Education in Ancient India c4.51

c4.51

Karman Theory; Growing Faith in Nature: In the course of time, however, the supreme confidence that was placed in nurture began to weaken to a great extent. When the Aryans settled down in a less spectacular and more peaceful life and began to investigate more carefully the phenomena of life around them, they began to feel that man is not entirely an architect of his own fortune, and that the powers and capacities with which he is born determine the scope of his prospects and activity to a considerable extent. The doctrines of Karman and Rebirth, which were unknown in the Vedic age, became universally accepted in the course of time, swinging the pendulum considerably in favour of nature as against nurture. It began to be averred that the deeds (Karman) in previous lives, rather than the training in the present one, will determine whether our intellect is to be bright² and moral propensities strong. The development of the caste system on hereditary lines did not strengthen the hands of the advocates of nurture; it began to be argued that the efficiency of a person as a priest or a warrior does not so much depend upon the training he receives in this life as upon the inherent qualities which he is born as a consequence of his Karman in previous births. The *Karman* determines the qualities and characteristics, and God assigns birth in that particular caste in which they would be most needed. As a natural consequence of these theories, educationalists began to aver that nature is more important than nurture; a bamboo tree cannot blossom into a sandal one simply because it is assiduously watered and manured and planted upon the Malaya mountain.¹ If you have no natural capacity, education cannot create it; a mirror can show reflection only to one who has the eyesight.² A conscientious teacher imparts education as assiduously to a brilliant as to a dull student; there is however a world of difference as to the results. One shines forth in the world of scholars, while the other hardly succeeds in making any appreciable progress. Glass alone can reflect solar rays, not a piece of earth, howsoever polished.³ This view is similar to that of Plato who has pointed out that education is not like putting sight into blind eyes; it is only turning the eyes to light.