‘Heartful Campus’ launched at the National Education Conclave 2021 – with an aim to re-kindle heart-centered’ and ‘holistic’ approach towards Education

Mumbai: Heartfulness Education Trust, the education wing of Heartfulness Institute today, launched the ‘Heartful Campus’, an initiative to bring the best within the students by balancing the heart and mind. The ‘Heartful Campus’ was launched virtually during the National Education Conclave 2021 in the presence of Dr Kamlesh Patel (also known as Daaji), Guide of Heartfulness, Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan, Vice Chairman – University Grants Commission (UGC) and Dr Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General – Association of Indian Universities (AIU). The core vision of ‘Heartful Campus’ is to help transform every student into bold thinkers and having the capability to transform self and the society. Students from first year to final year in any stream can be a part of the ‘Heartful campus’. Over 500 educational Institutes / Universities have been benefitting with the Heartfulness Programs for students and faculty and with launch of ‘Heartful Campus’ now can access end to end ‘heart-centered’ curriculum.

Daaji, Guide of Heartfulness after launching the ‘Heartful Campus’ said, “The Heart has infinite wisdom to guide and help realise the true potential of oneself, young minds who are the future of the nation need to be able to access this immense power within themselves to actualize their lives. ‘Heartful Campus’ has been designed to empower students in this direction and will help them become an inspiring catalyst towards the betterment of the society besides nurturing their quest for excellence.”

The National Education Conclave2021 is an attempt to re-kindle a nation-wide dialogue on the idea of integrating University Education with a ‘heart-centered’ and ‘holistic’ approach to inspire a future generation of Indian citizens who are confident, healthy, holistically developed & imbued with an impeccable sense of personal character & values. Other eminent personalities present during the first day of the conclave included, Dr Manish Kumar, CEO- National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Dr Ramnath Narayanswamy, Professor – Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), Dr Krish Shankar, Global HR Director, Infosys & Hon President- National HRD Network, Dr V Ramgopal Rao, Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Shri Sanjay Lalbhai, Chairman and Managing Director, Arvind Ltd

The first session was focused on Re-imagining university education with a ‘heart-centered’ approach wherein Dr Bhushan Patwardhan, Vice Chairman – University Grants Commission (UGC) while addressing the keynote session, emphasised on the Heartfulness concept and its inclusion across all the disciplines. He further shared his views on the importance for students to have this knowledge about ‘Self’ irrespective of their discipline or university while suggesting about programs which can strengthen and empower students to become model individuals.

In his keynote Dr Bhushan Patwardhan said, “Meditation is such a wonderful thing that our students are completely unaware of. I practice daily and have experienced the power of meditation. I always say that if doctors are there to give you physical medicines, for our minds, meditation is the greatest medicine, and it is available to us.”

“The first objective of education or university education is academic. In academic education there is intellectual strength, the general knowledge is required, scientific temper development is important, self-reliance is needed, the interdisciplinarity in education is very important so that you do not develop myopic views. Exposure to various disciplines of knowledge is important at university education, aptitude development, correct attitude development, independent thinking, reasoning ability and the habit of learning. In addition to academic objectives, I think other basket of important objectives come under moral and spiritual values. Because without these, education is not complete, the emotional maturity, the ethical value systems, the idea of simple living, selfless service, humility, dignity of labour, respect to all traditions, a moral character all these are also part of education & university education”, emphasized Dr Patwardhan.

Dr Manish Kumar, CEO – National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), while addressing the session on Nurturing Emotional Intelligence & Life Skills in Universities, shared his thoughts about Analytical and Emotional intelligence, Spiritual intelligence, physical intelligence and Cultural intelligence and the amalgamation of all as a foundation course to the betterment of the institutions of higher learning.

The panel discussion further on Nurturing Emotional Intelligence & Life Skills in Universities, emphasised on the Heart-Based approach to India’s education system that will help the students dive deeper within, from the complexity of the mind to the simplicity of the heart. Panelists including Dr Krish Shankar, Dr V Ramgopal Rao and Shri Sanjay Lalbhai discussed about generating interest amongst students in the ancient wisdom which exists there for from several thousand years and how the implementation and practice will help bringing equilibrium to their thought process.

The ‘Heartful Campus’ – heralding a new era in education

The Heartfulness Enables Leadership master (HELM) programs at Heartfulness Campus have been specifically designed for the students who are tomorrow’s leaders and includes modules like:

Start Up – A Foundation Leadership program for the Youth
Discover I and II – Focusing on Character Development through self-awareness and moral imagination
Develop – Business Studies, Science and Engineering, Law, Medical and Health
Deepen – Sharpening the inherent and acquired skills and capabilities
Dedicate – The highest level wherein students will learn to apply and dedicate themselves to their personal journeys
The Heartfulness Campus team will include more than 200+ trained facilitators across states in the country along with volunteers who will be present to support in the campus engagements. Heartfulness campus is a 360 Degree campus program covering all key stakeholders responsible for defining and shaping the future of the students.