Importance of culture in Mental and Cognitive education:

~Ranjith, Saranya

Mental and Cognitive education:

Mental and cognitive education can be done by learning about ourselves and the world around us.

We grow in learning about ourselves by respecting our parents, our teachers, and our elders. They support us and provide not only for our basic physical needs but also our mental, intellectual, moral and spiritual needs.

Culture is what we have, i.e. our thought, our expressions, our approach towards life, etc. It has emerged out of collective thinking and is subject to continuous modification by our ancestor’s thoughts which are accepted by society. Swamiji further says, “Peoples in the nation should not only be given the education to make them self-reliant, but also ideas, moral training, and understanding of their great history so that can be motivated to work for their own salvation. Furthermore, they must be given back their culture, without which there is no hope for sustainable progress.

To respect others we need to know about ourselves and we should love our country, our culture, and our ancestors. Cultural plays a major role to develop a better understanding of the world and also helps us to understand ourselves. This helps us develop respect for what we have and grow in self-confidence. It also helps us appreciate that other people have similarly other cultures and environment that have socialized them. Only with real self-confidence will we be able to respect others.

We can’t build a nation without understanding how things work in the world. Culture and History gives us a detailed picture of how society, technology, and government worked way back when so that we can better understand how it works now. It also helps us determine how to approach the future, as it allows us to learn from our past mistakes (and triumphs) as a society.

When we do the above we will treat people equally, with trust, love, regard, and respect. This should be given to all levels and all type of people regardless of any physical, mental, sexual, social, economic or family background.

A story shared at our group:

During Thane cyclone, people lost their homes and water flooded many homes. At that time, even basic needs were difficult to meet. Some compassionate people in this world provided these basic needs – food, clothing, and shelter. These people have done this as a service without wanting to be recognized. I have come to understand that when we have trouble others express their love towards us. Henceforth we must express our love to all levels of people, not only that we should do our best to serve people.

continue ……………… in the next blog