Do you think students have a social responsibility, a political responsibility, an economic responsibility, a cultural responsibility or an environmental responsibility? 

If your answer is no, you possibly missed the purpose of education. Education is not just about earning a living.  It is the art of making people responsible towards themselves and the wider society.

However, if you already agree with it, remember that responsibility has many more dimensions and in that sense, we are all lifelong students and learners. 

Being a student is also about being responsible towards the nation, towards humanity, and even towards the silent rhythms of existence – the trees, the soil, the oceans, the sky, the noise and the silence alike.

A student, effectively, stands accountable to everything – the physical and the spiritual, the mundane and the magical.

A student is much more than you think

Even though earning a living and enhanced consumption may be the primary thing on your mind, that is actually not the fundamental purpose of education, let alone higher education. 

Being a student is fundamentally about applying your mind and soul to gain the skills and interests towards being a meaningful member of society. 

Sometimes, the society in which you grew and feel responsible for may be exploitative, conservative and uncaring. 

In such a situation, a responsible education is about empowering the learner to apply his/her conscience and question, challenge or reform any such parochialism.

At a deeper level, thus, being a student is also about being responsible to the highest goals of humanity and recognise one’s being, independent from any limited sense of identity.

The truth thus is that all responsibility begins with the self.

Do you know your self?

Before you change the world, you must confront a quieter, more difficult question:

Who are you?

Every civilization, every faith and tradition – whether it speaks of cycles like Kalyug and Satyug, or of a final reckoning like the Day of Judgment – agrees on one thing: life is finite. Even we experience that whether the world ends or not is uncertain but our time certainly will.

And when that time comes, all that will matter is: How meaningfully you lived. How gracefully you acted. And, how deeply your action impacted others. 

Being a student therefore is not just about attending classes and lectures. It is about recognizing such responsibilities and understanding your place within it – with all your strengths, limitations, contradictions, and possibilities.

How to know your self?

Think of the world as a musical instrument which produces great notes. 

No instrument produces harmony because of one string alone. It does because every component of the instrument comes together in a consonance. 

Every knob, every nail, every single little element, every dimension, even the settings, the atmosphere help give a note the place it has. 

The player, the maker, the seller, or a listener – all come together in one unknown symphony to make the music matter.

Some take the more visible role; others don’t even notice their part and how they contributed to it. But you would agree that music magic happens when each of them play their part well.

Put together, the key to know yourself begins from recognising the beauty of your contribution and how it makes the music of the world hum.

If it sounds too big to imagine, just notice how you, by being an active student, a caring classmate or a responsible human being can contribute to the lives of people around you. 

The people you empower then enable others and the chain goes on. However small a contribution, it is never insignificant. Rather, it is always a critical component getting ready to become more magical and melodious.

From mundane to magical: Commitment creates clarity

How to be the magical tune and not remain the mundane one?

Let’s be clear first. We all begin with the mundane. Those whom you see as magical gained it and learned to be so through practice, persistence and patience. 

A simple talisman to learn commitment is to start committing to something – for a day, a week, a month, a semester, a year. Or if you are willing, for a lifetime. 

Don’t just keep thinking what to commit to. Clarity does not come from thinking endlessly.

It comes from the beginning to commit. With humility. With awareness. With grace.

When you commit deeply to something – truly, obsessively, meaningfully – clarity follows.

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