Knowledge is not a tool for preserving ignorance, said Dinamani editor K. Vaidyanathan.
The Erode Book Festival, organized by the Tamil Nadu government and the Makkal Sinthanai Peravai, began on the 31st at Chikkaiah Government Arts and Science College.
In connection with this, a Thought Forum event has been held every evening. Accordingly, at the Thought Forum event held on Tuesday, Sri Nanda Educational Trust chairman V. Shanmugan presided.
Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies P. Kandaraja was present in the chair. Makkal Sinthanai Peravai president T. Stalin Gunasekaran delivered the introductory address.
Textile worker Saravanan from Pallipalayam in Namakkal district, who has been saving money in a piggy bank throughout the year and donating every year to the Erode Book Festival since 2017, was honored with the ‘Dinamani’ Editor K. Vaidyanathan Memorial Award by ‘Dinamani’ editor K. Vaidyanathan.
Speaking at the event under the title ‘The world is protected by the learned,’ ‘Dinamani’ editor K. Vaidyanathan said: If we look only at that line from Bharathiyar’s song, ‘The world is protected by the learned,’ it does not mean that the song is saying the world is saved only through education.
Education is of three kinds. One is study, the second is knowledge, and the third is wisdom. The education that Bharatiyar referred to is wisdom, or supreme knowledge. If knowledge is said to be a tool that protects us from harm, then the scientific progress we see today is based on that very knowledge. This knowledge is no longer becoming a tool that protects us from harm, nor a tool that safeguards us; instead, it is increasingly becoming a tool that drags us toward destruction.
The education he refers to is encompassed by wisdom. That does not mean that book learning is unnecessary.
We need to think about how useful today’s education really is. The education studied in colleges is used for getting jobs and earning money. That is not true education.
The education spoken of in our epics and literature is not merely study either; what they taught was wisdom.
How does that come? It comes through experience. Education without experience is not true education. It is only because experiential learning exists that this land has produced people like Pisiranthaiyar and Kaniyan Poongundranar.
When former President Abdul Kalam recalled Poongundranar at the European Union meeting, he conveyed to the world that “you are not different, I am not different, we are all one family,” and that true education is the expression of a broad-minded outlook that sees the whole world as one family.
At the same time, it must not be forgotten that scientists of world renown, such as Einstein, have warned that today’s education is, on the one hand, driving us toward an unparalleled catastrophe. He said that we must not forget that knowledge has immense power, and that there is nothing in the world equal to it.
Speaking on the topic “Literature Then and Now,” the editor of the monthly magazine Amudhasurabi, Tiruppur Krishnan, said:
Selling books has been very difficult not only today, but also in the past. Everyone should leave the book festival having bought at least one book. Books explain any message that cannot be conveyed through video. Reading books makes the nerves in the brain much sharper. He said that books waiting in the book stalls include the Ramayana, which explains maternal affection, and works containing various stories like the Mahabharata.
Today in the Thought Forum
At the evening reflection forum event to be held on Wednesday (August 5) at the Erode Book Festival, Chennai Kalaikuzhu will present a Tamil drama based on the epic Manimekalai under the title ‘Mannuyirkellam,’ and there will also be a yாழ் music performance by the Urubanar music group.
