THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU LEARN BEST IN CALM, AND SOME IN STORM.

A young prince one day decides to come out of his palace and roam around his kingdom. Along the way, he observed sufferings, old age, and death. He wanted to know the causes of the suffering and find real truth in the world. He left the comfort of the palace and became a wanderer. Finally under a peepal tree, after meditating for over 40 days, he got enlightenment. This man became the Buddha we know today.

Another young man: King after fighting a fierce battle in the Kalinga war, observed the devastation that the war had brought. He observed the miseries and suffering of the people. He decided to move away from the path of violence to the path of Dharma.

The above two instances show that human beings learn in different scenarios. Buddha learned the basic truth and philosophy of life when he was meditating i.e. in calm. In contrast, Ashoka learned his biggest lesson during a war i.e. in a storm.

Learning can be understood as the process of acquiring new ideas, processes, and examples that add value to our knowledge and thinking. Further learning is a lifelong continuous process. One can learn new things when there is peace of mind and soul. For example, a child learns new things about life while he studies calmly within the four walls of a classroom. On the other hand, learning can also happen when there is a tough phase and hostility outside. For instance, a child learns new things and realities of life once he/she goes outside and plays sports. Even a defeat on the ground i.e. in his/her stormy phase teaches him/her the sportsmanship value of tolerance, team spirit, and respect for others.

Learning in calm and in a storm: Across space and time

There are some things that we learn in a calm and some in a storm. It can well be understood from the method of struggle that Gandhiji followed during the independence movement. His method is now known as the method of struggle truce struggle. He launched major struggles like the non-cooperation movement, salt satyagraha, and quit India movement. All these represent the stormy phase, where he learned about the capacity of masses. While during the calm phase, he worked tirelessly for the betterment of society. He learned about the ills of Indian society like untouchability and he worked toward the elimination of the same.

Post-independence, India enacted many laws like the Hindu Succession Act 1956, the Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 et al for the welfare of women, the poor, vulnerable, and weaker sections. It is during the calm phase that the government learned about the basic requirement of citizens. By comparison, RTI Act 2005, Lokpal Act 2013, and criminal law (Amendment) Act 2013 came after nationwide massive protests and demonstrations by people. These storm phases made the government realize the need for these legislations.

Similarly in the economic field, India adopted rapid industrialization with the Mahalanobis model, for developing core industries. This can be referred to as learning in calm. Alternatively, when India faced the problem of balance of payment and a dwindling economy in 1991, we adopted the path of liberalization and privatization, away from the license raj that existed before. Both the above instances show how India adopted a new model for the economy by learning best from the prevailing circumstance be it the calm phase of the 1950s or the stormy 1990s.

In the health and education sector, India over the years come up with institutions like IITs, AIIMs, and IIMs, and built a 3-tier health infrastructure. However, it is the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic that is making us realize the importance of digital education (tele-education ) and telemedicine. Also a need for more robust health and education infrastructure. The above cases, confirm that some things we learn best in a calm and some in a storm.

At the institutional level too, there is always a chance of learning. The very first satellite launch mission of ISRO failed. ISRO learned from failures which set the tone for its future achievements. By learning some things during success (calm phase) and some things during failures (storm phase), ISRO showed that there are only lessons to be learned in the field of science.

Further at an international level, we learn many good things by way of collaboration, cooperation, and knowledge sharing between people, institutions, and nations. These calm phases of time lead to the overall progress of humanity, on the contrary, the world has also gone through turbulent phases of world wars, conflicts, and the cold war. These stormy phases have resulted in many peace deals, the formation of the world bank and IMF (Bretton’s wood agreement), and the setting up United Nations. This proves that humanity as a whole has learned few things best in calm and few things in a storm.

Lastly, learning in different scenarios can be best seen in the way we are handling the environment. Calm phases of history saw the passing of many environmental legislations while many environmental movements forced governments around the world to gather together at the Rio summit in 1992.

Learning at all times: Towards a better future

As rightly said ‘life itself is the greatest teacher of all’. It throws at us different situations, challenges, and opportunities. A person with an open mind and learning zeal can learn from successes and failures.

What makes us different as an intelligent species is the ability of homo sapiens to learn from daily life and internalize these learnings. This makes us adaptive to change, thus ensuring our survival learning during calm as well as during a storm, helping to develop one’s personality and attitude.

By developing these values and personality, a person can engage constructively in society. Success in personal as well as professional career depends upon the fact that how much one learns from his life and tries to improve upon it. Values like tolerance, sympathy, integrity and emotional intelligence develop over time within an individual. Few values are learned through simple activities while few are learned while facing a difficult situation in life.

As an administrator also, one is required to consistently evolve based upon one’s learnings during calm as well as storm phases. By doing one’s duty like ensuring the proper distribution of government benefits to people, an administrator learns. At the same time, while the disaster, rescue, and rehabilitation processes, an administrator improves upon his understanding and mental fortitude.

Having discussed the prospects of learning in calm as well as storm times, let us discuss why certain people or nations are not able to learn.

People with close and parochial mindsets are not able to see others’ perspectives. Also, excessive pride in oneself closes the door to further learning. Such people do repeated mistakes. They are often bad at relationship management and perform poorly at the workplace too.

At the societal and national levels too, the situation can arise. A nation that doesn’t learn from its history is bound to fail. For example, the fall of the USSR and the breaking up of Pakistan are testimony to this fact. In the past, when a society stopped learning from its calm and storm phases perished in the sands of time with the fall of great civilizations.

For the progressive development of oneself or civilization, some things must always be learned from different phases of life. This can only happen when children are trained and socialized in a way that promotes open and critical thinking. There is a need to build the right attitude and mental framework among children. This can be done through activity-based learning, moral education, and the right atmosphere at home and school.

Moreover, there is a need to lessen the psychological stress which hinders our ability to learn. To this end, yoga and meditation can help. At the same time, the focus must be laid on self-examination and the development of conscience. As rightly said by Socrates ‘An unexamined life is not worth living’.

To sum up, few things can be learned best in a calm and few in a storm. This can only happen when a person, society, and nation is open to learning and others’ view. To ensure this, the right attitude must be inculcated among children. Also, strong institutions with democratic principles should be nurtured.

Life is a cycle of ups and down. A person like Gautam Buddha, The Great Ashoka, and Gandhiji became immortal and great due to their ability to learn from their life. They not only learned from their own experiences but also from others’ life.

Every individual and nation has a message to deliver, a mission to fulfill, and a destiny to reason. To achieve these, it is thus essential that one learns from the best times: calm phases, and worst times: storm phases.