THE AIM OF EDUCATION.

Friends: I am very happy to be here and I am grateful to my friend Mr. Basheer Ahmed Sayeed for the kind words that he has showered on me.

I do not think that when I was a student of this College we had dreams of the independence of India or that India would become a Republic, or that that the young people who were with me ever thought that I would become Vice-President or President. These are not things one had planned for, or had prepared for.

Life is a series of opportunities, and whatever opportunity you have, if you try to do your best in a spirit of dedication, you will have the blessings of the Divine. One of our sacred Upanishads tells us that the two ingredients for success or greatness are human effort and the grace of God. Whatever work you undertake, small or great, if you throw yourself into it and if you discharge your functions in a spirit of dedication, it does not matter whether by the worldly standards you succeed or fail, you will have done your duty. Each and everyone in this College, or for that matter in any college, should have a sense of pride, a sense of craftsmanship aiming at excellence, whatever be the work that is allotted to him. If I can boast of anything, it is that as a student I tried to do my best and I aimed at doing my best. Whatever work you undertake, it must be your endeavour to throw yourself heart and soul into it and try to achieve some high standard of excellence. What follows does not matter.

As I say, greatness is a combination of ability and opportunity. You may have ability; if you do not get the opportunity, nothing happens. If you have the opportunity but do not have ability, nothing happens. It is a combination of ability and opportunity that gives you a modest amount of success in life. When I was a student, I never thought that there was such a thing as a professorship at Calcutta. I never dreamt of a Chair at Oxford. I never knew that I would be asked to go to Moscow. All these things could not have been anticipated. You just take up life, allow it to grow according to its own principal pattern and be a willing instrument of the working out, the evolution, of that pattern. You must have sufficient humility to feel that nothing depends on yourself. It is not your endeavour, it is not your effort, but it is the grace of the Divine in whom you have complete confidence - it is that takes you step by step. If at the present moment I happen to be the President of this country, it only means that there was chance or opportunity, good luck and grace of Providence. All these things, if you trust them, will help you. I had that enormous faith. From the time I became conscious of myself, there was this profound faith in Divine sovereignty, in God, Who is the creator of the world, the Ruler of nations, the Inspirer of all that is true and beautiful. That faith never deserted me through thick and thin, and even today it is that which sustains me in the varied activities which I am called upon to undertake in this new position of mine.
I want to say to you all that it is a matter of immense satisfaction to me that my elevation has given you so much happiness and that you should share this pride and this pleasure when one of you rises to the top, judged by the scale of material happiness. Not merely among the students of Madras Christian College, But all over the country, I have felt that genuine, spontaneous affection from young and old, men and women, as I tour round the country. Education has been my special subject. At a time when people are running after all sorts of material comforts, rich food, elaborate houses, expensive cars, radio sets, and feel that they will be satisfied and happy by the accumulation of these material things, it is good to realise that we should also have some room for self-knowledge, self-scrutiny, self-criticism and perpetual endeavour to take step after step to improve ourselves. If the world happens to be in a precarious situation today and if people are afraid of one another, it is not because of lack of material accumulations or great intellectual prowess. It is because they are lacking in that poise, in that balance and judgment, in that discernment which makes us distinguish right from wrong. It is that capacity which constitutes the purpose of education.
Education is there to help us to find out what we are for in this world. Is it merely to grow learned, or is it for the purpose of fulfilling yourself and making yourself an offering to the Supreme? Man cannot be satisfied by wealth, by learning, but by developing the quality of detachment, of renunciation, making himself the instrument of a higher purpose. It is there that the realisation of the fulfilment of man abides, and it should be our endeavour to develop it. 
The subject of philosophy which I happened to take up by sheer accident has been of considerable help to me in giving me a purpose in life and in giving me a goal  to work for. Philosophy, truly speaking, is not pride in the possession of wisdom; it is merely pride in the love of wisdom. What matters is that you must love it. And philosophy in this country, as in other countries, has always meant a spirit of detachment. To be a spectator is to detach oneself from this dream of happiness and try to achieve some kind of judgment on the world in which one happens to be born. You are not lost in the series of objective happenings. You do not become a mere object. You possess an element of freedom. It is the element of freedom that holds the key to the progress of the world. We are bound by the link of love. It is because the human individual has something of the celestial fire in him that he is able to advance into the future, not merely repeat the past.
All freedom is a perpetual crusade against that which is stagnation, evil and imperfect. If you are truly a human being, if you relaise your freedom, you will realise that there is a great responsibility owed by you.
At a time like this when the perils of the future loom so large, the possibilities of the future are also there. What is necessary is the philosophical vision. We should not bother about what is going to happen tomorrow or the day after. If we look at the whole course of human evolution, we will realise that this is a time when men have become articulate and imagination has become alive, when conscience has become awakened. All these things are symptoms of the progress which humanity is making. One nedd not despair. It should be possible for us to face the difficulties which are ahead, overcome them and make the world a better, a more dynamicand more creative world.
I have no object that young men and women all over this country realise the great possibilities they have of helping humanity forward. They will have a purpose in life and they will be able to look forward to a bright future.    

-- (Based on a Speech of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhkrishnan at Madras Christian College, Tamabaram, on 07th August, 1962).
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C.S. Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-302, St. No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,
Satya Classic, Tarnaka,
Secunderabad- 500 017,
Telangana State.
e-mail: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com
Cell: 9985732397.
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