Sometime in January 2004, our late patron Swami Shantanand Saraswathi mooted the idea of a higher institute of learning that is in keeping with complete holistic values.
A centre for the specialisation of artistic and scientific learning, in keeping with ancient principles and doctrines. Set on the banks of the river Swan, this a seat of advanced teaching will imbibe the inherent liquid energy of the powerful mother Swan. Thus ‘Saraswati Mahavidhyala on Swan’ came into being.
‘Saraswati' literaly means ‘that which is constantly flowing’. ‘Maha’ means great and ‘Vidhyalaya’ transalates‘ to seat of knowledge, therefore 'a great seat of knowledge that constantly enlightens the ever changing and moving mind."
These days, it is impossible to for a cricketer to just bat or bowl, he must be able to cook too. Bookshops no more just vend books, but toys, gifts, and music. The role of the simple grocery shop in the corner takes this cue and has stocks to ranging from samosa’s to sim cards.
Similarly, education should take an equally holistic approach. What good is business degree, with no knowledge of a business to use it in?
Little did we all know, there is an answer to this question. In the folds of the famed kama sutra, lies a secret to an old Indian dictum that considered one properly educated only if one was trained in the 64 arts and sciences. Ranging from chemistry to cooking, and from biology to brick making, these arts provide anyone with a wholesome approach to learning and education.
Wouldn’t it be grand to not have to look through ancient Sanskrit scripts to figure it out? Can you imagine, a whole university dedicated to these ancient arts and sciences, which perhaps, in usage isn’t ancient at all? It would be stepping into another world, of the pomp and splendour of the Indian courts of old, where young girls and boys settled themselves on a journey that would last them a lifetime, searching for the key to being a perfectly developed and balanced person.
This university will be for real, and it will be called Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya on Swan (SMV). Named after the Hindu goddess of learning and wisdom, this facility will overlook the lovely Swan River, and impart to its students the same knowledge that their counterparts learnt so many years ago, albeit with a contemporary content adjusted to today’s needs. And accreditation that is recognised by other universities elsewhere. An experience that transcends time, space, and civilisations.
Think about the future one could perhaps carve one day. A face-painter who has promised to do a trial with a recent annual report, a magician to work with red and black, a carpenter-plumber-electrician combine to cross-subsidise a firm's core activities, an astrologer to give out early warnings, and a cook to work at the desk. Perhaps a perfumer to get messages through the olfactory route, a crypto-cracker to make sense of management representations, a poet to draft notes to accounts, a jockey to get management out of press meets that go out of hand, a ventriloquist to help shift responsibility, a mathematician to confirm numbers and a gambler to toss the coin when decisions finally need to be made.
Need we really say more?