Learning to be rather thanLearning to do The proposition talks about what the nature of education really should be.

The education for most of the time teaches a man what to do, how to do and so on. But it must at the same time impart the very important knowledge on what one should be. The real implication of what to be is character building. Thus the concept brings forth the importance of education in character building besides imparting skills and equips one with knowledge to improve efficiency. The Learning to be concept of education stresses on depth of thought, strength of conviction, faith in oneself, the humanistic impulse and practical efficiency. if we see it in the light of contemporary professional life, isn t that what is required of any executive or for that matter any human being.

Harmony of all human energy This is said in the context of one assimilating excellences of all great cultures that are there. No single culture is perfect, and each culture has some great values and hasn t some others while as other cultures have some and not some others and all these separate cultures are essentially aspects of one human culture. If one learns to do that, if one learns to assimilate these essential elements, he will have achieved human excellence and he would be a harmony of all human energy. All through our lives we try to debate on whose culture is good or who s bad and we never try to look beyond our limited horizons and as a result we never get to receive the knowledge or the wisdom other great cultures have to offer and this is where the concept of Learning to be again comes in. A good education lends us a point of view of building character and also imparts us the elements which lends us a point of view of building character and also imparts us the elements which constitute human excellence. A good education surpasses the barriers of class, creed, and culture and helps oneself in assimilating these elements from entire universe and that s what lets one be a harmony of all human energy

Vidya, Shradha, and Upanishad : Swamji by explaining the values of Vidya, Shradha and Upanishad tries to capture the essence of efficiency which he believes to be the hallmark of human civilization. Vidya or knowledge alone is not sufficient to convert thoughts into action; it has to be backed up by conviction and faith which is nothing but shradha. When knowledge and conviction is combined with deep meditative thinking, that is Upanishad , we achieve supreme efficiency. Any work that has these three values behind it becomes supremely efficient. It is very striking to think how great a relevance this thinking has to modern professional life. So many times despite our confidence in our technical knowhow, we feel the results are not satisfactory and wonder what went wrong. We go about doing jobs assigned to us and maybe we go about doing them with some values mentioned above missing .How many times do we take up a job which we really do not believe in and then are disappointed over the outcomes?

For any job to be a success it is necessary to have knowledge but it is more necessary to have the conviction in doing it, to have faith that it is worthwhile to do it; then alone can we achieve the supreme efficiency

Vivekananda's Spirituality of Manliness In the beginning of our spiritual life, we depend upon, and are taught to depend upon, ourselves; we practice self-reliance and strengthen ourselves. And thus we start our long march of human growth and fulfillment. 'What we want is strength, so believe in yourselves. ...Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough; no more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is a man-making religion that we want. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want. And here is the test of truth: Anything that makes you weak, physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it can-not be true. 'Lakshmi, or the goddess of Fortune, comes only to the industrious lion among men; it is only weaklings that say that we have to take what fate brings unto us; forsake this dependence on fate and express your manli-ness through the strength of self-reliance; what harm is there if no results come after you put forth your endeavor? Gain physical strength and mental strength; develop your talents and capacities and work-efficiency; gain self-confidence, practice self-reliance; and earn knowledge and wealth by hard honest labour; and share your wealth and happiness with others and earn their good-will and appreciation Reference : lecture on My Plan of Campaign (Complete Works, Vol. Ill, 1960 edition, pp. 224-25):