Harmony as the Horizon of Higher Education 57of going out – aiming high, going deep, and broadening
one’s gaze. Responsible leadership animates and
accompanies people in awakening and expanding their
consciousness. Truth sets people free; goodness moves
them to dream; and beauty embraces differences and
celebrates. Higher education is to support and promote
these. Education is a lifelong journey or pilgrimage: in
encountering truth, being enlightened by goodness, and
always adoring the beauty.
In this journey of truth, goodness, and beauty, education is vital and
fundamental to respect, protect, and promote life in its wholeness,
fullness, and holiness. It seems, at times, research and study are
compartmentalized and isolated, devoid of life and commitment to the
myriad life issues, such as migration, abject poverty, rampant
corruption, gender discrimination, human trafficking, wars, killings of
the innocent and voiceless, crumbling families, disregard for the aged,
communalism, religious fanaticism, terrorism, growing intolerance to
the other, the environmental crisis, etc. In such a culture of death,
higher education has the duty to attend to these realities and to explore
the ways and means to inculcate a culture of life and a civilization of
love. An apt slogan in this respect may be: All for life and life for all.
This means that all our thoughts, words, and actions should be geared
toward the good of all, including the least, the lost, and the last. In other
words, truth, goodness, and beauty are not the monopoly of the elite
alone, but they are the aspirations treasured and cherished by all
regardless of gender, creed, colour, ethnicity, citizenship, etc. All is for
all; everything is meant for everybody.
Higher education has a responsibility to the common good, to
establish the dignity of all, and to ensure the fundamental human rights
of all. Often in a market driven economy, generally, attention is paid to
short-term benefits and to the interests of shareholders. There is an