Harmony as the Horizon of Higher Education 61Compassion and mercy towards all beings, especially
fellow beings, should be the mantra of harmonious living.
It is a matter of going out and reaching out to the needy,
especially, the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the
outcast. It is indeed doing justice, of going beyond the
legal notion of it and walking the extra mile. Higher
education should lay the foundation in the pupils not only
to love their neighbour, but to love and pray for their
enemies as well. Responsible leadership is to mould
oneself in acts of compassion and companionship as a
result of one’s focused contemplation and communion
with the whole world. The whole education policy and
programme should reinvent a mood of joy in aspiring and
acquiring of higher education. That is, to say, all
educational endeavours should be guided by the principle
of happiness. Every undertaking in education should have
a touch of joy welling up in the heart of its takers and
givers. The saying of Jesus might guide the steps of
educators, “I have said these things, so that my joy may be
in you and your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11). It is this
joy which should pervade and permeate all activities in the
field of education.
(vii) GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, PEACE
ON EARTH, AND HOPE TO HUMAN BEINGS:
In this brief reflection, I have tried to convey that higher
education and responsible leadership should have one
focus and threefold relational directions. It is time for
higher education to return to its roots and enjoy the fruits.
It may not be wrong to state that the culture of education
evolved in and around the ancient religious and spiritual
ambience of the temples and monasteries and their