What has spirituality got to do with curriculum? 

That is the usual first response when spirituality is mentioned vis-a-vis higher education.

The answer to the question is manifold. We will try to approach it from different angles.

First of all, the takers, the recipients of higher education are human beings. To whatever stream they belong, as humans they have to lead a good and meaningful life. They need to connect to their self, their spirit, the essence of their being. To lead a happy, peaceful and successful life, students of all streams need to be situated in their consciousness. The art of practicing spirituality will make them better humans and also better professionals. Amidst the drama of human disasters, cruelty of all kinds, toxicity, negativity, these students must learn how to navigate their lives in a positive manner.

To remain hopeful is to be spiritual. For all lengthy definitions of spirituality, I suggest a simple formula to gauge how spiritual a person is. Out of twenty-four hours, how many hours, minutes, seconds and moments a person spends on thinking and doing good work, creative tasks, meditation, worshipping and deep work? In proportion, how much of her or his time goes into gossiping, criticizing, feeling envious, jealous, conniving, conspiring, lying and manipulating? This simple arithmetic will decide the level of spirituality of a person.

Our students need to be spiritual if they want to be happy in life. Our students should be spiritual if we want them to contribute to the creation of a healthy, happy society. That is stark need of spiritual training for our students. 

If we come to specific subjects, we will find that spirituality lies at the core of core subjects. "The complexity and efficiency of the physicist's technical apparatus is matched, if not surpassed, by that of the mystic's consciousness- both physical and spiritual - in deep meditation." (Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics) 

The very of pinnacle of Physics, the dance of waves and particles matches with description of Shiva and Parvati, of Yin and Yang and that of the breath of the monk lost in meditation. To quote Capra again, "The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman, the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman, the reality within." The nature of reality unites Physics and Vedas. 

We may take up any stream of knowledge and we will find deep spiritual context to it. Science studies nature of existence. There is a proven connection between energy and life. The Laws of Thermodynamics, for example, are important unifying principle of Biology, Physics and Chemistry. The very first Law which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed has a direct reverberation to the study of Atman. 

The practice of spirituality has been found to be one of the most potent antidepressants. The involvement of the prefrontal and parietal cortices in meditation produces antidepressant chemicals. " Neuroimaging studies have shown that meditation results in an activation of the prefrontal cortex, activation of the thalamus and the inhibitory thalamic reticular nucleus and a resultant functional deafferentation of the parietal lobe. The neurochemical change as a result of meditative practices involves all the major neurotransmitter systems. The neurotransmitter changes contribute to the amelioration of anxiety and depressive symptomatology and in part explain the psychotogenic property of meditation... it highlights the involvement of multiple neural structures, the neurophysiological and neurochemical alterations observed in meditative practices." (E. Mohandas, M.D. NEUROBIOLOGY OF SPIRITUALITY. www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov)

We may name any subject, Poetics, Aesthetics, Anthropology, Medicine, Physics, Architecture, just any pursuit of human endeavor, we will find that the spiritual perspective give it a completeness otherwise impossible to achieve. Spirituality gives a meaningful dimension to our studies. When J. C. Bose declares that flora fauna has life and soul, he is being spiritual. When Ramanujan envisions mathematical formulae, he is being spiritual. Einstein said that he deeply believed that God reveals Himself in the orderly harmony of existence. Whatever exists has a rhythm, a play and that is the play of God, of spirit, of Nature. 

Therefore, it is needed that our textbooks include the spiritual perspective. It will give our students a better understanding of things. Many unresolved issues, many complexities of life will be addressed by adding the spiritual perspective to the curriculum.  The purpose of education to create better humans will be fulfilled.

Image (c) istock.com