Education and the Aim of human life

Notes and. Sources

Bibliographical details about the sources listed below may be found in the Bibliography. The author's references to citations from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have been updated by the editors of his fifth edition. The new citations refer to the volumes of the Sri Aurobindo Birth - Centenary Library (SABCL) and the Mother's collected Works (MCW). The reader may note that although citations from the Mother's works have been updated to accord with her Collected Works, the original translations of her statements in French have been kept: in other words the translations used by the author have been retained.

Epigraph. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 17, p. 205.

EDUCATION AND THE AIM OF HUMAN LIFE.

Introduction. No notes.

I The Purpose of Education. No notes.

II The Conception of Progress and the Present World Crisis.

1. I follow here Robert l. Heilbronner in The Future as History.

2. Several modern historians trace the origin of the movement to the exraordinary genius of Leonard da Vinci (1452-1519),and certainly he anticipated, if not ushered in, a basic improvement in the technology of almost all arts and crafts.

3. Exquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain. introduction. Périod I.

4. Heilbronner, The future as History, p. 24.

5. The Communist Manifesto.

6. " Le mieux-vivre dans la societe riche”, Diogene, No. 33, jan.-mars 1961.

7. The problem of the right use of wealth and leisure has begun to seriously engage the attention of economists and sociologists. The reader is referred to John Kenneth Galbraith's book The Affluent society, especially Chapter XXIV, "Labor, Leisure and New Class". which contains a good deal of provocative thought. See also Georges Hourdin, une Civilisation des loisirs, and the article of Bertrand de Jouvenel in Diogène. No. 33, jan-mars 1961.

8. Billy Graham, Life Magezine, 15 August 1960

9. See Sri Aurobindo, The Ideal of Human unity, Ch, XXXIV. "The Religion of humanity.

10.the Bible says "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Compare this with "The greatest prospect that we face - indeed what must now be counted one of the central economic goals of our society - is to eliminate toil as a required economic institution. This is not a utopian vision. We are on the way. "(Galbraith, The

Affluent Society, p. 340)

11. Heilbronner, The Future as history, pp. 18-19.

12-17 These Quotations about the Prospective Movement are translated from various issues of the magazine Prospective during the period 1959-1960.

18. The Hindu, Madras, 26 September 1960.

19. The journal La Suisse, 10-4-67. this episode is an addition to the third edition.

20. the head of the Prospective Movement, Gaston Berger, a leading educationist, visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, of which the Sri Aurobindo international centre of Education is a part, in 1959. He said that he was surprised to find among the members here an "identity of preoccupations" with those of the Prospective groups in France. He died in late 1960 in an accident.

21. Pierre Bertaux, in Encyclopédie francaise, tome XX (Le Monde en Devenir), 1960,pp. 20-40-7.

III. The Dawning of a New age

1. The Supermind can be described as a self-effectuationg Truth-consciousness.

2. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 18, pp. 3-4

3. Sri Aurobindo's major works were first published serially in the philosophical monthly Arya between 1914 and 1921.they were later revised by him and published in book form by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.

4. If the reader wishes to know Sri Aurobindo's views on the later stages of human evolution, he is reffered to the last six chapters of The Life Divine, in which Sri Aurobindo deals with the triple transformation (psychic, spiritual, supramental) and the advent of a race of supramental beings. The compilation The Future Evolution of Man is a selection of quotations from Sri Aurobindo on the subject.

5.Sri Aurobindo. SABCL vol. 15. p. 210.

6. Ibid., p. 211.

7.Ibid., pp. 213-213.

8. Ibid., p. 213.

9. ibid.

10. Ibid., p. 241.

11. Ibid., p. 214.

12. Ibid., p. 241.

13. Ibid.,

14. Ibid., pp. 243-244.

15. Bhagavat Gita.

16. Bhagavat Gita: sarvathā vatamāno' pi sa yogi mayi vartate.

17. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL. vol. 15, p. 225.

18. Ibid., pp. 253-254.

19. Ibid, p. 225.

IV. Sri Aurobindo's Integral Education

1. John Dewey, The Child and the Curriculum, p. 9. How little of this beautiful programme has been carried over, even today, into actual teaching practice!

2. Rabindranath Tagore, Personality, chapter "My School".

3. This work may be tentatively classified under three headings:

a) Philosophy of Education (Stanley Hall, Dewey. Claparède);

b) Child Psychology (Binet, Piaget, Wallon, Gesell);

c) Experimental Pedagogy (Binet and the experiments done in the U.S.A. under the auspices of the New Education Fellowship and the Progressive Education Association).
The outcome has been new methods of education, the best known of which are the Montessori and Becroly methods. Others may also be mentioned: the Dalton Plan (Miss H. Parkhurst), the Winnetka Plan (C. Washburne), the "Activity Schools" (A. Ferriere), the "Project Method" (inspired by the work of Dewey and Kilpatrick), the Cousinet Method, and the Dottrens's "Individualised Work".

4. Roger Cousinet, L'education nouvelle, pp. 20-21.

5. Sri Aurobindo, A Preface on National Education, first published in Arya in 1920-21, and currently in SABCL vol. 17, pp. 199-200.

6. Sri Aurobindo, A System of National Education, first published in the journal Karmayogin in 1910, when Sri Aurobindo was a member of the Nationalist Movement in Bengal. It is currently published in SABCL vol. 17, p. 204.

7. Ibid., p. 204.

8. The Mother, MCW vol. 12, p. 70.

9. Ibid., pp. 10-11.

10. Ibid., p. 11.

11. Ibid., p. 9.

12. Ibid., p. 8.

13. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 16, p. 5.

14. Ibid., p. 7.

15. Ibid., pp. 5, 6.

16. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 22, p. 321.

17. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 17, p. 209.

18. Ibid., p. 209.

19. Ibid., p. 210.

20. Ibid.. p. 209.

21. Ibid., p. 210.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid., pp. 210-11.

24. The Mother, MCW vol. 12, p. 11.

25. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, p. 216.

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26. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 17, p. 211.

27. The Mother, MCW vol. 12, p. 40.

28. Ibid., pp. 20-21.

29. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, p. 215.

30. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 17, p. 204.

31. See Erich Fromm, The Sane Society, p. 37.

32. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 17, p. 207.

33. Ibid., pp. 207-08.

34. Ibid., p. 208.

35. As an illustration of this synthetic tendency, I may mention that the recent XXth volume of Encyclopedic Francaise (French Encyclopedia) is entitled Le Monde en Devenir (The World in Becoming) and its sub-divisions are History, Evolution and Prospective.

36. The Mother, MCW vol. 12, pp. 30-31.

37. Ibid., p. 32.

38. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 19, p. 900.

39. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, pp. 27-28.

40. The Mother, MCW vol. 12, p. 32.

41. Ibid., pp. 32-33.

42. Ibid., pp. 34-35.

43. Ibid., pp. 35-36.

44. Ibid., p. 37.

45. Ibid., pp. 37-38.

46. Ibid., p. 38.

47. Ibid., p. 41.

48. Ibid., p. 112.

OUR NEW SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

I. How the Child Educates Himself

1. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, pp. 27-28.

2. See the two extracts on pages 49-50 of this book.

3. See the extract on page 50 of this book.

II. The Needs of the Child

1. See R. Cousinet, L'education nouvelle, chapter I. I recommend this book to those interested in knowing how far Western educationists (a few of them) have progressed independently on the road traced out by Sri Aurobindo.

2. Quoted by R. Cousinet in L'education nouvelle, pp. 127-28.

3. The problem of love and sexual life, left untouched in these lectures,
has been dealt with in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Love.

III. The Educational Environment. No notes.

IV. The Class Work

1. R. Dotterns's L'enseignement individualise contains samples of work-sheets, specially for languages. Teachers may also consult C.

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Muresanu's L'education de I'adolescent par la composition libre.

V. A Valuation of the New System. None.

VI. The Evolution of a Class

1. See the note on the Mother on page 80 of this book.

2. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, p. 28.

VII. The Task of the Educator

1. The Mother, MCW vol. 8, pp. 353-54.

2. Ibid., p. 354.

3. The Mother, MCW vol. 12, p. 113.

VIII. Do We Need a New System of Education?
1. The Mother, MCW vol. 12, p. 118.

TWO CARDINAL POINTS OF EDUCATION

1. Sri Aurobindo, A System of National Education, in SABCL vol. 17, p. 204.

2. Roger Cousinet, L'education nouvelle, pp. 20-21.

3. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, pp. 27-28.

4. Ibid., p. 216.

5. The Mother, MCW vol. 12, p. 11.

6. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, p. 216.

7. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 23, p. 904.

8. The Mother, MCW vol. 8, p. 354.

9. Ibid.

10. Heilbronner, The Future as History. See also chapter II of the first section of this book.

11. "Le mieux-vivre dans la société riche", in Diogene, No. 33, jan-mars 1961.

12. The author, pp. 18-19 of this book.

13. Heilbronner, The Future as History, pp. 18-19.

14. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 18, pp. 3-4.

15. See the author's compilation The Future Evolution of Man. See also Satprem, Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness.

16. Sri Aurobindo's major works, published serially in the Arya between 1914-21, include The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, The Human Cycle (The Psychology of Social Development) and The Ideal of Human Unity. They were later revised by Sri Aurobindo and published as books.

17. From the Bhagavad Gita.

18. From the Bhagavad Gita: sarvathā vartamāno'pi sa yogi mayi vartate.

19. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, p. 217.

20. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 19, p. 1067.

21. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol. 15, pp. 253-54.

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