Dr. Radhakrishna defined himself, his country, the ideals he stood for and interpreted his religion in the context of the world to attract the respectful attention of all locally and globally. Through his creative writing he played the role of a bridge-builder between India and the west. The academic circles recognised him as an ambassador of India to the world and vice-versa. He paved a way for mutual understanding of the philosophy and ways of life between India and the West and also alerted the peoples of the world that the only principle of give and take untinged by any complex can build up a world family where the mind would be ‘without fear’, the head will be ‘held high’ and the world will not be broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.

A great philosopher as he was, he had the seeing - eye, retentive memory and the capacity to expound, “The roots of Indian Philosophy are in the Vedas.” In India the students of philosophy and followers of religion are encouraged to question everything. If a system does not answer the questions it deserves to be thrown out. If a new idea answers the questions in a rational way it is taken in. This rational and open attitude is the hallmark of Indian philosophy and religion and Dr. Radhakrishna was truly a disciple of the school of thought.

His creative genius reflected through his creations like 1) Indian Philosophy volumes I and II that saw the light in 1923 and 1927 respectively. 2) Eastern religion and western thought that appeared in 1939 and won him the rare distinction of being awarded the fellowship by the British Academy of Fellowship. 3) The Hindu View of life. 4) An Idealist view of life. 5) Bhagavad Gita 6) Freedom and culture, etc, speak amply about his vast practical Vedantic wisdom and genuine patriotism on one side and liberal cosmopolitanism on the other. That he was a patriot in the true sense and a cosmopolite always bathed in ‘the clear stream of reason’ is manifested well in his own words when he says that we are all created by the same God and so we are members of the same Human Family.

His philosophy which is his excellent love of or lofty striving in search of wisdom is recognised with love and respect by those who are engaged in the act of pursuit of truth and practice of Virtue. He had an understanding of Western Metaphysics (dealing with the problems of reality), Epistemology (dealing with the problem of knowledge, cognition and intuition) and Axiology (dealing with the problems of values and aesthetics). In the context of his understanding Vedas, Upanishadas, Bhagwadgita, Jainism, Buddhism light about all of which was well focused in his Indian philosophy volume one and also in the context of his understanding of the branches of Indian Philosophy like Nyaya, Vaishashik, Sankyha, Mirauangsa, Vedanta, Vaishnava cult, Shaiva cult, Shkata cult has found adequate expression in his Indian philosophy volume II to pave an interactive trend in the global educational spheres. He was really an ambassador of give and take between the east and the west.

Dr. Radhakrishna was not only a philosopher but also a teacher / a friend philosopher and guide to the world community, to the teacher community, to the student community. He started his teaching career as a professor of philosophy in different Indian Universities. The golden period of his teaching career is a period of 20 years, when he served Kolkatta University, he being King George V professor of philosophy in 1921 appointed by Sir Ashutosh Mookherjee.

His creation ‘History of Indian Philosophy’ brought for him laurel offerings from different academic corners of the world and it is a memorable incident when Oxford University invited him to lecture on the ‘Hindu view of Life’, a child of his creative faculties.

Teacher Dr. RadhaKrishna brought the spirit of Rousseau, the great French Naturalist and Idealist back to the domain of Indian Education by fostering the ideal of Child-centric education and in this regard he categorically remarked, “If we do not respect the child’s personality but misunderstand it, he becomes sullen, rebellious, neurotic and stupid. Tragedies of the human heart result in callousness and crime.” According to the philosophy he visualized for implementation in the field of education - he meant such education as would promote integration and wholeness in face manner through different stages of education in the developing child and learner unhampered by careless imposition of the views of the mature ones, teachers and others concerned. The narrow necessary scholastic system of education bounded by prescribed syllabi may rightly be handled and used to pave the way for that broad education which we term as education for life, education through life - education is life and life is education - that the seed of that education is sown in the soil of the learner’s body, mind and heart in the context of ‘Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye’ - education for liberation.

If education is ‘the most valuable gift of Goddess Saraswati to man’, if education is deliberate and systematic influence exerted by a matured person upon an immature one in the educational formal campus, if education is the art and science of transmission of life from the living to the living, if education is the panacea for all ills and evils, if education is a perpetual factory that produced luminaries and prodigies like Yagnavalka, Gargi, Narada, Shankaracharya, Chaitanya, Socrates, Vivekananda, Dewey, Gandhi, Humayun, Kabir, Tagore and many others of that stature and to produce a countless number of such figures; if education is that power which enables a person to stop doing such things that drain our energy- mental, physical and emotional; if education is that faculty that builds character which shines when the sun is down and all other lights are out, if education is a true friend, philosopher, and guide, if education is that power which does not allow itself to be merely sandwiched between entering the classroom and coming out of it, etc for the cause of that education what outstanding contributions flowed from the running stream of University Education Commission, 1948 – 1949, of which Dr. Radhakrishnan was the Chairman, are the following. And of course the above stream has not lost its way even today; it is rather relevantly co – working well with the prevailing educational currents of various natures.

The report of the said University Education Commission is a document of great importance. It guided the development of University education in India almost since independence. Its recommendations envisaged twelve years of schooling and a degree course of three years. It also recommended that University teaching be made more attractive by improving the conditions of service. Another important recommendation was the setting up of a Central Grants Commission. The Commission courageously tackled the problem of religious education by laying stress on the human soul which is a spark of the Universal Soul. The Commission’s religion is the strife of the individual with his downward tendencies and that light of religion to be fostered in the individual which may enable him/her to ‘resist doing what he/she should not do and prompt himself / herself to do what he/she should do.’

According to the Commission, ‘University teachers must be of the highest caliber -intellectually, morally and culturally. The University teacher, selected for his intellectual, moral and spiritual stature, must also be paid suitably. He should be able to live comfortably so that he can devote his time to learning, research and scholarship. Poorly paid teachers suffer from worry and uncertainty about maintaining themselves and their families, and may have to take up other jobs as well to supplement their low salaries. This is a blow to the honourable profession of teaching’.

According to the Commission, teachers should set pursuable examples of truth, goodness and noble ideas to their students. The ideals of self discipline, pursuit of knowledge, maintenance of health through games and sports etc should be so tactfully and wisely placed before the students that they persistently proceed towards these set goals for individual and social uplift.

It is the society that feeds, clothes, shelters, protects and educates the individual. If the society is the integrated or integral whole, the individual is simply a part of it. Society is the soil, the field that sustains the individual. So the society in this sense is the container and the individual is the content. But development and ongoing progress of the living society is recognisably ushered in by individuals and particularly by those individuals whom we esteem and place in such a class as formed of great men like Swamiji, Gandhiji, Netaji and others. For his outstanding contributions to the society, philosopher and teacher and also a great political figure, Bharat Ratna Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan who was placed at the apex of the Indian Administration in 1962, was undeniably one of the above mentioned rare class of great men. It is a privilege on our part that he, a dedicated great man and inspiring teacher was endearingly permissive to our pious wish of observing his birthday of 5th September every year a Teacher’s Day. He was born on the 5th day of September in the year1888 and although his great soul left his mortal body in 1975 when he was 87 years old, he is still with us to guide us through the path he paved and trod along.