Guidance on Education

STUDY

Be happy, my child, it is the surest way of progress.

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My dear children, love work and you Will be happy. Love to learn and you will progress.

1961

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In order to be truly happy in life, one must love work.

1961

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The days pass, the weeks pass, the months pass, the years pass and time fades into the past. And later on, when they have grown up, those who no longer have the immense advantage of being Children regret the time that they have wasted and that they could have used to learn all the things which are needed to know how to live.

March 1961

Never believe that you know.

Always try to know better.

Blessings.

12 July 1964

To do good work one must have good taste. Taste can be educated by study and the help of those who have good taste.

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To learn, it is necessary to feel first that one does not know.

15 December 1965

When you feel that you know nothing then you are ready to learn.

December 1965

My dear child,

The true wisdom is to be ready to learn from whatever source the knowledge can come.

We can learn things from a flower, an animal, a child, if we are eager to know always more, because there is only One Teacher in the world the Supreme Lord, and He manifests through everything.

With all my love.

9 March 1967

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You see, my child, the unfortunate thing is that you are too preoccupied with yourself. At your age I was exclusively occupied with my studies finding things out, learning, understanding, knowing. That was my interest, even my passion. My mother, who loved us very much my brother and myself never allowed us to be ill-tempered or discontented or lazy. If we went to complain to her about one thing or another, to tell her that we were discontented, she would make fun of us or scold us and say, "What is this nonsense?

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Don't be ridiculous. Quick! off you go and work, and never mind Whether you are in a good or a bad mood! That is of no interest at all."

My mother was perfectly right and I have always been very grateful to her for having taught me the discipline and the necessity of self-forgetfulness through concentration on What one is doing.

I have told you this because the anxiety you speak of comes from the fact that you are far too concerned about yourself. It would be better for you to pay more attention to what you are doing and to do it well (painting or music), to develop your mind, which is still very uncultivated, and to learn the elements of knowledge which are indispensable to a man if he does not want to be ignorant and uncultured.

If you worked regularly eight to nine hours a day, you would be hungry and you would eat well, you would feel sleepy and sleep peacefully, and you would have no time to wonder whether you are in a good or a bad mood.

I am telling you these things with all my affection, and I hope that you will understand them.

Your mother who loves you.

15 May 1934

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Mother,

I want a discipline.

This is quite excellent and I approve of it. Without order and inner discipline, one can achieve nothing in life, either spiritually or materially. All those who have been able to create something beautiful or useful have

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always been persons who have known how to discipline themselves.

Always with you in all love.

23 June 1934

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My little mother,

I shall he so happy when all the clouds and shadows are dissolved. I want a new life.

My dear child,

You are quite right in wanting a new life, and you may be sure that I shall do my best to help you in that. I am quite sure that perseverance in study and the acceptance of a discipline of work and order in life will be a powerful help to you in renewing yourself.

All my love is with you to help you and guide you.

*

My dear child,

Will and energy can be cultivated just as the muscles are: by exercise. You must exercise your will to be patient and your energy to reject depression. I am always near you to help you with all my love.

*

On the days when I do not study, I feel uneasy. But when I begin to study, happiness comes. I do not understand this process.

What do you mean by process? It is not a process; the disappearance of the uneasiness is the very natural result of concentrating the mind on study, which on the

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3 December 1934

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Just this morning there is a very big depression and so it is becoming impossible to study. O Mother, what shall I do?

Force yourself to study and your depression will go away. Can you imagine a student in school coming and telling his teacher, "Sir, I did not do my homework today because I felt depressed"?

Surely the teacher would punish him most severely.

I think You do not like it very much when I do not apply myself to my studies.

Studies strengthen the mind and turn its concentration away from the impulses and desires of the vital. Concentrating on study is one of the most powerful ways of controlling the mind and the vital; that is why it is so important to study.

28 January 1935

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My mind does not become peaceful, I think, because I do not study hard enough. Studying does not give me much pleasure.

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One does not study for the sake of pleasure  one studies to learn and to develop one's brain.

1 February 1935

It is quite impossible for me to study, because inertia is there.

If you do not study, the inertia will go on increasing.

4 March 1935

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You tell me to study, but I dislike studying.

You do not give enough time to study, that is why it does not interest you. Everything one does with care necessarily becomes interesting.

10 April 1935

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Which path must I take then? What is the right and true way of making the effort?

Do what I explained to you yesterday  make your brain work by studying regularly and systematically; then during the hours when you are not studying, your brain, having worked enough, will be able to rest and it will be possible for you to concentrate in the depths of your heart and find there the psychic source; with it you will become conscious of both gratitude and true happiness.

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My studies are suffering because of constant depression.

I have told you that it is by study that you can overcome the depression.

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I would like to know whether as a general rule it is good for little children to play all the time.

For children there should be a time for work and study and a time for play.

16 November 1936

I am turning more and more towards study and giving less attention to my sadhana. I do not know whether this is desirable.

It is all right; study can become part of the sadhana.

8 December 1936

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If someone is teaching me, is it necessary for him to identify himself with me, to concentrate on me?

Without concentration one can achieve nothing.

18 May 1937

Concentration and will can be developed as well as muscles; they grow by regular training and exercise.

*

It takes more than a few months to learn something.

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What is the utility of reason in our life?

Without reason, human life would be incoherent and unregulated; we would be like impulsive animals or unbalanced madmen.

6 April 1961

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Sweet Mother,

Here our activities are so varied that it is difficult to stick to one thing till the end. Perhaps that is why we are not able to go beyond a mediocre average. Or is it because of our lack of solid concentration?

The cause of mediocre work is neither the variety nor the number of activities, but the lack of power of concentration.

One must learn to concentrate and do all that one does with full concentration.

4 July 1961

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Sweet Mother,

In a discussion with a friend about our physical education programme and the countless other activities we have here, he asked me: "Can you give me a valid example of even one person who takes part in so many activities and maintains a fairly high standard one single person in the whole world?"

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Do not forget all of you who are here  that we want to realise something which does not yet exist upon earth; so it is absurd to seek elsewhere for an example of what we want to do.

He also told me this: "Mother says that there is full freedom and every facility for those who are gifted in a particular subject and want to pursue it to the full. But where is this freedom to become, for instance, a great musician?" Sweet Mother, can you please say a few words on the subject of this freedom?

The freedom I speak of is the freedom to follow the will of the soul, not all the whims of the mind and vital.

The freedom I speak of is an austere truth which strives to surmount all the weaknesses and desires of the lower, ignorant being.

The freedom I speak of is the freedom to consecrate oneself wholly and without reserve to one's highest, noblest, divinest aspiration.

Who among you sincerely follows this path? It is easy to judge, but more difficult to understand, and far more difficult still to realise.

18 November 1962

Sweet Mother,

There are moments when I feel it would be better to sit silently instead of reading or doing something else. But I am afraid of wasting time. What should I do?

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It all depends on the quality of the silence  if it is a luminous silence, full of force and conscious concentration, it is good. If it is a tamasic and unconscious silence, it is harmful.

10 June 1963

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Sweet Mother,

I have too much "grey" matter in my head, which prevents me from thinking clearly and grasping new ideas quickly. How can I free myself from this?

By studying much, by reflecting much, by doing intellectual exercises. For instance, state a general idea clearly, then state the opposite idea, then look for the synthesis of both that is, find a third idea which harmonises the other two.

25 June 1963

Sweet Mother,

I am not properly prepared for the lst December performance,' and, what is more, I don't feel at all enthusiastic.

From the moment one has decided and accepted to do something, it must be done as well as one can.

One can find in everything a chance to progress in consciousness and self-mastery. And this effort for progress immediately makes the thing interesting, no matter What it is.

26 September 1963

1. The annual cultural programme of the Centre of Education.

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Sweet Mother,

I am very irregular in my studies; I don't  know what to do.

Shake off your "tamas" a little otherwise you will become a blockhead!

27 December 1963

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Sweet Mother,

Until I am ready for a spiritual discipline, what should I do, apart from aspiring that the Mother may pull me out of the slumber and awaken my psychic consciousness?

To develop your intelligence, read the teachings of Sri Aurobindo regularly and very attentively. To develop and master your vital, carefully observe your movements and reactions with a will to overcome desires, and aspire to find your psychic being and unite with it. Physically, continue with what you are doing, develop and control your body methodically, make yourself useful by working at the Playground and your place of work, and try to do it as selflessly as possible.

If you are sincere and scrupulously honest, my help is certainly with you and one day you will become aware of it.

22 July 1964

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Sweet Mother,

There are times when I feel like abandoning all my activities  the Playground, band, studies, etc. and devoting all my time to work. But my logic

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does not accept this. Where does this idea come from and why?

In this case your logic is right. In the outer nature there is often a tamasic tendency to simplify the conditions of life in order to avoid the effort of organising more complicated circumstances. But when one wants to Progress in the integrality of the being, this simplification is hardly advisable.

19 August 1964

Sweet Mother,

How can one increase single-mindedness and will-power? They are so necessary for doing anything.

Through regular, persevering, obstinate, unflagging exercise I mean exercise of concentration and will.

*

Are mental indifference and lack of curiosity a sort of mental inertia?

Usually they are due to mental inertia, unless one has obtained this calm and indifference through a very intense sadhana resulting in perfect equality for which good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant no longer exist. But in that case, mental activity is replaced by an intuitive activity of a much higher kind.

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Sweet Mother,

How can one get out of this mental laziness and inertia?

By wanting to do so, with persistence and obstinacy. By doing every day a mental exercise of reading, organisation and development.

This should alternate in the course of the day with exercises of mental silence and concentration.

1 June 1966

Sweet Mother,

What are knowledge and intelligence? Do they play important roles in our life?

Knowledge and intelligence are precisely the higher mental qualities in man, those that differentiate him from the animal.

Without knowledge and intelligence, one is not a man but an animal in human form.

Blessings.

30 December 1969

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It is a passing impulse which pushes me so much to study.

So long as you need to form yourself, to build your brain, you will feel this strong urge to study; but when the brain is well formed, the taste for studies will gradually die away.

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