58 Ethics in Higher Education: Values-driven Leaders for the Future
urgency to see the interconnectivity of all things; inherent interrelation
of somebody with everybody. It is this education which is of paramount
importance for our times, and responsible leadership has no choice but
to pilot the project of a harmony of life, which assures health, happiness,
and holiness.
The campuses and leaders of higher education should rediscover and
revive this holistic and harmonious approach to education and
leadership. Modern universities can trace their origin to such an
organic, dynamic, spontaneous response to the emerging issues of life at
their time of formation. Today the approach has become almost
compartmentalized, fractured, and fragmented, which escapes the
discussion on the fundamental good – life – and the common good –
wellbeing – and is in need of our attention. This means that ethical and
moral discourse has to be once again alive and active in the arena of
higher education. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Whatever, wherever, whenever, whoever does has a repercussion on
something, somewhere, sometime, and someone and is the truth one has
to reckon with and respectfully respond to in our academic and public
life.
(iv) SPEAK TRUTH AND WALK RIGHTEOUSLY
(satyam vada dharmam chara): At the close of the formal
education in gurukula and at a function similar to
convocation, the message of the teacher is satyam vada
dharmam chara (Taittireeya Upanishad: 1,11). There is
the opening line of the exhortation the master gives to his
disciples in the ancient gurukula system of education
(residential school). Higher education and responsible
leadership have to invest much time and energy in
inculcating the virtue of truth-telling and righteous
behaviour. Education is formation; it is character
formation. The adage “wealth is lost, nothing is lost;