Disclaimer: This post is purely my personal thought and opinion. Apologies for any real life coincidences or if anyone feels offended. This might be more inclined to principles of Hinduism as that is my religion and I know something about it.
Watching the various incidents happening in the society, a 30 year old software professional decides to take guest lectures to young school children who are particularly aged between 12 and 16 and who are in their high school. The main topic of his lecture will be personality development which is contrary to the job he is doing. Although the topic is broad enough to be covered as a subject through out the year, he aimed at one or two lectures to each standard/class. He started introducing himself in various schools and expressed his wish to give guest lectures. The so called International Schools and most popular private high schools in the city that he lived in, rejected his application based on his qualification criteria and various other reasons. Few ordinary schools and public schools, who give some personal time to children, accepted his application. He is very happy because this is what he wants. The following conversation happened in one of such lectures. In fact, after this conversation he made sure that this conversation happens with the students almost in every lecture in every standard. The lecture time has always been around one and half hour but it used to be very interactive and he tried to make sure that children do not go away from his control. It is one among the well “populated” government high schools in the city and the age of the students is around 15. It is a co-education class where girls and boys sit in the same class and there are no separate sections of the same class based on gender, race, religion and language.
The lecture started with a greeting by the guest lecturer and introductions as usual. After 20 min, here is the conversation.
Guest: So children, I will ask you a difficult question. Let us see who answers this. Why are you coming to school and studying?
Student1(laughing): Sir, this is a very simple question. We come to school because there are no teachers at home and we study because our parents want to.
Student2: Sir, I want to become an engineer, that is why I am studying here.
Class Topper: Sir, I have to top always as per the instructions given to me and that is why I am coming to the school to study.
Student(a little intelligent): Sir, I want to gain knowledge and that is why I come here to study.
[Guest is surprised by the answer and he asked another question]
Guest: Ah! Good. So, you mean to say you gain knowledge by studying. But do you have to come here to do that? You have an option to sit at home and study. What is the need to come to school?
[The student is silent because he never thought in this direction. In fact no student thought in this way. So the guest asked another question]
Guest: Ok I will give a clue. Why are you all wearing uniform? I mean the same colored dress.
Class Topper: Because the school wants us to. The gate watchman does not allow us inside without the uniform.
Student(a little intelligent): We all belong to one school. So we wear the same type of dress.
[Guest did not want to make it difficult]
Guest: Right, that means you all belong to one school. You are all treated equally. You are all one and you have to understand this. That means you have to treat each student around you as equally as you treat yourself.
Student3: I did not get it Sir.
Guest: OK, here is a simple question. Who is your friend in the class that you do not talk so frequently or you do not talk at all?
Student3: mmmm….Student 1
Guest: Why?
Student3: Because he always talks in language I don’t understand and he fights with me sometimes. Although we offer, he doesn’t take anything from us.
Guest: Do you take anything from him if he offers?
Student3: No, Sir.
Guest: See, you are not treating him properly and neither does he. So this is what is not good. We are all studying in one class and we all are one. We have to study together, share our thoughts and should never treat others badly. We should never treat other person as an enemy. Mistakes do happen sometimes but you should have the heart to excuse them. You should be friends for life irrespective of your place, religion and social circumstances.
Student(a little intelligent): Sir, why does our religion matter? We are many students here and we never talked about religions. We never treated others based on religion.
Guest: That is good. But promise me that you will be like this for the entire life. Promise me that you will never change this mindset and mistreat a person who is not your religion and caste. Promise me that you will never listen an ill-knowledged person’s hate words/speeches. Promise me that you will live with harmony even though your family stays in a colony which doesn’t contain your religion followers. Promise me that you all behave with wisdom.
Class Topper: I promise, Sir.
A Girl Student: Sir, I promise but I have a doubt. What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?
Guest: Very good question. It is difficult to explain the subtle difference between the two words. But, I will give an example. Knowledge is saying that my religion is great and my God is the only God. For example, a Hindu says Rama is the only god and no other religions/Gods exist or great. A Muslim who attains knowledge about his religion says Allah is the only God and his religion is great. No other religion is a religion. A Christian who attains knowledge about his religion says Jesus is the only God whom everyone saw and he is great.
A Girl Student: What is wisdom Sir?
Guest: Wisdom is a level above knowledge. All well educated and knowledged individuals might not get that wisdom. Wisdom is like saying God is One. Whether it is Jesus or Allah or Buddha or Krishna, they are all flavors of a single God. Wisdom is like saying human body’s composition is one whether the skin is wheat-brownish or whitish or blackish. The skin color is a flavor of the single human body.
Student(a little Intelligent): Sir, I promise I will behave with wisdom irrespective of many people around me who are just fighting with the knowledge they have.
Guest: I think you got what I am saying. Rest of the class, were you able to follow me?
Students(loudly): Yes sir!!
[Although many students agreed to what the Guest said, the Guest was able to understand that there were few students who got wisdom from his words but there were many who just got knowledge about it. And he wanted to increase the percentage of students who gain wisdom rather than just the knowledge. He wanted to plant this behavior in the childhood so that the future of the country shines. He thinks the present times have become too dangerous to survive and he doesn’t want the future to die just because of a single word “Religion”. He started making his contribution this way.“Plants can be bent easily but a tree cannot be.” is what he believed in.]
