Education and the Aim of human life

Bibliographical Note

The first edition of Education and the Aim of Human Life, published in 1961, comprised only the first section of the present book. A revised version of that text was issued in the following year. The text of the third edition (1967) was enlarged considerably by the inclusion of two new sections: "Our New System of Education", a transcript of a series of three lectures delivered by the author in 1961 to the teachers of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, and "Two Cardinal Points of Education", a collective memorandum written by the author and presented by him in 1965 to the Education Commission of the Government of India. This enlarged edition was brought out again in 1976 and is presently (1991) being issued for a fifth time. All five editions have been published by the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.

Education and the Aim of Human Life

By Pavitra (P. B. Saint-Hilaire)

Written in 1961 and revised by the author in 1967, this book offers a succinct analysis of the nexus between education and the aim of human life. Examining how education is linked to the aim of human life prevalent in any age, Pavitra sees the conception of progress, born in the 17^th century's Age of Enlightenment, as a shift in the focus of man's aspirations away from the traditions and ideals of the past to the promises of a better future. For hundreds of years progress then meant primarily the application of mind to the mastery of physical nature to benefit society, and education was meant to serve that end. The modern age faces an evolutionary crisis in the apparent failure of scientific and industrial progress to bring perfection and harmony to all aspects of life. Pavitra shows how "with Sri Aurobindo, the past is luminously linked with the future" and" how this ideal has led the way to the dawn of a new age and the development of a new educational system to help our children become "creators of the future".

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