Gitikunja

I have expressed my belief that the first stage of my realization was through my feeling of intimacy with nature – not that nature which has its channel of information for our mind and physical relationship with our living body, but that which satisfies our personality with manifestations that make our life rich and stimulate our imagination in their harmony of forms, colours, sounds and movements. It is not that world which vanishes into abstract symbols behind its own testimony to science, but that which lavishly displays its wealth of reality to our personal self having its own perpetual reaction upon our human nature. Drawing from these experiences, Rabindranath, as Gurudev, argued that education should seek to develop sensitivity in a child through a direct experience of nature when her/his consciousness is at its freshest level. He recognized early childhood as the most critical time for developing empathy and the ability to connect with one’s surroundings. As he wrote:"We have come to this world to accept it, not merely to know it. We may become powerful by knowledge, but we attain fullness by sympathy. The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence. But we find that this education of sympathy is not only systematically ignored in schools, but it is severely repressed. From our very childhood habits are formed and knowledge is imparted in such a manner that our life is weaned away from nature and our mind and the world are set in opposition from the beginning of our days. Thus the greatest of educations for which we came prepared is neglected, and we are made to lose our world to find a bagful of information instead. We rob the child of his earth to teach him geography, of language to teach him grammar. His hunger is for the Epic, but he is supplied with chronicles of facts and dates…. Child-nature protests against such calamity with all its power of suffering, subdued at last into silence by punishment" In this regard, Rabindranath felt classical Indian culture in its harmonious relationship to nature had much to offer as an educational model. As he saw it, the stream of Indian civilization, which developed into a synergetic, non-violent society, evolved within the essentially benign environment of the forest, where physical barriers were minimal and a connectedness with nature was assumed. As a result, a “monastic” position and spirit of reconciliation developed which sought union with all aspects of the universe.” India’s relation to nature – “in which individuals found no barrier between their lives and the Grand life that permeates the Universe” – is juxtaposed with that of the European Norsemen who found nature a threat and barrier. He suggests the stream of Western civilization which developed into a technological society evolved within an essentially hostile natural environment – i.e., within deserts and via-a-via dangerous waters. As a consequence, protective urban centres were constructed and a consciousness developed – alienated from nature – encouraging a mentality of control over nature, competition, and an emphasis upon a “dualistic” approach to truth which stressed the conflict between good and evil, and separation from the outside world.

by Smt. Nivedita Bhattacharjee