First written on December 5th, 2010
These days people are a lot more into spirituality….the quest to find the spirit in ourselves…through reading, attending courses, discourses, etc. We are proud to be from a country that gave this world the Vedas and the Gita. We are trying to understand and apply these laws in our lives again. We have recently come across literature by people like Devidutt Patnaik who are connecting the wisdom of the Gita to the corporate world. In the field of Education, we’ve had gurukuls and veda pathashalas in the past and also in the present but not in mainstream education which is beset with a one sided feeding of information and suppressing human creativity.
And any spiritual growth that results in self-development but is not used to benefit humanity at large is of little use.
Can we apply a philosophy in one area of life and not in another? If we have made a philosophy our own…no matter which one…can we separate it from who we are and what we do?
Is spirituality limited to self development? Is spiritual growth only limited to doing meditation, kriyas and asanas?
If there is a philosophy that helps us to contribute to humanity as a professional, for instance as a doctor or a teacher, would we be curious or dubious?, if there is a form of education that applies this philosophy in designing its curriculum, would we be ready to consider it?
Many such spiritually inspired educational initiatives came up in the early 20th century from great thinkers like Rabindranath Tagore, Maria Montessori, J Krishnamurthy, Aurobindo, Rudolf Steiner, to name a few.
I am one of those lucky and ever increasing number of people who has come across such an education, called Waldorf Education, which is based on the philosophy which is another form of practical Vedanta. This philosophy is called Anthroposophy, meaning the ‘wisdom of the human being’. This was founded by an Austrian philosopher, a clairvoyant and scientific researcher Rudolf Steiner(1861-1925) who tried and tested the spiritual knowledge to which he was privy. Education, medicine, agriculture, architecture, special education and social therapy,etc., are some of the many areas where the wisdom of our Vedantas is converted into a practical and professional practice. He says each and everyone of us can be privy to this knowledge through imagination, inspiration and intuition!!
He now has followers all over the world that are grateful to him for showing the path to convert the knowledge of spirituality into a service to humanity through our own professional work, no matter which profession we are into.
My first brush with Anthroposophy was at IPMT (International Postgraduate Medical Training) seminar, Bangalore 2008.
That’s where I started and now, after three years, my life has found a new meaning and a new purpose.
Thanks Steiner Baba!!
Nirupama
Inner voice 