SwamiVivekanandasaid: ‘What is intellect? There is nothing in the intellect. It goes a few steps and stops. Heart is every thing. It opens the most impossible gates’. RabindranathTagore said the same thing: ‘If intellect alone were sufficient, Bacon would have been honest and Napoleon just’. Gandhiji too said, ‘I am not intellectually sharp. I know my limitations. But I don’t mind. There is a limit to the development of the intellect but none to that of the heart’. Buddha too laid emphasis on love and compassion. 

Our ancient educationists defined the qualifications of a teacher (guru): ‘Desiko nava lakshanaha - Suchir Vachasvi Varchasvi Dhritiman Smrutiman Kritihi Namraha Utsahi Jijnasu’. (The teacher should have nine qualities (1) Cleanliness, external and internal (2) Articulation or effective expression (3) Bright countenance or personality (4) Courage, physical and moral (5) Good memory (6) Ability to write well (7) Humility (8) Enthusiasm or high motivation and (9) A spirit of research or desire to learn more and more). Doesn’t this checklist tally with the modern prescription? Our ancient gurus also said that the teacher should have ‘Anubhuti’ and ‘Darsana’(Experience coupled with concentration and vision). 

Information is necessary. But information alone will not do. Vivekananda said "If information alone is education the Encyclopaedias are our gurus and our libraries are our Rishis". As Jiddu Krishna Murthy said "Intellect is only ‘reason’ or ‘logic’. Intelligence is greater because it gives direction to information and knowledge". Intellect is like a lawyer who can argue on both sides, tilting and tricking the scales of the balance! The heart is the needle, which always points to Dharma (Righteousness). Information must be controlled by character and directed by wisdom. 

Taittiriya Upanishad contains the first convocation address in world’s history. The parting advice of the guru to the students after completion of education is: Matru Devo bhava, Pitru Devo bhava, Acharya Devo bhava, Atidhi Devo bhava (Mother, father, teacher and guest should be treated like God). He also asked the students to practice Dharma and work for Loka Sangraha (Service to the whole world). As Vivekananda stressed, the objectives of education are ‘Man making, nation building and service-mindedness’. 

Our ancient gurus never thought in narrow grooves. They had a world out-look. Sankara said "Swadeso Bhuvanatrayam (the three worlds are my native land). Rigveda says ‘Upasarpa Mataram Bhoomim (Dedicate yourself to the service of the world): ‘Kriyanto Visvamaryam’ (Make the whole world noble in action). Adharvana Veda says "Mata Bhoomi Putroham Pitrayah" (We are the sons of the Mother Earth). Our teachers never preached narrow nationalism or regionalism! They had no post-office pin code address! ‘Sarvejana Sukhino Bhavantu’ (Let all the people of the world be happy and prosperous). Six thousand years ago Yajur Veda proclaimed ‘Vidya Amrutam Asnute’ (Through knowledge man attains immortality).In short, the integrated development of human personality makes one physically strong, mentally alert, intellectually sharp, emotionally well balanced and spiritually advanced. 

Chandogya Upanishad, four thousand years ago said that one attains excellence by Vidya, Sraddha and Upanishada. Pursuit of excellence was the key-factor in education. No wonder, the system produced grammarians like Panini and Pantanjali, astronomers like Arya Bhatta and Varaha Mihira, poets and dramatists like Bhasa, Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti, doctors and surgeons like Charaka, Susruta and Jivaka, mathematicians like Bhaskaracharya and Leelavati, Logicians like Jaimini and Gargi, Philosophers like Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva and Kapila, experts in politics and economics like Chanakya, specialists in law and jurisprudence like Manu andYajnavalka and so on, As Swami Vivekananda said, the purpose of education is to manifest perfection which is already in man - to make the latent patent and potent. 

According to the scripture of Manu, the teacher who charges money on a compulsory basis is unfit for company for inter-dining, because society supplied all his needs. Even Guru dakshina can be anything according to the status of the pupil. It can be a pumpkin or a snakegourd! Teachers prayed for good students: "O’ Creator! Just as water flows to the lower level, just as months pass incessantly, so may brahmacharis (young students) come to me!" 

In higher education institutions like Takshasila and Nalanda there were 18 silpas indicating crafts or vocational training. The courses included Law, Medicine, Mathematics, Music, Accountancy, Agriculture, Commerce, Archery, Surgery, Military Arts, Painting, Dancing etc.