On The Mother

CHAPTER 54

"Free Progress"

I

In the early 1960s the Centre of Education was to undergo the beginnings of a revolution in the pupils' motivation, in curricular structuring and in teaching techniques. More than once during the nineteen-fifties, the Mother had expressed her deep dissatisfaction even with the best that was being done at the Centre of Education, and of course she knew that what passed for education in the outside world was hardly worth the name. But it was not enough for the Centre of Education to do just a little better than what others did badly elsewhere. A bolder attitude or strategy was called for in consonance with Sri Aurobindo's vision of the future. Once, indeed, she said with a sweeping glance at the educational scene and a penetrating look into the future:

When I look at the education everywhere, I feel like the Yogi who was told to sit and meditate in front of a wall. I find myself facing a wall. It is a greyish wall, with some streaks of blue running across it - these are the efforts of the teachers to do something worthwhile - but everything goes on superficially and behind it all is like this wall here.... It is hard and impenetrable, it shuts out the true light. There is no door - one can't enter through it and pass into that light. ...

I have the intention of taking in hand the problem of education. I am preparing myself for it. It may take two years. But... when I intervene and remould things, it may seem like a cyclone. People may feel that they can no longer stand on their legs! So many matters will get upset. There will be all-round bewilderment at first. But, as a result of the cyclone, the wall will break down and the true light break in.¹

From the very inception of the Ashram School in December 1943, and during the two decades following, the Mother refused to make any sharp distinction between study and relaxation. All study was to be undertaken without external pressure; in other words, in a spirit of adventure. And all relaxation had its educative value. One might almost say that life at the Centre of Education was organised - or, rather, organised itself, in the Mother's own words, "on a routine of almost constant relaxation". Any imposition of rigid routine from without must smack of tyranny, and children especially - like buds and blossoms - might wither all too soon and lose their native freshness and honey under the glare of such discipline. "A child ought to stop being naughty," said the Mother, "because he learns

to be ashamed of being naughty, not because he is afraid of punishment"; and, after, all, what was fear but "a degradation of consciousness".

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After learning to be ashamed of being naughty, the child could be expected to "make further progress and learn the joy of being good".² There was an inner law, an inmost truth of things, which prescribed the norms of behaviour; and the problem of education was to help this law, this truth, to coin out to the forefront of its own accord. In order to avoid the tyranny of an imposed discipline as well as the chaos of unbridled thought and action, one had to cultivate right discrimination leading to self-discipline, which was but another word for self-mastery. Pupils and teachers were alike heirs to infinite liberty, but to follow that path of liberty one must have the consciousness of the Divine Presence in oneself and know that the Divine was present in all others as well. Once this was realised, there would be no danger that liberty might be mistaken for licence or freedom for unsocial or outrageous behaviour.

II

This stress on freedom was not, however, confined to any one aspect of life at the Centre of Education, for freedom indeed was the very oxygen of the whole scheme of things, except that it needs must be held in leash by the paramountcy of Truth, by the innermost Law of things. The new thrust given to education at the Centre was the sovereign dynamic of Free Progress, Pupils were now free to choose what subjects they liked, cultivate intensely what areas they chose, and they were free also to take or not to take examinations even in the subjects of their choice. Although the different stages of education were to be graded as before - pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher secondary, and tertiary or collegiate - this was to be no steel-frame classification, for pupils would be free to take some subjects at one level and others at other levels. In the Higher Courses there were the traditional faculties (Arts, Science, Engineering, etc.), but again pupils were free to opt for courses from more than one faculty. The new atmosphere of almost unlimited freedom had as a rule a bracing effect upon the pupils, and not only more was usually achieved in less time, but all was accomplished as a joyous adventure of self-discovery and world-discovery. When the question "Why are diplomas and certificates not given to the students of the Centre of Education?" was put to the Mother in 1960, she had answered that mankind was afflicted with the malady of chronic utilitarianism, everything was judged from the monetary angle alone, even children were made to hanker after visible success - anyhow, somehow - at an age when "they should be dreaming of beauty, greatness and perfection", and so it was necessary to place before the children who were being trained for the tasks and challenges, not of dead yesterday or dying today, but those of the unborn tomorrow, a very different ideal altogether:

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To learn for the sake of knowledge, to study in order to know the secrets of Nature and life, to educate oneself in order to grow in consciousness, to discipline oneself in order to become master of oneself, to overcome one's weaknesses, incapacities and ignorance, to prepare oneself to advance in life towards a goal that is nobler and vaster, more generous and more true....

We want here only those who aspire for a higher and better life, who thirst for knowledge and perfection, who look forward eagerly to a future that will be more totally true.³

The academic courses were not to be stereotyped as of old so as to prepare the pupils to take their vulnerable places in the rat-race of the outside world; the aim should rather be to usher in a new race ready to face and shape the future, and not just to achieve the annual turnout of so many clerks and accountants and technicians of all sorts. In short, the emphasis would be more than ever on integral development, the body, mind and the soul in a concert of striving and moving towards a new symphony of aspiration and achievement.

III

As regards the Free Progress system itself, it was far easier to misunderstand or misrepresent it than to grasp all its implications and possibilities and set them forth convincingly in merely logical categories. How exactly free was this Free Progress system? The discipline of freedom could be far more exacting than the rule of mechanical regulation. In a large sense, the 'system' went back to the hoary example of Satyakama Jabala who was sent by his Guru after initiation to the forest, with the strange directive that when the four hundred lean cows became one thousand, the pupil might return. But Satyakama was as keen and observant as he was truthful, and he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. And so he observed things, kept his eyes and ears open, communed with the world around him - till ultimately he knew the Truth of all things. At the Centre of Education too, the pupil was expected to rely chiefly on his native faculties, and above all on his soul's intimation and illuminations. Free Progress as the Mother put it succinctly, is "a progress guided by the soul and not subjected to habits, conventions or preconceived ideas". Nature thrives on infinite variety, and no two children are exactly alike in their endowments or inclinations, their abilities or aspirations. The paradox of the human situation is the teaming together of physical, vital and intellectual diversity and the deeper unity of the soul or spirit. Free Progress was expected to ensure that each child retained his educational autonomy, discovering his own special aptitudes and identifying the desired goals, determining his own directions and pace of progress, and working out with diligence, dedication and a sense of

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adventure and responsibility his own place and role in the drama of divine evolution.

Free Progress, even when most free and progressive, was not however meant to eliminate the teacher altogether. On the contrary, a greater - not a lesser - responsibility would lie on him than in the traditional system. But the teacher would now need to change his style of functioning, adopting with conviction a new attitude towards his pupils and towards the aim of education itself. Knowledge is a whole Himalaya that has piled up during the millennia of ceaseless human inquiry, speculation and experimentation, and without the teacher's guidance the child may feel rather lost while journeying alone. The teacher could help the pupil to feel at home in the House of Knowledge, to look up things for himself and to avoid needless wastage of effort. More especially, the teacher could help to create for the pupil an environment or atmosphere of affection that brings out the best in him, sustains in him a steady attitude of inquiry and enables him in course of time to "find his deeper self, the real psychic entity within". Nor could formal or classroom teaching or lecturing be wholly dispensed with. The cardinal principle, however, was that whatever became a mere routine was an enemy of creative life and of true education, and whatever affirmed and advanced the dynamism of life, the need for adventure and the endless possibility of progress through controlled experimentation was education's ally. The Free Progress system, as the Mother visualised it, was thus no rigid lifeless body of procedures, no high sounding dogma, no structure of theory, but something as large and as complex and as evolutionary as life itself. It was not a key that shut pupil and teacher in a prison-house, but rather the key that opened the gates leading pupils and teachers as fellow-seekers and fellow-adventurers to God's garden of life and knowledge and infinite possibility.

IV

When the Education Commission under Dr. D.S. Kothari's Chairmanship was appointed by the Government of India in 1964, they issued a questionnaire, and the several members went round visiting educational institutions all over the country collecting evidence and holding discussions. Dr. K.G. Saiyidain was thus in the Ashram in July 1965, and met the pupils and teachers of the Centre of Education, and had a lively and fruitful discussion with them.⁴ A special brochure, "A True National Education", was published as a Supplement to Mother India in October 1965 as an "offering to the Commission and the Country". The Mother herself, in her message in the context of the Commission's quest for a national system of education, had written on 26 July:

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India has or rather had the knowledge of the Spirit, but she neglected matter and suffered for it.

The West has the knowledge of matter but rejected the Spirit and suffers badly for it.

An integral education which could, with some variations, be adapted to all the nations of the world, must bring back the legitimate authority of the Spirit over a matter fully developed and utilised.⁵

Again, on 5 August 1965, while answering a number of specific questions put to her, the Mother further clarified her main statement. Her view was that the aim of education in India should be to "prepare her children for the rejection of falsehood and the manifestation of Truth"; in short, Indian education should be geared to the salutation of the Advent of the Truth. It was India's unique role to end the dichotomy between matter and Spirit, and show that the former, so long as it didn't manifest the latter, would be false and impotent. The role of science and technology was to "make the material basis stronger, completer and more effective for the manifestation of the Spirit". The unity of all nations was certainly "the compelling future of the world", but it should be integrally structured on the realised unity of the individual nations. A common language for India should arise as a living fact of experience, and not as an arbitrary imposition. Education was more than literacy, or a means to a career, social success or the acquisition of money; its true function was really to establish contact with the Spirit and bring about the "growth and manifestation of the Truth of the being".⁶

Aside from the Mother's illuminations and communications, on behalf of the teachers of the Centre of Education, Pavitra presented a weighty and seasoned collective memorandum to the Education Commission. This 16-page document spelt out in considerable detail the insights in the Mother's brief statement and individual replies. Drawing freely upon the seminal ideas in Sri Aurobindo's A System of National Education, as also the writings of Western thinkers like Teilhard de Chardin and R.L. Heilbroner, the memorandum presented with compelling force the case for an integral education grounded on the finding, awakening and growth of the soul:

A child's soul is usually very close to the surface and, if a proper environment is maintained, it will continue to be so for several years.⁷ *

After a quick survey of the past - the triumphs of civilisation and the tragic failure to solve the problem of human unity, harmony and peace - the memorandum maintained, after Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, that

* Something akin to the Free Progress is being attempted in Countesthrope College, Leicestershire, U.K. See The Countesthrope Experience, edited by John Watts, 1977.

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the next step must be no "mere amelioration, even a perfecting of man's present faculties, but a radical change of consciousness". And this led to the superb conclusion:

The unveiling of this evolutionary future before an adolescent at the end of his academic formation is indeed a seal, a kind of consecration to the highest possible ideal. Not only does he understand now the meaning of the long succession of hopes, failures and achievements of human history, but he will perceive all throughout his life the meaning of his own individual existence.... And if he knows how to offer up his struggles, disillusions and failures to his inmost soul, the Divine in him, he will really share in the Great Endeavour.

He will understand that the visions of the seers and prophets of all religions, the words of the sages of all nations, the dreams of the idealists of all times were not mere chimeras; they were promises. And he can see now that the Future will realize all the promises of the Past.⁸

Whatever the effect of the memorandum on the ultimate findings of the Education Commission, it at least throws abundant light on the ideals of the Centre of Education and the deeper meaning behind the Free Progress system.

V

The Mother was a Yogi in excelsis, and by native right and in response to human needs headed the Ashram; she was a born educator (education being a form of Yoga), and she was the head of the Centre of Education, and hers was the unfailing inspiration behind its many activities; and she could also summon from the source of All enough exact knowledge to meet any day-to-day eventuality whatsoever. Once when Surendra Nath Jauhar asked the Mother whether he might buy a particular colliery that was on sale, she said after a minute's concentration, "No!" How did she reach that decision? She explained:

You know my technique? I have established contacts with the Supreme Power who guides the destinies of all. When you ask any question, it is directly referred to that Power.... Do you know how easy it becomes? Then you don't have to discuss the matter, call meetings of experts to advise. Otherwise I would have asked what was the name of the colliery, where it was situated, how far was the railroad....

Such extra-rational, almost superhuman, sources of information, inspiration and effective action were equally behind her extraordinary managerial capacity which involved expertise in a hundred different fields of specialisation, as also her easy mastery of the written and spoken word, and of music and painting.

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Her Prayers and Meditations, her letters and he conversations, all sprang up, not from the levels of activity familiar to us but from overhead levels of instantaneous apprehension and articulation. Her music, as Sunil Kumar Bhattacharya saw, came from a long way down and welled up to the highest heights of illumination and Ananda. In her paintings and sketches too, the Mother was neither of the old or the new school, neither of the West nor of the East, but was only driven to render the lines and forms and colours of the Spirit in its numberless variations of manifestation on the earth.

On the other hand, although people vaguely knew that the Mother sketched and painted, it was only when an exhibition was opened on 15 August 1965 at the new Art Gallery that the opulence and variety and distinctive spiritual dimensions of her work came to the knowledge of one and all in the Ashram and of the many visitors as well. The Mother had drawn and painted since her childhood, and in the early years of the Ashram ⁹ she used to do sketches in the mornings, and once she exhibited some of them in Pavitra's room for the benefit of such of the sadhaks as were artistically inclined. On one occasion she did a portrait of Champaklal with her eyes closed; the pencil made 'free progress' as it were of its own accord, and in a few minutes the sketch was finished - and an excellent portrait it was. Likewise she did the portrait of another close to her, Kamala. On yet another occasion, she drew a portrait of Pranab when he was resting. There were two striking self-portraits too, and one of them, drawn in 1935, matched with her portrait of Sri Aurobindo of the same period. According to Champaklal, she was persuaded by him to attempt a painting of Sri Aurobindo in oil colours, but somehow the painting was never done.¹⁰ But we have fortunately her portrait-sketch of Sri Aurobindo alongside of her self-portrait of 1935. These two bring out the whole soul-quality of the Mother and of Sri Aurobindo - "Without him, I exist not; without me, he is unmanifest" - in a way that no photograph can do. The Mother's self-portrait has an elfin grace; infinite understanding in her eyes; the whole face is "like a parable of dawn" ---

A deep of compassion, a hushed sanctuary,

Her inward help unbarred a gate in heaven;

Love in her was wider than the universe,

The whole world could take refuge in her single heart.¹¹

As for the portrait of Sri Aurobindo, it is that of the immaculate Purusha. high-arching forehead, lion-maned, and a visage that is a signature of puissance and peace -

His soul lived as eternity's delegate,

His mind was like a fire assailing heaven,

His will a hunter in the trails of light.¹²

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It is not the language of forms, lines or colours; the Soul itself seems to whisper communicating the epiphanic realities behind the human countenances.

VI

Meanwhile, to judge from her conversations as recorded in " A Propos" and "Notes on the Way", the Mother's sadhana of the body - her silent sadhana of integral transformation in the service of the Divine in earth and man - was going on without a moment's respite. On 24 March 1965,¹³ she spoke of "a curious development". When she heard some music or something was read out to her or some fact reported, she had begun to know "in a more and more precise manner... where the inspiration comes from or where the action is situated and the quality of the thing". The origin of the inspiration was "rendered automatically by a vibration in one of the centres" and when that vibration touched "a domain of Truth" there was "a spark, as it were, of a vibration of Ananda". She had had that sort of experience first on listening to Sunil's music for "The Hour of God". Likewise in judging people whom she met or whose photographs she was given, in fact, in her constant evaluation of the world, she now used this extraordinarily delicate mechanism whose field of receptivity was almost infinite and whose precision was infinitesimal in detail. "I am simply an infinitely delicate machine for receiving vibrations."

When she took his hands in hers, she told the disciple, she had diagnosed the state of his body by its vibration. And she confirmed his conviction that the body does not help in the sadhana: "Always its vibration is on the ground." When pain came, it was no use trying to reject it; the right thing would be to endure! endure! She had found that physical Yoga or Yoga of the body comprised three stages:

(1) Perfect immobility or bodily equality;

(2) The surrender or spontaneous and total acceptance of the supreme Will, with a constant adoration and aspiration in the cells;

(3) Delight, ending in blissful trust.

On 21 August, the Mother said that since the 15th there was in the process of the transformation of her body what could be called "a transfer of power". Until then "the cells, the whole material consciousness obeyed the inner individual consciousness - most often the psychic or the mental (but the mind has been silent since long) But now this material mind is busy organising itself...." Significantly, unlike the physical mind, the new material mind "learns to keep quiet, keep silent and allow the supreme Force to act without interfering". Several times since the 15th, and for a while even on the morning of the talk, in response to a continuous

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aspiration of her body, "the cells of the body, that is to say, the form of the body, had the experience that to remain together or to be dissolved depends on... an attitude or a will, something of both will and attitude".

The experience left in her body almost a certitude about its future. For in that state 'normal' life became unreal and death merely a matter of deliberate choice, in fact a dislocation without any meaning a sheer fantasy. However, during the 'transfer' of control or direction by the power of the ordinary conscious will to that by the supreme Force above, "the former power withdraws; and then, before the body adapts itself to the new power, there is a period which is critical". For then the nerves, which are the most sensitive of all cells, "go mad" because they have been so long accustomed to the rule of conscious will. But they have too a "spontaneously strong receptivity... to the harmonious physical vibration". And this vibration, being a physical force, sets right the nerves immediately.

In another conversation, while the Mother was commenting upon one of Sri Aurobindo's aphorisms contrasting Knowledge with Wisdom, she remarked that silence and sufferance were more difficult than whooping and shouting and effecting an escape out of life:

There are millions of ways of fleeing. There is only one way to remain: it is truly to have courage and endurance, to accept every appearance of infirmity, helplessness, incomprehension, even an apparent denial of the Truth.¹⁴

But without accepting all that, there was no chance of working out the desired transformation. People only too often expected miracles from the divine personalities: "Show your power, change the world." In her conversation of 27 November too, the Mother deplored that people should ask for quick results, that they should mistake some vital individuality that played with them for a spiritual or supramental power. The vital was but tinsel, not gold - "altogether like the plays of light on a stage, an artificial light". But those ignorant of the real Truth were easily seduced to hailing the cheap and the fraudulent as something utterly marvellous:

It is quackery, but you must know the truth in order to recognise quackery.

...The vital is like a superstage that gives shows - very attractive, dazzling, deceptive; it is only when you know the True Thing... you say "No, I do not want that."¹⁵

With "love" too it was the same thing, for if one had touched true love through the psychic and the divine union, the vital love would seem "hollow, thin, empty - an appearance and a comedy, more often tragic than comic". On the other occasion, on 25 December, the Mother said that possessive love was as reprehensible as hatred; "only, one withdraws, shrivels up and hardens, and the other strikes. This is what makes all the

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difference." The wise course would be to attain the truth of things and cling to it: "this essential truth, the truth of essential Love".¹⁶

VII

Reminiscing about the Darshan of 24 November 1965, the Mother confided that Sri Aurobindo had remained in the Ashram atmosphere from morning till evening. And for more than an hour he helped her to a clear vision and experience of the present condition of humanity in its different layers in the background of the impending new supramental creation. She had first a panoramic view of earth-evolution: plants, animals, humanity. But civilised humanity that had had a taste of beauty and harmony felt no need for a further change of consciousness; only the chosen, the exceptional individuals scattered here and there, were ready for the trials of change and new creation:

It was like the vision of a great universal Rhythm in which each thing takes its place and... everything is all right. And the effort for transformation, reduced to a small number, becomes a thing much more precious and much more powerful for the realisation. It is as though a choice has been made for those who will be the pioneers of the new creation.

The Mother's reading of the situation was that men, even the best of men, were ordinarily content to be men; but some few were possessed by a divine discontent; they were no longer men, and as yet they were not gods either. Such men were in a rather awkward situation! Still, the Mother found this living vision of beauty and harmony soothing, sweet and wonderful; and with it came "a compassion that understands - not that pity of the superior for the inferior: the true divine Compassion, which is the total comprehension that each one is what he must be."¹⁷

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