Beautiful Life of Students through Moral Education

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We all realised how important it is to give education to our children. More schools and colleges are being opened everywhere, no doubt, it is great as education is the panacea for all our evils. But in the present education system, importance has not been given to impart moral and spiritual values in the minds of students. With the results despite their high degrees and profession, today people are becoming more arrogant, selfish, greedy, and moral, spiritual and cultural values have been declining. The purpose of education should not be just to pass the examination and to get a job.
The present education system needs to be supplemented by an education which will make our children morally and spiritually more strong. All educators and teachers must strive to give holistic education, that is, to produce students of mentally brilliant, physically strong, spiritually and morally high and culturally rich. Without strong emphasis on moral and spiritual values we cannot except the students to blossom their lives properly. Infect the teaching of moral and spiritual values should be the core of education.
In this booklet we have brought out small spiritual and moral stories for primary school students. Primarily this booklet has been prepared for the students of Mahabodhi Schools. But if this booklet is found beneficial, it can be used by anyone who is concerned about the education of children.
Children are taught to respect and love all forms of life and nature. The students are also taught the life and teachings of all great persons regardless of religion, nation and race and they are taught to show respect to all such great persons and religions.
I hope that this little booklet will light the way for the children and inspire them to take the first step in the great journey of life.
May all children be benefited by this small booklet. May all children grow up mentally brilliant, physically strong, spiritually and morally high and culturally rich!
I express my sense of deep gratitude to Wg. Cdr. S. Rangaswamy, with whom I have been associated for more than a decade, for his invaluable assistance in preparing this booklet. I also thank all others who have helped in some way or the other. May the merits accrued from the efforts of bringing out this booklet conduce to their happiness, peace of mind and good health!

Modern science and technology has done a lot of good to humanity. (a) It has made human beings very intelligent. (b) Man has become very skilful in harnessing material forces to his advantage. (c) Many scientific inventions have made life easier. (d) It has increased facilities for entertainment. (e) It has increased human interaction.
The advantages are so remarkable that the system of educating young people has been primarily concerned with the development of intellect and skills necessary for the generation, distribution, management and further enhancement of the material conditions of the people. As a result of these, many bad things are happening. (a) The moral and spiritual values are declining. (b) People have become self-centred, narrow-minded and are interested in their own acquisitions and aspirations. (c) They have no shame in doing wrong things. (d) Chivalry and patriotism are on the decline. (e) There is fondness for feeding the animal nature in people. (f) There is absence of discipline. (g) The world is steeped in anxiety and worry. (h) There is no respect for authority (j) there is much violence.
Why have human beings come to this plight? To understand the cause, it is necessary to know how the human personality works. The human personality has four aspects. Intellect, Emotions, Wisdom and Behaviour. The function of wisdom is to control and discipline. When wisdom disciplines intellect, emotions and behaviour, happiness follows naturally. The educational system had developed wisdom only to discipline intellect. The present predicament in the world is due to the failure of the educational system to develop wisdom in such a manner as to discipline emotions and behaviour. Moral education attempts to remedy the defect. Presented in this way, moral education means development of wisdom for disciplining emotions and behaviour, without hampering wisdom's function of disciplining intellect.
Though much has been written about moral and spiritual education, there is paucity of a publication suitable for use as a text book for children of Buddhist schools. This publication which has been brought out to meet the requirement is based on Pancasila, Kusala- Kammapatha, Parabhava Sutta, Vasala Sutta, Sigalovada Sutta and other Buddhist sources.