A well-known meditation guru and director of Osho Tapoban, Swami Anand Arun, has said education is meaningless without compassion.
Commenting on the tragedy of recent massacre in the Virginia Tech University in the US, Swami Arun, said it was a matter of great shock that Cho Seung-hui—the South Korean student responsible for killing 32 student and teachers at the University where he studied—did not regret for his act. “How come you wipe out so many precious human lives but don’t have a shred of regret?” he asked. “It is the great failure of today’s education system.”
Swami Arun—who was in London last week conducting a series of meditation camps—said that 75 percent of the students who graduated from the Nalanda University in the ancient times became monks. The hearts and minds of the rest 25 percent of the students was also full of compassion, love and respect to all, he added.
Located about 55 miles south-east of Patna, India, Nalanda was a Buddhist centre of learning from 425 CE to 1197 CE partly under the Pala empire. Referred to as one of the first great universities in recorded history, Gautam Buddha is said to have visited and stayed at Nalanda several times during his life time (500 BC). (In its heyday, Nalanda accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. In 1193, the University complex was sacked by Turkish Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khilji leading to the decline of Buddhism in India.)
Swami Arun quoted a new breed of educationists as saying that modern universities were corrupting people. A fresh graduate from the University looks at big buildings around him, lavish lifestyles of rich and powerful and his only aim remains to earn money and enjoy life. “Drugs, alcohol and night clubs are false substitutes to meditation. Real happiness is personal,” he added.
According to Osho Rajneesh, meditation is the state of simply being, just pure experiencing, with no interference from the body or mind. Primary to the Osho approach is need for the meditator to understand the nature of the mind, rather than fight with it. “Meditation is not for Sannyasis, it is for those people who look for happiness in their lives,” said Swami Arun. “Essential ‘dharma’ of the universe is truth, harmony and non-violence,” he added.
Swami Arun further said that MPs. CEOs, officials and busy executives need meditation more than others since their decisions affect whole of the society. Their peace of mind affects the whole society, hence they must practice meditation, he added. Meditation connects with oneself and one hour of meditation can provide more freshness than eight-hours of sleep, he said.
Osho had taught 600 types of meditation techniques out of which a ‘sadhak’ ( a practitioner) could choose any one of them, he said.
Swami Arun quoted Osho as saying that the miracle of life is the more you give the more you have.