The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 7

To the Children of the Ashram

In the beginning, naturally, there were no children in the Ashram. They were not accepted, they were refused admittance. It is only after the last great war that they began to come in, that is to say, when their families sought for a safe shelter. Since then they are being accepted and I do not regret it. I believe that for the future there is much more stuff among children who know nothing than among grown up men who think they know everything. Have you any idea of the art of sculpture? how they make images out of clay? you take a quantity of clay and then moisten it with water. The earth must be very fine powder and with water you make a good paste of it. Then you begin to work upon it, to give it a form gradually. But so long as you work, the clay must be kept soft, moist; then only you can change it, refashion it as you like. And when it is done the figure is baked and it becomes hard and fixed. If you have to make a change now, you can only break it and begin anew; for it is now solid and unchangeable. In life too something like that happens. As you grow you lose your softness, suppleness, malleability, you become more and more crystallised, fossilised, immobilised. Unless you break the form into a thousand bits, there is no chance of its being remoulded, reshaped according to a new pattern. A child is an unformed paste and one

Page 81

can do something with it. The great advantage of the child is that it has not grown, it wishes to grow, the one idea that possesses children is how to become grown up men. They do not know, however, that once they are grown up, that is to say, developed and formed, they lose three-fourths of their value which lies precisely in this element in them which is unformed and yearns for a form, which seeks always to go forward, to progress and need not be broken in order to be corrected or reshaped.

A grown-up man is somewhat like a traveller who has taken a whole life-time to come up on the peak, he has been going round and round the hill-side, not knowing the straight road or the easy ascent. Once on the top such men are already old and exhausted and have now neither the energy nor the time to scale a further height. There are some, however, who know the way or who have been shown the way, they follow the short cut and are soon on the top. They are still full of youthful energy, look out on the horizon and see what other ranges are to be negotiated. The others have not only no inclination to see beyond, but they are full of the feeling that they have done considerable work—in wandering about, that is to say—and now yearn for a well-earned rest. You, my children, are, on the other hand, being carried up from the very bottom by a funicular railway, as it were, straight to the summit. There you will stand before the whole world, before yourselves and see and make your choice for a further adventure. All this on

Page 82

one condition, you remain young, childlike, glad, happy, happy to be a child, plastic matter in the hand of the Divine.

Why were children not accepted before?

It is because where there are children, you have to do nothing else but to be busy with them. The children are an all-absorbing subject. Everything must be organised for and about them, everything must turn round them; all must be planned in view of their welfare. So the outlook changes totally. Things were different before. First of all, there was a kind of austerity and bareness which suited the grown-ups, but which could not be imposed upon children. To the grown-up you can say, "Take it or leave it". If you are not pleased with the conditions, if you find it hard to bear, you are not obliged to be here, you may see your own way. You cannot say the same thing to a child. You have no right to ask of a child what is not suitable to his normal growth and development. Children must reach a certain state of maturity before they can make a choice. You cannot compel them to choose before they have the capacity to choose. So first of all you have to give them all things they are normally in need of. Well, that brings about a revolution in the organisation. I have lived a solitary life, I know the life of solitary men living in a group. That is quite a different thing. Children demand other conditions, other arrangements.

Page 83

We no longer tell the young newcomers, you are going to do yoga. We tell them, you will find here conditions in which you can grow freely and grow better. Here you will learn under what conditions the world and society can be made better. Then it will be time for you to choose your line of destiny.

Page 84