Academe Research Journals

International Journal of Educational Research and Development

Review

Educational philosophy of Swami Vivekananda

Arindam Kanta Banerjee¹* and Madhu Meeta²

¹Sadbhavna College of Education for Women, Raikot, Punjab, India.

²Sadbhavna Center for Addiction Science and Mental Health Research, Raikot, Punjab, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sadbhavnasociety@yahoo.com.

Accepted 25 March, 2015

Abstract

Oxford Dictionary defines education as the process of receiving or giving systemic information, especially at a school, college or university. Dictionary.com defines education as the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. Swami Vivekananda was an Indian Monk, who toured almost the whole world but whose philosophy was deeply rooted in ancient Indian wisdom where education is acquired from spiritual life. For him, education was enlightenment. Teacher was the person who dispels darkness of evils. “Acharya (Headmaster) was a person who provides exemplary leadership by conducting himself. Education system was to take care of complete health, that is, physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being with a core of ethics and morality. He devised the idea that true education aims at life-building, man-making and character-developing. His Spiritual Humanism Philosophy of Education showed that education can be used as a tool to achieve ‘social justice’ and for resolution of all ethnic, religious, racial or social conflicts by propagating the idea of “Common Origin of Soul” and “Oneness of Soul.”

Key words: Conflict resolution, education, philosophy, religion, social justice, spiritual education, spiritual humanism, Swami Vivekananda.