What the Chandogya Upanishad Says About Education
My yoga center was giving away some books it no longer needed. One of these books was the Chandogya Upanishad with English translation and commentary by a Swami Lokeshwarananda. My knowledge of the Upanishads until then was limited to Amar Chitra Katha (comic book versions of Indian stories) and two verses that I had learnt in my yoga class. I took this book out of curiosity. What are the Upanishads about, after all? The Upanishads are deeply philosophical and I will reserve my novice's comments for later. Here, I present some ideas which modern education could use more of. 1. Education is pointless without self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is the overarching point of this Upanishad. In one story, a man sends his son Svetaketu to study the Vedas. Svetaketu returns after twelve years as an accomplished scholar. The father notices his son's pride and tells him that all scholarship is worthless without self-knowledge and then describes self-knowledge to his son in many d