“I am convinced also of this, the heart that must rule humanity is replaced by the mind. It is a bane”. -Viswanatha

A VISION AND A PROJECTION
Dr.V.Kondal Rao

There are persons who become great, awakened by the spirit of the times. There are others, who by their greatness awaken the spirit of the times. Kavisamrat Viswanatha Satyanarayana belongs to the latter category.
He was not an individual but an institution, a literary legend, a phenomenon.
He was an educationist par excellence, who wrote, spoke and taught like the ancient “Acharyas” and the glorious “Gurus” of the past. To him education was not a mere learning of some subjects, passing some examinations and acquiring some qualifications but basically a culture for “Man Making”, “Character Building”; a “Culture” for humanizing man for life before preparing him for living. 
Viswanatha therefore pleaded, advocated, exhorted and wrote exhaustively in many ways and forms that education should be “Culture Centered”, “Culture Focused” and “Value-Oriented”. 

He wrote and spoke again and again that the objective of education was not merely to make the man refined, sphosphicated and polished but “Civilized” not in terms of the possession of goods, commodities, services, comforts, conveniences and opportunities but also in terms of graces of mind, heart, intellect and emotion.

To him, “Jnana” was not knowledge but illumination that can come only by concentration, contemplation, reflection and meditation. 

Education according to him should give a philosophy and a vision of life should contribute to the unfoldment of man into the “Manly”.

It is therefore apt and appropriate that “Viswanatha Sahitya Peetham” has proposed to start a university in his name and has rightly decided to name it as the “Kavisamrat Viswanatha Satyanarayana Deemed University for Cultural Studies” in tune with his ideas and views.

Education in this university would be concerned with the “Cultural Studies” as a prelude to “Secular” and “Professional Studies”. It goes without saying that unless one knows where does he and others stand viz a viz “Culture” through comparative, composite and inter disciplinary studies one won’t be in a position to take appropriate and adequate steps to make learning and teaching “Culture Focused”, “Culture Centered” and “Value Oriented”. 

Cultural studies as proposed in the university would cover the whole gamut of “Social Sciences”, “Humanities”, “Fine Arts” and “Management Studies” as they deal with man and the society and also with matters of human welfare. Education in this university would be both for life and living.

The university would strive hard to strike a right balance among the “Conceptual Skills”, “Communication Skills”, “Analytical Skills” and the “Behavioral Skills”. It would give equal importance to physical, intellectual, emotional, professional and spiritual growth. 

Education would be imparted in Telugu as well as English from Under Graduate to Post Doctoral levels. The methodology of teaching would be comparative, composite, inter disciplinary and interactive. It would adopt multi-dimensional techniques of teaching which are exposure and experience oriented, issues, problems, field studies and project studies based.

To the question whether by “Culture” we mean “Indian Culture”, or some other or by it we mean the “Traditional Culture” or “Modern Culture” we would only say that like “Poetry” which has to be poetry first before being anything else, culture too should be culture first before being anything else. All other differences regarding it relate to specific experiences related to specific locales but ultimately in “Spirit” and “Essence” it can’t but be the same every where and any where.

Indian culture can only mean culture as experienced by Indians in Indian conditions, situations and locales but in depth it would be the same as the culture of any other nation.

This is what the famous poet Rainer Maria Rilke meant when he said 
“Seek the depth of things. Don’t let yourself be mislead by outward appearances; in the depths everything becomes law”. 

We therefore have to conclude that while “Cultures” pertaining to way of living differ for historical, geographical, sociological and other reasons, “Culture” pertaining to basic values and virtues remains and should remain the same all over, as “Rituals” relating to “Religions” may differ for various reasons but the basic faith in god and the ethical and moral spirit of religion remains and should remain the same all over.

“Cultural Studies” are undertaken for the sake of understanding the ways of living and doing things to co-relate them with “Culture” which pertains to basic values and virtues of life to take decisions as to how to inform to transform in accordance with the universal desirabilities, hopes, expectations and aspirations for universal happiness and peace