Chandigarh
24 May 2020
DIVYA AZAD
Chitkaka University hosted world famous Indian mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik in a Facebook live interactive discussion with students and faculty. The globally renowned speaker Devdutt Pattanaik known for his deeply insightful writing on sacred lore, traditions, folklore, fables and parables and for challenging wilful misinterpretations of ancient Indian scriptures, symbols and rituals
Sharing his vast treasure of knowledge he delved into relevance of back to basics unraveling the Maths of life in a 60 minute power packed session of unlimited and pure wisdom. He put forward his views relevance of Mythology in modern times, especially in areas of Teaching, Management, Governance and Leadership.
Answering a query on what is the connection between spirituality and modern education, he very aptly put that modern education focuses a lot on measurable parameters and there a lot of overlap in measurable and non measurable e.g emotions are immeasurable likewise thoughts and sensations too cannot be measured. So in modern education we have to find a balance between both measurable parameters and non measurable emotions else we become mechanist,. in addition to IQ ( Intelligent quotient) we also have to need take a dive into EQ also ( Emotional Quotient) of the student as emotions fall in realms of spirituality , hence a perfect balance between both forms the sound citadel of modern education.
Highlighting a difference between ancient techniques of education and modern education he said like in ancient days a well researched teacher was the one who would ask questions which would make students look for the answers making them more inquisitive, knowledge seekers and self sufficient unlike today’s era of classroom lectures where student expects teacher to know answers and making them dependent. He supports his argument with a relevant example of famous parable Bikram aur Betaal where king has to answer every question based on purely his knowledge.
Answering an ever intriguing and most sought after “ life after death question” he says that nobody on the earth knows this though society is divided where Indian Sub continent strongly believes in rebirth or living million lives whereas western world go by the tenet of you only live once.
Answering Question of Dr Madhu Chitkara ,Pro Chancellor, Chitkara University on application of four basic elements of Math’s i.e. Addition ,Subtraction ,Multiplication and Division in human life , he said to answer this question best he will base his answer on element of division as society at large is divided into two views on life ,one which says that you only live once so the sum total of your life whatever you ,perform ,achieve ,accomplishments of one life given to you and other very divergent view which springs from Indian philosophy is that there are many lives so whatever you have not been able to do in this life will happen in the next life or rebirth so life is infinite and ever going.
Summing up his discourse in an extremely relevant environment he drove him a relevant point that although he believes that lessons from the mythological era should be remembered, yet feels that every age has its own gurus and none of them can be termed relevant to the present day. However, that we should see the principles of the past and apply them to the present times.
