Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 4

THE question is about our physical education and, in a general way, the psychological basis of our activities here. These things have, of course, been written about and spoken of by me and by Sri Aurobindo very often, but evidently the idea does not seem to have entered your consciousness.

I do not wish to wage a war against what you feel and do, but I would like you at least to understand why things are done here in the way they are being done instead of letting yourself go thoughtlessly in a retrograde movement towards all that is done elsewhere, under the plea that that is how your fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers and all the ancestors of yourself and of all your friends and relatives did in the past and considered it as the normal and natural way of doing things.

I do not contradict the fact, in the sense that humanity was created by Nature with special intentions and special purposes; it is in order to realise her ends that Nature fashioned her creatures and gave them special habits and functions. Therefore, if you speak of natural things, I cannot say that they are not natural, for it is Nature's way.

But all the same I have told you, I suppose, not once but many times, and Sri Aurobindo also has written, not once but more than once, that we are not here to recommence, perpetuate, continue what is done elsewhere. And we have given a concrete shape to this fact specially in our education. For, I must avow, without giving offence to anyone, that they who come here after having lived long and who carry a heavy load of the past upon their back find it difficult to change immediately their attitude and their point of view, but if you take the young ones, who are not spoilt yet – although they too get spoilt very

Page 163

easily – those who are .not spoilt too much by the usual education, by family ideas, ancestral inclinations, you have just a chance of turning their consciousness to the true path and obtain somewhat tangible and concrete results.

To speak the truth, we have had nothing to complain of; for we had absolutely clear proofs that what we wanted to do is quite possible, if one knows how to set about it.

This is then what we say: given similar conditions, the same education, identical possibilities, there is no reason to make a categorical, final and imperative distinction between what are called men and women. For us, human beings are the expression of one and the same soul; and if, as I already said in the beginning, Nature has made a differentiation in the expression with a view to satisfying her needs and realising her purposes, but if our needs and our purposes are different and we do not recognise the physical ends as conceived by Nature to be the final and absolute ends, then we can try and develop our consciousness along another line.

Unfortunately we have come to notice one thing. As years pass and small girls grow up, they suddenly begin to remember that they are girls and that they must live and move in a special manner, they must be charming, good-looking, pretty, etc., etc. So all our efforts seem to be in vain. Naturally, there are exceptions – there are always exceptions to the rule – but even among these, in the background of their consciousness there is this feeling of being not quite like the others, the satisfaction of having done better than the others, the conceit that they stand comparison with the others – the males!

I am told people have been remarking – people naturally not accustomed to our ways – people with their own old-world ideas – and asking why we have the same programme of physical education for both boys and girls, why the girls are not treated in a special way, quite differently from the boys – is it not a gross error even from the physical point of view to level them together? Their crowning argument being, that is the way things are done everywhere else.

I say if that is the way things are done elsewhere, it is no use our repeating the same here. We cannot do it better than they. On the contrary, if things are done elsewhere in that way, it is just the reason why we should not do them that way.

Page 164

What we want is precisely to bring into the world something which is not there. But if we keep to all the habits of the world, all its preferences and prejudices, all its constructions, how shall we come out of the rut and do something new?

I have told you, my children, I have repeated in all kinds of tone and temper: if you wish truly to benefit by your stay here, try to look at things and understand them with a new eye and a new perception based on something higher, deeper, truer, something which is yet not there, but will be one day. And it is to build up this future that we have taken a special attitude.

I tell you, we have had quite material proofs of the correctness and truth of our position. They do not last, however. Why? Because it is extremely easy to fall back into the ordinary consciousness, but there is nothing more difficult than to hold oneself high all the time on the top rung of the ladder and look at the world from up there.

But we will not obey Nature's orders, even if these orders have behind them thousands and thousands of years of habit. Yet one thing is certain: the argument that Nature puts forward against any change in things that they have been always as they are is not true. Whether she wants it or not, things do change and a day will come when people will say, "Ah yes, things were so in those days, but now it is all different!"

You may naturally complain that I am addressing myself only to the girls and that I am telling you all this in the presence of the "other sex". But I include them also in the ridiculousness of the whole thing. For if they did not think in the way they think, if they did not feel in the way they feel and if they did not behave in the way they behave, long long ago you would have been disgusted with these childish mannerisms of yours.

However, I ask you only to understand and admit this much: for some time we still belong to a period of faith and trust, that things are on the way to change, that we have reached a point in time when things are turning and taking a new direction. I ask of you a little more faith, a little more trust, just letting yourself be guided. Otherwise you will lose the advantage of being here. That is all.

Page 165