Monday, May 10, 2010

signs of a good student

काकदृष्टिर्बकध्यानं श्वाननिद्रा तथैव च
अल्पाहारो जीर्णवस्त्रम् एतद् विद्यार्थिलक्षनम्

नीतिसारं, चाणक्यनीति

kākadṛṣṭirbakadhyānaṁ śvānanidrā tathaiva ca
alpāhāro jīrṇavastram etad vidyārtilakṣanam
nītisāraṁ cānakyanīti

The best signs of a pupil whose entire focus is on education alone are, possessing the keen sight of a crow, the unswerving concentration of a crane, limited food habits and tattered clothes. 

An initiate should  always be seeing everything around him with care and alacrity.. He will learn a lot from what is around him if he emulates the crow which will ever be on the lookout of its prey whether it is  perching on the branch of a tree or is  just flying around. It has nothing to look for other than food and safety.
Similarly a student should always be on the lookour for more and more knowledge. Similarly the student should always be an embodiment of deep concentration like the bird Crane. The crane's capacity to concentrate purposefully is monumental. To get hold of a single fish it is capable of sitting motionless, sometimes from sunrise to sunset on the banks of a water-spot and it would not even move except to  gobble up the fish as and when it comes up to the surface of the water accidentally.
For a student, the appetite should be for acquiring knowledge. Eating away rich food makes him more comfortable, flabby and lazy, and such qualities with hamper his capacity to learn. The reason for the prescription of tattered clothes is that if the vidyaarthi goes after stylish clothes and ostentatious outfits, he will become noted by others especially by the members of the other sex and his attention will be scattered away.

The education in modern campus is usually an antithesis to the above rules of our ancestors.
It is worthwhile to consider whether the comforts of Campus life today has in any way helped the intern in his quest for acquiring more knowlege.
 Of course in the past, knowledge was pursured in its entirety and the element of lifetime training came as a natural corollary. But the present education appears to be just a passport to gain some occupation and afterwards  never to apply the knowledge if any, acquired through such education, to poper purpose.



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