have electricity and we used to study under ration kerosene lamps. I was reading the lessons loudly and I heard a knock at the door. We never used to lock the door in Rameswaram in those days. Somebody opened the door, came in and asked me where my father was? I told him that father had gone for evening Namaz. Then he said, I have brought something for him, can I keep it here? Since my father had gone for Namaz, I shouted for my mother to get her permission to receive the item. Since she was also on the Namaz there was no response. I asked the person to leave the item on the cot. After that I continued my studies.

I used to learn by reading aloud in my younger days. I was reading loud and fully concentrating on my studies. At that time my father came in and saw a tambalum kept in the cot. He asked me "what is this? Who has given that?" I told him, "somebody came and has kept this for you". He opened the cover of the tambalum and found there was a costly dhoti, angawastram, some fruits and some sweets and he could see the slip that the person had left behind. I was the youngest child of my father, he really loved me and I also loved him a lot. He was upset at the sight of the Tambalum and gifts left some one. That was the first time I saw him very angry and also that was the first time I had got a thorough beating from him. I got frightened and started weeping. My mother embraced and consoled me. Then my father came and touched my shoulder lovingly with affection and advised me not to receive any gift without his permission. He quoted an Islamic Hadith, which states that, "When the almighty appoints a person to a position, He takes care of his provision. If a person takes anything beyond that, it is an illegal gain." Then he told me that it is not a good habit. Gift is always accompanied by some purpose and a gift is a dangerous thing. It is like touching a snake and getting the poison in turn. This lesson stands out always in my mind even when I am in my seventies. This incident, taught me a very valuable lesson for my life. It is deeply embedded in my mind.

I would like also to mention the writings in Manu Smriti which states that "By Accepting gifts the divine light in the person gets extinguished". Manu warns every individual against accepting gifts for the reason that it places the acceptor under an obligation in favour of the person who gave the gift and ultimately it results in making a person to do things which are not permitted according to law.

I am sharing this thought, with all of you, particularly the young ones, do not be carried away by any gift which comes with a purpose and through which one loses his personality greatly. Do you think, you can follow this in your life? I will be very happy if you can practice this sincerely.

Divine Message

A Tamil poem composed 1,000 years ago by Awaiyar which in translation reads :

"It is rare to be born as a human being

It is still more rare to be born without any deformity

Even if you are born without any deformity

It is rare to acquire knowledge and education

Even if one could acquire knowledge and education

It is still rare to do offerings and tapas

But for one who does offerings and tapas

The doors of heaven open to greet him."

That means, it is very rare to be born as a human beingin this universe where several billion varieties of life exist, In spite of having been blessed by god to be born as human being, it is very very rare to be born without any defects like deaf, blind and mute. Even if we are blessed so, it is ultimate tapas and love that has to become part of human life. In such a state of self evolution the bliss shines in human life.

Conclusion

Friends, for evolution of prosperous, happy and peaceful society what we need is freedom from war, war within and outside the mind and above all human heart for giving and empowerment of people. The road map for graduating into an enlightened human being will have to include education with value system, religions graduating into spirituality and visionary policies graduating India into a developed nation. I believe, an enlightened human being can be evolved when all these three elements are properly combined as a long term dedicated solution for our nation. Fortunately we are fully equipped for such a transformation to become a developed nation. A beautiful India can be generated by beautiful minds. Beautiful minds are creative. This creativity leads the nation to be economically prosperous and spiritually empowered and emerge as a God blessed nation. My best wishes to all of you

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