Dayalbagh Educational Institute: Spearheading evolution from Homo Sapiens to Homo Spiritualis

Revered Prof. Prem Saran Satsangi while addressing the gathering at the Annual Prize Distribution Function of Dayalbagh Educational Institute's (DEI) Technical College on May 21, 2003 stated that, “The vision of the Founder of Dayalbagh and this Technical College, His Holiness Sir Sahabji Maharaj, was to bring up institutions to serve as models to all those working for the uplift of humanity, whose alumni will be healthy and hard working, not shirk from manual labour and respect those who till and toil with their hands”. DEI continues to work on making this Vision a reality.

In our post today, we have Prof. Prem Kumar Kalra, the Director of Dayalbagh Educational Institute walk us through the approach of the Institute, its past, its present and what plans are there for the future.

Remain committed to selfless service.
Anurag

Dayalbagh Educational Institute:

Spearheading evolution from Homo Sapiens to Homo Spiritualis

Prof. Kalra writes...

The Dayalbagh Educational Institute was founded in 1917 as a co-educational middle school, the Radhasoami Educational Institute, by the August founder of Dayalbagh, Sir Anand Sarup. The Dayalbagh community emphasizes nurturing of one’s spiritual and intuitive faculties through Surat Shabd Yoga. Dayalbagh itself is a century-old, living example of cooperative co-existence, self-sufficiency and self-reliance, untouched by the swinging pendulum of inflation, and DEI was nurtured with these same set of values, practices and morals.

DEI: Hallowed Corridors of Learning

Foreseeing the challenges of the future, the founders of DEI emphasized skilling and the importance of working with one’s own hands. In 1917, an industrial park called Model Industries was established in Dayalbagh, which offered opportunities for apprenticeship to students at the middle school level, in addition to providing employment to the community’s residents. Vocationalization of skills was thus integrated into DEI education from its inception.

Skilling in the AAM Karkhana

In 1916, community-based farming was initiated on a small scale, which grew into full-fledged agricultural operations on 1250 acres of land by 1941. Daily field work is part of life for every member of the Dayalbagh community. Dayalbagh also set up Asia’s best Dairy processing plant in 1926, and these initiatives created a sustainable model of living and material minimalism.

Children of REI: Bonding with Mother Earth

DEI’s education is rooted in its Educational Policy of 1975, the Architect of which was Revered Prof. Makund Behari Lal Sahab, Himself an outstanding academician, teacher and educationist. An alumnus of Lucknow University, He went on to obtain the D.Sc. degree in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh and returned to Lucknow University eventually becoming its Vice-Chancellor. And through His dedicated effort, Government of India conferred the status of a Deemed University on Dayalbagh Educational Institute (DEI) on 16th May, 1981.

The mission objective of DEI education is to evolve a complete person through physical, intellectual, emotional and ethical integration. The Policy, which is rooted in Indian culture, philosophy and spirituality, outlines how this may be achieved via its Aims & Objectives, Educational and Organizational structures.

The DEI Education Policy was a disruptive innovation in higher education and followed a systems approach that integrated social and environmental systems with formal systems of education. This allowed DEI to evolve at the pace at which social needs and the world order was changing. It benefited society at large by encouraging sustainable, frugal innovation through optimization of economy, energy and resources. The Education Policy also emphatically enunciated the centrality of values-based education and ‘excellence with relevance’, and this is practiced throughout DEI, from pre-primary to higher education.

Values instilled in our minds and inscribed on the walls of REI Hall

A unique aspect of DEI is the integration of education from pre-nursery to Ph.D. on the one side, and skilling to entrepreneurship as part of formal education on the other. The opportunity for mobility from general to skill-based education and vice versa through well-defined pathways has spurred creativity, frugal innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset in our students. Introduction of vocational courses (B.Voc. and M.Voc.) at Bachelor’s and Master’s level has taken skilling education to the next level. Synthesis of mainstream education and entrepreneurship has led to “Earn while Learn”, on-campus enterprises in dairy, food processing, automobiles, apparel design etc. These opportunities provide students with a means to support their education.

B. Voc. Dairy Students

DEI has created an ecosystem that encourages innovative ideas from young students on socially relevant problems, and we have tried to facilitate the transformation of these ‘idea quanta’ into frugal or jugaad solutions. We call this harnessing of small, frugal innovations ‘Quantum Jugaad’, and it has led to the creation of many student-run, on-campus enterprises. These naturally evolving, and exponentially growing student-run enterprises have given an entrepreneurial flavor to teaching and learning. But the meaning of entrepreneurship here is not innovation that leads to revenue-driven venture creation, but rather, the creation of value through social, economic or environmental ventures that benefit the lowest and the least among our masses.

DEI Quantum Jugaad: Incubating Nano Enterprises

Innovation, whether incremental, procedural, need-based or blue ocean type, always follows the SIGMA SIX Q framework of the Institute, which weaves six basic threads together, and emphasizes in improving the QUALITY(Q) of life. The sum (Sigma) of these six is greater than the individual parts. The areas are:

(i) Innovation including generation & use of renewable energy

(ii) Water quality

(iii) Air quality

(iv) Education and healthcare

(v) Agriculture and dairy practices

(vi) Quality and Values.

The Sigma Six Q Model

I would like to discuss here the link between innovation and system thinking in education. Innovation is not driven by technology alone (hardwired innovation); it can as well be driven by a change in one’s way of thinking, or through emergence of new knowledge, or even a change in the mindset that one brings to a problem (soft innovation). Educational institutes can innovate by providing new learning organizations and new pathways such as skill development and opportunities for analysis, synthesis, experiential experiments, teaching- learning methodologies and creative technological interventions. These then lead to innovative design of curricula, emergence of new knowledge and new pathways for student mobility. Ecology, energy and economy optimization too, are good reasons to motivate creative innovation. A combination of these ideas leads to frugal innovation that evolves continuously and dynamically over all time to come.

At the IITs, Prof. P. K. Kelkar introduced science-based engineering education that included social sciences. This approach gave young engineering graduates a wide knowledge base, and an edge in solving complex social problems economically, by using local resources. Prof. Mo Jamshidi of University of Texas, was of the view that methods of education must be refined and expanded to meet changing needs from a system to a system-of-systems vision, from a disciplinary to a multidisciplinary outlook, from a steady state to a real-time perspective, and from an optimal to an adaptive approach.

Innovative evolutionary approach in our education conforms to the philosophy of “Renaissance Man” by Prof. Jay W. Forrester of MIT, one who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences. Such a person tries to see common elements in diverse settings and thus creates transfer-ability between diverse structures, which is one of the hallmarks of the systems approach.

Norbert Wiener’s prediction in 1950 that electronic computers were capable of taking over many human decision-making processes has come true today, raising an array of crucial ethical and moral issues: Are humans in danger of becoming slaves to these machines? Will such machines have autonomous thinking and resultant morals, or will the designers consciously or unconsciously build into them their own moral values? And who we will turn to for proper answers? Prof. Rajaraman says that common-sense knowledge, religious beliefs, and consciousness will be the drivers, and we, at DEI, have set ourselves the huge challenge of not only instilling in our students the thought process to address social change, but also how to adopt and adapt technology to answer some of the questions raised above.

Under the guidance and direction of Prof. Prem Saran Satsangi the scientific study of consciousness and ultra-transcendental meditation is undertaken at DEI’s Centre for Consciousness Studies. Experiential knowledge of 150 years of spiritual practice by the members of the Dayalbagh community has given DEI a living laboratory to analyse the phenomena of consciousness practically, as also the effects of ultra-transcendental meditation. But this, much required discipline is yet to become part of formal education elsewhere.

'The Science of Consciousness (TSC)' Conference at DEI

DEI aims to become a leading research-cum-teaching institute in Consciousness Studies. In DEI this pursuit is carried out by bringing together teachers, researchers and students from various disciplines like psychology and cognitive science, physics, mathematics, life science, language studies, arts and music, engineering management etc. This truly trans-disciplinary study has unfolded many aspects of human behavior, psychology and functioning of the brain. Rigorous scientific research is being carried out to understand the experiential science through experimental techniques.

The Strategic Plan will be anchored by an accountability framework through measurable inputs and deliverables that monitor progress towards our goals. Over the next five years, building on our foundational strengths and propelled by the promises outlined in this Strategic Plan, DEI will emerge as an institute with excellence in specific disciplines and strong societal outreach that delivers holistic education to every learner.

Total Quality Management in Higher Education

The DEI will leverage its strength, taking advantage of the opportunities to overcome the existing weaknesses to reach the goals. We will allocate our resources in the areas that sets us apart and will align our future resources with the upcoming deliverables to become leading research and teaching institute in agriculture, entrepreneurship and consciousness while sustaining other areas of research in the institute. Learning ecosystem in DEI will be enhanced through experiential learning by connecting class rooms, labs and research to real world problems.

DEI’s Strategic Plan charts the distinctive course expected of an institution with a long and distinguished history. It builds on the traditions of excellence established by our founders, with a clear view of our strengths, opportunities and weaknesses.

DEI has chalked out a bold 15-year strategic plan (Vision 2031) and aspires to become an Institution of Excellence in the areas of Consciousness, Agriculture and Entrepreneurship. I do not think any other institute offers such a broad spectrum of integration on one platform.

We hope to help in the creation of a race of ‘Supermen’, who would be set apart from the rest of humanity, by their quality, character, behavior, values and ideals, and their desire to serve. The recent scheme of Evolutionary Superman (popularly known as the ‘Sant-Su Scheme’) for children of age 3-months to 3- years is the first step in this journey. As regular participants in the agricultural field work every day, these children gain good sanskaras from a very tender age. In 2018, we were happy to host them at DEI on our Founder’s Day, and we consider them our pre-pre-nursery students!

Supermen in the making: Learning to cohabit on our planet