On Education
THEME/S
The children of today are different in the sense that they are:
future-oriented;
they tend to be more and more comprehensive, global and universal.
they attach a great value to the virtues of friendship and commitment to the relations that are rooted in impartiality, team spirit and freedom from rigidities of conventions, dogmas and all the conflicts of ideologies that prevent free inquiry leading up to discoveries and inventions that will sub-serve the ideals of mutuality and harmony;
their boundaries tend to be crossed by travels and fresh experiences, and
they insist on integrality between profession and practices; they are natural critics of pretence and preaching, and they appreciate achievements and realisations.
Correspondingly the teachers of today and tomorrow have to be different; their roles have to be more stringent and multisided, devoted to the development of integral personality, wide vision of the future of nationalism and internationalism, and capable of fulfil the role of the teacher as exemplar, as a friend, philosopher and guide, as a scientist, psychologist, artist and technologist, and above all, an ideal communicator who can spread uplifting influence by process of awakening and inspiration and contagious enthusiasm.
Teachers of today and tomorrow need to have new programmes of training, which will take care of new roles of the teachers and new trends of the synthesis of East and the West, and as agents of change from old to the new.
We need to have new types of teachers who can find their home anywhere and everywhere and who have abilities, - linguistic and professional, - so as to serve the highest interests of the contemporary children who have new psychology and new demands to find and create new future.
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We need to establish and conduct institutions, centers and facilities for research in philosophy of education, and sociology of education in the light of the lessons of Indian pedagogy as also of the progressive researches in education that underline child-centered holistic education and methodologies appropriate to the promotion of freedom and discipline and skill-oriented and value-oriented education;
We also need to evolve and implement programmes of teacher's education that would provide education and training to prospective teachers that aim at development that will enhance:
The synthesis of scientific realism and creative imagination;
Multilingual abilities;
Proficiency in pedagogy of high level achievements in various subjects and efflorescence of cognitive, conative and affective faculties;
Mastery over new methodologies of education that blend advanced teaching instruments and subtle psychological sensibilities;
Proficiency in curriculum development in respect of various subjects of studies as also in respect of methodologies of testing students' performance, integral development of personality, and character that is committed to pursuit of truth, nationalism, and highest welfare of humanity in terms of synthesis of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity;
Multisided physical education, healthcare and promotion of the international system of sports and games as also the spirit of youthfulness, adventure, and readiness to participate in services related to defense of peace and international understanding;
Nurturing exemplary character and competent abilities of communication that can awaken, inspire and enthuse the students;
Understanding of pupils in respect of their gifts and challenges that they confront in the process of their progress and harmonious and integral growth;
Development of capacity to meet the challenges of explosion of knowledge and of constant changes in the roles of teachers; and
Promotion of general knowledge and wide vision of the development of future.
Promotion of the indigenous tradition of teacher-student relationship (Guru-Shishya parampara) in various fields of humanities, arts, crafts, sciences, technologies and yoga (psychological and physical education);
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Promotion of advanced research relating to teachers' education for purposes of advancement of capacities to teach and learn among professional teachers as also among parents, social educators and social workers;
Promotion of national and international cooperation in teacher's education as also in the development of teaching-learning material through online programmes, documentaries, musical and dramatic programmes and films; and
Promotion of programmes that will enhance the highest aims of pedagogy and synthesis of knowledge-systems and internationalism.
Part of what is contained in this book has been written over several years; but much of the rest is a result of stimulation received from deliberations of the Curriculum Committee set up by the Government of Gujarat for its newly established university. The Indian Institute of Teacher Education.
I am grateful to the members of this committee for the stimulation they have provided to me. I am particularly thankful to Smt. Jayanti S. Ravi, Commissioner of Higher Education, Government of Gujarat, who as the Member Secretary of the curriculum committee provided continuous support.
I am also happy to acknowledge the help I have received from Smt. Rekha Rathi in preparing the text of the book.
I am also thankful to the members of my personal staff, particularly, Shri Mukesh and Shri Kalpesh Prajapati for secretarial assistance they have provided.
KIREET JOSHI
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LEARNING-TEACHING PROCESS
We are passing through a great transition. The old is becoming obsolete and the new is still in the process of emergence. The olds ways of learning and teaching are found to be too rigid and too outmoded. A greater application of psychological principles is being increasingly demanded. It has been urged that the training of the young requires on the part of the teacher a deep psychological knowledge. According to some thinkers, the present educational system is a huge factory of mis-education. According to them, the spontaneity of the child is smothered at an early stage by our mechanical methods which are prevalent in our educational system. They contend that the child is not a plastic material which can be moulded according to educators' design, but it is a closed bud having its own inherent capacity to flower and blossom, requiring only the favourable climatic conditions such as the right atmosphere, environment, inspiration and guidance. Each child, according to them, is a psychological entity, having its own specific individual needs of growth which have to be understood and developed by the same kind of knowledge and tact by which a good gardener tends to varieties of plants and trees in his garden. Just as each plant needs to be individually looked after, even so, each child, it is contended, is required to be looked after individually. It has been further held that each individual is a great potential dynamo of energy, and if we do not deal with that potentiality, only very little gets actualised, and the rest remains dormant and uncultivated. This means a tremendous waste both for the nation and the world. Not to tap the full potentialities of each individual is thus psychologically unsound and economically unproductive. It has, therefore, been urged that our educational system , should either be set aside altogether through some kind of 'deschooling' or radically changed in such a way that each individual is provided with conditions and facilities under which he can grow towards his fullness on the lines that are psychologically appropriate to him.
There is another line of thinking, according to which, it is not enough to develop the potentialities of the individual but also to direct these potentialities towards their highest values. It has been argued that the psychological development of the individual is an extremely dangerous process, unless the development is guided by wisdom and skill and directed towards certain desirable and sublime ideals. There is a risk, it is argued, of succeeding in developing only highly egoistic and selfish individuals, if we insist only upon development and do not take great care to insist on the discovery of the right values, aims, objectives and ideals. It has, therefore, been urged that education should be value- oriented and should provide those conditions and facilities under which individual is enabled to discover the highest possible values and embody them as effectively as possible in thought, feeling and action.
An unprecedented education experiment which is taking place in different parts of the world today has resulted in the formulation of new models of learning-teaching process. It has been argued that learning is a process of transmutation; transmutation of innate reflexes into organised and conscious perceptions, visions and actions, transmutation of innate drives into wise and skilful pursuit of means and ends, and transmutation of innate tendencies into a harmonious integrated personality. It has been contended that there are
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observable and discernible processes by which the process of learning or of transmutation can be accelerated. We are often asked to consider the tremendous feat of learning that the child performs in the first few years of its life. It has been contended that the child learns so fast because all its occupations are occupations of learning. For the child, all play is learning, and all learning is play. Again, it is contended, the child learns so fast because the child deals with its universe with its total being by the exercise of all its faculties and by a concrete urge of experience. It has been argued that our entire learning process should be so changed that we are able to create for the learner the same conditions which obtain in the child's encounter with its universe. Some educationists have, therefore, pleaded for a search of a school that has no walls, and for studies that have no boundaries.
It has also been argued that the learner learns best under the conditions of freedom to choose, under teacher's wise guidance, what he wants to learn and what he should learn. The learner should have also the freedom of pursuing his studies at his own pace. This argument is further intensified when it is seen that an indispensable condition of the moral and spiritual development is secured only when the learner is given ample opportunities to exercise his free will.
Learning by doing is being increasingly advocated. At the same time, it is being recognised that there are, for different categories of learners, different ways of learning. Some students learn better through aesthetic experience, some others through manual work, while still others through intellectual or meditative contemplation. It has, therefore, been suggested that an ideal system of education should provide to each learner that method or such combination of methods which is suitable to his specific needs of learning.
Self-learning is being given in several experiments a pre-eminent place. Individualised programmed instruction, for example, follows an instructional model which aspires to produce an effective communication for securing precisely defined goals of learning, in a manner timed to meet the needs of the individual, mostly with the help of programmed teaching and learning material. An important variant of individualised learning is that of learning by consultation with the teacher, as and when needed. Lecture system, which caters to group learning, plays a minor role in experiments which emphasise self-learning. Even the syllabi and examination system are required to be radically changed in the context of a system based upon self-learning.
Project systems try to combine self-learning with group-learning. Projects may be directed towards an exploration or towards producing some practical action under certain actual situations. In a model that is known as Info-Bank, the learner is required to define what he is interested in and the kind of approach that he wants to undertake. The learner is given the freedom to govern his reading and practical activities and to judge the knowledge acquired and its significance. In some educational experiments, a combination of different information materials is made available to the learner and he is given the freedom to construct and control his own learning process and the environment suitable for the chosen learning process. In yet another instructional model, individual learners
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learn from one another by informing and consulting one another mutually from time to time. At a higher level of consultation, there is experimental testing and feedback. In some models, the learner takes over the roles of those responsible for action and decision in simulated environment. In some cases, problems to be solved are frequently more complex and make the acquisition of external information necessary, while in others the required information is supplied in advance. In the 'Workshop Model', the learner work like colleagues, supported, if necessary, by organisers and advisers, on the solution of real problems with which they are confronted. In this model, the learning of the methods of work is as important as the production of results.
Educationists are perplexed by the phenomenon of unprecedented explosion of knowledge. Teachers and learners are required to deal with this explosion, and efforts are being made to discover accelerated methods of learning and teaching. The necessity of continuous or lifelong education is also being underlined. At the same time, teachers and students are required to distinguish more clearly than ever before, those aspects of knowledge which are essential from those which are of peripheral importance.
There is also today an unparalleled width and depth of enquiry, which necessitates a new kind of learning-teaching process that would be at once comprehensive and yet peculiarly specialised or varied so as to suit each individual.
Again, there is today, a great quest all over the world towards the synthesis of knowledge and synthesis of culture. Ancient knowledge is being recovered in the context of the modem knowledge. The humanist and the technologist are finding themselves in greater and greater need of each other. It is being increasingly recognised that the learner should not only develop his rational faculties but should also pursue moral and aesthetic tendencies. In India, we go farther and underline the need of a synthesis of science and spirituality. Against this background, there is a quest to discover a point of convergence where different sciences and humanities can meet in a synthesis of knowledge. There is a search for an all-embracing project of work-experience that would generate a continuing process of lifelong education. And there is a search for a programme of learning that would necessitate a spontaneous harmony of the needs of personal development with those of collective development. It is being asked if there is a tool of acceleration of the summing up of the past and the unfolding of the future. And it is asked if there is a method and content of education that would necessitate an automatic synchronisation of studies, work-experience and flowering of faculties and values. It has become necessary, both for the learner and for the teacher, to discover or invent such methods by the employment of which the explosion of knowledge can be contained and personality can be developed which would harmonise, progressively, the wideness of the humanist and the skills of the technologist, the disciplined will-force of the moralist and the refined imagination of the artist, and the scrupulous knowledge of the scientist and the sublime vision, wisdom and ever growing perfection of the profound and wide spiritual culture.
It is seen that there are today powerful trends that necessitate a continual revision of the contents of education as also a continued refinement of the learning-teaching process.
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It is against this background that there is a serious thinking in our country to determine the new role that the teacher is called upon to play. The situation in India is in a sense more complex than in many other countries of the world. India is passing through a tremendous period of scientific and cultural efflorescence. This period was preceded by a powerful phase of the national freedom struggle during which the Indian subcontinent passed through an unprecedented churning of mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual ideas. In the course of this churning, profound experiments in the field of education took place, the lessons of which need still to be assimilated. There grew in India during this period an irresistible sentiment to give the children and the youths of our country a new kind of education, which is freed from the fetters of the system given to us by the British and which would ensure development and promotion among students and teachers not only of the highest values of physical, emotional, mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual culture, but also those values which are uniquely Indian, and which would at the same time promote a new kind of synthesis appropriate to our own synthetic culture. India has developed a kind of secularism which needs to be properly defined, understood and promoted. We have to build up young men and women who would have pride in the Indian heritage and our synthetic culture. This would mean that we have to transmit to the children and youths a true knowledge of India, of India's complexity, of India's greatness and of India's innate tendencies to harmonise and synthesise.
The task that lies ahead of Indian education is difficult. We are being called upon to take into account the educational needs both of today and of tomorrow.
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NEW ROLES FOR THE TEACHER AND METHODS
RELEVANT TO TEACHER EDUCATION
It is noteworthy that the role of the teacher is sought to be determined during the recent decades not only in the context of providing the dimension of values in our system of education but also in the context of providing more effective methods of education. These two contexts are not mutually exclusive, and they tend to lead to conclusions that converge upon the important point, namely, that the role of the teacher is not merely that of a lecturer.
According to one extreme view, the method of lecturing should be eliminated altogether from our educational system. It has been suggested that teaching should be done through teaching machines or through such devices which involve methods of self-learning.
Against this extreme view, it has been argued that the method of lecturing is indispensable, not as an exclusive method, but as an integral part of the totality of various methods. It has been argued, for instance, that lecturing is a practical demonstration to the students of how a complex and rich mind operates while dealing with a subject in question. It has also been held that lectures are or can be useful under at least five circumstances, namely, (a) when a new subject is to be introduced; (b) when a panoramic view of a given topic or subject is to be presented; (c) when collective awareness regarding a subject matter needs to be created; (d) when a discussion on a given problem is sought to be stimulated and conducted; and (e) when some general information is to be provided for any collective purposes. It has also been urged that lectures are effective instruments when results of a recent research or discovery are to be communicated, particularly, when no written material is as yet available. Finally, no one seriously disputes the tremendous value of an inspired speech, particularly when it flows from profundities of knowledge and experience.
At the same time, it has now come to be increasingly realised that the most essential and indispensable role of the teacher is to try to understand his students and to help each one in his growth and development. In this view, the first thing that the teacher should do is to observe his students at work and at play, with deep insight and sympathy. The second step should be to provide to the whole group of his students as also to each member of the group the necessary stimulus in the right direction. This stimulus could be in the form of a lecture or in the form of a conversation or a suggestion or a demonstration or a general or intimate remark. That a given teacher should be a good lecturer is understood, but it is increasingly felt that he should also be capable of formulating short and striking words and ideas which can be communicated briefly and effectively. He should also be capable of knowing when a personal or individual explanation to a given student would be useful and fruitful. There are occasions when silence is more eloquent than a speech. And, above all, the teacher should by his enthusiasm and his own uplifting example, provide a stimulating atmosphere that would inspire his students to work, joyously and eagerly, towards excellence.
It is admitted that these are difficult things, and that we are led to demand a great deal from the teacher. But it is argued that the changes that are coming over the entire human race, and the exigencies of the crisis through which mankind is passing today impose upon us an imperative to demand from our teachers qualities and capacities which are not so common. It is, therefore, urged that teachers have to play roles which are largely new and which are admittedly difficult.
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As noted elsewhere, The International Commission on the Development of Education, established by UNESCO, submitted its report in 1972 under the title: Learning to be. In this report, certain far-reaching recommendations have been made in regard to teachers and teachers' training programme. It has been. for example, pointed out:
One of the essential tasks of educators at present is to change the mentalities and qualifications inherent in all professions; thus they should be the first to be ready to rethink and change the criteria and basic situation of the teaching profession, in which the job of educating and stimulating students is steadily superseding that of simply giving instructions.'
It has been further pointed out that the present day divisions between formal and informal, school and out-of-school, child and adult education are steadily fading. Therefore the conditions in which teachers are trained should be profoundly changed so that, essentially, they become educators rather than mere specialists in transmitting pre-established curricula. The teaching profession will not be in a position to fulfill its role in the future unless it is given, and develops itself a structure better adapted to modem educational systems.
It needs to be pointed out that widespread and efficient use of new technologies in education is possible only if sufficient change takes place within the system itself. Therefore the teacher training programmes should be so modified that teachers are equipped for the different roles and functions imposed by new technologies.
The qualities, capacities and skills that should be aimed at among teachers should include:
A spontaneous but well-cultivated interest in observing students with deep insight and sympathy;
Psychological tact to deal with collective and individual needs of growth of students;
Capacity to lead students to the art of self-learning;
A cheerful and enthusiastic disposition capable of inspiring students to pursue values and excellence with sincerity and dedication;
Capacity of guiding and counseling, more by suggesting and by uplifting example rather than by lecturing;
Capacities not only for formal education but also for non-formal and informal education;
Capacity to handle self-learning equipment, audio-visual instruments and various kinds of new learning materials including worksheets, workbooks, programmed books, test papers with auto-correcting components and other materials required for vocational guidance;
1 Learning to be p. 216 (UNESCO, Paris, 1972)
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Knowledge of art and science of educating the personality in all its aspects with a special emphasis on integration, harmony and excellence.
As a practical measure the methods which are currently employed in the teachers' training institutions should be so changed that the trainees would have the opportunity of first hand experience of new methods and techniques of learning during their training programmes.
A working model could be described as follows:
Teachers under training should at the outset be provided with a document explaining the new roles for the teachers as also various new methods and techniques involved in the learning-teaching process;
Trainees would be required to indicate their willingness to employ new methods of learning in their own training;
Trainees would then be advised to study their various subjects, as far as possible, through the process of self-learning (it should be made clear that the burden of completing the course of training will be on themselves, and that they will be free to progress at their own pace);
Educators of the trainees would be available for consultation, as and when needed, for shorter or longer duration, by prior appointment, or at certain hours of the day, without any prior appointment;
Educators would deliver lectures from time to time, as and when necessary, but these lectures would be fewer than in the ordinary system of education;
Educators would combine lectures with seminars, tutorials, demonstrations, exhibitions and individualised guidance so as to make the process of training as effective as possible;
Each trainee would undertake a project, the report of which would, at the end of the training period, indicate his pursuit of excellence and values which are sought to be promoted through the training programme;
The training institution should provide opportunities and facilities to the trainees to handle audio-visual equipment, new learning-teaching material, worksheets, programmed books, teaching machines and other latest instruments meant for individualised learning as also for various other methods which are sought to be employed in new emerging models of teaching-learning;
Educators in the training institutions would devote themselves to extending to the trainees the necessary help, guidance, counsel and inspiration;
Educators would give to the trainees individualised tests from time to time, as and when necessary, with a view to, giving opportunities to the trainees (a) to revise what they have studied; (b) to ascertain the degree of proficiency achieved; (c) to stimulate and encourage them to study further; and (d) to develop new interest and new lines of studies;
A record of progress would be maintained by each trainee in which he will record, among other things, books read and results achieved at various tests; (this record would, however, be for the trainees' own personal use and not for any official purposes).
In order that the candidate is allowed freedom to direct his own training programme he should be free to take or not to take any particular test during the training programme, except when in the view of the educators he is unable to use his freedom intelligently and prudently
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and is therefore in need of compulsory compliance with the advice and directions of the educators.
At the end of the training period, the candidate would have the possibility of taking a Public Examination, provided that he obtains from the head of the training institution a testimonial that he has shown during the training period qualities of regularity, punctuality and diligence in work as also disciplined behaviour.
The Public Examination should consist of a written test and an oral test.
The written test will consist of several papers. Of these, some will cover the programmes that have been suggested as the foundational programme, which would consist of six main topics, divided into various sub-topics. The six main topics would be: (1) General Knowledge (ii) Fundamental Duties; (iii) Value-Oriented Education; (iv) Skill-Oriented Education (v) Indian Culture; (vi) Introduction to core programme, special Global World; (vii) Philosophy of Education and Life; (viii) Education for Integral Development and Personality. In the emphasis should fall on achievements of Indian culture, national struggle for freedom, ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and the theme of Unity of Humanity. The next two papers would pertain to any combination of subjects that the student might have chosen to specialise in.
In the oral test, each interviewee would have the opportunity to explain the reports of the project that he might have submitted earlier, on completion of the training period, as also of personal development. In addition, the interviewee will be tested in respect of the depth of knowledge of subjects of his specialisation as also in respect of the general attainments of the development of personality and dedication of serious thought and to high ideals,
One of the serious maladies of the written tests is that of cheating practiced by a number of students. Various suggestions have been made to cure this malady. Our own suggestion would be to arrange the written tests on the following lines:
There should be a question bank in every concerned library where a number of questions pertaining to various topics of studies could be available.
Students should be free to get themselves acquainted with the questions pertaining to their own subjects and topics.
In the examination hall, a selection from the totality of these questions, classified subject-wise (and topic-wise, if necessary) should be available.
These questions would be printed on a specially designed paper, each question of a separate slip on one side only. The other side of the slip would be blank and the slip would be so folded that only the blank side would be visible from outside.
Each student would be permitted to pick up any questions by lot, and he would be expected to answer any four or five of these questions.
For every question, there would be separate answer sheet, and at the commencement of the answer, the student would be required to paste the question slip.
Thus, every student will have a separate set of questions, and there would be no possibility of leakage or of cheating.
Similar methods, now developed by NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling), could also be employed.
Candidates who would be declared successful at this Public Examination would be entitled to appointment, on a competitive basis, to a teaching post in any secondary school. He will
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similarly be entitled to appointment in any higher secondary school, provided that he has the requisite postgraduate qualifications as well.
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NOTES
RELATING TO
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND LIFE
Perennial Aims of Education
There are three fundamental ideas underlying the educational process. There is, first, the pursuit of man to know himself and the universe and to relate himself with the universe as .effectively as possible. This pursuit constitutes the very theme of human culture, and education derives its fundamental thrust from the cultural setting at a given point of time. Secondly, there is a process of transmission of the accumulated results of the past to the growing generation so as to enable it to carry forward the cultural heritage and to build the gates and paths of the future. And, thirdly, there is in the process of transmission a deliberate attempt to accelerate as far as possible the process of human progress. These three premises provide us with the basic indications of what may be called the perennial objectives of education.
Being at once a product and instrument of culture, education must promote the highest aims of culture, and, in particular, it must encourage and foster the quest for the knowledge of man and the universe, as also the arts and sciences of their interrelationship. Secondly, education should aim at building new bridges between the past and the future. And, thirdly, education should endeavour to discover and apply increasingly efficient means of the right rhythms of acceleration of human progress.
But apart from these perennial objectives, there are, in every age and in every important phase of transition, certain special objectives relevant to certain special needs. And, from this point of view, there are at least three emerging objectives, namely, education for peace, education for development, and education for the integral growth of personality.
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Let us dwell briefly on these objectives so as to clarify what they really signify and mean.
Education for Peace
An elementary condition in which man finds himself in his relation with his fellow-beings and the world is that of struggle for existence. This struggle is often portrayed as a battle between the creature and Nature. But while we may not belittle the role that is played by the sense of battle and conquest (hat seem inherent in certain stages of human endeavour we observe that as man becomes increasingly self-conscious there grows in him an irresistible tendency to learn the laws of harmony of himself with the universe. In recent times, however, a new dimension has been added because of the increasing world-tensions which have reached such a high pitch that the human survival itself has become endangered. This has led to the realization of an imperative need of directing our efforts to generate and strengthen forces of understanding, harmony and peace.
Peace is sometimes conceived negatively so as to mean- mere absence of war. But peace is fundamentally a positive concept, and while in the highest sense it refers to 'peace that passeth understanding', it is, in the context of dynamism, the stable foundation of all harmonious activities. Peace is a positive striving, and in the present condition of the world, this striving implies a rigorous pursuit of international understanding and cooperation. In the field of education, this implies an international dimension and a global perspective at all levels and in all its forms. It also implies understanding and respect for all peoples, their cultures, civilizations, values and ways of life, including domestic ethnic culture and cultures of other nations. At a deeper level we should mean by international understanding not merely knowledge of other countries' cultures and
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peoples, but also a responsible commitment to the idea and practice of the Family of Man. In other words, international understanding should mean a commitment to that mode of consciousness in which mutual dependence of each upon all and of all upon each is indispensable.
Indeed, international understanding does not emerge merely from exchange of ideas but it emanates fundamentally from an increasing exploration of man within himself and from a discovery of the inner identity and universality of man. A divided man is not only at war with himself but is also at war with others. Again, it is largely man's ignorance of himself and his own incapacities which condemn him to respond to outside influences which engender divisions, tensions and discords. Finally, it is man's failure to discover any durable meaning or aim of life that reduces him to become a plaything of the forces of degeneration, decay and destruction. An integrated man, in possession of himself and set in dynamic search of knowledge and power in service of the highest conceivable aim of life, can effortlessly become a potent instrument of harmonious relationships and of peace. It follows, therefore, that the promotion of education and training so as to multiply human beings of this kind is evidently one of the most important objectives that the contemporary teacher is called upon to promote.
We may even go farther. Today the ideal of human unity is more or less vaguely making its way to the front of our consciousness, and the increasing advocacy of the world peace is preparing a firm foundation for the realization of this ideal. The intellectual and material circumstances of the age have prepared and almost imposed this ideal, especially the scientific discoveries which have made our earth so small -&at its vastest kingdoms seem now no more than the provinces of a single country. But it is necessary to remember that when material circumstances favour a great change but the
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heart and mind of the race are not really ready, failure may be predicted. Indeed, this failure can be prevented if men become wise in time and accept the inner change along with external readjustment. And it is here that education can play a crucial role, since it is through education that the heart and mind of the race can most effectively be made ready for the needed change.
If we examine closely, we shall find that the growing search for the unification of mankind reveals one basic tension. This tension results from two opposing but equally powerful tendencies, the one towards uniformity, and the other towards unity. The two seem similar to each other and yet they engender such dissimilar consequences that it becomes necessary to recognize the dangers of the one and the difficulties of the other, and to conceive or design appropriate lines of action. In doing so, care should be taken to recognize the needs and truths of collective life of mankind. Uniformity, if led to its logical extreme, would impose not only the rule of one language, but also the overpowering dominion of one aspect of culture. Unity, on the other hand, would permit differences and differentiations which would pose difficulties of separativeness and psychological tensions. Yet, unity in diversity is preferable to uniformity; for while the problems arising out of uniformity seem to demand an unacceptable solution which would imprison for ever the freedom of the human spirit, the problems arising out of the drive towards unity seem capable of a solution, which requires difficult but attainable cultivation of the deeper and higher faculties of personality. The task before us is, therefore, to prepare men and women in such a way that the preferred ideal of unity can be realized without the avoidable pains of conflicts and tensions.
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Education for Development .
Man's increasing capacity to change or determine the conditions of his life has been responsible for his continuous progress and his thrust towards the future. To develop this capacity has been one of the perennial objectives of education. But since the industrial revolution, and increasingly since the subsequent revolutions, man's pace of progress has grown manifold, and his thrust towards the future has become more persistent and more deliberate. It is in this context that education for progress and development has emerged as one of the major objectives of education.
Development is, however, an ambiguous concept and needs to be clarified. Development may sometimes come to be identified with the growth of excessive consumption, competition and self-assertiveness. To the rationalistic and idealistic mind, this concept is decidedly negative. A more acceptable concept of development involves two ingredients: productivity and social justice. In recent times, the insistence on social justice has grown and it is even felt that social justice must precede economic growth. Again, social justice can be conceived in terms of several alternative frameworks of economy and polity, although the increasing tendency today is to combine democracy and socialism and to aim at the synthesis of liberty, equality and fraternity.
But what exactly should we mean by combining democracy and socialism? We should mean by democracy not any particular form of economic or political framework but the freedom of the individual to grow towards his self-perfection by means of self-determination. Similarly, we should mean by socialism not the deification ©f the state but a cultivated awareness of the collectivity and a voluntary subordination of the individual to the needs and decisions of the collectivity as an integral part of the
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process of the individual and collective perfection. Or, in other words, when we speak of democratic socialism, we should mean a state of existence where collectivity respects the freedom of the individual in his pursuit of perfection, and where the individual freely sacrifices his narrow interests and his egoism in the interests of the development of the collectivity.
Development ought to aim at the growth of this kind of inter- relationship between the individual and the collectivity. But even this is not enough. Development needs the promotion of science and technology.
Fortunately, science and technology have reached today amazing heights of achievement. But in order that the pace of progress is enhanced, there must be a positive encouragement to the development of scientific temper and to the right use of scientific and technological knowledge in solving both our economic and cultural problems. This encouragement can best be expected from the teacher, and this is what is rightly expected from the contemporary teacher.
The development of scientific temper often remains confined to the cultivation of a mere attitude of questioning. But there are four important ingredients of scientific temper and all of them need to be developed as adequately as possible. These are: impartial observation, untiring experimentation, unprejudiced consideration of every point of view relevant to the enquiry; and .courage to go to the end of the enquiry until the ascertainable truth emerges through a process of verification and utmost possible synthesis of arguments and counter-arguments.
The development of a robust but refined scientific brain is an undeniable necessity. By implication, it follows that the contemporary teacher is required to endeavour to embody in himself the ideal modes of
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scientific thinking and to practise scientific method in his quest of knowledge.
Sometimes a sharp contrast is drawn between creativity and scientific attitude. Often this contrast is portrayed to show a conflict between art and science. But if we look into the problem closely, we shall find that this conflict is imaginary rather than real. As a matter of fact, science itself can be conceived as a creative activity. For creativity is, in its essence, an outpouring expression of curiosity or urge that issues from an intimate experience or from some achieved fullness or irresistible need for fullness. In this light, science, no less than art, is a creative expression, and even when the scientific method insists on. an austere and colourless adherence to facts, the rigorous discipline of science can be sustained only by the creative impulse. And we cannot forget to note that the framing of hypothesis which is a part of the process of scientific induction requires on the part of the scientist a fertile but rigorous imagination. We may also note that adherence to facts is itself an act of disciplined creativity, since, in order to arrive at facts, the scientist needs to pierce through; the veil of appearances.
It must, however, be admitted that artistic creativity is a neglected area, and a great effort is needed to promote, in particular, the value of art. It is also time that teachers are asked to evolve ways and means by which educational process is transformed into creative experience. This is particularly necessary when we speak of weaving culture into education. It is necessary that our educational system should provide opportunities and conditions under which the faculties of imagination, of adventure, of profound sensitivity, of colourful and rhythmic expression can grow and blossom. We have been neglecting literature and poetry, painting and music,
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dance and drama. The minimum that is necessary, and which should find a legitimate place in any scheme of education is the appreciation of art.
It needs to be underlined that one cannot appreciate art unless one has practised one's own discipline as a creative activity or practised some art, at least, as an amateur. Mere information on creativity is not enough. What is basically required is some direct experience of painting or music or dance or drama or architecture or poetry. It has been said, and quite rightly, that cultural experience grows and develops under the sense of leisure. But our educational programmes are not designed with a view to permit the required interweaving of leisure with activities of rigorous and disciplined studies. It is for this reason that it has been contended that our educational system has succeeded in exiling romance of learning and joy of creativity from the portals of learning. It is high time that this situation is reversed, and once again the major responsibility for this comes to be fixed on the contemporary teacher.
Development needs also to be related to the highest conceivable principles and values. These belong to the realms which are not necessarily visible physically but which are approachable more easily through the mind and the spirit. If we examine this domain closely, it will become clear that we are here in need of a new programme of research. If this research comes to be encouraged, we might not only discover new and rich contents of the ethical and spiritual domains but we might also open up a new domain where the modem trends of science can meet and converge on the ancient and renascent knowledge of the secrete of spiritual perfection.
But here, again, we begin to make a very heavy demand on the contemporary teacher.
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Education for integral Personality
There are various notions of what constitutes personality. Sometimes a distinction is made between personality and character. In one view personality is regarded as a fixed structure of recognizable qualities expressing a power of being and individuality. According to another idea, while personality is a flux of self-expressive or sensitive and responsive being, character is formed fixity of a pattern or structure of qualities. But if we examine the matter closely, we find that there is in every one a double element, the unformed though limited flux of being out of which personality is fashioned and the personal formation out of that flux. The formation may become rigid and ossify or it may remain sufficiently plastic and change constantly and develop. But for a proper definition of personality, we should take into account not only this flux and this fixity but also a third element, the individual or the person of whom the personality is a self-expression. This individual is sometimes conceived as the ego. But ego, when examined critically, reveals itself as a finite looking at itself as self-existent and yet unstable in its status and its movement—a self-contradiction. According to certain dominant trends of Indian thought, there is a distinction between the ego and the individual. The egoistic personality is, according to this thought, a personality that is at war with itself. The true individual is harmonious, and it admits its dependence upon the whole, and lives in and through relations of mutuality and harmony. It is the discovery and development of this individual that is relevant to the integration of personality.
It has been suggested quite rightly that the most important exercise that is directly relevant to the growth of integral personality is to examine life and to discover the highest possible aim of life.
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Throughout the history of awakened thought, there has been a persistent questioning as to what is the aim of human life. Free from dogmas and fixed beliefs, an intellectual enquiry into the ultimate search for the aim of life must be carried out in the spirit of sincere exploration... unfettered by narrow or exclusive assumptions. Answers have been derived from morality, religion or spiritual experiences and are accessible to our rational understanding. The inquiring mind needs to reflect on these answers and arrive at its own conclusions.
This should a journey of free exploration into the theme of the aim of life...
In the course of history,
there have emerged four main theories of the aim of life,
in accordance with four different conceptions of the truth of existence.
(The Supra Cosmic View)
In the Supra Cosmic View the supreme Reality is alone entirely real and human existence has no real meaning.
The world is an illusion from which we have to awaken.
The recommended path is that of renunciation and rejection of physical life and matter.
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(The Cosmic Terrestrial View)
The Cosmic Terrestrial View is the exact opposite.
It considers cosmic and physical existence as the only reality.
Earth is the temporary field; but there is no other permanent field..
Humanity and its welfare and progress is the largest field and man is the highest possible form of existence.
(The Supra Terrestrial View)
The Supra Terrestrial View believes in the immortality of the human spirit in which earth is the place of trial, from which man has to painfully disentangle himself so that he may gain immortal life elsewhere.
The emphasis is on the development of the ethical and spiritual being as a means of ascending to heaven or supra terrestrial planes.
(The Integral View)
The Integral View is that there is the Divine Reality which manifests itself as the universe in a system of planes or worlds.
Earth life is the scene of the evolutionary unfolding of the Divine Reality.
There is an all-seeing purpose in the terrestrial creation.
A divine plan is working itself out through contradictions and perplexities.
All that is intermediate between Spirit and Matter has also to be perfected
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and brought into unity in complete integration.
To discover the Divine Reality and to work for its full manifestation in physical life is the Integral Aim of Life.
All life must be transformed by the highest divine light and power.
The educational process should be, as noted above, exploration; and every student should get an opportunity to examine life and its aim in order to a nice of his / her own decision as to what should his / her own aim of life.
* * * * * *
This investigation, if encouraged and promoted rightly and imaginatively throughout the educational process, would go a long way in helping students to develop their personality and to achieve progressively inner and outer harmony and integration.
It has been suggested, again, quite rightly, that the development of integral personality will depend upon a simultaneous development of as many powers and faculties of human personality as possibly can rightly be balanced in each individual. A right balance of the development of body, heart and mind by means of the cultivation of faculties that promote knowledge, power, harmony and skill is the right condition of the integral development of personality. It has been pointed out that if the basic powers of personality are rightly balanced throughout the process pf development, and if a healthy equilibrium of these powers is upheld progressively, then we can ensure a healthy development of an integral personality. There is here a
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clear recognition that this implies a life-long process of development. but it is underlined that it must begin right from the beginning, and that life-long education is a natural corollary of the idea of the development of integral personality.
A progressive development of various parts of the being, physical, vital, rational, aesthetic, moral and spiritual, is a necessary condition of the integral growth. And the development of faculties and capacities of these various parts of the being is closely connected with the question of value-oriented education. For values are the ultimate ends that personality seeks to embody, express and fulfil. Corresponding to each capacity there are specific values. For instance, corresponding to our physical capacities, there are values of health, strength, plasticity, grace and beauty. Corresponding to our rational capacities, there are values of truth, clarity, subtlety, complexity, impartiality and globality. Corresponding to the capacities of moral will, there are over-arching values of the good and the right. Corresponding to our aesthetic capacities, there are values of beauty and joy. And corresponding to our spiritual capacities, there are values of absoluteness and perfection. The psychological co-relation between the capacities of personality and their corresponding values is often obscured by attempts that confine values exclusively to the domain of morality or by attempts to derive values and morality from a particular religion. It is true that religions prescribe values and very often they have well-knit codes of moral conduct. However, values are at the same time, so to say, autonomous and are found to be the highest expressions of our psychological fulfilment. They can and do stand apart and independent of any particular code of conduct or any particular system. In education, we should promote values in their psychological aspect as a part of the development of personality.
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The role that emerges for the teacher in relation to this objective of the integral development of personality is perhaps most exacting. This role demands from the teacher subtler dimensions. For what is needed here is the involvement of the total being of the teacher and the learner in the learning process. The question here is not merely to deal with subjects and books but also with faculties and capacities, with their growth and their harmony, and with the combined power of concentration and will that need to be developed in various parts and aspects of the growing being. The teacher will need to have not only a high degree of proficiency in his own subject or discipline, but he will also need to arrive, as rapidly as possible, at a considerable maturity of the growth of his own personality, and ~he will need to look upon his work of teaching as apart of the discipline required for the development of his own personality. It is only when the teacher grows in his own personality that he can contribute to the fashioning of the personality of the learners.
* * * * * * * * *
It is universally admitted that the possibility of an acceleration of man's quest of himself and of the universe constitutes the basic premise of all education.
What precisely is man? What is the nature of the universe? And what is the secret formula of the equation of man with the universe? These are the central questions that education fosters, and it carries forward the accumulated answers from age to age.
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But how can they be fostered and by what means can the answers be carried forward at the highest possible speed? These constitute the very heart of the problem of the educational process.
Evidently, these are very difficult questions, and the teacher or the educationist, in attempting to answer them, assumes great responsibility for his own age and for posterity.
The task of the contemporary educationist is rendered particularly difficult by the extraordinary conditions of his times. It has been argued that one of the urgent needs ©f our education is to appreciate the significance of certain combinations of tendencies and circumstances that are developing in the world today; and to allow them to determine the necessary changes in the objectives and contents of education.
It has been suggested that among all intellectual activities, the most significant one is that of the search for definitions, for meaning, for the highest aim of life. This search is not limited to this subject or that, it does not begin at one stage and end at another. This search is, however, most essential; all syllabi of all subjects can help in this search; but it cannot be restricted within the four comers of any given syllabus.
There are some overall important questions which should be set to stimulate original reflection, introspection, and a search for meaning. What, for example, is the nature of thinking? How is science distinguishable from mathematics and philosophy? What is the essence of literature and music and art? Is history meaningful? Is there an aim in history? What is technology? What are the best methods of learning technology? What is
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truth? How do we know truth? And how best can we serve it? What is one's specific role in the progress of the world? And how can one train oneself to fulfill this role? What is action? How does one remain calm even in the midst of action?
Many of us will find it difficult to answer these questions. These questions are questions for students of all ages, meant to be thought over for years and years. They are like questions of the Book of Nature, which give joy and exercise, but do not pressurize on efor answers within a fixed time limit.
The entire movement of New Education is against fragmentation, division and artificiality. Learning by snippets has to go. We make our lessons, most uninteresting, and then complain that the children are not attentive. We not only divide knowledge into artificial compartments, but divide the child also. The new treads oblige us to consider the child as a whole, and to provide for an integral education.
It has been declared that what we need is man-making education. But we cannot make man by lop-sided development, by a mechanical emphasis on one aspect or another. What is important is not so much information, but the power of concentration which can command information at will. Unfailing concentration and irresistible will - this twin power has to be the basis of man-making education, and this has to be applied to the various functioning of the mind, life-force and body, and, overarching these powers and functioning, there are the domains of the inner and higher personality. There has to be a detailed and comprehensive programme of education. The body has to be trained to develop health, strength, plasticity, agility, grace and beauty. Emotions are to be cultivated for the growth of nobility, courage, leadership and creative action. The mind should be developed to
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Our pioneering educationists, who strove hard for a 'system of National Education, had constantly emphasized the need to appeal to the living enthusiasm of children and youth. They had dreamt of transforming the school into a playground, of transforming the school into a nursery of living souls. Are our proposals conducive to the realization of this dream? We feel we need to go still deeper and grapple with problems which are awaiting solution at our hands.
That deeper layer of problems relates to what may be called the very heart of education. And it would seem that unless we concentrate on this focal point, we may not find the right key to any problem. For all problems of education, as of every other field, are interrelated, and they all seem to hang upon this central issue. It is the issue of the infusion of a new spirit in our education. We want an education that will provide not merely information, but a deep inspiration. We want the youth to be inspired wholly in their full being. We want to prepare the youth to be free from dogmatism, communalism, casteism, divisions. We want our youth to be filled with the free man's worship of the country, of the spirit of Mother India. We want our youth to be soldiers and warriors to fight against ignorance, selfishness, and all that obscures and obstructs our path to a glorious future of humanity's unity and harmony. We want our youth to be the creators of the new future, but all these great and noble ends can be realized only if we succeed in evoking among the youth a living spirit and a vibrant light. To kindle that light and spirit is the central issue of education.
An answer to this issue is crucial, for that will give us the fundamental direction. There is, indeed, an answer. In recent years it has been put forward forcefully, and presented in glowing terms. But, perhaps, it is not
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sufficiently understood. There is even an Indian formulation of this answer much more profound and even more practicable. But this Indian answer is unfamiliar, even unknown, to most of us.
In this answer, we may find the remedy. In simple terms, the answer is that education should be So conceived and organized that it permits freedom of growth and fullness of the development of personality. In technical terms of modem educational thought, the answer is contained in the formulae, 'learning to learn' and beaming to be'.
Within the simplicity and brevity of this formulation is concealed an immensity and all-embracing integrality. 'Learning to learn, and 'learning to be' are mot merely two elements among several other elements of education. They are proposed to be all-pervasive processes of the entire education. They are proposed to be also the all-pervasive contents of education. It is not as if the development of personality is one aspect of education, and the education for profession is another. Education for personality and education for profession are, according to it, one and the same process. It says, in effect, that the secret ©f profession lies in personality, and that education for personality development, rightly conceived and executed, will automatically and spontaneously provide to each individual what is needed by him for his profession. The technique of of professional technology and that of the flowering of personality are not opposed to each other. In the correct process of education, they are interrelated, they help each other, and ultimately, fuse into each other. Similarly, freedom of growth is not merely a method of growth; it is not as though freedom is one method and discipline is another. What is meant is that discipline is the child of freedom, that freedom, if it is directed towards growth, necessarily flowers into a kind of self-discipline which no rules can envisage or execute. Again, it is affirmed, freedom is not
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merely a process. Freedom is the stuff of our psychological nature, and that the entire stuff and content of our being can grow and flower only through freedom. Light and freedom are intrinsic to each other, and hence the central significance of the principle of the freedom of growth.
This answer spins us into an altogether new hemisphere of vision. But we should invite the attention of educationists to the Indian experiment which has been going on in remote comers of different parts of the country, quietly and unobstrusively. It may be found that there has emerged, through this Indian experiment, an Indian answer to the problems of freedom and of the development of personality.
The Indian experiment, which had its indigenous origin in the modem renaissance in India and which was nourished by the nationalist movement, has, in due course, deeply absorbed western ideas of New Education. But, at the same time, it has taken great care to integrate them with the profounder concepts of our own educational psychology. For this reason too, the Indian experiment has been rather slow in showing results. For its data are larger and the elements which had to be harmonized more difficult and more numerous. The results of this experiment are valuable, not only for us in India, but for the entire movement of New Education in the world.
The Indian experiment confirms the normal experience that freedom can easily be abused, and turned into a license for self-indulgence. Directing of freedom towards growth is not a sufficient antidote to its possible misuse. At the same time, it confirms that freedom is essentially of the nature of the noblest psychological being. It points out, however, that freedom is only one of the vibrations of our inner being, and that there are two others of the same order; it is only when freedom is united with these that an inner law of
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discipline can emerge. These two are: the quest for truth and the austerity of harmony.
It proposes, therefore, not liberty alone, but a trinity of truth, harmony and liberty as the fundamental principles of New Education. These three constitute the serenity of the inner being, and if these three vibrate united also in the atmosphere, then, in this serene atmosphere, by the power of inner and outer environment, true knowledge can be stimulated to grow in the inner hearts of the child and the youth.
Similar discoveries and proposals obtain also in regard to the development of personality. For we have, in India, perhaps the most profound science of personality. Indian psychology concerns itself not merely with the development of the total potentialities of personality, but its chief concern has been with the question of how to lead these potentialities to their highest and noblest values.
The mature fruit of the Indian experiment is to be found in the concept of the fourfold personality as a new basis for integral education. It has been pointed out that there are four central values and powers of personality; if these are rightly balanced throughout the process of development, and if a healthy equilibrium of these powers is upheld progressively, then we can ensure a healthy and integral development of personality. These four values belong to our deepest and highest being, but their expressions are to be found, in varying degrees, in all our instruments: body, life and mind. These four values are: knowledge, power, harmony and skill in works. A progressive and rich blossoming of these four values and capacities would result in the fourfold personality, a personality of integral equilibrium.
The full richness of personality is manifested when the heart of love is tranquilized by knowledge into calm ecstasy and vibrates with strength, and
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when the strong hands of power labor skillfully for the world in a radiant fullness of joy and light.
It is, indeed, recognized that this implies a life-long process of development, but it must begin right from the beginning. Life-long education is the natural corollary of this concept of the integral personality.
The practical implications are tremendous. Not only do they give a new direction and new focal point to education, but they also demand new attitudes, new perceptive and psychological knowledge, and new roles for teachers. They demand, again, an altogether new restructuring of educational methodology, and the creation of a highly imaginative and educational environment.
The task is extremely difficult, but if our analysis of the educational situation is correct, this task must be accomplished. Defeatism or cynicism should not be allowed to interfere in our planning of the future. For the realization of his future, our call must be to Young India.
It appears that there are three major powers that uplift life to higher and higher normative levels, and the value of these powers, if well illustrated, could be effectively conveyed to the learners for their upliftment. These powers are those of illumination, heroism and harmony.
It may be useful to explore the meanings of these terms - illumination, heroism and harmony - since the aim of these monographs is to provide material for a study of what is sought to be conveyed through these three terms. We offer here exploratory statements in regard to these three terms.
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Illumination is that ignition of inner light in which meaning and value of substance and life-movement are seized, understood, comprehended, held, and possessed, stimulating and inspiring guided action and application and creativity culminating in joy, delight, even ecstasy. The width, depth and height of the light and vision determine and degrees of illumination, and when they reach the splendour and glory of synthesis and harmony, illumination ripens into wisdom. Wisdom, too, has varying degrees that can uncover powers of knowledge and action, which reveal unsuspected secrets and unimagined skills of art and craft of creativity and effectiveness.
Heroism is, essentially, inspired force and self-giving and sacrifice in the operations of will that is applied to the quest, realisation and triumph of meaning and value against the resistance of limitations and obstacles by means of courage, battle and adventure. There are degrees and heights of heroism determined by the intensity, persistence and vastness of sacrifice. Heroism attains the highest states of greatness and refinement when it is guided by the highest wisdom and inspired by the sense of service to the ends of justice and harmony, as well as when tasks are executed with consummate skill.
Harmony is a progressive state and action of synthesis and equilibrium generated by the creative force of joy and beauty and delight that combines and unites knowledge and peace and stability with will and action and growth and development. Without harmony, there is no perfection, even though there could be maximisation of one or more elements of our nature. When illumination and heroism join and engender relations of mutuality and unity, each is perfected by the other and creativity is endless.
* * * * *
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A question that has assumed in our times a great importance in pedagogy is: in what does our true fulfilment consist? And, in that context, what is the nature and content of that knowledge which all human beings should pursue and possess?
It is, indeed, possible to ask whether the human search can ever truly be fulfilled and whether it is not wise to limit ourselves to some immediate utilitarian or pragmatic goals. As a matter of fact, a large number of pedagogical programmes have been designed in the context of what is pragmatically useful to individuals and to society. This pragmatic approach has its own justification; but is seems that the time has come when deeper questions must be raised and answered.
Considering that there is today an unprecedented explosion of information, one is obliged to ask how one can relate oneself to this explosion in such a way that one is not crushed under the increasing flow of information. On the one hand, there is a pressure towards specialization; on the other hand, a pressure towards inter-disciplinary and holistic knowledge. Knowing more and more about less and less bestows upon the individual a specialized capacity and proficiency but it also creates disabling inefficiencies in respect to larger questions where multi-sided knowledge is indispensable.
The specialized knowledge and efficiency that the individual possesses today tend to become obsolete at a rapid rate. There is, in consequence, and increasing pressure to continue learning all the time. This, however, leaves very little time to expand horizons of knowledge in fields other than that of narrow specialization. With the passage of time, our inefficiency in dealing with the general questions of life goes on increasing. At a certain stage, this situation, if not corrected, can really become
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alarming. Crises of various kinds are bound to multiply. This is what we witness today all over the world.
Still something further is there to disturb us in the very heart of our being: the increasing mechanization of life and the increasing tendency to impose mechanical solutions on human problems where they really do not work. Humanity is gradually moving in the direction of dehumanization. It seems as though humanity is gradually sinking into a routine of life that prevents the pursuit of rationality, morality and spirituality. This routine of life is supported and imprisoned by structures or superstructures over which none has any control. This would not matter, to some extent, if human beings were ready to forget their higher dimensions of personality and bury their higher aspirations in exchange for certain pleasures and securities that can be provided by the mechanizing and dehumanizing society with its uncontrollable structures and superstructures. But human beings are complex; they have many parts to their being; they are, therefore, obliged to listen to the conflicting voices arising from their complexities and complications. They are bound to ask whether they are doomed to remain for ever in a state of inner conflicts or whether these conflicts can be resolved in some state of fulfillment. That an increasing number of human beings are consciously experiencing the pressure of inner conflicts is becoming more and more evident and we hear all around the mounting call of the crying soul of humanity.
It is against this background that deeper questions, both of life and education, have become extremely urgent and imperative. The question of human fulfillment, therefore, is becoming increasingly relevant to post- modem enquiry. The idea that the human being is fundamentally a particle of dust destined to return to dust ― this materialistic view of man — is being
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increasingly suspected to be a dogma under the pressure of existential problems which we need to deal with the resolve. The idea that matter alone is real is being admittedly found to be untenable because it cannot be verified by any experience and because with the expanding spectrum of data, where supra-physical realities have begun to demonstrate their presence or imprint, a larger non-materialistic formulation has become inevitable.
All this impels us to institute fresh enquiry and research.
We should avoid all dogmatism in our inquiry. Just as we are not selves to the dogmatic refusal of the reality and significance of Matter. In our explorations, we should record the data of various domains of existence and evaluate them by appropriate methods. If this approach does not lead us to any definite conclusions, we should not take recourse to any short-cut methods in order to balm ourselves with ill-gotten certainties. We should prefer to remain in the state of uncertainty and continue to cultivate the attitudes appropriate to open-ended exploration.
We should commence our journey with this indisputable fact of our experience that we find ourselves placed in the universe and that the most natural activity for us is to explore ourselves placed in the universe and the complexities of our relationship to the universe. The task of the educationist is to advise us as to how best we can arrive at the knowledge of ourselves and the universe and develop the capacities of relating ourselves to the universe so as to make that relationship as harmonious as possible.
We should also bear in mind that our capacities for knowledge depend very much upon the quality of the consciousness with which we approach the activities of knowledge. The universe which looks so beautiful and wonderful to the consciousness of the poet is perceived to be oppressive and awful to an ordinary and weary consciousness. Objects which seem to be
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opaque and veiled to our superficial consciousness present themselves in their revelatory character to our deeper consciousness. We thus seem to be led to the wisdom of the ancients, who held that while there are several alternative ways of gaining knowledge, the most effective key to knowledge is the development of deeper and higher levels of consciousness. The ancient wisdom goes also further to affirm that there is a knowledge, knowing which every thing can be known, and that the door to that knowledge lies through inmost self-knowledge. This opens out before us a specific line of exploration, and we begin to ask questions as to what is our self and how we can attain self-knowledge.
We note that everyone of us has some kind of self-experience and that much of the effectivity of our action depends upon certain states and qualities of self-experience. The quality of sincerity, for example, imparts to our state of being some kind of indefinable but intrinsically satisfying and effective self-experience.
Having reached this point of exploration, we may be in a position to make one general proposition of fundamental value in pedagogy, which can be stated as follows: "One general aim of education should be to enable each individual to develop the states of higher and higher degrees of sincerity."
Numerous experiments have shown that wandering thoughts, a multiplicity of desires and the restlessness of impulses are the principal factors that prevent us from having genuine experiences of inner sincerity. One can verify this by simple experiments within oneself. It follows, therefore, that one has to find effective means and methods by which thoughts, desires and impulses can be controlled. In the course of the history of education, many such methods have been attempted and experimented upon. These experiments have revealed that nothing in the world is as
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difficult as to control oneself and ultimately to arrive at self-mastery and self-perfection. Many experiments have failed because self-control is sought to be achieved through the methods of unintelligent or forceful repression or suppression which tent to weaken or kill the fundamental life-force. It is seen that it is only when we give up repression or suppression and seek to transform life by methods of purification that this problem can be rightly resolved.
Continuing on this track of exploration, we may enter into a vast domain of education that aims at self-knowledge by self-control through methods of purification.
At this stage we may begin to perceive that there are three aspects under which we try to know ourselves. The first aspect is that of our body; the second aspect is the complexity of our drives and urges for action, battle and victory - the complex that is covered under the term "vital being"; and the third aspect is what we call mind, our instrument of conception and ideation, of reflection and reasoning. But deeper psychological explorations indicate that behind what we experience as our physical being, vital being and mental being, there are as the Upanishads point out, inner sheaths supported by a kind of self-consciousness which sustains and nourishes the inner physical being, the inner vital being and the inner mental being. The data of self-consciousness further reveal to us that there are deeper presences of self-consciousness and deeper powers as also profounder states of intrinsic delight and sweetness which impart to us the experiences not only of the true source of our sincerity, but also of our self-possession and self- identity. We may also discover that the deeper states of the self transcend the ambiguous and narrow movements of egoistic consciousness. We may then come to correct our mistaken idea that ego is the self and we are transported
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into experiences of what the Upanishads tern antaratman (the inner psychic self) and jiva (the true individual). The Upanishads also tell us of those experiences of the jiva where all is in oneself and oneself is in all. There are still further heights and depths of self-knowledge which open up for our exploration.
Based upon the above explorations, we may come to the conclusion that the most important programme of education that should be proposed to everyone is that of self-knowledge and of self-control. At the same time, we may realize how difficult and complex this programme of education is.
* * * *
In spite of the difficulty and complexity of the task, we may decide to undertake the study of all the aspects of education for self-knowledge in some detail at the present stage and in greater detail at a later stage.
As a first step, we need to concentrate upon the question of physical education as a part of the larger theme of self-knowledge. There is, indeed, a vast literature on this subject, but the aim of our study had certain specific novelties in regard to approach and thrust. Firstly, we need to relate problems and programmes of physical education with deeper questions about the nature of the human body and how its potentialities can be developed through various methods of self-control and physical education, up to the levels of excellence. Secondly, we need to be free from dogmatic views regarding the nature off the body and its relationship to deeper aspects of the human personality. Thirdly, we need to be as comprehensive as possible within our present limitations and thus to include in our studies not only the present system of education but also ancient system, not only
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Western systems but also some of the Eastern systems. In our search we need to collect a number of relevant books, magazines and articles; we also held several workshops, and interact with a number of experts. As we enter into deeper aspects of physical education, we may feel the need of going still deeper, and indeed, we may feel that this domain will remain with us as a subject of unending exploration.
Our argument is that everyone should strive for self-knowledge because everyone is and has basically the self. Again, everyone should strive for self-knowledge because self-knowledge, when it reaches high levels of maturity, becomes a sure means of a certain kind of other-knowledge and world-knowledge. An approach to the universe through the self has, it appears from various data, an advantage in the fact that the universe comes to be experientially possessed by the enlarged and unegoistic identity of the self with the universe. This does not mean that other approaches to the universe through sense-experience, scientific, philosophical or intellectual methods are not legitimate or relevant. Those approaches, too, have their own utility and value. Fundamentally, all knowledge, whether we pursue it through one approach or the other, tends to become one. This is brought out quite clearly by the proximity and even identity of some of the conclusions of the Upanishads, arrived at through intuitive methods of self-knowledge, and of modem science arrived at by methods of experimentation, intellectual ratiocination and empirical verification. In the ultimate analysis, one can adopt any approach that one may feel naturally suited to oneself. At the same time, one thing that stands out is that as far as self-knowledge is
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concerned, intuitive methods of self-experience become ultimately indispensable.
We consider the knowledge of the human body to be an important aspect of self-knowledge, since everyone experiences one's body, rightly or mistakenly, as a part of oneself. Even when one comes to distinguish between one's inner self and one's body, this distinction is greatly facilitated and confirmed by the process of deeper self-knowledge, during the course of which one is required to admit that without a sound knowledge, control and purification of one's body, one cannot successfully arrive at deeper levels of self-knowledge. In any case, our conclusion is that since everyone of us possesses a human body, everyone of us should strive to have the basic knowledge of the human body and of the part it has to play in facilitating the acquisition of deeper realms of self-knowledge; we should also know the ways and means by which those deeper realms of knowledge can, in their turn, affect, influence, develop and perfect the functioning of the human body.
For the last two hundred years or more there has been a growing realization that the teacher should be child-centered and should help the child's innate potential to blossom fully. Learner-centered teaching is being advanced in progressive schools all over the world.
Indeed, if we examine the examples of good teachers of the past or of the present, we shall find that they have always been learner-oriented: and good pupils have blossomed like lovely flowers when tended with care, love
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and understanding or even when left to themselves with interventions from teachers when necessary.
A good teacher is always a help in the pupil's pursuit of accomplishment and perfection. For the pupil, the important things are his own enthusiasm and personal effort that can sustain patient ant persistent work towards growth and progress. The teacher comes into uplift the pupil's effort, his growing knowledge, his skills, his orientation. When a good teacher and a good pupil come together, astonishing results follow for both of them ― and under ideal conditions incredible transmutations of the personality and its power take place, as we can witness in some of the selections in this book.
Instruction, example and influence are the three instruments of a good teacher. A good teacher does not instruct merely by words. In fact, he makes a sparing use of them. He utilizes his communicative skills to invent illuminating phrases and expressions, to initiate meaningful devices and projects, and to create a stimulating atmosphere and environment.
The art of instruction is extremely subtle and delicate, but a good teacher practices this art effortlessly. He harmoniously blends formal with informal instruction. He varies his methods according to circumstances and organizes his teaching to suit the varying demands and needs of his pupils. A good teacher is a keen observer and tries to understand each of his pupils by a kind of identity. He strives untiringly to make his programmes or lessons interesting and to awaken in his pupils a power of concentration and an irresistible will for progress. Finally, he instructs even without instructing, and allows his inner mastery of his own knowledge to shine out through actions rather than through words.
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A good teacher knows that example is more important than instruction, and he strives not only to keep his ideals in front of him, but also to progressively embody them. He is scrupulously scientific in detecting his. own errors and defects, knowing very well mat he cannot demand from his students what he himself cannot practice. The example expected from the teacher is not merely his outward behavior, but his inner life, his aims and the sincerity with which he pursues those aims.
It is sometimes argued that what should be expected from the teacher is professional competence and a power of communication, and nothing more. But this contention ignores the fact that the example set by the teacher's inner and outer life is automatically communicated to the pupils, whether this is intended or not. Giving a good example is an inherent part of the teacher's task.
But this is not all. Even more powerful than example is the direct influence the teacher exercises upon his students. Influence is the power of contact and the nearness of the teacher's presence. Knowingly or unknowingly, teachers tend to exercise authority over their students, and sometimes this authority smacks of arrogance, not infrequently, the act of teaching itself becomes a battery of suggestions of more or less hypnotic intensity. A good teacher must be intent upon cultivating healthy attitudes and traits which have salutary effects on students.
A good teacher accepts his work as a trust given to him by his station and its duties. He recognizes his own importance while acknowledging its relativity. He suggests but does not impose, he is a friend and a philosopher and guide; he does not arrogate to himself vain masterhood. Inspired by humility, he looks upon himself as a child leading children.
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A good teacher is a constant learner. He not only renews his knowledge in the field of his specialization/but he Also continues to enrich his personality and strives to achieve deeper and higher realizations. Even as he rises higher and higher, he feels a greater and greater need to share his knowledge, skill, experience and illumination with others, particularly with younger generations. In doing so, he may encounter resistance and conflict.
Let us now turn to the pupil. Every child has an inner desire to learn and to grow, but the most important characteristic of the good pupil is his zeal or enthusiasm. This zeal is that determines the persistence of his effort, and such persistence is indispensable to achieve higher and higher levels of excellence. A good pupil is a seeker of knowledge and, motivated by curiosity and a growing sense of wonder, seeks knowledge for its own sake. he travels from the known to the unknown, and in this travels does not limit himself to thought and imagination alone, but sets out to come in direct contact with Nature and Man, in order to gain access to wider, deeper and higher realms of experience.
A good pupil tends to organize his life and so find time for as many activities as possible. In due course, he discovers that concentration holds the key to development, and that he can compress a long programme of work into a much shorter period by applying the art and science of concentration to it. In his natural process of flowering, he comes to combine work and play, and whether in his more formal studies or in the fine arts and crafts, he aims at cultivating and refining his actual and potential faculties.
A good pupil realizes that both body and mind should be developed vigorously and rigorously. He discovers that the qualities needed in physical education contribute a great deal to the development of an integrated personality. For example, the sporting spirit, valued most in physical
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education, includes good humour and tolerance and consideration for all, a right attitude and friendliness to both teammates and rivals, self-control and a scrupulous observance of the laws of the game, fair play,, an equal acceptance of victory or defeat without bad humour, resentment or ill-will towards successful competitors, and the loyal acceptance of the decisions of the appointed judge, umpire or referee. These qualities have their value for life in general and the help that sports can give to an integral development is direct and invaluable.
One of the best lessons of the sporting spirit is that one should strive not to stand first but to do one's best. And a good pupil should put this lesson into practice in every domain of activity.
In the realm of studies, a good pupil tries to develop different aspects of his mind. The search for truth in a scientific and philosophic spirit is his basic motivation, and he seeks to develop a right discrimination between appearance and reality. He loves books but is not a bookworm. He may or may not read voraciously - his main concern is: to cultivate subtlety of intelligence and the capacity to develop complex systems of thought. He learns the skills of analysis and strives to master the dialectic of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.
A harmonious development of the rational mind, the ethical sense and the aesthetic sensibility is the highest aim of normal manhood, and a good pupil strives to integrate the triple powers of reason, will and imagination in harmony with his own unique turn of temperament and the natural law of his inner growth. Indeed, he avoids a hotch-potch of activities but rather seeks to organize them into a kind of unity emerging from the inner core of his soul's integral aspiration.
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At an important stage of the pupil's life there comes a choice, and the quality of the pupil will be judged by and will depend upon the choice he makes. This is the choice between the good and the pleasant, shreyas and preyas, to use the terms of the Katha Upanishad. Not that pleasure or enjoyment has no place in an ideal life, but there is a distinction between seeking pleasure for the sake of pleasure and taking pleasure in whatever worthwhile action one does or undertakes to do. A good pupil makes this distinction and finds that, not in seeking pleasure, but in seeking good and finding pleasure in it, lies the secret of self-discipline. Indeed this is also the secret of the integrated personality. The choice between the good and the pleasant is not merely a matter of ethical life; it is, in a sense, a matter that pervades all aspects of life and in all circumstances the pupil is confronted with this choice. He can sustain this continuous encounter with choice only if he has in him that sublimest of qualities, sincerity. Indeed, it can be said that sincerity is the golden key to continuous and integral learning. And no pupil can continue to remain a good pupil unless he has an ever-fresh sincerity which grows continuously and so becomes a burning fire of integral sincerity, that is, sincerity in all parts of the being.
It is this burning fire of sincerity that imparts to the pupil the right thrust and direction, as well as that concentrated and tranquil stage of consciousness required experience the reality which is the object of all knowledge. And it is this burning fire that breaks the limitations of the human mind and leads the seeker into higher domains of psychic and spiritual experience. A good pupil does not refuse to transgress the normal limitations of consciousness, but has the requisite courage to take the staff in his hands and set out on a new journey. For a good pupil is not deterred by dogmatism. He is free to test on the anvil of reason and experience all
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affirmations arid all negations. Henceforth, he is no more a seeker of shadows, appearances, names or forms, but a seeker of the real, the boundless, the infinite.
The journey of the good pupil is difficult and there are tests on the way that he must pass in order to enter new gates of progress. In this journey, sooner rather than later, he comes to learn how to learn, and he employs the principles of learning to educate himself. Sooner rather than later, he comes to learn how to control himself, and he employs the principles of discipline to achieve self-possession and self-mastery. Sooner rather than later, he comes to know his own nature, his psychological make-up, his inclinations, his own strengths and weakness, and he employs the principles of self-enlargement to discover his wider self, and ultimately his highest unegoistic psychic and spiritual self, and the means by which the light and power of the self can be made manifest in the physical world.
But, like any pupil, the good pupil too needs help and guidance from the teacher. The distinguishing mark of a good pupil is the attitude with which he seeks help and the degree and quality of the help he seeks. Since he puts in a good deal of personal effort, he does not demand much of the teacher's time. Yet, since his eagerness to learn is great, he learns faster, and this demands greater attention and time from the teacher. There are seasons of learning when a pupil can need and demand almost exclusive attention. There are instances when a good pupil needs very little help from the teacher and at a certain stage can dispense with it. Frequently this happens when the pupil has found within himself the teacher's living guidance or when he has learned the art of discovering the inner teacher in every circumstance and in every encounter. It may be said that the need for external help diminishes as the pupil advances in the discovery of the inner teacher, or when the inner
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relationship between the pupil and the teacher is so intimate and intense that the<pupil constantly feels an ever increasing and more joyful inner contact with him.
In a sense, the relationship between a good pupil and a good teacher is indescribable. It tends to be profound and irrevocable, and the pupil feels a natural urge to emulate and obey his teacher. The tradition in which the pupil is enjoined to obey the teacher unquestioningly is rooted in the natural sacredness of the living relationship between the good pupil and the good teacher, and this tradition has its uses. But we find that a good teacher appreciates repeated questioning by the pupil, and he even allows a mutual testing.
To foster an increasing number of good teachers and good pupils is a special responsibility of any educational system and of those in charge of designing that system. It is true that good teachers and good pupils have flourished even in the most deficient circumstances, but it is certain that they would have proved to be better teachers and better pupils had the system of
education itself been better; and it is also certain that a good system of education tends to promote the rapid multiplication of good teachers and good pupils.
Today, educational systems almost everywhere are utilitarian in character, promoting an examination-oriented education that imprisons teachers and students alike. Their goals are limited and have no intrinsic relationship with the ideal process and ends of genuine teaching-learning. This point is very well illustrated in some of the passages included here.
Do we have any idea as to what system of education would encourage the flowering of good teachers and good pupils? This is a difficult question
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to answer. But if we study various innovative experiments conducted in this context, it seems that an ideal system is yet to be invented and can come about only if three things are assured. First, there must be a great change in the lecture system. Lectures should have a much more modest place than they have today. A greater role should be assigned to self-learning and to work on individual and collective projects. Second, the present syllabus system must undergo a major modification. Programmes of study should be much more flexible. Pupils and teachers should have the possibility of changing the programmes according to the pupils' evolving needs. In fact, syllabi should be evolutionary in character, developing and emerging out of the interests of the pupils and their goals. Finally, the examination system must be thoroughly revised. Tests should be designed to stimulate the pupils to make further progress. They should be impromptu and should vary
according to the varying situations of individuals and groups.
An ideal system of education would provide and environment and a framework that facilitates a harmonious blending of freedom and discipline. This harmonious blending presupposes, mainly on the part of teachers and educational administrators, the fulfillment of two conditions: the pursuit of truth and the pursuit of harmony. Neither of these pursuits can be meaningful or fruitful unless they are voluntary. The spirit of liberty is a necessary condition for the search for truth and for securing cooperation, mutual goodwill and fellow feeling. In brief, it may be said that Truth, Harmony and Liberty will be the underlying principles of an ideal system of education.
At the same time, it must be admitted that without good teachers and good pupils there can be no good educational system. Today's educators, therefore, need to work on all three fronts simultaneously: the teacher, the
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pupil and the system. But where should we begin? This, again, is not an easy question to answer. Probably we should begin from where we are - that is, if we are teachers, we should strive to become goo4 teachers; if we are pupils, we should strive to become good pupils; and if we are in charge of the educational system, we should set about creating new conditions in the system so as to encourage and foster good teachers and good pupils.
There are four essentials that we must not forget while restructuring or reforming the educational system. Firstly, we must recognise that the child and its latent potentialities and its quiet yet perseverant soul are to be subserved; we must not build a system that would suffocate or smother that little child—that little prince.
This essential point is brought out forcefully by Rabindra Nath Tagore in his short story "The Parrot's Training". It is so instructive that we may recount it in full.
"Once upon a time there was a bird. It was ignorant. It sang all right, but never recited scriptures. It hopped pretty frequently, but lacked manners.
Said the Raja to himself: "Ignorance is costly in the long run. For fools consume as much food as their betters, and yet give nothing in return."
He called his nephews to his presence and told them that the bird must have a sound schooling.
The pundits were summoned, and at once went to the root of the matter. They decided that the ignorance of birds was due to their natural habit of living in poor nests. Therefore, according to the pundits, the first thing necessary for this bird's education was a suitable cage.
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The pundits had their rewards and went home happy.
A golden cage was built with gorgeous decorations. Crowds came to see it from all parts of the world.
"Culture, captured and caged!" exclaimed some, in a rapture of ecstasy, and burst into tears.
Others remarked: "Even if culture be missed, the cage will remain, to the end, a substantial fact. How fortunate for the bird!"
The goldsmith filled his, bag with money and lost no time in sailing homewards.
The pundit sat down to educate the bird. With proper deliberation he took his pinch of snuff, as he said: "Textbooks can never be too many for our purpose!"
The nephews brought together an enormous crowd of scribes. They . copied from books, and copied from copies, till the manuscripts were piled up to an unreachable height.
Men murmured in amazement: "Oh, the tower of culture, egregiously high! The end of it lost in the clouds!"
The scribes, with light hearts, hurried home, their pockets heavily laden.
The nephews were furiously busy keeping the cage in proper trim.
As their constant scrubbing and polishing went on, the people said with satisfaction: "This is progress indeed!"
Men were employed in large numbers, and supervisors were still more numerous. These, with their cousins of all different degrees of distance, built a palace for themselves and lived there happily ever after.
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Whatever may be its other deficiencies, the world is never in want of fault-finders; and they went about saying that every creature remotely connected with the cage flourished beyond words, excepting only the bird.
When this remark reached the Raja's ears, he summoned his nephews before him and said: "My dear nephews, what is this that we hear?"
The nephews said in answer: "Sire, let the testimony of the goldsmiths and the pundits, the scribes and the supervisors, be taken, if the truth is to be known. Food is scarce with the fault-finders, and that is why their tongues have gained in sharpness."
The explanation was so luminously satisfactory that the Raja decorated each one of his nephews with his own rare jewels.
The Raja at length, being desirous of seeing with his own eyes how his Education Department busied itself with the little-bird, made his appearance one day at the great Hall of Learning.
From the gate rose the sounds of conch-shells and gongs, horns, bugles and trumpets, cymbals, drums and kettle-drums, tomtoms, tambourines, flutes, fifes, barrel-organs: and bagpipes. The pundits began chanting mantras with their topmost voices, while the goldsmiths, scribes, supervisors, and their numberless cousins of all different degrees of distance, loudly raised a round of cheers.
The nephews smiled and said: "Sire, what do you think of it all?"
The Raja said: "It does seem so fearfully like a sound principle of Education!"
Mightily pleased, the Raja was about to remount his elephant, when the fault-finder, from behind some bush, cried out: "Maharaja, have you seen the bird?"
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"Indeed, I have not!" exclaimed the Raja, "I completely forgot about the bird."
Turning back, he asked the pundits about the method they followed in instructing the bird.
It was shown to him. He was immensely impressed. The method was so stupendous that the bird looked ridiculously unimportant in comparison. The Raja was satisfied that there was no flaw in the arrangements. As for any complaint from the bird itself, that simply could not be expected. Its throat was so completely choked with the leaves from the books that it could neither whistle nor whisper. It sent a thrill through one's body to watch the process.
This time, while remounting his elephant, the Raja ordered his State Ear puller to give a thorough good pull at both the ears of the fault-finder.
The bird thus crawled on, duly and properly, to the safest verge of insanity. In fact, its progress was satisfactory in the extreme. Nevertheless, nature occasionally triumphed over training, and when the morning light peeped into the bird's cage it sometimes fluttered its wings in a reprehensible manner. And, though it is hard to believe, it pitifully pecked at its bars with its feeble beak.
"What impertinence!" growled the kotwal.
The blacksmith, with his forge and hammer, took his place in the Raja's Department of Education. Oh, what resounding blows! The iron chain was soon completed, and the bird's wings were clipped.
The Raja's brothers-in-law looked black, and shook their heads, saying: "These birds not only lack good sense, but also gratitude!"
With textbook in one hand and the baton in the other, the pundits gave the poor bird what may fitly be called lessons!
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combine all the helpful factors (external environment and internal resources of the pupil's actual and potential tendencies and powers) in such a way that there is the resultant experience of spontaneous growth marked by right rhythm and acceleration.
The third essential point to remember is that the contemporary teacher has today increasing possibilities of utilising dynamic methods of teaching- learning, and he can thus create or invent a new system of education that is directly relevant to the fundamental needs of today and tomorrow.
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NOTES ON
VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION
I
Education is intrinsically and by definition value-oriented. To speak, therefore, of Value-Oriented education is, in a sense, tautologous. In fact, education is a subset of a larger setting of culture, and culture consists of cultivation of faculties and powers pertaining to reason, ethics and aesthetics in the light of the pursuit of Values of Truth, Beauty and Goodness (satyam, sivam, sundaram). Culture also consists of infusing the influences of this pursuit into physical and vital impulses, So as to refine them and sublimate them to the highest possible degrees, and to transmit the resultant fund of experience through various modes of expression, including those of poetry, music, dance, drama, art, architecture, and craft. The height of culture is to be judged by the depth and height that are reached in terms of an ascending process of harmonization and, in that process, development of quest of spiritual inspiration and revelation and their manifestation in various domains of physical fife. Every developed culture, therefore, inspires methodologies of transmission of accumulated normative lessons of culture to succeeding generations, and this process of transmission is greatly secured by a process of education, which, in turn, discovers and implements a more and more ripened system of acceleration of progress. Thus, the basis thrust of culture and education is inevitably Value-Oriented.
The question that arises as to why we are then obliged to think of Value-Oriented education. The answer is that there have intervened, during
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the last 200 years and more, certain factors that have retarded the right upward impulses of culture and education. This has happened all over the world, and everywhere there is a new awakening today to infuse Value Orientation both in culture and in education.
II
In India, we can see that since the 18th century, and even before that, there came about the decline of intellectual activity and freedom, the waning of great ideals, the loss of the gust of life, and, even in the moral and spiritual life, the rise of excessive ritualism. Public life began to become more and more irreligious, egoistic, and self-seeking. This entire process became accentuated by three factors, which can be summed up in terms of influences emerging from Macaulay, Materialism and Mercantile barbarism.
As is very well-known, Macaulay had explicitly stated the purpose of the education system that was introduced under his initiative by the British in India, namely, to create a "class Indian & blood and colour but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and intellect" who would be interpreters between the British and the teeming millions that they ruled. Unfortunately, the scheme of education that was introduced has even now continued to persist with peripheral modifications. If we examine that scheme objectively, and in the light of the basic foundations of Indian culture, we shall find that it knocked off four main elements with perilous consequences. First of all, it eliminated the study of poetry, music and art, which constitutes perfect education of the soul; secondly, it eliminated the study of philosophy, dharma and spiritual knowledge three elements, which are the supreme components of the Indian heritage; thirdly, while it introduced some
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elements of world history and world geography and modern science, it presented the dominant British view of history and disturbed the Indian view of science, which always looked upon scientific inquiry as a part of the holistic quest in which Science, Philosophy and Yoga had a sound system of interrelationship; and fourthly, it omitted altogether physical education and skills of art and craft and others related to science of living, which were kept alive in India throughout the ages. What has been lost in terms of pedagogy and richness of contents of knowledge and skills has still not been remedied, and urgent steps are necessary to review the entire scheme so that we can provide to our students a genuine national system of education, which is at the same time open to the benefits of modern knowledge and modem ideals of progress towards Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
The advent of the British rule in India coincided with the high tide of modem science in the West, and along with it the extensive spread of materialism phenomenon of mixed blessings. While science and scientific spirit are deep-rooted in the genius of India, materialism does not fit very well with the Indian ethos, although material poverty was never a national ideal, and abundance of wealth was a high achievement of Indian culture, until our economy was greatly shattered by the British policy.
It is mistakenly supposed that science and materialism are logically interrelated with each other, even though the triumph of physical sciences has tended to emphasize materialistic approach to knowledge and reality. In any case, the Macaulayan scheme of education does not provide the kind of scientific rigour, which is manifested in the Indian history of scientific knowledge; ©or does it promote that avenue of inquiry by which the limitations of materialism can be understood and overcome.
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Materialism has promoted what can be called mercantile barbarism and that too, even in the setting of a science-based civilization. It is barbarism because its gospel is to support and aggrandise the needs of physical life, and it seeks triumph of consumerism, which can be sustained only by supporting an unjust economic and social order, environmental disasters and by inducing people to remain confined to a perpetual bondage to increasing physical wants. We have today for the entire human race a possibility to be uplifted to a higher and nobler way of life and to an order of unity and harmony, but mercantilism compels competition and strife, and we see today the horror of terrorism spreading on a global scale. We speak of globalisation today, but the dominant quest today is the quest of global markets and not the quest of global brotherhood.
The issues that confront us relate not only to promote education widely and universally, but also what kind of education, so that India can recover her true spirit and it is empowered to stand out in the world as a leader of the future, in spirituality and science, in philosophy and art and in all fields of professions and occupations so as to be opulent and prosperous capable of fostering universal culture of peace, harmony and world unity. For this aim to be fulfilled, we need to liberate our educational system from the Macaulayan mould, we need to deal with materialism both scientifically and philosophically, as also morally and spiritually, and we need to combat forces of barbarism, ignorance and division so as to inspire among the youth a burning quest for wisdom and courage, for excellence in works and skills, and for universality and all that contributes to individual and collective perfection.
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Once of the best means of achieving this goals is the task that we have begun earnestly during the last few years the task of Value-Oriented Education.
IV
The task is difficult and enormous, but there are several favourable circumstances, which can aid us and encourage us to undertake this task and accomplish it.
We must first take into account the fact that during the freedom struggle, five greatest leaders of modem India, who were also educationists challenged the British system of education and developed powerful philosophies of education so as to provide to the students not only the lessons of the Indian heritage but also to prepare them for the future greatness of India. The first leonine call came from Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati who went back to the Vedic foundations and put forth a system of education that would reform India and make it progressive. He inspired the Gurukula system of education and underlined the great role of the teacher in uplifting the talent and character of the pupil. The second great effort was that of Swami Vivekananda who spoke of man-making education and, accepting Vedantic knowledge as the base, and acknowledging the truth of every religion and a synthesis of Yoga, he opened the gates of the future before the youths, filling them with a new spirit of inspiration, heroism and dynamic action. Another line of educational experiment was initiated by Mahatma Gandhi, who emphasised the training of the Hand, Heart and Head, overarched by the values of Truth, Non-Violence, Self-Control, Non Covetousness and Renunciation, as also equal respect towards all religions
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and life of simplicity that aims at reconstruction and return of rural, social, and political organizations based on equality, empowerment of the weak and the oppressed, decentralisation and brotherhood. Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore, the great poet of modem India, established at Shantiniketan an experimental Institution for a new aim and mode of education where the beauty and sublimity of Nature can serve as a living partner of teaching and learning and where the values of poetry, music and art can vibrate in the rhythms of life of the development of personality and mingling of cultures of Asia and of the world that would promote internationalism and world citizenship, and universal fraternity that transcends all divisions of race and religion in the Religion of Man. And there arose also the Nationalist call of 'Vande Mataram' that gave birth to the movement of the National System of Education with the aim of recreating the ancient Indian Spirit that was at once spiritual, intellectual, scientific, artistic and productive, and empowered now with new vigour to assimilate all that is new and progressive and to create new forms of expression and synthesis of powers of personality and knowledge and harmony of the East and the West. Sri Aurobindo formulated the philosophy of this system in 1909 and developed it further in subsequent decades so as to embody the light and power of the Synthesis of Yoga and a programme of integral transformation of human life on the earth that would lead the evolution of Nature into the birth of a new humanity and superhumanity.
All these initiatives and experiments have been bold and great and inspiring, and all of them are still in various stages of growth and development; great lessons have to be learnt from these experiments, and we have here a great fund of educational research that can guide us in the tasks
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of value oriented education and of the entire transformation of our educational system.
We have also a favourable climate being created by some of the progressive experiments in the West, such as those promoted by Pestalozzi, Montessori, Bertrand Russel and others; the trend is towards child-centred education, and the basic idea is that the individual is not merely a social unit, but a soul, a being, who has to fulfil his own individual truth and law as well as his natural or his assigned part in the truth and law of the collective existence. Happily, this Western idea agrees at its root with the profoundest and highest spiritual conceptions of Asia and it can easily play a great role in harmonizing our national effort at reconstruction of education with similar efforts in the West.
In this task, UNESCO's initiatives are also helpful. The two great Reports: "Learning to Be" brought out in 1971 and "Learning: Treasure Within" brought out in 1996 have underlined education for values of international understanding, peace and integral development of personality. Emphasis on Complete Education for the Complete Human Being and on four pillars of learning, viz. Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live with Others, and Learning to be points to the need for a radical paradigm shift impelling all-round reforms in aims, contents and methods of education, as also of the system of examination, evaluation and certification.
In the wide sweep of values, which are incontrovertibly admitted universally are those contained in the Declaration of Human Rights as also those in the Declaration of Human Responsibilities. Nearer home, we have also a remarkable and unique declaration in our own Constitution under Article 51A of Fundamental Duties, which I believe, if implemented in full as we have resolved to do we shall have secure guidance as to what values
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we have to promote in our educational system, so that all citizens can be empowered to fulfil their duties.
Contemporary explosion of information and increasing spread of sophisticated information technology have brought forth deeper issues of education and educational methodology, in the context of which value-oriented education assumes wider dimensions. Not only open system of education can now become very effective, but it will also open new channels of communication of the message of value-oriented education, since they can be at once adapted to the needs of the individual and of groups and masses. At a higher dimension, one question that will have to be answered is of the ways and means to ensure that knowledge does not get lost in information, and wisdom does not get lost in knowledge. I believe that more and more we shall have to address ourselves to the question that the Upanishad had raised, viz. what is that knowing which everything can be known? (yasmin vijnate sarvam vijnatam bhavati). For advancement of knowledge demands methods by which knowledge can be summed up and possessed in a state of self-possession. In this context, it may also be suggested that value-oriented education should ultimately issue from and result in the knowledge of what can be described as all-embracing Self and universal Reality.
V
During the last hundred years, science has crossed rapidly several horizons, and we are now in the presence of a situation where not only Newton, but even Einstein stands over-passed in many ways. When we study the finding of recent physicists like Louise de Broglie, Schrodinger, David Bohm and others, we feel in the presence of a Great Shift and new
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paradigm, Michael Talbot speaks or reality of the sub-atomic particle as "omnijective", an inseparable combination of the subject and the object of knowledge. The astonishing implications of Bell's Theorem is that, 'at a deep and fundamental level, the separate parts of the Universe are connected in an intimate and immediate way. We recall that a hundred years ago, the great Indian scientist, Jagadish Chandra Bose, had demonstrated the unity of matter, life and mind, and had demolished the mechanistic view of the universe. And now, the discovery made by Bell has further reiterated that the Cartesian-Newtonian approach is no more tenable.
Study of Quantum Mechanics has also shown that not only superluminal Connections exist but also they can be used in a controllable way to communicate messages. This study has profound implications for the philosophy of materialism, and therefore, for the materialistic system of values that counsels us to work or enjoy under the impulsions of a material energy, which deceives us with a brief delusion of life or with the nobler delusion of an ethical aim and a mental consummation. It appears that the modem science is preparing itself to overcome its preoccupation with Matter so as to look upon the phenomenon of Consciousness with flesh eyes.
Philosophy, which is toady highly dominated by Science, is also likely to undergo a major change and enlarge itself in its scope so as to admit the phenomena of Consciousness, which are now being studied more and more at the level of microcosm as also at the level of macrocosm. In this light, it will not be difficult for philosophy to detect the logical error of Materialism involved in its attempt to derive from the premise that Matter is real, the conclusion that Matter alone is real. The circularity of the argument becomes obvious and is rendered invalid. As Sri Aurobindo points out:
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This vulgar or rustic error of our corporeal organs does not gain in validity by being promoted into the domain of' Philosophical reasoning. Obviously, their pretension is unfounded. Even in the world of Matter there are existences of which the physical senses are incapable of taking cognisance. Yet the denial of the suprasensible as necessarily an illusion or a hallucination depends on this constant sensuous association of the real with the materially perceptible, which it itself a hallucination. Assuming throughout what it seeks to establish, it has the vice of the argument in a circle and can have no validity for an impartial reasoning."1
At the stage at which we stand today, the recent advances in the field of knowledge provide as sounder foundations for the philosophy of value and philosophy of value-oriented education. Already great scientists and philosophers of science have begun to acknowledge the need to bridge the gulf between science and value, just as there is a need to bridge the gulf between art and value. It is recognised that the development of science should be supplemented by enormous development of the value of human kindness. Bertrand Russell has pointed out that there are two ancient evils that science, unwisely used, may intensify: they are tyranny and war. His counsel to mankind is to avoid "cruelty, envy, greed, competitiveness, search for irrational subjective certainty, and what Freudians call Death Wish." He further points out the remedy in the following words: "The root of the matter is very simple and old fashioned thing... the thing I mean ― please forgive me for mentioning it ― is love; Christian love or compassion."
1. Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine, Centenary Edition, Vol. 18, pp.17-18
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Recently, Piet Hut in one in one of his papers (1995) started : "science that does not have any ethical implication can be useful, but cannot claim in any way to describe all of reality, since clearly some form of ethics is part of our world of experience."
VI
What emerges from the foregoing is that the programme of value-oriented education should emphasize the relationship between Science and Value. In our presentation of values, we do not need to be prescriptive; we should encourage methods of explorations. As we explore deeper and deeper, we shall find that there are values, which are relative and subjective; but we shall also find that there is in us a dimension of Value and that this is an undeniable objective fact. There is also the fact that the more one advances in the theory and practice of Value, the more is one obliged to overcome selfishness, egoism and subjectivity, and the more is one led to the discovery of the Categorical Imperative, the criterion of which is translatable in some kind of objectivity and universality, as Kant showed although not entirely satisfactorily, and as shown by the Bhagavadgita in its concept of Loka sangraha. What we call good actions can be relative, and our judgment about them can be subjective; but there can be no denial that, objectively
speaking, the highest goodwill for the highest good of all is the highest conceivable Value. To my mind, the first and the last message of value-oriented education should be to develop among all the highest Good Will, siva-samkalpam.
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PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE ORIENTED EDUCATION-1
There is a need to clarify the term, value. Evidently the word 'value' is not to be taken in the sense in which it is used in Economics. The word 'value' as understood in the context of educational philosophy refers to those desirable ideals and goals which are intrinsic in themselves and which, when achieved or attempted to be achieved, evoke a deep sense of fulfillment to one or many or all parts of what we consider to be the highest elements of our nature. In a sense, it may be urged that the word 'value' is basically indefinable since it denotes a fundamental category and it is itself the highest genus of that category. At the same time, there is a common understanding as to what is meant when it is said that Truth, Beauty and Goodness are the supreme values of life. They are intrinsic in character and they are ends in themselves. They are considered to be the most desirable ideals and they occur to us whenever we try to conceive of those states of our being or becoming in which we are likely to find some kind of ultimate fulfillment.
All true education is fundamentally a process of training whereby the individual is enabled to embody, progressively, those values which we in our highest thought and aspiration come to regard as something most desirable.
If the human nature is analyzed, it is found that there are various energies in us which can be distinguishable under various categories, such as physical, emotional, mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual. These energies are mostly latent in us and only a part of them are actually active. Even the active part of our energies needs to be developed and directed towards their highest development and towards their highest point of fulfillment in their respective values. The task of education is not limited merely to the development of our active energies but also to bring out our latent capacities and lead them to their rightful goals and ideals.
The teacher should therefore have a sound knowledge of the psychology of man and should know the secrets of the principles underlying the development of both our active and latent capacities.
In the present system of education, we are too preoccupied with the mental development; and we give a preponderant importance to those qualities which are relevant to the present examination system. We are thus not giving so much of importance to the development of the powers of understanding as to the powers of memory. We do not emphasise the development of imagination as much as we emphasise the power of knowing facts. We do not give importance to the pursuit of Truth as much as to the pursuit of piecemeal assemblage of topics and subjects which are prescribed in the syllabus. Recently, attempts have been made to ameliorate this situation and some place is being given to physical education and aesthetic education. But the situation is far from satisfactory, and when we come to the domain of moral and spiritual values, the situation is confusing and it seems, a deeper exploration is required before we give to ourselves some definite idea as to what they mean and what place they can be given in our systems of education.
The situation in regard to moral and spiritual values is complicated by the fact that there are today several powerful trends of thought in the light of which morality has come
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to be regarded something relative and spirituality is being dismissed as some indefinable category of irrationalism. It is sometimes held that scientific method is the only door to knowledge, while morality and spirituality can at best be a kind of emotional response. It is, therefore, sometimes argued that what needs to be advanced in our educational system is scientific method and scientific knowledge and that each individual should be left to do what he likes in regard to his moral and spiritual tendencies. As against this, it is being increasingly felt that no education can be complete or even worthwhile if it does not provide to the individual not only the knowledge of the history of moral, religious and spiritual ideas which are a great part of the human heritage but also a non-dogmatic but disciplined process by which the individual is enabled to embody those values which seem to our human thought as indispensable to the survival of human race at the present critical juncture of human history and to the eventual development of a greater civilisation than we have had hitherto. It is, for instance, universally agreed that pursuit of peace is one of the most desirable things that we should encourage in education all over the world. Nobody seriously argues that peace is a value, which each individual should be left free to pursue or not to pursue and that it should have no place in our educational system. And, we may note that pursuit of peace implies the pursuit of a number of interrelated values such as unity, harmony, mutuality, friendship, faithfulness and sincerity. As a matter of fact, there is in the realm of values an intimate interrelatedness, and once we admit any given value, we are perforce led to admit the entire range of values.
Nonetheless, it must be admitted that it is not easy to settle the question as to what precisely is the relationship between the realm of values and the realm of knowledge, how precisely pursuit of science and pursuit of values should be related to each other, and how precisely we should encourage the pursuit of values in our system of education. There are, however, some guidelines that we can derive from the contemporary educational thought and from some of the great educational experiments conducted in India or elsewhere.
In the domain of physical education, the values that we ought to seek are those of health, strength, plasticity, grace and beauty. In the domain of emotional education, the values that we ought to seek would be those of harmony and friendliness, of courage and heroism, of endurance and perseverance and of irresistible will to conquer the forces of ignorance, division and injustice. In the domain of the mental development, the values that we ought to seek would be those of utmost impartiality, dispassionate search for the Truth, Calm and Silence, and widest possible synthesis. The values pertaining to the aesthetic development would be those of the vision of the Beauty and creative joy of the deepest possible aesthetic experience and expression.
Values that we should seek in the moral and spiritual domain are those of sincerity, faithfulness, obedience to whatever one conceives to be the highest, gratitude, honesty, benevolence, generosity, cheerfulness, selflessness, freedom from egoism, equality in joy and suffering, in honour and dishonour, in success arid failure, pursuit of the deepest and the highest, of the absolute and ultimate and progressive expression of this pursuit in thought, feeling and action.
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it would be observed that the pursuit of the above mentioned values is not intrinsically related to any particular moral or religious doctrine or any particular spiritual discipline. One can pursue these values as something intrinsic and as ends in themselves, irrespective of whether one holds any particular doctrine of ethics, religion or spirituality. Whether one belongs to one religion or the other or to no religion one can pursue these values devotedly and zealously. This point is extremely important in the context of the Indian situation where there are a number of religions, including atheistic religions, and where there are people of no religion. This is again important in the context of the fact that our Constitution clearly states that "No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of the State Fund" and that "No person attending any educational institution recognised by the State or receiving aid out of State fund shall be required to take part in any religious instruction that may be imparted in such institution or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in such institution or in any premises attached thereto unless such person or, if such person is a minor, his guardian has given his consent thereto."
A question is often raised as to whether there is any valid distinction between moral and spiritual values. In answer, it may be said that much depends upon what we intend to include in our definition of the word 'morality' or in the word 'spirituality'. In Indian thought, the distinction between morality and spirituality has been clearly made and we have two definite terms, naitika and adhyatmika, having their specific and distinguishing connotations. The word 'morality' connotes a pursuit of the control and mastery over impulses and desires under the guidance and supervening inspiration of a standard of conduct formulated or in consideration of man's station and duties in the society or in consideration of any discovered or prescribed intrinsic law of an ideal. Morality is often conceived as a preparation for spirituality. Spirituality, on the other hand, begins when one seeks whatever one conceives to be the ultimate and absolute for its own sake, unconditionally and without any reserve whatsoever. Moreover, while morality is often limited to the domain of duties, spirituality is fundamentally a search of the knowledge (sakshatkara) of the highest and the absolute by direct experience and manifestation of this search in every mode of living, thinking and acting.
What is called religious, and what in Indian terminology is termed as dharmik is clearly distinguishable from the moral and the spiritual. The differentia by which religion can be distinguished from morality and spirituality are:
(i) a specific religious belief which is exclusive;
(ii) every specific religion has, as its essential ingredient, certain prescribed acts, rituals and ceremonies;
(iii) a religious authority to which religious matters are referred and the decision of which is final.
Both moral and spiritual values, particularly those which are enumerated above, can be practised irrespective of whether one believes in one religion or another or whether one believes in no religion. Both morality and spirituality can be independent of rituals and ceremonies and of any acts specifically prescribed by any particular religion. And
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both of them are independent or any authority except that of one's own free and direct experience.
It is thus clear that education in moral and spiritual values is quite distinct from 'religious instruction'. What is required is instruction and training in the entire realm of values physical, emotional, intellectual, imaginative, aesthetic, moral and spiritual, which can be pursued by any individual irrespective of whether he accepts any religion or no religion.
In addition to the values which are enumerated above, the value-orientation in education must also include, specifically, those values which are being promoted by UNESCO of which India is a Member-State. This would mean that our educational system should encourage the value of world peace, international understanding, and unity of mankind. UNESCO has also put forward through a comprehensive ideal and value, namely, "to be". This ideal has been highlighted in the Report of the International Commission on the development of education, which was constituted by UNESCO in 1971. While explaining the ideal of "to be", M. Edgar Faure, the Chairman of the Commission, stated that one of the underlying assumptions of the Report is "that the aim of development is the complete fulfillment of man, in all the richness of his personality,
the complexity of his forms of expression and his various commitments."'
The ideal of "to be" is distinct from the ideal of "to acquire" and "to possess". The ideal of "to be" refers to that direction of effort which leads individual to look deeply within himself and to find in his inner being the source of his varied potentialities, and the source of a fulfillment in some kind of perfection that transcends egoism and which rests in a vast and integrated self-hood.
It is pertinent to note that the Indian educational thought has constantly emphasised the value of wholeness of integrality and comprehensiveness. In Indian thought, a distinction has been made between the ego and the self, between aham-bhava and Atman. According to the Indian thought, whereas egoistic personality is ridden with self-contradictions and internal conflicts, the true self or the true individual is the integrating centre in which varied personalities are harmonised. Integrated personality is thus a recognised ideal that the Indian educational thought has held out as one of the supreme spiritual values. In its fullness the idea of integrated personality connotes the perfection of a fourfold personality that harmonises wisdom, power, love and skill in works. It is therefore recommended that the pursuit of this fullness of integrated personality may be regarded as one of the highest values which should be pursued in our educational system.
There are, indeed, certain other values which are uniquely Indian, in the sense that even though these values may be shared by India in common with other countries, they are pursued in India either with a certain special zeal and dedication or pursued with a certain speciality or completeness. For example, the value that we attach to the ideal of tolerance is something special in India. In fact, the word tolerance itself is not adequate to convey the intended meaning. In the ordinary idea of tolerance, there is still a feeling that our own preferred idea is somewhat superior to the other contending ideas. On the other hand, what is peculiarly Indian is the sentiment and the recognition that various principal
' Learning to be, 1979, Paris, p vi.
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contending ideas are all equally legitimate ideas and that superiority lies not in holding one idea as some preferred idea but in trying to find such a synthesis that each idea finds its own highest fulfillment in it. What is uniquely Indian is that the value and ideal of synthesis has been pursued throughout the long history of Indian culture as a most desirable goal and that too repeatedly and with a very special insistence. Therefore, a special emphasis should be laid in all our learning process towards the seeking of synthesis not only as an ideal of intellectual development but also as a cherished ideal of Indian culture.
Along with the basic idea of synthesis, there is also the accompanying idea of unity, mutuality and oneness in diversity. That in spite of there being varying centrifugal forces, there are also supervening, powerful and harmonising centripetal forces operating in the Indian life and that the Indian culture finds its deepest fulfillment not in any exclusive denial but in comprehensive affirmation (or in denial of all denials) need a special emphasis. And our education should be so reoriented as to give a pre-eminent place to the pursuit of the culture of unity in diversity.
Similarly, what is meant by secularism in the Indian context is uniquely Indian. According to the Western idea, secularism means a tendency or a system of beliefs which rejects all forms of religious faith or worship. It means something that pertains to the present world or to things which are not spiritual or sacred. In the Indian context, however, secularism means comprehensiveness in which all religions receive equal protection, treatment and respect, and in which there is place for everyone whether he belongs to one religion or another or to no religion. Again Indian secularism encourages us to approach everything, whether material or spiritual, with a sense of sacredness. In Indian secularism there is freedom for the propagation of each religion without hindrance or bar and there is also the freedom to promote and propagate synthesis of religions. At the same time, Indian secularism insists on the promotion of moral and spiritual values which are common to all religions and to no religion as also on the promotion of a synthesis of science and spirituality. Secularism so defined and understood is thus a very special value that is uniquely Indian.
There are several other Indian values which require a special mention and which should find their right place in our educational system. The sense of joy that is behind various festivals in India which are shared by people of the country is something which can be understood only when one enters into the heart and soul of Indian culture. The Indian idea of the rhythm of life and the law of harmony, expressed by the word "Dharma" is also uniquely Indian. The place that India has given to womanhood and to motherhood, in particular, is again something very unique to India, and which cannot be explained in terms which are current in the world. Again, the value that we attach to the pursuit of knowledge, to the pursuit of purity, to the pursuit of wisdom is something unique, in the sense that these things are valued most and they are cherished most, and on the call of which we are inspired to renounce everything. All these and many other values which are uniquely Indian should be encouraged and fostered.
There are indeed certain elements which are Indian, which are basically contradictory of the true Indian spirit, such as casteism, regionalism and fanaticism. These have, of course, to be rejected, and they should find no place in our educational system. India has always opposed ignorance and division. This has been India's dominant theme, and even today, our Indian system of education must declare itself opposed to anything that produces ignorance, superstition and division.
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it is noteworthy that the great Indian values, some of which have been mentioned above became dynamically vibrant during the period of India's struggle for freedom. In fact, this period was marked by the rise of great men and women who embodied these values and enriched them. Again, it was during this period that these values guided and shaped great movements and events. Thus a study of our nationalist movement provides a perennial source of inspiration, and a special emphasis should be laid on this study in our educational system, particularly, in the programmes related to the training of teachers.
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PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE ORIENTED EDUCATION-1I
One of the most important programmes of Teacher Education has to be that of Value Oriented Education.
The need for value-oriented education requires clarification.
I Value-Oriented Education Inherent in the Concept of Education
There are at least three fundamental assumptions of the educational process:
a. There is, first, the pursuit of man to know himself and the Universe and to relate himself with the Universe as harmoniously as possible. This pursuit constitutes the very theme of human culture. And education derives its fundamental thrust from the cultural setting at a given point of time.
b. Secondly, there is a process of transmission of the accumulated results of the past to the growing generation so as to enable it to carry forward the cultural heritage and to build the gates and the paths of the future.
c. And thirdly, there is in the process of transmission, a deliberate attempt to accelerate as far as possible the process of human progress.
In its very nature, education is a normative endeavour. Being at once a product or instrument of culture, education tends to promote the highest aims of culture. Hence, education tends to be a process of training whereby individuals in the society are enabled to embody progressively those values, which we in our highest thought and aspiration come to regard as something most desirable. It is in this context that education encourages and fosters the arts and sciences as well as technologies whereby man and the Universe can be ideally interrelated. At the same time, the idea of human progress is built up, and education endeavours to discover and apply efficient means of the right rhythm of acceleration of individual and social progress as also of human progress in general.
Education is thus in its nature value-oriented.
The conditions through which human culture is passing today provide additional reasons for value-oriented education:
• An increasing number of people of thought and action feel that humanity has been gripped by serious maladies and that these maladies are the result of our disequilibrium between the ideals that mankind is labouring to realise during the recent centuries and the disconcerting actualities which refuse obstinately to change. With the passing of every decade, humanity seems to feel more and more acutely that the realisation of its ideals has become imperative, while at the same time, it seems almost impossible to accomplish this realisation. It is;
therefore, felt that humanity is passing through an acute crisis.
• A huge structure is being built up with an increasing insistence on efficiency needed for industrialised society, leaving practically no room for the growth of profounder wisdom which can rightly guide human progress in the critical times through which we are passing today.
• As never before, humanity is able to envisage several alternative possibilities of the imminent future and it is felt that human volition can play a decisive role in selecting, planning, designing and actualising these possibilities. As never before, humanity is
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convinced that the most desirable course for the human race is to strive with fixed determination for human unity, global peace and for the advancing of the three great ideals of progress, namely, liberty, equality and fraternity. As never before, there has. been an increasing perception that the most effective means for achieving these desirable objectives is value-oriented education.
• This feeling is reinforced by the fact that while under the pressure of technological development, the world is shrinking and we are dreaming of the possibility of a planetary civilisation, for which we have not yet secured a corresponding psychological development, which could enable human consciousness to sustain such a planetary civilisation. On the contrary, there is a growing preponderance of those impulses, which can thrive only in ignorance, fragmentation, discord and violence.
• In India, there is a feeling that the country is sinking under the weight of problems such as those of terrorism, corruption, and plutocracy, and it is realised that solutions need to be sought at a level that is far deeper than the level at which we are now thinking and acting and that special attention has to be paid to the promotion of values that can counteract the increasing destruction of the country and its culture. Against this background, both from the global point of view and from the Indian point of view, we need to develop and practice value-oriented education.
II Basic Issues
• According to some educationists, values, even if they are determinable, cannot be taught and for this reason, it is argued that there is no rationale to bring value-oriented education within the purview of schools and universities.
• On the other hand, there is a view that value systems have determined the orientation of civilisations, and these value systems should be emphasised in the educational system. It is also argued that there should be a rigorous inquiry into those values, which transcend relativity and subjectivity. It is also argued that many religions and moral systems advocate certain common values and that these common values, when identified, could be recommended for any education system in its value-oriented programme. It is also argued that there is a common agreement in the world in respect of rights and responsibilities, and many of them are even incorporated in constitutions and legal systems. All these are value-oriented and these values should constitute the core of value-oriented education.
Ill The Question of the Relativity and Subjectivity of Values
If we examine the history of value systems, we find that there have developed several standards of conduct, which can be arranged in an ascending scale or ladder.
• The first is personal need, preference and desire. There is no doubt that the standards of conduct based on what the individual feels to be his own needs, whether these are constrictive or derived from desire or instinct or egoistic pressure, they are bound to be relative and subjective. The individual would then be the measure of all things, and what is good for one individual is good for him and what is good for another is good for that other. Might would be right; and there could be no place for any impartial or universal law of action. When man is primitive, historically or psychologically, he tends to be
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individualistic and egoistic and tends to create standards of action, which result in self-seeking and self-aggrandisement.
• But no individual can live in isolation, and no individual can be allowed by the very fact of his social existence, to impose upon others what an individual considers to be his good, based upon his personal need, preference or desire. Hence, every social group tends to create its own standards of conduct and impose it upon its individual members.
• In erecting the group's standards, there are several strands of consideration. At the highest level of these strands is what may be called objective utilitarianism. According to it, an action is to be judged by the consequences it produces, and if the consequences are pleasant for the largest number in the society, then that action is judged to be better than any other action.
• There is also another form of objective utilitarianism, according to which an action is judged to be good not merely by reference to the pleasure that it produces but also by the degree to which it promotes both knowledge and character. According to this view, there is a hierarchy, and the value to be attached to knowledge is greater than the value to be attached to pleasure, and the value to be attached to character is greater than the value to be attached to knowledge. It maintains that an objective calculus can be created in every social group on the basis of these criteria and social law can be framed on the basis of this calculus.
• It is argued that objective utilitarianism forms a higher step in the ladder of evolution of value-systems, and that the standards and prescriptions it proposes cannot be termed to be as relative or subjective as those created merely by personal need, preference or desire.
• However, it is still subject to criticism that it is not able to resolve the conflict between the social good and the individual good.
• A higher law of morality seems to prescribe what may be called intrinsic good or intrinsic right without reference to consequences. Indeed, at a higher level of development of civilisation and culture, we find a law of conduct emerging from the moral intention and will, and moral will is considered good because it is goodwill. Here goodwill is recognised to be goodwill intrinsically, merely by reference to intention and motive and not by reference to what issues in the form of actual action and its consequences.
• In one of the forms of this view, which can be termed as rationalistic and objective intuitionism, an objective criterion is attempted to be laid down by which the intrinsic rightness can be adjudged. It points out that an action can be adjudged to be right if it can be willed universally without self-contradiction.
• It is at this level that we attain to the concept of absoluteness and objectivity of the good and the right, and we have the concept of love, justice, right reason, or of the categorical imperative.
• From a certain point of view, the answers given by rationalistic intuitionism, may meet the criticism that morality is relative and subjective. Shastras of Dharmas have often been erected at higher levels of culture, and they have been thought to be objective and universally justified on the grounds of right reason.
• But we find that even in arriving at the standards of absolute love, absolute justice, absolute right reason, we are not able to resolve the state of disequilibrium. Right reason
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dispassionately considering facts of nature and human relations in search of satisfying norm or rule is unable to rest without modification either in the reign of absolute justice or in the reign of absolute love.
Man's absolute justice easily turns out in practice to be a sovereign injustice. Again, justice often demands what love abhors. It is, therefore, difficult to find an absolute and objective agreement where a given particular action can really be adjudged to be right, where love and justice can meet together in harmony and where absolute right reason can unalterably indicate in actual situations of life what is conceived to be absolute justice or absolute love.
• A distinction needs to be made between the human thrust towards the values of the right reason, absolute love and absolute justice, on the one hand, and various manifestations of this thrust in the form of certain specific and particular actions, on the other. While it is true that there can be differences of opinion as to whether certain specific actions are absolutely good or not and here relativity and subjectivity do enter there is still no doubt that goodwill is independent of personal need, desire or preference; the judgment of goodness of goodwill is free from relativity or subjectivity. In other words, there is in the human consciousness the possibility of the development of goodwill that can be considered to be objectively good.
• This discussion has important consequences for value-education. If value-education proposes to prescribe any particular specific action or any particular value-system by any specific and preferred criteria, then the criticism against subjectivity and relativity in regard to the same would stand with considerable force. But if the proposal is to promote thrust and aspiration towards goodwill, then the case for value-education can be set on sound and strong footing.
• This would mean that it is preferable to propose value-oriented education rather than value-education. For value-education is likely to end up with prescription of do's and don'ts and this prescription will have a weak ground. But if our aim is to provide in education, conditions for the promotion of the growth of aspiration towards goodwill and cultivation of goodwill, and if an attempt is to provide to each individual the inspiration and means to transcend his own limited needs and preferences and egoism, so that in his own personality, subjectivity is progressively attempted to be transcended, then such education can be defended both philosophically and pedagogically. Such education can be properly called value-oriented education.
• Value-oriented education should then be defined as a progressive and exploratory process of development, which promotes unconditional pursuit towards goodwill. This education leaves each individual free to determine the contents of the good and the right, provided they are motivated by goodwill.
• Not value-education but value-oriented education, not prescription but exploration — this is the conclusion to which we seem to arrive, when we consider the domain of values and its study and practice through processes of education.
• In view of the above analysis, it appears that there is no need to labour unduly on preparing lists of values and to enter into controversies as to which values should be advocated, whether they should belong to one specific religion or the other, or of one particular moral system or the other, or of one particular culture or another. Value
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oriented education is to be a process of development of goodwill, and its method would be that of an exploration of the realm of values, and, again, what is to be emphasised is to orient the students to the dimensions of values rather than to the prescription of do's and don'ts of any set of values. If properly explored, this would lead to the exploration of various other sets of values, so that each student would then be free to determine for himself or herself what values one should adopt as a result of a sincere exploration of the realm of values.
• Under the guidance of this general and overarching spirit of value-oriented education, we may take the Socratic view that Virtue is Unity and that no virtue can be fully practiced unless in the course of practice, all virtues are embraced. There is no harm in preparing lists of virtues, and we may even contemplate hierarchy or relationships among virtues. But all this can be encouraged as a part of exploration, allowing every student to arrive at his or her own conclusions.
• Indeed, it is very useful to explore and compare one set of values with other sets of values.
• In the process of exploration, it is certainly salutary to emphasise those values, which foster unity and harmony, integration and integrity of the nation and human unity and peace. Inevitably, those values, which have been laid down as binding under constitutional law as rights or duties will also come to be emphasised and cultivated as a part of citizenship. Also, in our own times, there are universal declarations of rights and responsibilities and these also have to be underlined and cultivated amongst students. In the process of education, however, examination of these values and even a critical examination has to be fostered and has to be considered as a part of the pursuit of value dimension.
IV Integral Value-Oriented Education
• A very important concept that has become predominant in recent educational thought is that of integral education. At the international level, this concept came to be centrally highlighted by UNESCO through its famous report "Learning to Be", which laid down "that the aim of development is complete fulfillment of the human being, in all the richness of personality, complexity of form of expression and various commitments."
• It is being acknowledged that human personality is complex and that each major element of the personality needs to be integrated with the totality in a harmonious manner. In other words, the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and spiritual do not stand in juxtaposition, but they have among them a constitutional relationship. The physical and the vital can, to a great extent, be controlled and guided by the mental, and to a certain stage of development the mind can act as a leader. But the leadership of the mind is rather restricted and often fails and fails disastrously in controlling or leading the vital and the physical. Reason is opposed by Unreason, and conflict between the two, as seen today, is extremely grave. Moreover, as the rational, ethical, and aesthetic powers of the mind begin to develop, they begin to collide among themselves. It is, therefore, being recognised that the psychic and the spiritual powers of the human personality need to be brought forward so as to establish the true integration of all the powers of the being.
• In our present system of education, we are too occupied with mental development, and we give preponderant importance to those qualities, which are relevant to subject-oriented
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and examination-oriented systems. In contrast, the concept of integral education implies a simultaneous integrated process of the development of the qualities and values relevant to physical education, vital education, mental education, psychic and spiritual education.
•In the domain of physical education, the values that are implied are those of health, strength, plasticity, grace and beauty. In the domain of emotional education or vital education, the values that are pursued are those of illumination, heroism, and harmony. In the domain of the rational development, the values that are to be sought after are those of utmost impartiality, dispassionate search for truth, calm and silence and widest possible synthesis. The values pertaining to aesthetic development would be those of vision of beauty and creative joy of the deepest possible aesthetic experience and expression. Values that the moral being ought to seek are those of sincere goodwill and obedience to whatever one conceives to be the highest. In psychic education, the values to be sought after are those of the aim of life, the highest development of the individuality free from egoism and knowledge that guides the inmost and harmonious relationship between the individual and the cosmic, and fulfilment in the light of the supreme discoveries of the ultimate reality, whatever it may be. The values of the spiritual domain are those of highest unity and oneness and pursuit of perfection of all parts of the being and of instruments of personality.
•Integral value-oriented education is a matter of re-search, and the results of this research indicate the need to simultaneously develop knowledge, will, harmony and skill, and that this development should be for each individual a system of natural organisation of the highest processes and movements of which he or she is capable.
•It may be observed that integral value-oriented education could be pursued independently of any particular, moral or religious doctrine or any particular spiritual discipline. Whether one belongs to one religion or the other or to no religion, one can pursue this integral process through a process of exploration, even experimentally and experientially.
V Morality and Spirituality
• In any sound philosophy of value-oriented education, an effort should be made to arrive at clear conceptions of morality and spirituality, since both are distinct and yet related, and both need to be distinguished from religion.
• As noted elsewhere, the word "morality" connotes a pursuit of the control and mastery over impulses and desires under the guidance and supervening inspiration of a standard of conduct formulated by thought in consideration of man's station and duties in the society or in consideration of any discovered or prescribed intrinsic law of an idea. Morality is often conceived as a preparation of spirituality. Spirituality, on the other hand, begins when one seeks whatever one conceives to be the ultimate and the absolute for its own sake unconditionally and without any reservation whatsoever. Moreover, while morality is often limited to the domain of duties, spirituality is fundamentally a search of the knowledge that liberates (sa vidydya vimuktaye). As it is declared, true knowledge is not intellectual knowledge but spiritual knowledge.
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• Both the moral and the spiritual are to be distinguished from what is called "religious" Religion, has the following distinguishing features:
1. Specific religious dogma regarding the nature of Reality, laid down in scripture or by traditional founder, prophet or incarnation;
2. Every specific religion has, as its essential ingredients, certain prescribed acts, rituals and ceremonies;
A religious authority to which religious matters are referred and its decisions are final.
Both moral and spiritual values can be practiced irrespective of whether one believes in one religion or another or whether one believes in no religion. Both morality and spirituality can be independent of the rituals or ceremonies and of any acts specifically prescribed by any particular religion. Furthermore, both of them are independent of any authority except that of one's own free judgment and direct spiritual experience.
It is also useful to distinguish religion from what in India is called dharma. Dharma is not any religious creed or dogma nor a system of rituals, but a deeper law of the harmonious and interdependent growth of the deepest aspirations of the collectivity and of the individuals that constitute the collectivity. Dharma can be regarded as an ordered system of moral and spiritual values.
Spirituality proceeds directly by change of consciousness, change from the ordinary consciousness to a greater consciousness in which one finds one's true unegoistic being and comes first into direct and living contact and then into union with the Spirit. In spirituality, this change of consciousness is the one thing that matters, nothing else. Spirituality not only aims at the total change of consciousness, but its method is that of a gradual and increasing change of consciousness. In other words, spirituality is an exploration of consciousness through a progressive change of consciousness.
In spiritual consciousness and the knowledge that it delivers, there is the fulfillment of the highest that morality and religion in their deepest core seek and succeed only when they cease to be limited within their specific boundaries. It replaces the moral law by a progressive law of self-perfection spontaneously expressing itself through the individual nature. In this operation, no more is the imposition of a rule or an imperative on the nature of an individual. The spiritual law respects the individual nature, modifies it and, perfects it, and in this sense, it is unique for each individual and can be known and made operative only during the course of the change of consciousness. In its progressive movement, it may, if necessary, provide a sort of long period of governance by a moral law, but always as a provisional device and always looking for going beyond into a plane of spontaneous expression of the Right and the Good. To spiritual consciousness, moral virtue is not valuable in itself, but only as an expression of a complex of certain qualities, which are, for the time being, for the given individual, necessary and useful in an upward journey. For the spiritual consciousness, what is commonly called vice has, too, behind it a complex of certain qualities, which have a certain utility in the economy of Nature, and can, therefore, be converted by placing them in their right place, as a complement to what lies in consciousness behind what are commonly called virtues.
Spirituality is not confined merely to the aspect of conduct; it includes all works and strives by the method of a progressive change of consciousness for the perfect
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harmonisation of all the aspects of works; and through this striving it realises also the unity of works with the highest Knowledge and the deepest Love.
For spiritual consciousness, that which is commonly called agnosticism, scepticism, atheism, positivism or free thinking has behind it a concern and a demand for a direct knowledge, which, when rightly understood, recognised, respected and fulfilled, becomes a powerful element of spirituality.
For spirituality always looks behind the form to the essence and to the living consciousness; and in doing so, it brings to the surface that which lies behind, and its action is therefore of a new creation. Spirituality transcends the forms and methods of morality and religion and recreates its own living and progressive forms.
In the words of Sri Aurobindo:
"Spirituality is in its essence an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, self, soul, which is other than our mind, life and body, an inner aspiration to know, to feel, to be that, to enter into contact with the greater Reality beyond and pervading the universe which inhabits also our own being, to be in communion with It and union with It and a turning, a conversion, a transformation of our whole being as a result of the aspiration, the contact, the union, a growth or waking into a new becoming or new being, a new self, a new nature."
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PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION - III
(Issue of "FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES")
We are passing through a critical stage of a battle between the best possibilities and the worst possibilities. At a time when forces of unity and harmony can triumph and science and technology can be used to abolish poverty and deprivation, precisely at that time, the forces of violence and gravitational pulls of impulses of the lower human nature are pressing forward on a global scale. Rationality, in which humanity has placed great trust for arriving at the fulfillment of its ideals of true knowledge and comprehensive knowledge, appears to be overtaken by the forces of Unreason. It has, therefore, become imperative to explore deeper and higher dimensions of human resources by means of which we can successfully work for the victory of the ideal dreams, which have inspired the onward march of civilisation.
It is in this context that the theme of education for character development has emerged with some imperative force. And our eyes have turned to the dimensions of values, the dimensions of will-power and the dimensions of cultural, ethical and spiritual potentialities. These dimensions have not yet been sufficiently explored, but we have begun to uncover what lies in our present framework that would meet our urgent need to uplift ourselves and the coming generations.
In India, our constitution has been wisely prefaced with the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity in its very Preamble. It has guaranteed certain basic fundamental rights and it has given a chapter on Directive Principles of the State Policy, which although not legally enforceable, embodies ideals and values, which are salutary for the progress of India on the lines which had come to be articulated and cherished during the Freedom Struggle.
In 1976, realising that apart from Rights, there is a need to emphasise responsibilities, obligations and duties of the citizens Article 51A was inserted to lay down certain fundamental duties. It is to that Article that we have recently turned our focal attention, with the hope that its operationalisation in the field of education would bring about a new climate of recovery of forces that can re-generate national ethos, unity and integrity.
Government of India did well, therefore, in appointing a high level committee, in July 1998, to operationalise suggestions to teach fundamental duties to the citizens of the country. This Committee was chaired by Mr. Justice J. S. Verma, the former Chief Justice of India, and it submitted its final Report to the Minister of Human Resource Development on 31st -October, 1999.
The Verma Committee has done well to highlight the work which has been done by the International Interaction Council in drafting a Declaration of Human Responsibilities.
This Council had a preliminary meeting in Vienna, Austria in March 1996, April 1997, and the Plenary Session was held in Noordwijk, Netherlands, in June 1997. On 1st September 1997, the Inter-Action Council proposed a universal declaration of human responsibilities, just one year before the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. A number of former prime ministers, former presidents, and leading personalities in the fields of thought and practical action have endorsed this draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities. The basic point that has been made by the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities is that the concept of human obligations
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serves to balance the notions of freedom and responsibilities. Without a proper balance, unrestricted freedom is as dangerous as imposed social responsibilities. It declares, in effect, that if we have a right to life then we have the obligation to respect life; and if we have right to liberty, then we have the obligation to respect other peoples' liberty too. In other words, the golden rule of responsibility is that we do not do to others what we do not wish to be done to us; or that we should do unto others as we would have them to do unto us.
This draft declaration reaffirms that the time has come to talk about responsibilities, about
obligations. It also shows that the action taken by the Government of India to set up a Committee of Teaching Fundamental Duties was timely and that while we have talked for decades of value education, the time has come to take decisive action in implementing the programmes of value education.
Let us recall that various commissions and committees of the Government of India have underlined the importance of value education and important recommendations have been made to distinguish morality and spirituality from religious creeds, so that imparting of moral and spiritual values does not come within the purview of the prohibition that is laid down in the Constitution to impart religious education in educational institutions that are financially supported by the Government. Dr. Radhakrishnan had made a distinction between a religious education and education about religions and advocated that there is no constitutional disability in imparting education about religions in our educational system. The Sriprakasa Committee had advocated moral, emotional and cultural education as understood in their widest connotations. The Kothari Commission recommended value-education that is in coherence with the development of science and scientific temper. The National Education Policy, 1986, devoted one full section to value education.
Unfortunately, our curricula, by and large, have changed little or only marginally. The main difficulty has been that there has been a long drawn out debate on what values should be promoted and what place should be given to the study of religions, which are closely connected with value systems. In answer to this debate, there is one thing which is very clear, and that is, the Fundamental Duties, which have been listed in the Constitution, which represents national consensus and which has some kind of binding force.
The Fundamental Duties include, first and foremost, the obligation on the part of the citizens to abide by the Constitution and to respect its ideals and institutions. In large terms, this would mean obligation to secure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as also the values that are embedded in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of the State Policy. In declaring that these duties will include the obligation to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom, we have a wide spectrum of values, spiritual, moral, economic, social and political. Again, in laying down the obligations to value and preservation of the rich heritage of our composite culture, the Constitution has stressed the wide range of values that have come to be cherished right from the times of the Veda to the present day, which has played a role toward assimilation and synthesis. Again, in laying down the duties to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform, the emphasis has been laid on the value of truth, knowledge and freedom from dogmatism and obscurantism all that is valuable in modernism. In requiring everyone to protect and improve the natural environment and in renouncing practices that are derogatory to the dignity of women and in developing compassion for living creatures, some of the most pressing problems of contemporary times in the fields of environment and empowerment of women has been taken into account. Finally, by insisting on striving towards excellence in all
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the spheres of individual and collective activity, a great ideal has been stressed in respect of the perfectibility of the individual and the society and their harmonious relationships.
This is not an occasion to bring out the implications of these duties and salutary effects that the operationalisation of duties in the field of education could bring about. It must be said, however, that this operationalisation should be regarded as a good beginning in the right direction, although the highest goals of man-making education of which Swarni Vivekananda spoke will imply a still greater effort and we should not lose sight of this higher goal and the need for still greater efforts.
There is a dimension of values, which transcends the dimension of duties. That dimension is the spontaneous perception and commitment to ends-in-themselves. If I love a friend only as a matter of duty, it is, in a sense, not as valuable as I do so out of my spontaneous appreciation and admiration for him and for his achievements and qualities. Love for my own country as a duty is inferior to the love of a patriot that arises spontaneously in his heart and soul, as he looks upon his country as the very source of his breath and life. Search for truth is an end in itself; search for goodness is an end itself, search for beauty is an end itself; and they have to be encouraged not as duties but as irresistible demands of our being as we begin to uncover deeper and higher depths of our selves, which transcend the limitations of egoism.
Self-knowledge and self-control are the true foundations of value education. As Socrates had pointed out, virtue is knowledge, and it is when knowledge is rightly pursued, that pursuit of virtue attains its right place as a spontaneous action and it has lustre brighter than that obtains in performance of our duty.
These reflections have two important consequences in our formulations of value-oriented education. Firstly, value-oriented education does not merely remain a matter of do's and don'ts; it be-comes a process of exploration, and it crosses the border of constraints that are felt in the performance of duties and leads us into a realm of freedom of which discipline for performance of duty is a happy product. Secondly, value-oriented education opens before us the gates of the harmony between truth, beauty and goodness, which impart to us the sources of true humanism and even our true godliness.
It is necessary to bring out, even though briefly, these important dimensions of value-oriented education, since it will help us better to prepare our curriculum of value-oriented education in its wider aspects, and also to prepare corresponding programmes of teacher-education.
The role of the teacher in education is irreplaceable, and unless the teachers' programmes or training are conceived in the light of the full implications of value-oriented education, we shall not be able to equip the teachers with the right inspiration and with the required tools. If value-oriented education has suffered so far, it is because teachers' training programmes fall short in many ways of an ideal system. We require redesigning of programmes of teachers' education, both pre-service and in-service; in a certain sense, we need to overhaul our entire system of teacher-education, keeping in view that value-oriented education is absolutely imperative and unless a good teacher is himself value-oriented, we cannot fulfill the objectives of value-oriented education.
We have to realise that methods of value-oriented education have to be different from those, which are required in respect of many other subjects. The reason is that in value-oriented education what we need is not merely the cultivation of cognitive faculties but also
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affective and conative faculties. One cannot merely give lectures on values and expect to fulfill the objectives. Just as swimming cannot be taught merely by lecturing, but by leading the learner to jump into the water and help him in the practical art of swimming in the midst of water, similarly, value-oriented education requires of the teacher the ability to inspire the students to enter into the waters of life-situations and give him practical abilities and art of practicing values in concrete situations of life. In a sense, it may be said that value-oriented education is perhaps the most difficult domain among all domains of education.
Without going into details, it may be said that we need to undertake a three-pronged exercise in the teacher education programmes:
Firstly, our programmes must be so inspiring that teachers come to look upon the task of teaching as sacred;
Secondly, the curriculum of teachers training programme should have the component of the theory of value-oriented education, both in terms of the foundations of Fundamental Duties and of the values, which lie beyond the domain of duties; and it should have also a component of practical art of the practice of exploration of values in life-situations.
And thirdly, the duration that is normally assigned to teacher education programmes should be sufficiently enlarged. A most salutary combination would be to propose an integrated programme of teacher education of the duration of four or five years on the completion of class XII, leading to a qualification equivalent to post-graduation. That has also consequences for career development and other aspects relevant to the structure and framework of teaching profession. But this is an aspect, which needs to be looked into separately.
In any programme of education for value-orientation or for character development, we need to ask three important questions. Firstly, we have to determine with greater precision what we mean by character and how the development of character can be stimulated and nourished through the processes of communication and information, cultivation of faculties, and the methods by which the states of consciousness, which express themselves in virtues can be stabilised. For character development is concerned with what may be called being or the central core of the individuality, which tends to grow into universality and sovereignty of transcendence. Indeed, the concepts of individuality, universality and transcendence can be communicated to some extent in the form of information which relates to the history of these concepts and how these concepts have been interpreted by different thinkers, scholars and practitioners and how they have been applied in life and in the development of civilisations and cultures. Indeed, this information can kindle the inner urge of the individual to grow inwardly and to fashion the processes of learning, which can properly be called the processes of learning to be. But still, the part played by communication of information in the development of character is only peripheral or of primary importance and not of chief importance.
A greater part is played in the character development by the development or cultivation of faculties and if we study numerous faculties that human personality comes to posses, we shall find that they relate to four main groups namely, (1) those which pertain to understanding, comprehension, synthesis, universality, knowledge and wisdom; (2) those that relate to willpower, fearlessness, courage, heroism, control, mastery, power and strength; (3) those that relate to imagination, sensibility, emotional refinement, harmony in relationships, friendship, co-operation, loyalty, allegiance, and unfailing love, and (4) those that pertain to skills of
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expressions, patience, perseverance, endurance, love for precision, and detailed execution of command, order, system and search for perfection. Unfortunately, in our curricular framework preponderant emphasis is laid upon communication of information, but no deliberate attempt is made to the task of stimulating the cultivation of faculties; and yet, if faculties develop among our students, they do so because faculties have an inborn stress in themselves to push forward their developments. But a more rational and careful curriculum should provide guidelines, occasions and exercises by which faculties can be cultivated consciously and systematically.
But of even greater importance in character development is the role-played by development of attitudes and states of consciousness. The depth of seriousness, which accompanies the process of search or quest, will determine the quality of search or quest and its eventual success. And the states of seriousness result from the cultivation of sincerity. If we examine closely, we shall find that what we call virtues are basically manifestations of certain states of consciousness; it is virtues that constitute character; and the stability of character depends upon the stabilisation of those states of consciousness which constitute virtues. How to develop, therefore, virtuous states of consciousness and how to stabilize them should constitute a major constituent of education for character development.
Closely connected with this first set of questions is the second set of questions which relate to the aim of life. The moment we raise the question of aim of life, we begin to address ourselves to something that is central in our being, in our potentialities and in what we can become and can be fulfilled. No great character can be built where the aim of life remains a matter of doubt or tends to be neglected or retained for consideration or amusement in our hours of idleness or superficial leisure. Indeed, the theme of the aim of life should become a theme of exploration, and during the process of exploration one has to pass through periods of doubts, periods of long reflection, periods of experimentation and even of uncertainty. Educational process should provide both time and scope for this kind of exploration and every student should be provided with enough material in respect of this theme. Indeed, no prefixed aim of life should be proposed and no indoctrination or dogmatic assertions should be thrust upon the mind and heart of the student. But the educational process should allow each student a process of exploration, experimentation and reflection as a result of which a mature decision is arrived at as to what aim of life one should pursue. It will then be seen that the quality of life and the quality of character reflect the quality of aim of life that one determines to realise.
Finally, there is a third set of questions, which are also relevant to the development of character. These questions relate to the ways and means by which students become conscious of the methods of learning and methods by which character can be developed. In other words, character development has to become a conscious process, a deliberate process, voluntary process. Students have to become conscious of the psychological complexities and how the tangles of instincts, desires, emotions, will-force, powers of thought, and imagination and the powers of aesthetic, ethical and spiritual consciousness can be understood, disentangled and yet controlled, mastered and harmonised. This perhaps is the most important part of education for character development. Here we have to focus upon the process by which students can gradually become conscious of their inner being, of their potentialities, of their own character so that students can take upon themselves the task of fashioning and perfecting what is best in them.
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PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL EDUCATION -1
There has been in the U.K. during the last two decades, a good deal of discussion on the theme of spiritual education. Apart from brilliant papers by Mac Laughlin and several others, the paper by David Carr another by Michael Hand are not only instructive but provide us with analyses of the issues and also of the phrase 'spiritual education' which can be utilized properly in developing relevant and suitable pedagogy.
David Carr examines three important conceptions of spirituality and spiritual education, the 'reductionist' or residual conceptions, "process" conceptions, and 'content' based conceptions. In regard to the Reductionist conceptions, he identifies two accounts, namely, spirituality as the sublime, and spirituality as the ineffable. The first one is related to the emphasis in contemporary thinking about spiritual experience, which focuses upon the moral, religious and aesthetic as concerned with the sublime. This he considers to be hardly more than a pious way of exalting or celebrating those aspects of human experience, which may be entirely explicable in rational terms, and he thinks that it fails to bring out the uniqueness and distinctiveness of spirituality, and, in practice, it aims at encouraging search for personal fulfillment through religious participation, or artistic creativity or to value such activities highly. In other words, it does not indicate those processes and activities, which can be distinguished distinctly as spiritual. As regards the conception of spirituality as ineffable, Carr points out that this conception refers to the experience of awe and reverence, the kind of experience which one might feel in the experience of starry heavens, as wondrous and inexplicable. Once again, Carr does not find in this conception that differentia for spirituality which one might look for obtaining precision, except that, pedagogically, the concepts such as that of infinity can be utilized in mathematics and science to show how such a concept, which involves irresolvable paradox, evokes incomprehension and establishes the sense of the limits of rational understanding. He concedes that the kind of wonderment that arises from incomprehension is valuable as a part of good teaching and ought not to be neglected, but we are not helped by it to explain the distinctive characteristics of spirituality.
In search Of distinctiveness of spiritual as opposed to moral, aesthetic, religious or just simply educational, Carr analyses those conceptions, which refer to potential objects of spiritual attitude, which can be construed in terms of process in a certain relationship that obtains between persons and the activities in which they are engaged. In this connection, he examines the concepts of spiritual attitudes as affective responses and spirituality as an intellectual capacity. In regard to the attempt to understand the spiritual through the affective dimension, he finds that while it may be useful to draw attention to spiritual attitudes in terms of attention to spiritual qualities through explanations of aesthetic attitudes in terms of aesthetic properties, the difficulty lies in the fact that one cannot genuinely identify spiritual attitudes on account of the fact that there is a wide disagreement about what constitutes a spiritual property. He, therefore, concludes "the assimilation of spirituality to affective states of one sort or another whether these are understood as cognitive or non cognitive would not appear a very promising basis for a programme of spiritual education." (Pg 166) In regard to spirituality as an intellectual capacity, he concedes that one might propose to equip young people with some sort of
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rational capacity for the recognition of spiritual problems common to (say) both Christianity and Hinduism, one can nevertheless continue to doubt the likelihood of coming to any significant appreciation of such similarities, considering that the understanding of spiritual problems is closely connected with the individual's initiation into a given religious or spiritual perspective. In other words, he argues that in those realms of human enquiry, in which judgment is inseparable from value and evaluation, one cannot arrive at true understanding through mere detached empirical observation. Just as one cannot really understand the real value of significance of courage or justice in human affairs except through the performance of courageous or just acts, even so in matters of spirituality, participation through experience as distinguished from activities of intellectual discrimination is indispensable.
Finally, Carr examines 'content' based conceptions of spiritual education. Here, he finds that one cannot arrive at the apprehension of the content of spirituality without some account of truth that spirituality refers to. He points out that, in regard to spiritual knowledge as cultural information, there are no facts but only highly contestable beliefs, reflections or opinions, and communication of such beliefs and reflections or opinions runs the risk of becoming easily a matter of indoctrination. How to communicate truth and knowledge as distinguished from transmission of facts, beliefs or opinions is an extremely difficult process, and these difficulties will present themselves when the spiritual truth and the spiritual knowledge are required to be communicated. Carr, therefore, considers the question of communicating spiritual truth claims in terms of traditions of enquiry, considering that in any field where truth claims are involved, one is required to face the test of experience not singly but as a body. In other words, spiritual knowledge cannot be communicated in terms of truths of several statements severally but only through engagement with some serious tradition of spiritual reflection or enquiry. For then only, he argues, one can come to appreciate the nature of genuine spiritual concerns and questions.
Having examined thus the several rival conceptions of spirituality and spiritual education, he concludes that no genuine understanding of the religious or spiritual can be had except via some substantial initiation into religious and spiritual practices. But considering that there are rival religious and spiritual practices, and since the proper aim of a religious or spiritual education must be that of facilitating a critical understanding of the great religious and spiritual traditions, and further, considering that spiritual education is not identical with religious education, one has to acknowledge the need to have a place for different sorts of school community in which different sorts of initial spiritual education might be provided. He concedes, however, that this conclusion is deeply at odds with those who advocate spiritual education to be spread across the curriculum. But he finds no other solution.
The conclusion that has been arrived at is truly disappointing, despite the fact that Rival Conceptions of Spiritual Education have been analyzed very carefully, although it may be remarked that many other possible conceptions also need to be explored. But the thrust of the paper is sharp towards its target, namely to arrive at that clear distinctiveness of those characteristic features that are distinctly spiritual as distinguished from many others which might seem similar but which are within the realm of religious, ethical,
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aesthetic, refined intelligence and indefinably mysterious, wonderful and even ineffable. He has rightly underlined the point that the spiritual is concerned with knowledge, with truth, even though this knowledge and this truth do not mean what we mean by them in regard to the empirical world; it is also true that the spiritual has to do with some faculty and some method which are higher than those which are used in the rational, ethical, aesthetic and religious pursuits. But having insisted on the search for the unique features of spirituality and consequently of spiritual education, we still find Carr just touching the borders of the wide and rich terrain of spirituality which can be ascertained from a larger enquiry that is not limited only to spirituality that is to be found acknowledged in the institutional religions of the world. For there are experiences, which are, spiritual but which can be attained by purely psychological and methodical processes, which are known in India as yogic methods. Hence, larger conceptions of spiritual education can be formulated. Again, spiritual education implies a vaster background of psychology of spiritual experience on a sound basis of which the pedagogy of spiritual education can be built. We seem to be as yet in a state of beginnings of spiritual pedagogy, and Carr has rendered valuable service in clarifying certain important concepts, and his analysis helps us to create strong bases for spiritual pedagogy, but we need to go farther.
There are grounds in yoga to show that spiritual experience has many gates and that there are many preliminary stages through which human psychology can be developed before one can enter into the realm of the spiritual in its distinctiveness. Moreover, it is underlined in yoga that spiritual pursuit in its decisive movement must be preceded by a voluntary decision on the part of the individual where a choice is made to devote oneself centrally, to begin with, and increasingly, more and more comprehensively to pursue spiritual disciplines not only as a central occupation of life but also in all preoccupations of life. If there is one unique feature that distinguishes spirituality is the necessity of this choice. Against this background, we have the idea that the human civilization has reached today a stage where both the survival and fulfilment of civilization require to be assured urgently, and this cannot be done unless education for spiritual development is generalized. The central question, therefore, for spiritual education is as to in what way and to what extent one can provide to the students that kind of preparation which would enable them in due course to arrive at that critical point where they can make a voluntary choice to pursue spiritual disciplines with centrality in their occupations and preoccupations. If anything else, or anything more than this, is attempted, there will necessarily be the need to resort to those methods which are appropriate to the mechanical religiosity, indoctrination or premature methods of inducement for transcending the limits of the physical into the supra physical, a road which is full of perils which are difficult to avoid.
An important conclusion that follows from these considerations is that while it is salutary and necessary to arrive at distinctive idea of spirituality as also of distinctive and central methods of spiritual education, our central focus should be to discover those avenues of development by opening which and by perfecting which we are able to prepare students to understand what is spirituality, what are its distinctive features and what are the numerous ways by which the gates of spirituality can be opened and can be pursued, if one voluntarily chooses to enter into life of spiritual methods and spiritual regeneration, the life of what is often called by mystics as the life of a second birth.
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These observations point to the need of exploration of various gates through which the realm of spirituality can be approached. Among these gates are those of refined development of intellectual thought and those conceptions of the object of direct spiritual experiences which can be captured in intellectual terms, the development of the affective sensitivities, feelings, emotions and aesthetic imagination up to a high degree of acuteness in various normative pursuits of Truth, Beauty and Goodness where spirituality and spiritual experience can in their distinctiveness be pursued, and, finally, the development of volition directed in the search of those virtues which one may arrive at in consideration of the Right and the Good. In this connection, all that Carr has suggested as illustrations derived from Rival Conceptions for Spiritual Education can all be utilized. Again, although it is true that the spiritual is supra mundane, it is also immanent in the dynamic manifestation of the world and in various experiences of the mundane. Thus, even in the domain of physical education, one can provide for the development of those features, which manifest more and more the immanence of the Spirit, such as grace and beauty. In the pursuit of illumination, in the pursuit of heroism and harmony and perfection in skills, one can discern those refinements, which are very near to the spiritual and in which the immanence of the Spirit can be discovered and experienced. In art and music and poetry one can emphasize those points and those experiences, which can open up into the domain of the spiritual in its distinctiveness. All these and many more can be suggested as an important part of the curriculum for the spiritual education, and all this can be provided in such a manner and such a measure that all common schools can accept them without infringing the principles of freedom and rationality.
The only important point that can still remain to be considered is Carr's insistence that spiritual education implies a process of facilitation by which the students are enabled to experience the distinctive character of spirituality and attainment of those spiritual virtues which spirituality in its distinctive character promises. According to Can", this essential aspect cannot be provided for in common schools, since this requires initiation in spiritual life. He also maintains that even intellectual enquiry into spiritual truth cannot be fruitful unless this enquiry transcends mere intellectuality and one can have some direct experience of spiritual* virtues. It can be suggested that for a fruitful spiritual education which can limit itself justifiably to that point where one is introduced to the domain of spirituality, where one can exercise free choice in taking up the pursuit as a full occupation of life, one does not need to be initiated into the experience of spiritual virtues except in their elementary forms. And for providing the experience of these preliminary forms what is needed is a serious, sincere and exploratory programme, and such a programme can practically be conceived and implemented. And such a programme can be suggested for common schools without infringing, once again, the principles of freedom and rationality".
At one point in the course of his argument, Carr contends that it has been doubted whether in areas of instruction and teaching concerning moral, religious, spiritual and other inherently evaluative forms of enquiry, there is any rational or objective basis of the kind to which we can apparently appeal in the case of (say) statements of natural science. In this connection, it can be suggested that spirituality can be studied as methodized effort of arriving at spiritual experiences, and, apart from important biographies in which such methods are illustrated, there are also other works such as William James's
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"Varieties of Religious Experience", and other books on yoga which can be recommended for arriving at rational or objective basis.
But even then, if it is argued, as Carr does, that substantial acquaintance with particular evaluative perspective enshrined in specific traditions of reflections has to be the core of meaningful program of spiritual education and that such substantial acquaintance does require initiation in substantive spiritual education, which cannot be provided in common schools, we have to urge that such a contention will need evidence and even experimental research. What seems necessary is the sense of sincerity in pursuing any program of spiritual education, but such sincerity can and should be expected even in respect of areas that are acknowledged to be connected with scientific knowledge. Common schools do not need to change their character just simply because we have to prescribe to them the need to develop the environment and atmosphere in which the quality of sincerity can be fostered.
There are indeed certain enquiries which are not at present conducted in the curriculum of common schools, such as those that are designed to explore the meaning of life or aim of life, but if such programs can justifiably be proposed for common schools, and if such programs require seriousness and sincerity on part of teachers and students, are we to equate such requirement with programs of initiation? Basically, all programs of positive sciences as of those relating to normative attitudes and knowledge need to be promoted as programs of exploration, and all of them require seriousness and sincerity. For that reason, we do not need to build up different sorts of school community in which different sorts of initiations are provided. A curriculum relating to meaning of life or aim of life, and this program has to deal with exploration of aims of life which have been advocated by different religious and spiritual as also by materialists, vitalists, and idealists. But it cannot be said that a proper exploration of this program can be done only in a different kind of school where initiation into spiritual education can be specially provided.
Apart from what has been observed above, some other observations can also be made in the light of Michael Hand's paper on The Meaning of 'Spiritual Education', which is a critique of David Carr's work on the topic. According to Michael Hand, Carr has left "many logical stones unturned" and he presents an outline of a more comprehensive analysis. In his view, Carr has identified only two activities, which can appropriately be described as 'spiritual', namely, enquiry into spiritual truth and the practical activity of cultivating spiritual values. He complains as to why enquiry into spiritual truth to be unsuitable for inclusion in the curriculum of the common school, and he seems justified, considering that Carr's contention that such an enquiry will require focusing the pupils in the early stages on the spiritual truth claims of just one religious tradition, a contention that seems untenable, particularly when Carr explicitly and repeatedly denies that education in spiritual enquiry involves any kind of confessional or indoctrinatory teaching. It may be pointed out, as observed in the earlier observations, Carr has presented no evidence for his contention. In any case, some experimental research in regard to this contention needs to be carried out.
As far as the practical activity of cultivating spiritual values is concerned, Michael Hand contends that this activity is not necessary; there is no mandate to instil spiritual virtues
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in pupils. He, however, concedes that 'spiritual education' may include such an activity and that it seems positively desirable that pupils should come to understand the aims and procedures of that activity. He, however, maintains, and one may think quite rightly, that this can be imparted to the pupils on an optional basis, and such an optional basis can be provided for both in faith schools and common schools alike.
Michael Hand's more serious criticism of Carr is that the latter has failed to provide a logical taxonomy of the different ways in which the adjective 'spiritual' might qualify the noun 'education',. He, therefore, suggests four basic categories based upon three distinctions that he puts forth: first, the distinction between 'spiritual' as a part or aspect of education, and 'spiritual' as an approach to education as a whole; second, a distinction between education m some spiritual content and education of the human spirit; and, third, a distinction between activities relating to the spiritual and dispositions relating to the spiritual. The four basic categories that these three distinctions yield in regard to the phrase 'spiritual education' are: 1) education based on spiritual principles; 2) education of the human spirit; 3) education in a spiritual activity; and 4) education in a spiritual disposition. It may be observed that these three distinctions and the four categories that Hand has presented throw valuable insights into various aspects that should be taken into account while speaking of spiritual education. But when he comes to the conclusion that only education of the human spirit satisfies the two criteria that are laid down for admitting spiritual education in the common schools, namely, neutrality with regard to religious beliefs and substantial conceptions of human flourishing, one feels that his conclusion is too narrow. He does not consider, for instance, that important contention, which seems central to spiritual education that spirituality is not merely a question of dispositions and their affective domain, although this is very important, but also that the inner core is related to the truth claim of spirituality. Can one adopt the principle of neutrality in regard to truth claims, particularly when these claims are related not merely to beliefs and opinions but to the knowledge that the genuinely spiritual experience claims to provide? And one may farther ask the question as to why education of the human spirit should be limited only to the affective domain, particularly when the domain of the human spirit is greatly related to cognitive and volitional domains also?
One conclusion, therefore, that one can draw is that while Michael Hand seems to be right in suggesting that spiritual education can justifiably be provided in common schools, he arrives at this conclusion by sacrificing those aspects of spiritual education which to many people may seem to be central, and those to which David Carr has drawn central attention.
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PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL EDUCATION II
A philosophical study of Spiritual Education needs to delve in to the field of the spirituality at a deeper level, so that we can propose a programme of Spiritual Education as a programme of the discovery and realization of the Spirit with as much pedagogical rigor as he employ in the realm of the discovery and realization of the natures and power of Matter, Life and Mind. We have also to show the relevance of Spiritual Education to the programme of enrichment and fulfillment of life and consequent fulfillment of the various activities of Matter, Life and Mind, which are at presence pursued in School Education.
Spirituality and Yoga
In the history of human quest, the field of direct spiritual experience has come to be cultivated, both intensively and extensively. This cultivation has come to be explored and practiced systematically in various cultures of the world, and in India, this systematic exploration and practice have been recognized as Yoga, and it has come to be clearly distinguished from religion, occultism and philosophy.
Yoga i is a systematic and methodized pursuit of spirituality and direct spiritual experience. Spirituality, in its distinctiveness, aims at the knowledge and possession of the Spirit, as distinguished from Mind, Life and Matter; it pursues Spirit as an object of knowledge and not merely as an object to be merely believed in by an act of faith or under the pressure of the claims of dogma. Spirituality is distinguishable from a high intellectuality; it is not identified merely with idealism or with an ethical turn of mind or moral purity and austerity; nor is it religiosity or an ardent and exalted emotional fervor; nor is it even a compound of these excellent things. Spiritual experience transcends mental belief, creed or faith, emotional aspiration, and regulation of conduct according to a religious or ethical formula. All these things are of value to spirituality, but only as preparatory movements. They still belong to the movement of evolution which remains within the boundaries of the mind. These things are far from what can truly be described as spiritual experience or spiritual realization or as spiritual change, which is itself a starting-point of great and radical processes of what can be called processes of psychic transformation, spiritual transformation and supramental transformation.
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If we wish to define spirituality in its distinctive character,ii it can be said that it is, in its essence and in its initial stages, an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a Spirit, Self, Soul which is other than our Mind, Life and Body. This awakening is further nurtured by an inner aspiration to know, to feel and to be that spirit, self and soul. Spirituality is a radical and persistent effort to enter into contact with the greater Reality beyond and pervading the universe which inhabits also our own being, to be in communion and union with It. Spirituality is not merely a turning and orientation towards that greater Reality; spirituality aims at conversion, a transformation of our whole being as a result of the aspiration, the contact, and the union. Spirituality is a process of growth or a process of waking and developing into a new becoming, a new being, a new self, a new nature.
There are several tentative beginnings, and they are followed by slow processes of growth and evolution at the high levels of which there emerge ranges of spiritual experience and realization. At earlier stages, a certain kind of religiosity may become predominant; this kind of religiosity is marked by the nature of mind or life seeking and finding in itself a spiritual support or factor. In this stage, one is mostly preoccupied with the utilization of such contact as one can get or construct with something transcendental that can help or serve mental ideas or moral ideals or vital or physical interests. Morality too can become a starting-point and one can even arrive at a stage of consciousness which can be judged to be a state of justice in the light of certain ethical principles or criteria. Philosophical or scientific thought can also be a stage of the beginning, and this thought may arrive at increasing levels of wisdom or at many high points of mental manhood. One cap develop states of consciousness appropriate to those of the priest and the sage, or to the man of piety or to the man of courage and heroism or charity and justice or to the man of wide vision, intimate understanding and intellectual love of Reality or ripeness of synthetic thought and of action proceeding from discoveries of secret perceptions and conceptions. At a later stage, there occurs a preparatory influence or influx of the spiritual light, and there develops a spiritualized turn of thought with uplifting illuminations, or a spiritualized turn of the emotional or the aesthetic being, a spiritualized ethical formation in the character, a spiritualized urge in some life-action or other dynamic vital movement of the nature, increasing awareness of inner light, of a guidance or a communion, of a greater Control than the mind and will to which one learns to obey. At still higher stages, intuitions and illuminations grow in insistence and canalize themselves and begin to govern the whole life. One can expect at that stage the emergence of
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types of character which can be described in terms of saintliness, sage-hood, seer-hood; it is here that the true mystic, the rishi, the yogi or the prophet begin to flower; it is here that one can meet the servant of God, the soldier of the spirit. The sage and the seer live in a plane higher than the plane of mind; they live in the spiritual mind, since their thought or their vision is governed and moulded by an inner or a greater divine light of knowledge. The saint is moved by the awakened psychic being in the inner heart, and he has grown powerful to govern the emotional and vital being. The saint is also marked by devotion that lives in the spiritual aspiration of the heart, its self-offering and its seeking. The soldier of the spirit, the hero of God's battle and the gentle and puissant servant of God stand in the vital kinetic nature driven by a higher spiritual energy and turned by it towards an inspired action, a God-given work or mission, the service of some Divine power, idea or ideal.
These higher degrees of spirituality are attained by constant aspiration and heroic efforts to break the boundaries of the mind so that the light of the spirit, the will-force and love and joy and compassion of the spirit that lie above the mind can pour into activities of conception; emotion and action can impart to them stability of increasing calm, silence and peace even while dynamism of the spiritual will manifests more and more puissantly. The distinction between the mind and the Spirit lies in the fact that while the mind, even at its highest levels, is over-weighed with multiplicity as its object and with division as its instrument of action, spirituality, even at its lowest levels is overweighed with the sense of unity and increasing synthesis in its instruments of action. Mind, even at its highest levels, tends to veil the integral Reality and to bind human nature to the imperatives of the laws of the body, life and mental operations, while the spirit is self-luminous and its increasing light reveals luminously various facets of Reality and opens up the gates, even the flood-gates, of the vision of the integral Reality, and it liberates human nature progressively and more and more fully from the imperatives of the laws of the body, life and mind.
In the higher or highest stages of spirituality, we find the emergence of the liberated man who has realized the Self and Spirit within him. The liberated man enters into the cosmic consciousness and passes into union with the Eternal and, so far as he still accepts life and action, acts by the light and energy of the Power within him working through his human instruments of Nature. There are still higher stages of the spiritual change and of liberation;
liberation of the soul or of the Self from the laws of the body, life and mind can
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be followed by the liberation of the mind, life and body from the yoke of their own respective laws; liberation of the spirit is followed by the liberation of nature, and there are achievements of total liberation of soul, mind, heart and action, a casting of them all into the sense of the Cosmic Self and the Divine Reality.
The history of spiritual evolution has witnessed even the higher ranges of Himalayan eminences and peaks of highest nature. And beyond these heights, the paths have been built towards the supramental ascent or the incommunicable Transcendence. The recent developments of the spiritual evolution have opened up the paths of the supramental descent and supramental manifestation on the earth so as to bring about largest synthesis of the Spirit and Matter, the boundaries of which, it is claimed, are constantly breaking so as to bring about on the earth a new species, the very nature of which will have inherent powers of the supramental consciousness, just as the human species is imbued with spontaneous powers of the development of the mind and various ranges of mental consciousness.
Spirituality and Knowledge
Spirituality and direct spiritual experiences carry with them poetic quality,iii and they claim certainty of knowledge and the certainty of the truth of the object or the objects of knowledge. In this respect, spirituality has been , distinctly contrasted with religion and morality. Morality is admittedly a part of the ordinary life that seeks satisfaction and the development of the body, life and mind without any reference to their original source or self. Again, morality is that part of ordinary life which seeks to regulate and guide the various aspects of the physical and vital life or of mental or rational thought in the light of standards of conduct erected by moral or normative conscientiousness, hedonistic, altruistic, or utilitarian or else in the light of standards of universal principles formulated under the light of the categorical imperative. But these standards of conduct are not found to be based on any claims of the certainty of knowledge. Moreover, these standards of conduct, in their application by a bewildered and an imperfect humanity, come easily to be conflicting principles. Justice often demands what love abhors, and in fact man's absolute justice easily turns out to be in practice a sovereign injustice. Morality is thus riddled with a state of uncertainty and disequilibrium.
Religion is an endeavor of man to turn away from the earth towards the Divine, even though it strives to relate man with God or gods or with the divine
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consciousness and to build bridges between heaven and earth and earth and heaven. It claims to be based on revelation or intuition, and it also claims veracity of the process and content of revelation or intuition, but it largely appeals to dogma and belief that does not and cannot question. It erects systems of rituals and ceremonies and provides codes of conduct or of prescribed acts, the ultimate justification of which is sought to be rooted in the revealed truth. It also erects or creates systems of institutions and modes of collective life designed to sub-serve the revealed truth. But religion is still governed by mental consciousness; it often revolves in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices of set prescriptions and forms. Religion does promise eventual arrival at spiritual experience, but often, it is claimed that spiritual experience is beyond the normal limitations of humanity, even though the founders of religions, it is acknowledged, were blessed with the rare ability of divine seeing and divine hearing. The claims of one religion are often in conflict with those of other religions, and the issue of the conflict remains as yet an unresolved issue.
It is the limitations of morality and religioniv that have compelled the quest of direct spiritual experience. But even in the realm of direct spiritual experience the issue of the justification of the claim in regard to knowledge, certainty and truth is not easy to resolve.
Spirituality, Science and Criteria of Validity of Knowledge
Science demands physical valid proof of facts for building up justified or justifiable beliefs regarding them. But this demand in respect of phenomena of consciousness that are supra-physical and spiritual is often regarded as untenable.v Consciousness is intrinsically supra-physical, and spirituality is the domain of higher and highest levels of consciousness and of supra-physical facts. Even though a supra-physical fact may impinge on the physical world and produce physical results, the action of the supra-physical on the physical and its effect on our senses cannot be its invariable action and most normal character or process. Ordinarily, the supra-physical produces a direct effect or a tangible impression on our mind and our life-being, and can only indirectly and through them, if at all, influence the physical world and physical life. If it objectivises itself, it does so to subtler senses in us and only derivatively to the outward physical sense. In examples of the faculty of second sight and also of those of psychic faculties, this is what happens. It is through those subtle faculties that one can gain various kinds of evidence of the existence of other planes of beings and communication with them. It is then that one becomes
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aware that our physical mind and our physical senses are not the whole of us or the best or greatest part of us; and one begins to realize that reality cannot be restricted to a sole field of narrowness of the physical world.
It is, however, argued that the supra-physical experience is essentially subjective, and that subjective,vi experiences or subtle-sense images can easily be deceptive, since we have no recognized method or standard of verification. But the counter-argument is that error is not the prerogative of the inner subjective experience alone; it is also a part of the knowledge that can be gained by physical senses, and even of the objective methods and standards. And just as in the physical domain, methods of scrutinizing physical experiences have been worked out, and valid means of clarifications have been greatly standardized so that barren scepticism is no more defensible in regard to physical experiences, even so, in the occult sciences or in the yogic sciences, true standards and valid means of verification have been developed. Supraphysical experiences, when rightly interrogated and tested by their own characteristic appropriate standards of verification, are found to be valid, and the testimony of these experiences is confirmed again and again even in the physical and objective filed. But it should be admitted that there is a too great a tendency to admit the extraordinary and miraculous or supernatural at its face value, and there is, therefore, a reason to be more scrupulous and stringent in applying appropriate valid means of verification.
There is in science insistence on the definition of knowledge, which includes one indispensable element, viz., its public character. It is true that it is much easier to satisfy the criterion of public character, where the data of our physical world are concerned, since most of the human beings can verify them through the physical organism, the operations of which are quite commonly and readily obtained. In regard to supra-physical experiences and supra-physical realities, where supra-physical senses or faculties are required for purposes of testing and for public shareability, the situation is more difficult. But if a serious study is made, and if it is admitted that all truth, supra-physical or physical, must be founded not on mental beliefs alone, but on experience, and that in each case experience must be of the kind, physical, subliminal or spiritual, which is appropriate to the order of the truths into which we are empowered to enter, and further, if their validity and significance must be scrutinized according to their own laws and by a consciousness which can enter into them and not according to the laws of another domain or by a consciousness which is capable only of truths of another order, then, we find in the yogic sciences sure
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grounds for enlarging our sphere of knowledge and even of satisfying the criterion of public shareability, provided we mean by public that public which has at its command those senses and faculties which are appropriate for the knowledge of the supra-physical.
Yoga as Science and Validity of Spiritual Knowledge
Indeed, if spiritual experiences were a matter of sporadic occurrence or of a sudden momentary flash, then, considering the variety of spiritual experiences and considering the conflicts in regard to the truth-claims of various spiritual experiences, one would have hesitated to assign much value to the realm of spiritual experiences. But the dismissal of the claims of spiritual experiences on the ground that they are occasional or extremely rare or riddled with conflicts turns out to be untenable in the light of the systematic body of knowledge with regard to spiritual experiences that has been developed over millennia by a large number of seekers in different parts of the world. Methods of spiritual seeking have been developed, and their assured results have come to be verified, repeated, reiterated and even expanded. In India, these systems have come to be grouped under the word Yoga, the connotation of which includes:
methodized efforts
a) which aim at self-perfection, and
b) which are marked by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being, as also
c) which are claimed to lead to a union of the human individual with the universal and the transcendental Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the universe.
According to Yoga, spiritual experiences, even if they occur sporadically to some or many, are in themselves not hazardous or accidental. There is always a psychological base for these experiences. Certain intensity in the being is a precondition; that intensity may pertain to the operations of thought or emotions or will, or even to some bodily condition or even to some subtlety of sense experience. Even if they seem to occur suddenly or without any conscious or willed psychological preparation, they are always connected with some secret processes of preparation of which the conscious mind may not be aware. Yoga goes farther and points out that spiritual experiences can be made to occur, even at will, by a conscious application of certain specific methods on a regular and sustained basis. During the long history of Yoga,vii methods have been developed, tested repeatedly, and the resultant spiritual experiences or supra-physical experiences have been tested; thus, as in science, so in Yoga
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these methods are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis and constant result. In India, Yoga has been recognized, and on account of millennia of experimentation, it has come to be regarded as shastra or science, which consists of the systematic body of the knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern the spiritual experiences and spiritual realizations. This shastra has been built upon the perception and experience that our inner elements, functions, forces can be separated or resolved or they can be new combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. Yoga is an attempt to realize psychological and physical perfection for our being by devising self-conscious means and willed arrangements of activity and by ever increasing expression of inner potentialities in a persistent and guided effort to unite our being with the divine reality and divine nature.
Just as in science, we first observe the natural force of electricity or of steam and its normal occurrences or normal operations, and then we handle these operations scientifically by means of experimentation and willed arrangements, so that we can generate electricity or steam at will and in the measure of requirements, even so Yoga observes and deals scientifically with the ranges of the psychical and spiritual being, and it arrives at the discovery and utilization of greater secrets of physical, psycho-physical and other higher realities.viii As in all true science, the object is an assured method of personal discovery or living repetition and possession of past discovery and a working out in full details of all the things found. As in science, so in Yoga, there is a high intention to hold the truth, the light found in our inner power of being and turn it to our power of being, our psychic self, our spirit, our self of knowledge and will, our self of love and joy, our self of life and action.
i Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, 1971, Pondicherry,
Vol. 20, p. 2.
ii Vide., Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, p. 857.
iii Vide., William, James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, (1902); Bames
and Nobel Classics, 2004, New York, Chs, 16 & 17, pp. 328-71.
iv Vide., Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL, 1971, Pondicherry, Vol. 22,
pp. 137-54.
v Vide., Ibid., pp. 157-229.
vi Vide., Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, pp. 773-4.
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vii All developed religions have been accompanied by systems of methods by which spiritual experiences can be realized by an aspirant, and thus the history of yoga, in order to be comprehensive, must take into account the yogic systems that religions have developed; however, systems of yoga have also developed independent of religions, and there are a number of varieties of expositions of the systems of yoga; in India, there is a wide and profuse literature, and some books like the Gita have come to be regarded as the books of Yogashastra, science of yoga. There is a need to develop a comprehensive exposition which would include not only the yogic systems which have developed in India but also in various parts of the world.
viii Vide, Sri Aurobindo, Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 20,p.3.
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Problem of Conflicting claims of Religions and Spiritual Experiences
The question of determination of true knowledge, certainty of knowledge and even comprehensive knowledge needs to be explored in a greater detail, particularly with reference to the data of the claims of each major spiritual experience that it delivers the most comprehensive knowledge of the ultimate reality and the universe as also with reference to the data of plurality of religions and the claims of each religion that the spiritual experience which is the foundation and which is also the culminating point of its practices delivers the highest knowledge and the most comprehensive knowledge, and, in any case, possesses some kind of superiority over similar claims made by other religions.
Cottingham's Analysis of the Problem
A recent book, authored by Cottingham, which discusses this question with great insight and penetrating analysis, may be referred to in this connection. The book, "The Spiritual Dimension"viii, makes a distinction between religion and spirituality, and points out that whereas in regard to religious beliefs, there are very polarized responses but with regard to spirituality, one is not connected with beliefs and theories or their claims. Cottingham defines spirituality as something which is to be understood as being more concerned with activities rather than theories, with ways of living rather than doctrines subscribed to, with praxis rather than belief. And he argues that spiritual practice is temporally, heuristically, psychologically and morally prior to theoretical or metaphysical understanding of religious questions. But even then, he points out that gates to spiritual experiences are many, and one is called upon to answer the question as to which of the various gates of spiritual experiences one should take. In presenting this question, he refers not only to the problem of pluralism of religions but also to the problem of pluralism of spiritual experiences.
Possible Solution of the Problem
The problem becomes acute when it is seen that the statements which express religious beliefs do not harmonize among themselves and they seem to be often colliding among themselves sharply. Confronted with this conflict, Cottingham is led to enquire as to on what basis one can take a decision to commit oneself to one religion or to the other. He refers to a solution, according to which, the choice among different religions can be made on the basis of a personal
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decision or a personal preference. Those who accept this solution argue that all religions share a number of core ethical values, and as long as these core values are practiced, it does not matter whether one belongs to Christianity or to Judaism or to Hinduism or to Buddhism. This solution tends to regard pluralism of religions to be comparable to the pluralism of the methods of cooking or to the pluralism of the forms of sport. It is, however, realized that the differences among religions are not so simple, that even in regard to the core ethical values, differences are sharp, and that the most important aspect of each religion is related to the perception of Truth. The difficulty of the pluralism of religions lies not merely in the plurality but in the conflicts among religions in regard to their perceptions of the truth and to the claim of each one that truth cannot be plural.
Cottingham refers also to the solution suggested by John Hick.viii" According to him, the truth or reality in itself is unapproachable, since the human apparatus of consciousness is never free to apprehend or comprehend reality as it is in itself, considering that human beings are always conditioned by the cultural backgrounds in which they are born and brought up. It will be seen that Hick's suggestion is basically Kantian. According to Kant, human beings are so conditioned in their epistemological apparatus that they can never experience the noumenal truth behind the phenomenal reality, and that they can experience only the phenomena which are inevitably framed within the categories which are inherent in human consciousness. According to Hick, various specific forms of religious awareness are formed by the presence of the divine Reality but this presence comes to given consciousness in terms of the different sets of religious concepts and structures, and of religious meanings that operate within the different religious traditions of the world.
It is true that this approach is attractive and it appears suitable for the more global culture in which humanity is obliged to operate more and more imperatively. But the difficulty lies in the fact that the object in each religion is claimed to have been revealed, not in the Kantian manner, but in a more realistic manner. As a result, different and conflicting religious statements cannot be reduced merely to differing religious traditions or differing cultural traditions. Cottingham rightly points out that the problem is more fundamental. Comparing Buddhism and Islam, he points out that while according to Islam, and for that matter according to Judaism also, the ultimate reality is absolutely and unqualifiedly One Personal being, according to Buddhism, ultimate reality
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is not personal at all, and it even negates any appellation of oneness or plurality by which the Nihil is experienced as a resting place of the state of liberation. He also points out that according to Christianity, the ultimate reality is triune. Cottingham thus acknowledges that the differing and conflicting claims of religion pose a serious problem to the indifferentist approach to the phenomenon of pluralism of religions.
Cottingham refers also to the apophatic tradition.viii According to this tradition, the test of religious belief lies in the experience on which the religious belief is based, and this experience is mystic, indiscernible and ineffable. This tradition is opposed to cataphatic tradition, according to which the object of spiritual experience is describable. On behalf of the apophatic tradition, it is argued that the ineffability of the spiritual experience which lies at the basis of religions prevents any philosophical argument or discussion, and that therefore philosophical disputations amongst religious doctrines can be dissolved by pointing out that the varying or conflicting statements of religions are only so many ways of expressing the inexpressible reality. According to this argument, what is important and what is common among all religions is the ineffable experience of Reality, and different formulations of that experience are of secondary importance and therefore, conflicts among them can be dismissed by stating that all of them are imperfect, and therefore they should not be insisted upon.
At one level, this argument leads us back to the solution that John Hick has proposed. For, it may be argued that the incompatibilities of different statements simply dissolve away as the mind climbs upward on the path of unknowing or on the path of ineffability. It may be argued that the object of all religions, however differently described, — even if they appear to be conflicting among themselves, — is an inexpressible mystery, — a mystery which is caught and the wonder of which is deepened but which does not present itself as a problem. But against this position, Cottingham refers to an argument according to which the mystics who maintain the incomprehensibility of the Object of mystical experience do not seem to differ from skeptics or atheists, who assert that the first cause of all is unknown and unintelligible. Indeed, as Cottingham points out, this argument may be answered by stating that the mystic gets caught by the mystery of the Object of mystical experience, while sceptics or atheists do not get so caught.
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Is Spiritual Experience Unavoidably Ineffable?
But the deeper question is as to whether mystical or spiritual experiences on which different religions are based are utterly ineffable or whether these experiences are capable of being expressed, if not fully, at least partially or symbolically, and, if so, whether the conflicts among religions are rooted in the actual differences that are conveyed through expressions and symbolisms. Cottingham, at this point of the argument, admits a fresh impasse. For he argues that even if we grant the mystics their apophatic root, there must, if theism is to retain any distinctive character whatsoever, be some road back and some way for religious faith to return from the darkness of unknowing and locate itself within the domain of a workable human language.
Cottingham refers to the Christian reader and points out that the central concept of the Incarnation makes visible to him, in the person of one human being, the icon of the invisible God. He argues that if the Transcendence of God is not to be lost in silence, we need a transition, a way of understanding God in human terms. At this stage, Cottingham proposes that liturgy provides a transition from the transcendent to the human dimensions. He contends that symbolic thinking that is implied in liturgy is exactly what might be expected to be the most fruitful way of approaching the deepest layers of meaning within our lives, as also the most likely avenue of glimpsing the ineffable source of such meaning. The question is whether this position is an adequate answer to the problem of the conflict among religious and spiritual experiences. For liturgy ceremonies in different religions differ, and symbolisms seem to point to objects that are not merely results of cultural diversity. We are thus led back to those assertions in which exclusivism of religions is rooted. Cottingham, however, argues that exclusivism is not necessarily entailed, — it need not and certainly should not. It is true, he contends, that religions have gone on the path of exclusivism, and that Christianity has often fought under exclusivistic banners such as under no name but that of Christ can we be saved, and outside the Church of Christ there is no salvation. But at this stage, he advances a fresh argument and points out that anyone who subscribes to the authentic moral precepts inherent in Christianity can hardly support that a surpassingly benevolent and loving Creator could attach his favor to adherence purely in virtue of the doctrinal choices. He points out that there is something deeper which binds one human being with another and it is a revelation of the common witness in which the realness of equality and fraternity is revealed. It is at this deeper level that one finds an unknown marvel, a fundamental basis of
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existence, more important than all the differences and inequalities superimposed upon it. According to Cottingham, exclusivism of religions can be transcended when we realize that, as in the case of Christian theology, so in all other conflicting theologies, our life and soul demand intrinsically the imperative need for awareness of our common humanity and the need to reach out to others. This is, indeed, a climactic point of the argument of "The Spiritual Dimension". One reaches here the integral connections between religious, theological and moral thought. And towards the end of the book, we are presented with images of integration.
Cottingham argues that the problem of pluralism of religions can be resolved not by comparing and contrasting and attempting to reconcile various propositions of religious beliefs; he suggests that one should always be open to religious beliefs which are not rooted in one's own culture. Since we are all culture bound, the religion which is related to our cultural roots will appeal to us and we shall naturally adhere ourselves to it. But this should not mean that we develop dogmatism and that we denounce others and that we should convert people of different religious beliefs to our own religious beliefs. What is important is not the proposition of our religion; we should not believe that salvation lies in carrying with us the label of the name of a religion which is rooted in our culture, but in praxis of religions; and Cottingham points out that the praxis of religions consists of the deepening of our inner awareness in the arrival of integration of our being, such as we find advocated in the Aristotelian doctrine of virtue which avoids excesses of self-aggrandizement and self-abasement, and arrives at the golden mean. He also refers to the kind of integration that is advocated by the psychoanalytic system of Jung. But beyond the limits of the framework of the doctrines of Aristotle and Jung, Cottingham underlines the concept of integration by referring to the process by which different parts of being are harmonized in our wholeness. He speaks of integration that lies in the practice of morality and the practice of spirituality, which leads to the perception of oneness with all, in spite of distances that we find among ourselves and in spite of our maintaining those distances and differences. According to Cottingham, it is in that practice of integration, — not in insisting on distinctions and divisions of religious beliefs and practices, but in that spiritual dimension which enables us to arrive at our own integration and in looking upon others and being with others in the experience of integration.
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Cottingham's Solution and Indian Solution of Conflict of Religions
Cottingham has brought out, with penetrating insight, several aspects of the problem of pluralism of religions, which is central to the contemporary world. In presenting the problem and its solution, Cottingham seems to come very close to the problem and solution of pluralism of religions that we find in the Indian experience of religion and spirituality.viii If we study the development of pluralism in Indian religion and spirituality, we find that to the Indian mind the least important part of religion is its dogma, and what has been most important in India has been the religious spirit rather than the theological credo. A rigid stand on a fixed intellectual belief hampers the processes of tolerance and harmonization. It is clear that it is when religions insist on their formulated beliefs that each one of them tends to claim itself as a true religion and others as false religions, according as they agree or do not agree with the credo of the critics. A critical examination of the formulated beliefs of religions shows that it is an error and even a falsehood to suppose that intellectual truth is the highest verity and, even, that there is no other. The Indian religious thinkers came to admit that the deepest core of religion transcends the intellectual formulations, rituals, ceremonies, prescribed acts and notions on which social and cultural institutions are built up; they acknowledge that the highest eternal verities are truths of the spirit and that the supreme truths are neither the rigid conclusions of logical reasoning nor the affirmations of credal statements, but fruits of the soul's inner experience. They acknowledge that intellectual truth is only one of the doors to the outer aspects of the religion. They also came to recognize that since intellectual truth turned towards the infinite must be in its very nature many-sided and not narrowly one, the most varying intellectual beliefs can be equally true because they mirror different facets of the Infinite. The Indian religious thinkers tended to maintain that however religions may come to be separated by intellectual distance, they still form so many side entrances which admit the mind to some faint ray from a Supreme Light. An important aspect that came to dominate in the process of reconciliation among religions was the spirit that declared that there are no true and false religions but rather that all religions are true in their own way and degree. As Swami Vivekananda declared with great emphasis, each religion is one of the thousand paths to the One Eternal.viii
All religions aim at relating human life or humanity to the highest possible truths or truths and realities that are discovered in spiritual experience or through special revelations. The very word religion connotes its emphasis on
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this process of relationship. In the process of establishing this relationship between man and God or between human consciousness and the highest possible state of being of consciousness, religions have tended to place or recognize four necessities. In the first place, religions have tended to impose upon the mind a belief in a highest consciousness or state of existence universal and transcendent of the universe, from which all comes, in which all lives and moves without knowing it and of which all must one day grow aware, returning towards that which is perfect, eternal and infinite. Secondly, they tended to lay upon the individual life the need of self-preparation by development and experience till one is ready for an effort to grow consciously into the truth of this greater existence. Thirdly, they tended to provide in the framework a well-founded, well-explored, many-branching and always enlarging way of knowledge and spiritual or religious discipline. Lastly, they were led to provide, for those not yet ready for the higher steps, an organization of the individual and collective life, a framework of personal and social discipline and conduct, of mental and moral and vital development by which they could move each in his or her own limits and according to his or her own nature in such a way as to become eventually ready for the greater existence.
A speciality of religion in India attached to the last a great importance. It left out no part of life as foreign to the religious and spiritual life. Still the Indian religious tradition is not merely the form of a religio-social system. However greatly a given form of a religio-social system may count at the moment of a social life, however stubbornly the conservative religious mind may oppose all pronounced or drastic change, still the core of Indian religion is a spiritual, not social discipline. Religions like Sikhism counted in the Vedic family although they broke down the old social tradition and invented a novel form. It is true that in all the four elements that constitute Indian religion, there are major and minor differences between adherents of various sects, schools, communities and races; nevertheless, there is also a general unity of spirit, of fundamental type and form and of spiritual temperament which creates in this vast fluidity an immense force of cohesion and a strong principle of oneness. In all forms of this religion, there is one common recognition of the supreme truth of all that is or of an existence beyond the mental and physical appearances we contact here. They admit that beyond mind, life and body, there is a Spirit and Self containing all that is finite and infinite, surpassing all that is relative, a supreme Absolute, originating and supporting all that is transient, a one Eternal. They all admit that there is one transcendent, universal, original and sempiternal divinity
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or divine Essence, Consciousness, Force and Bliss and that this Divinity is the fount and continent and inhabitant of things. But this Truth of being was not seized only as a philosophical speculation, a theological dogma, an abstraction contemplated by the intelligence. Indian religion did not consider the idea of this Truth to be indulged by the thinker in his study, but otherwise void of praxis. It was put forth as a living spiritual Truth, an Entity, a Power, a Presence that could be sought by all according to their degree of capacity and seized in a thousand ways through life and beyond life. The recognition and pursuit of something or someone Supreme behind all forms is a one universal statement of all Indian religions and developed and interacted among themselves through long centuries and millennia, and if it has taken a hundred shapes, it was precisely because of its emphasis on praxis. It encouraged the pursuit of spiritual praxis, and did not consider intellectual or theological conceptions to be the one thing of central importance. It allowed the development of varieties of conceptions and varieties of forms and emphasized the attainment of spiritual consciousnesses by inner experience. As a result, we find in the Indian religion, varieties of schools or sects developing and living side by side under a general consensus that spiritual realizations and spiritual praxis is the one thing needful. To open to the inner Spirit, to live in the Infinite, to seek after and discover the Eternity or the Eternal, to be in union with God, — that is the common idea and aim of religion, that is the sense of spiritual salvation, that is the living Truth that fulfills and releases. According to one school or sect, the real self of man is indivisibly one with the universal Self or the supreme Spirit. According to another school or sect, the individual is one with the Divine in essence but different from him in Nature. According to a third school or sect. God, Nature, and the individual soul in man are three eternally different powers of being. The Advaitin, the Vishishta-advaitin and the Dualist, however they may differ from each other, they all agree in underlining the importance of the discovery of the inner spirit or self in man, the divine soul in him, and some kind of living and uniting contact or absolute unity of the soul in man with God or Supreme Self or Eternal Brahman. The Indian religion allowed the freedom to conceive an experience of the Divine as an impersonal Absolute and Infinite or to approach and feel Him as a transcendent and universal sempiternal Person, or even to conceive and have the experience of the highest spiritual reality as Non-Being. Differences of credal belief came to be perceived by the Indian religion as nothing more than various ways of seeing the one Self and Godhead in all. What came to unite the
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plurality of religions was the emphasis on the dynamic praxis of the highest spiritual truth and the highest spiritual aim.
Yet the Problem of Religious Conflict Persists
Indian religion is not a religion, it is a banyan tree which has continually given rise to new religions, and yet some organic bond provided for plurality that would avoid any violent or sharp conflict. This does not mean that there were no conflicts among religions which branched out of the original trunk of the tree; there were conflicts, even sharp conflicts; there also developed exclusivism for a short or long period, and the tendency towards exclusivism is not entirely absent even today. But on account of the fact that praxis counted more than doctrine, there has been a continuous stress towards accommodation and even synthesis. When Jainism and Buddhism developed as anti-Vedic religions, the conflicts between Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism manifested sharply; but even then these three religions absorbed each other, and by this absorption, they were enriched and even in the days of sharpest conflicts, the emphasis on praxis in all the three religions was equally shared by all these religions. Within Hinduism itself, the conflict between Vaishnavism and Shaivism was quite sharp for centuries, but here, again, on account of the emphasis on praxis, the conflict among the doctrines has been comparatively moderate, and for the general masses both Vaishnavism and Shaivism have come to be regarded as alternative ways of approach to the Supreme or even as complementary methods or a synthetic pursuit.
One important element, which is central to all religions, and which can open up a wide gate for the solution of the conflict among religions, is their common admission that they all look upon spirituality and spiritual experience as a final point of culmination of human effort. But this element has not really sufficiently been utilized for arriving at the solution of the problem of the plurality of religions and conflict in religions. Faced with plurality, an impartial seeker asks inevitably: which is the way? This inevitably leads to comparison of doctrines, and this comparison has not yielded any satisfying answer.
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III
Another Line of Inquiry: Verifiability of Spiritual Experiences
One very helpful idea, which has been suggested, is that, in order to determine as to which among various religions lies the right way, is not to compare doctrines but to compare spiritual experiences which lie at the roots of religions. In the history of Indian religion, the effort to compare the nature and contents of underlying spiritual experiences has been very prominent.
There are, however, religions which, although founded on spiritual experiences consisting of visions, voices, intuitions, revelations or inspirations of the founders or some rare individuals, explicitly or implicitly state that verification of such experiences is not feasible, and that the only way by which one can enter into the truths and contents of the spiritual experiences is to take recourse to verbal or intellectual formulations in which the doctrines of religions are made available to humanity. To these doctrines the many minds of a half-ripe knowledge or no knowledge at all attach themselves with exclusiveness and passion and hold that this or the other doctrine or this or the other revelation or book of revelations is alone the eternal Word of God and all others are either imposters or less imperfectly inspired, that this or that doctrine or philosophical or theological reasoning is the last word of the reasoning intellect and other systems are either errors or saved only by such partial truth in them as leaves •» them to the one true philosophical cult.
Humanity is, however, inclined today to grow a little modester and wiser; our fellows are no longer being slain, except by acts of terrorism, in the name of God's truth or because their minds have been differently framed or differently constituted from ours. We are less ready to curse and revile our neighbor because he is presumptuous enough to differ from us in opinion. Movements like theosophy and interfaith dialogue have created a climate in which increasing number of adherents of different religions are getting ready to admit that Truth is everywhere and cannot be a sole monopoly of one group of religious adherence. More tolerant, more receptive and more impartial studies are being initiated and developed to study religions and philosophies for the discovery of the truth and the help they contain and no longer merely in order to damn them as erroneous or false. Nonetheless, overwhelming number of adherents of each religion are still apt to declare that the truth declared in their . religion gives the supreme knowledge which other religions or philosophies have missed or only imperfectly grasped so that they deal with subsidiary and
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inferior aspects of the truth of things or can merely prepare less evolved minds for the heights which have still not been scaled by other religions. Religious adherents are still prone to force upon themselves or others their sacred messages of the books or gospels that they admire; there is still overwhelming insistence that their preferred book of reverence shall be accepted as the eternally valid truth and no iota shall be denied its part of the plenary inspiration. We are still in the midst of sharpness of conflict of religions.
Dialogue among Religions for Conflict Resolution: Exclusivism Persists
But in the healthier climate of mutual understanding, dialogue and interchange, three alternative attitudes have come to be formulated. According to one view, all religions are sacred and equally sacred, and therefore they all deserve to be equally respected. According to another view, all religions give the same message of universal brotherhood, of peace and harmony, and of the superiority of moral and spiritual praxis over verbal or intellectual formulations in which their doctrines have been set or declared. In works such as Bhagwan Das' "Essential unity of religions"viii detailed comparisons among conflicting religions have been carried out in order to show how all religions are essentially one or united in their essential beliefs, or at least in the moral prescriptions which are provided in their message to humanity. According to the third view, each religion will stand to profit if all religions agree to learn from each other, — since each religion needs to be supplemented by the truths or doctrines or moral or spiritual emphasis which can be found in other religions. All these three views can be supported by reference to various aspects of data which can be discerned by comparative studies of religions.
There is no doubt about the fact that the sense of the Holy permeates all religions; in the symbols, in the temples or churches or mosques, or in the recitations of sacred words of religions or in the various acts prescribed in the performance of various religions in the practice of pilgrimages and fasting and prayers and austerities aiming at purification, and even in the lives of the adherents of different religions, one can perceive, feel and experience genuine presence of holiness and sacredness. On this ground alone, the message of equal respect to all religions can be sustained. But the problem of the conflict of religions goes deeper. If equality of religions were to be advocated on the ground of the common sense of sacredness or holiness, the matter would have been much simpler, although there would still be a ground for claiming superiority of the one and inferiority of the other on the basis of the contention
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that one's own preferred religion evokes a higher degree of sacredness or holiness than that evoked by other religions.
The view that all religions are essentially one and that their spiritual or ethical prescription are essentially identical or similar can greatly be substantiated. All religions maintain that physical reality is a subordinate reality and that the higher or superior or ultimate reality or realities are supra-physical in character; all religions promise to open the gates for dwelling in higher planes or heavens for joy and harmony, the quality of which transcends the limitations of pains and pleasures of the physical world; and all religions advocate kindness, compassion and pursuit of ethical goodness and spiritual sacredness. But differences and conflicts among religions lie at deeper roots, and no comfort of the balm of some common elements among religions can soothe or heal the conflicts among religions. Some religions hold belief in God, some do not share their belief in God; even those who believe in God have different and conflicting views of the nature of God: some hold dualistic belief, others atheistic belief, and still others pantheistic beliefs; some believe in the existence of only one God, some believe in the existence of only one Absolute; some believe in one God but with inherent trinity and some believe in one God but also in many gods, too. And if we examine the beliefs of various cults and sects, we shall find hundreds of variations and subtle differences which seem too difficult to be reconciled with each other. There are also varieties of beliefs and doctrines pertaining to the nature of the soul, the nature of the soul's life on the earth and the destiny of the soul during its sojourn on the earth and after the completion of the sojourn. The theory of rebirth is held in common mostly in religions which had their origin in India, but this theory is not held in common by all religions. Even where the theory of rebirth is acknowledged, the nature of the soul is not shared in common. Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism share the belief in rebirth; but in the multi-sided Hinduism itself there is no common belief in regard to the nature and the reality of the soul. The law of karma as understood in various religions is understood differently in different religions, and the significance of human action, even in those religions which do not believe in rebirth, is viewed differently. In the presence of these and many other differences among religions, the problem of conflict of religions seems to be impossible of solution. Religions, therefore, tend to be exclusive and to look forward to their exclusive conquest of the entire human race as the one real and permanent solution which can bestow universal peace on the earth.
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It is clear that the claims of one dogma cannot overcome the claims of another dogma; in any process of argument, the claims of a dogma remain, by their very nature, unquestionable and beyond argument. If, therefore, there is no way in the field of argument by which the claims of a dogma can be examined or verified, the only alternative for an unbiased seeker is to come back to inquire whether the claims of spiritual experiences, which lie at the root of dogmas, can be examined and whether an impartial conclusion can be arrived at.
Exclusion of Exclusivism As a Solution
In the meantime, as a result of the growing climate of mutual understanding among religions, a new way of solution is being proposed. For a comparative study of religions shows not only several common points but also some specific and unique points that seem to characterize each religion. In this context, a question is being raised whether these unique points should necessarily be counted as factors of opposition and division and conflict among religions? Cannot these unique points be seen as special contributions to the total fund of the richness? And can these points not be shared by all religions? An assembly of religions in which religions can give up their exclusiveness by sharing the uniqueness of each religion could prove to be a real breakthrough for a genuine solution.
One of the major developments that has taken place in India during the last part of the 19 century can be regarded as a very propitious development towards the coming together of religions; this development is related to the colossal experiment carried out by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836 -1886). This experiment was an experiment in yoga, and the methods that Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa followed in this experiment were yogic. He practiced in a quick succession methods after methods, and taking recourse to the yogic methods contained in every major religion, including Christianity and Islam, he verified that each of these religions had at its roots a valid yogic experience and realization and that therefore all of them can be united by admitting the truths of all religions in the light of the yogic experiences by which their truths can be verified. Happily, Swami Vivekananda, the great and heroic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, became a potent vehicle of the message of the unity of religions. This message, when uttered publicly in the first Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893, was so refreshing and electrifying that it evoked among the representatives of all religions a warm welcome. That message was brief but packed with power, and it stated: "As the different
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streams having their sources in different places mingle their water in the sea, so, 0 Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee. viii
Sri Aurobindo, recognizing special contributions that different religions have made, stated the following:
"Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profoundest spiritual possibilities...;" viii
A catholic recognition of each religion may lead to a pursuit of a synthesis in which individuals, instead of confining themselves to any particular religion, may adopt an attitude and practice where exclusivism of religions is excluded. In doing so, dogmatism, ritualism and the temporal aspect of religions can come to be subordinated and even transcended. Increasing emphasis may fall on ethical perfection and psychological integration of the total being, somewhat in the direction suggested by Cottingham. A major difficulty in the pursuit of this direction, however, lies in the fact that there are many concepts of ethical perfection, and they collide with each other so acutely that one may wonder as to how that conflict could be resolved. Even in regard to the question of integration of the total being, there are varying notions and conflicting notions, the resolution of which would necessitate a long and detailed pursuit of various psychological disciplines that have been developed and which are still being developed in various systems of yoga and in their synthesis.
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Ethics, Religion and Yoga
As we ponder over these difficult problems, we are led to discover that the moral nature of the human being is not the last and the highest component. Neither religious doctrines nor formulations of ethical ideals correspond to the highest demands that human beings are capable of. There is, it will be found, a divine being in us that can be directly contacted by the pursuit of spirituality and by the methods that are neither religious nor ethical, but yogic, — methods which demand rigorous practices of purification, of renunciation and austerity. At the highest borders, there is a demand for further transcendence where the divine reality is directly contacted and possessed and where the divine will begins to operate at a supra-mental level. In that spiritual and supra-mental component of our complex nature, it is claimed, is the integrating power; in it the truths of the individual and the collectivity coalesce; there, we discover that the individual and the collectivity are not what they appear to be in the lower or infra-rational parts of our being. Individual is not, it is discovered, fundamentally egoistic in nature; ego is only at a temporary formation, but behind it there is the un-egoistic centre of universality, such that the individual finds its fullness in universality and universality finds its concentrated centre in the unegoistic individual.
It is claimed that beyond ethics and religion is a realm of the Spirit, and even though religions and ethics may lead us to the borders of that realm, a secure possession of that realm can be attained when the methods and practices of yoga are undertaken. It may even be said that the dilemmas that are inherent in the plurality of religions and plurality of ethical doctrines can be properly confronted and resolved when adherents of religious and ethical doctrines consent to transcend exclusivism and admit the possibilities of an entry into the realm of direct experiences of the Spirit and of attainment of illumined knowledge of the realm of the Spirit.
Does Yoga Promise Solution?
But does this realm of yogic endeavour lead to the knowledge that is true, objective and comprehensive? And does it provide, it may further be asked, the inspiration, guidance and attainment of perfection, — Yogic perfection, that exceeds the boundaries of ordinary ethical or religious perfection? It may still be asked, will this endeavour ensure the highest possible integration of the
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being, — including the integration of the spiritual and the physical? And, finally, will this endeavour promote the highest welfare of humanity?
Solution in a New Synthesis of Yoga
The answer to these questions promises to be in the affirmative, if we undertake to pursue, study and practise the vast and integral path of a new Synthesis of Yoga that has been hewn during the last century by the colossal research in yoga that was initiated and conducted by Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950)viii and which was developed to its fullness in collaboration with the Mother (1878 -1973)viii who, in turn, accomplished the tasks of the yogic research to their highest required degree, leaving for the future, a vast field of farther research, verification, confirmation and ever-progressive enlargement and realization.
Exclusivism, which is clearly seen among religions, can also be discerned in the realm of Yoga. It is for this reason that exclusivism of religions cannofr be transcended merely by entrance into the field of yoga and pursuits of any exclusive method of yoga. But where — as in the field of religion, the claim that it makes in regard to the truth that it advocates, — its objectivity, its comprehensiveness and its power of imparting perfection, — rests on dogmatism and the necessity of faith, in the field of yoga, a given system of yoga can prove the veracity of the truths that it claims by referring to its processes and methods as also the results to which they arrive at, and thus by the process of repeatability, and verifiability. Again, in the process of yoga, the element of faith, that is indispensable in any process of knowledge, scientific, philosophical or yogic, is admitted as a dynamic element and not as an element, in which one is required to rest for ever. In yoga, faith is admitted, but it is constantly sought to be turned into knowledge, the results of which can be verified in terms that are suitable and appropriate to yoga. But the element of exclusivism in the field of yoga has proved to be a stumbling block, and it has also been the cause of the battles of rival claims. The Vedic systems of yoga have been combated by the Buddhist system of yoga, and both of them have been combated by the Jain system of yoga. The Vedic systems of yoga have also come to be combated by the Tantric systems of yoga. Advocates of Jnana yoga have rejected the claims of Karma yoga or Bhakti yoga, and vice versa. The advocates of Bhakti yoga maintain that the supreme status of liberation is a state of love for the divine and they regard the process of Jnana yoga and Karma yoga as subordinate to the process of Bhakti yoga. The exclusive path
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of Jnana yoga maintains that action may prepare one for liberation but action can never be itself the instrument of liberation. The exclusive path of Karma yoga tends to assign supreme importance to divine action rather than to divine knowledge or divine love. These conflicts became prominent in India soon after the period of the original and esoteric system of the Vedic synthesis of yoga and they have continued to fuel controversies right up to the present day. It is true that the ancient Vedic synthesis of yoga has aided a great deal in securing, during the long history of yoga, the attitude of larger understanding, tolerance, accommodation and even the spirit of synthesis, but there has still been a great weakness and some kind of sense of failure. One of the great tasks that has been accomplished by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is that the real cause of the rise of exclusive systems of yoga and their continuous conflicts has been diagnosed and that cause has now been removed in the new synthesis of yoga which they have put forward.
This new synthesis of Yoga is unprecedented; it is neither the combination nor the culmination of the earlier paths of religions or of yoga. The earlier paths of yoga or the paths of yoga that lay behind various great religions were found by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to be all valid in their own degrees of their realizations and culminating points, but none of them were found to be as comprehensive as the demands of knowledge require, nor did they prove to be , as integral as full integrality that can be demanded in terms of the unity and integrity of Spirit and Matter. As a matter of fact, it was found that religions and paths of yoga that lie behind religions aimed at the attainment of Reality or Heaven beyond the earth, and even when there was occasionally a vision of City of God or of the heaven on the earth or even of the heaven and earth being one, no evidence could be found of any durable effort made to actualize or accomplish that vision. In the same way, none of the earlier yogic systems had envisaged the aim of the complete manifestation of Spirit in Matter or that of the total transformation of the life in Matter into the divine life on the earth. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were led to the new and integral aim by their intense labour of research on the basis of which the life on the earth be led eventually to achieve total and integral integration, perfection, harmony and unity.
As Sri Aurobindo pointed out, in one of his letters on this subject, the Leader of the Way has to bear the great burden of all the past upward endeavour and also meet the obstacles that block the progress towards the future and the new discovery or invention. Let us quote the relevant lines from that letter:
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"As for the Mother and myself, we have had to try all ways, follow all methods, to surmount mountains of difficulties, ...far more difficult conditions, battles to fight, wounds to endure, ways to cleave through impenetrable morass and desert and forest, hostile masses to conquer a work such as, I am certain, none else had to do before us. For the Leader of the Way in a work like ours has not only to bring down and represent and embody the Divine, but to represent too the ascending element in humanity and to bear the burden of humanity to the full and experience, not in a mere play or Lila but in grim earnest, all the obstruction, difficulty, opposition, baffled and hampered and only slowly victorious labour which are possible on the Path. But it is neither necessary nor tolerable that all that should be repeated over again to the full in the experience of others. It is because we have the complete experience that we can show a straighter and easier road to others if they will only consent to take it...." viii
The integral path excludes exclusivism, but provides to each individual the path of free growth suitable to his temperament and capacities and the path of arriving at comprehensiveness, integration and perfection. This path includes everything from all the religions and all systems of Yoga which is essential for its all-inclusive aim and which contributes to the needed acceleration of the progression on the path.
Synthesis presupposes the presence of oneness in various elements which are to be synthesized; the various elements need to have organic interconnections among themselves and with the underlying oneness; and finally, synthesis implies linear combination or successive combination or vertical or integral combination, — but in all cases it should be a combination that involves intelligible discrimination. An undiscriminating combination in block would not be a synthesis, but confusion. The question of synthesis of yoga arises because there have been in the course of history a development of specialized schools of yoga and specialized processes of yoga, and there have also been various systems of the synthesis of yoga. If there is today a need for a new synthesis of yoga, it is because the object of spiritual evolution of the growing individual and of the graded development of terrestrial existence has come to be conceived in terms of the largest and ever progressive totality of integration, and this integration is incapable of being realized by any specialized processes of yoga or even by any earlier systems of the synthesis of yoga.
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But the earlier specialized systems of synthesis of yoga are so disparate in their tendencies and so highly elaborated in their forms that it is not easy to find a proper method of arriving at their right union. The problem becomes even more difficult because in the past these highly specialized systems have been long confirmed in their mutual opposition of their ideas and methods. The new synthesis of yoga has, however, been able to seize on some central principle common to all which includes and utilizes in the right place and proportion the particular principles of the varieties of the yogic disciplines; it has also been able to seize on some central dynamic force which is the common secret of the divergent methods and capable therefore of organizing a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities. In the resulting synthesis, it has been possible to neglect the forms and outsides of the various yogic disciplines and various processes of successive practise. This synthesis is thus neither a combination in mass nor by successive practice.
The spiritual evolution which is the key of the new synthesis of yoga considers the individual soul and the universal principles of Matter, Life and Mind to be intertwined in an evolutionary process which has so far reached a critical stage where it is possible for the individual to develop knowledge and will that can be consciously applied for purposes of the evolution of supramental consciousness in matter by means of which the individual will be able to realize not only the integral Reality integrally but will also be able to fulfill itself in its role of Leadership of evolution and in the task of building the supramental temple of the divine in supramentalized Matter. The present stage of universal matter, life and mind is conceived as the lower Nature, and what is attempted by means of the synthesis of yoga is to build the higher Nature of the Supermind, which is of the nature of Knowledge and which culminates in the life divine. The passage from the lower to the higher is the aim of the new synthesis of Yoga, and this passage is affected, not by the rejection of the lower and escape into the higher, but by the transformation of the lower and its elevation to the higher Nature. It is because the aim is that of a transformation of our integral being into the terms of the supramental divine existence that the synthesis of yoga or integral yoga becomes indispensable.
The one common principle and the one central dynamic Force in all systems of yoga is that of concentration; in the new synthesis, that common principle and force of concentration is sought to be developed integrally, as a result of which the method is to put our whole conscious being into relation, concentration and
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contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being. As a result of this integral concentration, the present lower personality of the seeker is used in its entirety as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother recognize three outstanding features that characterize the yogic process and power when they act integrally on the given individual. In the first place, it does not act according to a fixed system of succession as in the specialized methods of yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates. This working nourishes the helpful materials which his nature offers and utilizes the obstacles which it presents for purposes of purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each individual has in this path his own method of yoga, even though there are certain broad lines of working common to all which enable to construct, not indeed, a routine system, but yet some kind of shastra or scientific method of the synthesis of yoga.
Secondly, this process, being integral, accepts our nature such as it stands organized by our past evolution and without rejecting anything essential compels to undergo a divine change and divine integration.
Thirdly, every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however disastrous, is used for the yogic development, and every inner experience, even to the most repellent suffering or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path to perfection. It is recognized that all life is a yoga of Nature and that yoga marks the stage at which every experience and effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right application in the individual.
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Integral Realization of the Integral Reality
Sri Aurobindo points out in his "Synthesis of Yoga" that if we can cross beyond the Mind's frontier twilight into the vast plane of supramental Knowledge, another positive and direct and living experience of the supreme Infinite is attained. It is then seen that the Absolute is beyond personality and beyond impersonality, and yet it is both the Impersonal and the supreme Person and all persons. It is seen that the Absolute is beyond the distinction of unity and multiplicity, and yet it is the One and the Innumerable Many in all the universes. It is further seen that it is beyond all limitation by quality and yet it is not limited by a quality-less void but it is too all infinite qualities. In that supramental experience, the Absolute is the individual soul and all souls and more of them; it is the formless Brahman and the universe. In the words of Sri Aurobindo: "It is the cosmic and the supracosmic spirit, the supreme Lord, the supreme Self, the supreme Purusha and the supreme Shakti, the Ever Unborn who is endlessly born, the Infinite who is innumerably finite, the multitudinous One, the complex Simple, the many-sided Single, the Word of the Silence Ineffable, the impersonal omnipresent Person, the Mystery, translucent in highest consciousness to its own spirit, but to a lesser consciousness veiled in its own exceeding light and impenetrable for ever. These things are to the dimensional mind irreconcilable opposites, but to the constant vision and experience of the supramental Truth-Consciousness they are so simply and inevitably the intrinsic nature of each other that even to think of them as contraries is an unimaginable violence. The walls constructed by the measuring and separating Intellect have disappeared and the Truth in its simplicity and beauty appears and reduces all to terms of its harmony and unity and light. Dimensions and distinctions remain but as figures for use, not a separative prison for the self-forgetting Spirit." viii
The New Synthesis of Yoga and the New Integral Aim of Life
The realization of the integral reality is the basic objective of the integral yoga, and to arrive at the supramental realization of the integral reality by the methods of the integral yoga that we find in Sri Aurobindo can be seen corroborated and confirmed by the description of the integral reality and supramental consciousness that we find in the records of the synthesis of yoga in the Veda, Upanishads and the Gita, and in the Tantra. But Sri Aurobindo and the Mother go farther and determine a new integral aim of life''"1 which can be fulfilled by new methods of their integral yoga. Let us elucidate this important point in some detail.
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Supra-terrestrial Theories of the Aim of Life
The Vedic and Upanishadic experience has declared that Matter also is Spirit or Brahman; but, Sri Aurobindo points out, these two extreme terms are so far divided that this identification cannot be convincing unless we recognize a series of ascending terms between Spirit and Matter. But here, again, the integral experience of the Veda and the Upanishads confirms a series of ascending terms, — Life, Mind, Supermind and the grades that unite Mind to Supermind between Spirit and Matter. In fact, not only the Veda and the Upanishads but several other theories also maintain that there are supraterrestrial worlds, which exist independent of the physical cosmos and earthly existence. These supra-terrestrial theories are not necessarily integral in their vision of the world and their aim of life, but from the integral point of view, their assertion of the insistence on supra-terrestrial planes can be confirmed by a large body of knowledge, which has been developed by efforts that make a transition from the physical to the supra-physical, and it is even contended that the evolutionary movement in the material world is constantly aided by the forces and beings of these supra-terrestrial systems or planes of existence.
There are, indeed, several theories concerning supra-terrestrial planes of existence which have been put forward in the least rational form of questionable creed or dogma. It has, for example, been maintained that man is a being primarily created as a material living body upon earth into which a newly bom divine soul is breathed or else with which it is associated by the fiat of an almighty Creator. According to this view, each individual is given one opportunity to be on the earth and at the end of that opportunity the individual soul departs to a world of eternal bliss or to a world of eternal misery either according as the general or preponderant balance of his acts is good or evil or according as he accepts or rejects a particular creed, mode of worship, divine mediator or else according to the pre-destined judgment of his Creator. But there are many other views, and there is also an Indian view, which regard the world as a field of a play or lila of the divine Being with the conditions of cosmic existence in this world of an inferior Nature. According to this view, the soul of man takes part in the play through a series of births, but it is destined to re-ascend at last into the proper plane of the Divine Being and there enjoy an eternal proximity and communion, or else be unified with the Divine Being or get extinguished in the Being or in the Ineffable Non-Being. This is not the place to discuss philosophical issues involved in various statements of
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the supra-terrestrial theory, but the integral theories of yogic experience and even some other exclusive theories, which are based on yogic experience and knowledge, admit that every individual soul is immortal and that through a protracted series of births in the terrestrial plane, every soul is required in due course of its evolution to develop ethical and spiritual being as a means of ascension and therefore the one proper business of life in this world of Matter. Finally, in all these theories, the role of the individual and the way in which the individual can relate itself with the cosmic life, cosmic consciousness and even with supra-cosmic reality is underlined.
Supra-cosmic Aim of Life
But there are theories and even yogic experiences which, even while admitting the relative validity of the material life and also of the existence of supraterrestrial planes, maintain that both material life and supra-terrestrial life are temporary and that the entire cosmos and individual souls in the cosmos are ultimately unreal, and the only effort that must be concentrated upon is to find ways and means so that one can be led to realize the eternal supra-cosmic or acosmic Spaceless and Timeless Absolute. According to this supra-cosmic view, just as we can enter into the cosmic consciousness and be one with all cosmic existence, even so, we can enter into the world-transcending consciousness and become superior to all cosmic existence. But if it is asked whether this transcendence is necessarily a rejection of all individual and cosmic existence, reference is made to the experience of the Spirit, which stands at the gates of the Transcendent. The supreme and perfect Spirit is described as luminous, pure, sustaining the world but inactive in it, without sinews of energy, without flaw of duality, without scar of division, unique, identical, free from all appearance of relation and of multiplicity, the inactive Brahman, the transcendent Silence. It is in the experience of this pure and inactive Brahman or of the pure Self that the supra-cosmic view takes its stand. It maintains that transcendence of cosmic consciousness means also the rejection of cosmic consciousness. The appeal of this view is that neither the cosmic nor the terrestrial nor the supra-terrestrial life has any ultimate meaning and that renunciation is a sole path of knowledge, that acceptation of physical life is the act of the ignorant, and that cessation from birth is the right use of human birth. This supra-cosmic view, which is held by certain schools of Vedantic monism in varying formulations, is reiterated even more trenchantly by the philosophy, which is often described as the philosophy of Nihilism. And this philosophy of Nihilism, too, is supported by one of the most powerful
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yogic experiences. According to this experience, it is possible to travel beyond the Silence of the Brahman by a greater negation to extinguish self into Non-Being. The Non-Being is absolute withdrawal. It is possible to pass in Silence beyond the Silence.
Ours is an age out of sympathy with the supra-cosmic attitude which rejects life in the world. Our age may even attribute the negativistic and its ascetic spirit to the failing of the vital energy in ancient days of India where it became prominent. But according to Sri Aurobindo, the supra-cosmic view cannot be rejected simply because our age is out of sympathy with it, since it corresponds to the truth of our existence, a state of conscious realization which stands at the very summit of our possibility. On the other hand, it is true that the supracosmic view is easily associated with a sense of the entire vanity of human life, the unreality of cosmic existence, the bitter ugliness and cruelty of earth, the insufficiency of supra-terrestrial or heavenly existence, and the aimlessness of repetitions of births in the body.
But the idea of total vanity of life is not altogether an inevitable consequence of the supracosmic theory of existence. As Sri Aurobindo points out, in the Vedantic Monism of the Upanishads, the experience of the supracosmic being does not cancel the experience of the reality of the Becoming. The becoming of the Brahman is accepted as reality; there is room therefore for a truth of the becoming: there is in that truth a right law of life; there is even room for arriving at the delight in the midst of the temporal existence and for the effective utilization of practical energy. The Upanishadic Monism has, therefore, been considered as an integral form of Monism and under that Monism, an attempt could be made to integrate the truths of all the other theories of the aim of life. But there is a difficulty in arriving at a true and effective integration. For even if the object of the highest synthesis of the Upanishadic knowledge is integral, there is, according to Sri Aurobindo, no inevitable arrival at the highest possible integration of all the theories of existence and their corresponding aims of life. The question is as to whether the Upanishads put forward the possibility and realization of the transformation of the inconscient and transformation of material life into divine life. For, the full integration would imply the conquest of the Inconscience by the superconscience, so that the superconscience, if it is concealed in the inconscience, can also manifest in its fullness. For then only there could be the
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effective fulfillment of the cosmic aim of life, which insists on the utter fulfillment of cosmic activities or terrestrial activities.
Sri Aurobindo points out that despite the dynamic aspect of the aim of life that we find in the entire system of the synthesis of yoga in the Upanishads, what is counseled to the soul is that the truth and law of its temporal becoming once fulfilled, cosmic life has no ultimate fulfillment, and the soul has to turn back to its final self-realisation, for its natural highest fulfillment is a release, a liberation into its original being, its eternal self, its timeless reality. In the words of Sri Aurobindo: "There is a circle of becoming starting from eternal Being and ending in it; or, from the point of view of the Supreme as a personal or superpersonal Reality, there is a temporary play, a game of becoming and living in the universe. Here, evidently, there is no other significance of life than the will of the Being to become, the will of consciousness and the urge of its force towards becoming, its delight of becoming; for the individual, when that is withdrawn from him or fulfilled in him and no longer active, the becoming ceases: but otherwise the universe persists or always comes back into manifestation, because the will to become is eternal and must be so since it is the inherent will of an eternal Existence. It may be said that one defect in this view of things is the absence of any fundamental reality of the individual, of any abiding value and significance of his natural or his spiritual activity... And yet the question remains over; for the stress on our individual being, the demand on it, the value put on individual perfection and salvation is too great to be dismissed as a device for a minor operation, the coiling and uncoiling of an insignificant spiral amid the vast circlings of the Eternal's becoming in the universe." viii
Spiritual Evolution of the Soul and Terrestrial Existence: Key to the new Integral Aim of Life
The central point of importance in the solution lies in the discovery of Sri Aurobindo that spiritual evolution is the sense of our birth and terrestrial existence. In the light of this discovery, he found that the evolution of mind, life and spirit in Matter would be the sign of the possibility and even eventual inevitability of the manifestation of the Supermind and of the transformation of Matter leading to true integration of the Spirit and Matter. That is the reason why he lays a great stress on the theme of spiritual evolution and regards a complete involution of all that Spirit is and its evolutionary self-unfolding as the secret meaning and significance of our material existence.
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As Sri Aurobindo points out: "An involution of spirit in the Inconscience is the beginning; an evolution in the Ignorance with its play of the possibilities of a partial developing knowledge is the middle, and the cause of the anomalies of our present nature, our imperfection is the sign of a transitional state, a growth not yet completed, an effort that is finding its way; a consummation in a deployment of the spirit's self-knowledge and the self-power of its divine being and consciousness is the culmination: these are the three stages of this cycle of the spirit's progressive self-expression in. life. The two stages that have already their play seem at first sight to deny the possibility of the later consummating stage of the cycle, but logically they imply its emergence; for if the inconscience has evolved consciousness, the partial consciousness already reached must surely evolve into complete consciousness. It is a perfected and divinized life for which the earth-nature is seeking, and this seeking is a sign of the Divine Will in Nature. Other seekings also there are and these too find their means of self-fulfilment; a withdrawal into the supreme peace or ecstasy, a withdrawal into the bliss of the Divine Presence are open to the soul in earth-existence: for the Infinite in its manifestation has many possibilities and is not confined by its formulations. But neither of these withdrawals can be the fundamental intention in the Becoming itself here; for then an evolutionary progression would not have been undertaken, such a progression here can only have for its aim a self-fulfilment here: a progressive manifestation of this kind can only have for its soul of significance the revelation of Being in a perfect Becoming." viii
Full Manifestation of Spirit in Matter
The manifestation of divine life on earth is the distinctive and unprecedented aim that has been explicitly stated by Sri Aurobindo as the aim of his integral yoga. Full manifestation of Spirit in Matter as the culmination of integration of Spirit and Matter has sometimes been envisaged in the past, and in the earliest synthesis of yoga of the Veda this aim may have been, it appears, attempted. There is also a view that the kingdom of heaven is within us and it is not dependent on any outer manifestation or instrumentation or formula of external being. According to Sri Aurobindo, this view is valid and there can undoubtedly be a spiritual life within, and inner life has a supreme spiritual importance and the outer has a value only in so far as it is expressive of the inner status. The Gita, too, states that the man of spiritual realization dwells in the divine and lives and acts and behaves, in all ways of his being and acting, in
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the Divine. And when one lives inwardly a divine life, the reflection of that divine life would fall on his outer acts or existence, even if they did not pass beyond the ordinary instrumentation of human thought and action in this world of earth-nature. According to Sri Aurobindo, this is the first truth and the essence of the matter; but still, from the point of view of spiritual evolution, this would be only an individual liberation and perfection in an unchanged environmental existence. He points out that for a greater dynamic earth-nature itself, a spiritual change of the whole principle and instrumentation of life and action, the appearance of new order of being in a new earth-life must be envisaged in our idea of the total consummation. This would mean total transmutation of the whole nature. The divine life on the earth would imply a way of living that develops higher instruments of world-vision and world-action for dynamisation of consciousness in the physical existence and takes up and transforms the values of a world of material Nature.
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PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL EDUCATION III
(Rationale and Relationship with Integral Education)
Why do we need Spiritual Education? What does it really mean? Is it practicable? And what reforms could we propose in our educational system so as to have the right place for spiritual education in it?
All these are important and difficult questions, and within the short space here, we can only touch upon them very briefly and inadequately.
We need spiritual education, firstly, because we want a true national system of education. Education, in order to be national, must reflect that basic urge, which is distinctive of our national history, which is the real genius of our country, which accounts for the amazing continuity of our long and complex history, and which continues to bum even in our decline and darkest periods and serves as the saving light. Veritably, it can be said that what distinguishes Indian cultural history from any other cultural history, is its genius for spirituality and profusion of spiritual developments and great treasures of spiritual knowledge and experience. If we are to search for our cultural identity, we can say that the first task of India is to understand what may be called Indian spirituality, its synthetic tendency, its catholicity, and its power to rejuvenate springs of culture and irrigate the paths of perfection of intellectuality, vitality of heroism and vitality and capacity to build strong physical foundations in various domains of life. In this context, our need for spiritual education stands out as an article of supreme importance.
But this is not all.
We need spiritual education not only in India but everywhere because it is becoming increasingly clear that the present crisis through which humanity is passing today can be effectively met only if the entire humanity knocks the doors of spirituality, for that alone seems to hold out the promise of the power that can deliver us. This is evident from the way in which the West is turning to the East. This is also evident from the counsels of some of the greatest historians of our times, who have pointed to India and Indian spirituality for the cure of the decline and fall of the Western civilisation that is built upon the vital and pragmatic drives and intellect as the sole and highest governor of social building.
And when the West is turning to India for some spiritual light, what is it that will enable us to respond? The best way by which we can prepare ourselves to give the right response is to build up the sound edifices of a robust system of education with due place assigned to spiritual education.
Thirdly, with the growing stress on the creation of a classless society or a society that aims at equality and equity, freedom and brotherhood, there is an increasing stress on every individual to participate as fully as possible in the activities of the totality of the society. As a result, individuals are required to expand their horizons, develop multiple interests and responsibilities and equip themselves with the capacities and powers that can be chiseled only by the development of integral personality. Hence, there has been unprecedented emphasis in our times on integral education for the complete human being. The complete human being is not a sum of its parts, each one put in juxtaposition of the other. Each part of our personality, physical, vital, mental, rational, aesthetic, ethical and spiritual, — has its
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constitutional relationship with the other and it has to be discovered and, instead of juxtaposition, there has to be integration. And what is the integrating point in a personality is a matter today of psychological investigations. It is easy to admit the Indian psychological contention that nothing can integrate the physical and the vital as the mental, manomaya pranashariraneta, to use the expression of the Taittiriya Upanishad; — but considering that the conflict in the mind itself of its rational, aesthetic and ethical elements as also the conflict between the Reason and the Unreason are becoming acute, we need to turn to still higher levels of integration and admit still higher principles, — principles of spiritual consciousness, which are supramental in character, — vijndnamuya and anandamaya, — to use again the terms of Taittiriya Upanishad. And this underlines, by implication, the theme of spiritual education as the overarching domain of integral education.
Fortunately, we have a good fund of spiritual knowledge in the roots of our cultural history, if only we make the effort to recover it. We have also been continuously developing spiritual experimentation and renewing it right up to the present day. And the significant fact is that in our renascent India, our greatest experiments in education were inspired by the ideals of spiritual education.
But let us ask the central question: "What is spiritual education? And what are the real issues pertaining to spiritual education as far as its nature and methodologies are concerned?" There is here a great deal of inadequacy of inquiry, and a good deal of confusion. In the first place, spiritual education tends to be confused with the un-examined concept of "religious education". And it is argued that because religious education is constitutionally not allowed to be promoted by the State funds, even spiritual education, which is more or less religious education, has to be exiled from the portals of education in our country.
As against this, it must be stressed that there is a clear distinction between spiritual education and religious education. It may be said that the distinguishing feature of a religion is its unverifiable a doctrine or a belief or a dogma. Every religion has its distinctive doctrine, "prescribed acts", its rituals, ceremonies, social and religious institutions. On the other hand, what is distinctive of spirituality is its stress on the psychological contention that there is a vast domain of states of consciousness, which are beyond and deeper than mental consciousness and beyond and deeper than the realm of doctrines, beliefs or dogmas. Spirituality can be developed by Yogic methodised effort that is scientific in character, since it can be practiced without any prior belief, and the conclusions or results of that effort can be repeated, verified and expanded by questioning, correction, revision, enlargement, deepening, and heightening. Secondly, another distinctive feature of spirituality is its spontaneous attitude and effortless and abiding stability of consciousness that is marked by universality, silent concentration and contemplation, which is free from the fever of desires, clamours of egoism and prejudices of partiality and attachment. These states of consciousness, these attitudes and these abiding experiences are not states of opinions and beliefs; nor are they tied up with one or the other dogma, and they depend upon no rituals or ceremonies or social or religious institutions. Thirdly, various states of spiritual consciousness tend to constitute four psychological traits of personality, which are commonly found universally among all who have gone beyond mental consciousness or who stand on the borderlines of the mental and spiritual consciousness. These psychological traits are connected with those powers of the Spirit, which flower as the sage, as the hero, as a saint and as a servant. And integral spiritual education would aim at the integral personality that combines and synthesises the sage, the
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hero, the saint and the servant, — the kind of personality that is illustrated so remarkably in the personality of Sri Krishna, who had, as the Gita testifies, both essential knowledge and, ' comprehensive knowledge that marks the culmination of sagehood; he was, again, dynamic and heroic, since he battled from early boyhood and throughout his life for the upholding of justice and unity of people; and he was full of divine love, which has been sung as an immortal theme of harmonious unity, duality and multiplicity; and he readily agreed to serve with consummate skill as the charioteer of his friend and disciple, Arjuna.
Underlying the sage is the drive for knowledge, which does not rest merely on the questioning and opinion-making, but which strives for the discovery of the truth and certainty of the truth as also the certainty of comprehensive truth. Orientation towards truthfulness and indefatigable labour and arrival of mastery to live in truthfulness and to gain deeper and deeper knowledge in regard to any subject matter by means of concentration and contemplation, — this entire process, this orientation and this mastery is what may be rightly termed as a process of spiritual education. To arrive at sagehood, to arrive at that quietude and tranquility and calm and silence and peace in which knowledge can grow spontaneously, — this may be regarded as one of the aims of spiritual education.
Another power of the spirit develops into what may properly be called spiritual heroism. Whereas the sage-hood is the culmination of the powers of knowledge, the state of spiritual heroism is a result of the development of the powers of Will. It is often argued that spiritual consciousness encourages withdrawal from action and it leads to world-negation and to the belief in meaninglessness of world and life. It is true that the states of silence and peace point to world-transcendence, since there is something like going beyond all the dynamism of action. But it is not inevitable that world-transcendence must necessarily mean world-negation. Psychologically, knowledge always stands to be superior to Will, but knowledge , can also inspire such dynamism of action that Will can never possess, unless it gets rooted in knowledge and gets issued from knowledge. What is the secret, we might ask, of the tremendous potency of action of Buddha that made him the greatest personality that ever walked on the earth? It was his utter silence, a silence that was not blank but that was filled with will and compassion. What is the secret of Christ of going up to the gallows so as to bleed on the cross and manifest that great heroism, which battles for the truth and sacrifices everything for the sake of the entire humanity and prays that his prosecutors be pardoned for they knew not what they were doing? It was that power of the Will, which was rooted in knowledge and in peace that "passeth understanding".
Spiritual heroism involves the practice of the Yogic method of arriving at perfection of action, the path of Karmayoga, just as the path to sagehood is the path of knowledge, jnanayoga. The methodised effort here involves a great psychological change brought about by three stages, first, of the control and abolition of desire for fruits of action, second, of the control and abolition of the sense of egoistic doership of action, and third, of the mastery that arises from the discovery and the operation of the impersonal and universal will without any hindrance from our subjective egoism or preferences.
The third power of the spirit flowers in sainthood. The state of consciousness that constitutes sainthood is marked by universal goodwill, sympathy and friendliness and harmony that extends to the totality of interrelationships. The methodised yogic effort here involves, first, the awakening of our inmost being that is capable of intense sympathy,
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compassion, spiritual love and harmony; secondly, of concentration and contemplation of internal communion with the subjective and the objective forces of unity and diversity, and thirdly, of internal union with the highest possible source or sources of love, joy and beauty. Sainthood consists of effortless inspiration to be engaged in works of friendliness, charity and service inspired by compassion.
The fourth power of the Spirit grows into universal spiritual servant-hood, which is reached by the combination of the yogic processes that are required for spiritual heroism and sainthood, but it has also a special mode, which insists on the development of skills that are required from the highest level to the lowest level of activity as also the sense of obedience to all that is considered to be issuing from the highest Knowledge, Will and Love. The true servant-hood is scrupulous both in regard to the development and employment of all the skills that are required to accomplish the minutest demands of work; it is this consciousness which is ever vigilant and has spontaneous readiness to execute what is demanded from above; it omits nothing that is to be done, and when the work is done, nothing is found forgotten. To arrive at the state of spiritual servant-hood is the highest glory of spiritual effort and spiritual education.
It will be seen that in attaining various states of spiritual consciousness and various traits or aspects of spiritual personality, various psychological processes, and their scientific handling of materials of Knowledge, Will and Emotion are adequate, and the aid of dogmas, rituals, ceremonies is not indispensable. Thus spiritual education can be so conceived and designed as to be free from those methods and practices, which are uniquely related to religious education.
At the same time, spiritual education need not be averse to what can be called the spiritual core of religions, — the core, which transcends the limitations of doctrines, dogmas, rituals and ceremonies or prescribed acts or specific rules connected with social and other institutions rooted in religious doctrines. Religious education can be distinguished from education about religions, and spiritual education is quite consistent with the study of various doctrines and institutions connected with different religions, biographies of religious founders, a comparative study of religions, sources of their conflict and means and methods by which these conflicts can be resolved. This study should, however, be guided by a wide and strict philosophical discipline, which demands impartiality, rational scrutiny and detailed understanding of the relationship between reason and revelation, reason and dogma, and reason and spiritual means of knowledge such as intuition, inspiration, and discrimination.
Spiritual education will admit those elements of studies in ethics and practice of ethical values, which are not tied down to any particular religion and its exclusive claims. The aid that can be received from ethical education, which deals with purification of the powers of knowledge, will and emotion, must be fully welcomed in the programmes of spiritual education. All ethics is fundamentally a process of self-control, and spiritual education will admit all processes of self-control, which are related to self-knowledge and to the development of sage-hood, spiritual heroism, sainthood and spiritual servant-hood. The programme of spiritual education will also encourage the philosophical study of standards of conduct that have developed at various stages of human history and will aim at establishing the clarity of the concepts of Freewill versus determinism, of goodwill, of the categorical imperative and others in the attempt to understand how this clarity is a great aid in the
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practice of ethical values, virtues and austerities that aim at purification, strengthening of will-power and transcending those limitations that lead to the conflict between the rational, ethical and aesthetic.
Spiritual education will have no quarrel with all that is rational and all that is scientific. The insistence on the pursuit of truth that is inherent in rational and scientific education must be welcomed in the processes and methods of spiritual education. True spiritual education will aim at the harmonisation of spiritual knowledge, philosophical knowledge and scientific knowledge; in the ultimate analysis, all knowledge tends to be one or holistic, and liberating oneself from the rigidities of the dogmatic assumptions that hinder the true processes of knowledge, one can arrive at a spontaneous harmony among all studies and practices, which aim at the discovery and practice of impartial search for the truth and a comprehensive truth. Spiritual education will never prohibit but always insist on philosophy and science, their methods, and scrupulous adherence to their specific criteria and to critical and self-critical inquiry into these criteria.
There are three great domains of aesthetics, — music, art and poetry, — which are normally encouraged and promoted among young people. If they are rightly interwoven in our educational system, they can constitute powerful means of spiritual education. In fact, art comes very close to spirituality because both art and spirituality insist on depth of experience. In art, experience of an object leads to the formation of images, and the artist employs various techniques for giving expressions to these images in forms of beauty so that the substance and style correspond to each other as intensely as possible. Intensity of experience, vision of the truth and its images, and harmonious forms of expression, — these are the elements of all art. Music, painting and poetry — these three forms of art, when combined together, can become perfect education of the soul. In poetry, the instrument is the rhythmic word, in painting it is me colour and proportion and charm, and in music it is the melody and harmony of sounds. Colour, sound and word are extremely close to the Spirit, and that is the reason why the spiritual sage easily becomes a poet, and the spiritual saint easily becomes a poet-singer and a musician, and every spiritual seeker becomes an artist of life and expresses his art of life in various other arts through which harmonious forms of joy and beauty can be expressed. In an ideal system of education, art will be used for spiritual education and spiritual education will be used for promoting artistic expression. Essence of all art is the discovery and expression of rasa, and one of the definitions of the Spirit is that it is rasa (raso vai sah).
Spiritual education will also take great care to train and purify the vital impulses, vital drives, vital emotions, vital desires, vital attractions and longings and vital activities of acquisition, possession, influence and enjoyment. Spiritual education will not kill the dynamism of the vital, but will employ the methods of illumination, love, harmonisation and heroism so that the potency of the vital can act effectively and victoriously. The vital will be purified, trained and perfected, so that the dynamic traits of human personality get their proper treatment of transformation. It will be realised that all that is heroic and noble, great and powerful but which is still raw or unripe or mixed will be purified but not discouraged, will be heightened and perfected but not blunted or impoverished. Spiritual education will not aim at weakness but at strength, not at escape from action but at mastery of action.
Just as mental and vital education can form part of spiritual education, even so, physical education, too, can be so conceived and practiced that it forms part of spiritual education. First is the question of attitude towards the body. There are those who consider the body to be
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the tomb of the spirit, but the right understanding of the body will show that the body is the indispensable instrument of the practice of every ideal. Shariram adyam khalu dharmasadhanam this is how the Sanskrit adage lays down. Secondly, the values of physical education are perfectly harmonious with the totality of values of vital, mental and spiritual education. One great value of physical education is that of health, and it is very well known that good health of the body is indispensable for the integral health of the entire being. Yogic methods of pranayama and asanas clearly indicate how the physical and spiritual are interrelated, and in India we have elaborate science of the relationship between the gross body and the subtle body as also of the centers or charkas of subtle body, the opening of which is essential for the fullness or perfection of the body, life and mind as also of spiritual realisation and manifestation. The recent discoveries of the powers that lie embedded in the organic cell of the body are amazing, and it has been found that the spiritual and supramental powers, when captured by the cells of the body, can effect even the mutation of the human body. It is with this high aim that the possibilities of physical education that our educational system should provide full facilities for the perfection of the human body. For that perfection can be a vehicle of the highest possible spiritual manifestation.
It may be remarked that spiritual states of consciousness can be obtained only when the capacities of the body, life and mind are first maximised and purified, and these capacities can again be perfected when the powers of spiritual states of consciousness can, by their descent, penetrate into them and spiritualise them. The total programme of spiritual education is, therefore, a very long one, and it should be undertaken as a life-long programme. But for that very reason, it can suitably commence as early as possible. An appropriate programme needs to be chalked out.
Three principles characterise the programme of spiritual education, which necessarily .includes education of the body, life and mind. First, there is insistence on the pursuit of truth, — truth as it is and not as one would like it to be; and this pursuit demands a high degree of rigor and scrupulous care, which discourages hasty arrival at conclusions, exaggerations of claims, and disregard for patient processes, which are required for verification. Particularly, in matters connected with the development of higher faculties, one needs to learn how to avoid wishful thinking and clouding of clarity and sincerity. Haphazard experiences and sporadic experimentations with truth lead to disbalancement and avoidable pitfalls into error and misjudgment. In all scientific inquiries, these difficulties present themselves, and where spiritual education enters into the field, one has to be more scientific than the current sciences demand of the scientist; for current sciences deal with objective facts, whereas spiritual processes involve both objective and subjective facts. This is the reason why spiritual education should constantly be surcharged with relentless patience, perseverance and unfailing discrimination between appearance and reality, as also between darkness, confusion and light. Asato ma sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotir-gamaya, mrityor ma amritam gamaya these three great aspirations should pervade the atmosphere of educational processes as they did in the Upanishadic times.
The second characteristic follows from the first, and that is the cultivation of the spirit of harmony between the teacher and the pupil, between educational administrators and all the partners of education. Spiritual education demands right attitudes among teachers and pupils. Spiritual education is totally child-centered, and this child-centeredness is so great that the teachers should expect to interweave their own outer and internal progress with the outer and
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internal progress of the children entrusted to their care. The teachers have always to be ready to uplift children's enthusiasm to inquire, to question and to explore and experiment in regard to various processes of learning; teachers cannot afford to be task-masters and create revolt in the minds and hearts of the children; teachers have to realise that they have no external authority, and the only authority that they have issues from their intense care to develop their own purity and their own increasing expansion and mastery over knowledge; the relationship between teachers and pupils should reflect the interrelationship between inspirations from teachers and aspirations from pupils. Only on that basis harmonious teaching-learning processes can be assured. In the ultimate analysis, teachers will have to be themselves children leading other children.
Harmony depends upon goodwill from oneself and goodwill from others. Among teachers themselves, there has to be the reign of mutuality of goodwill; and similarly, educational administrators have to realise that if there is one place where administrators are real servants and not masters, it is in the field of education; and an educational administrator has to promote educational aims and ideals, and this can be done only where there is a good deal of consultation and absence of arbitrary decision-making. Administrators have to ensure that all support that is needed for a smooth functioning of the educational processes will be forthcoming, and they will act as promoters of goodwill among the parents of children, management, pupils and teachers.
All this demands tapasya, austerity that aims at friendliness, right types of exchange and mutuality, co-operation and inner sense of fraternity.
The third characteristic is that of liberty. If there is one field where freedom must rule without any abridgement, it is in the flowering of the spiritual consciousness; spiritual development cannot be brought about by compulsion; all that is desirable should be voluntarily accepted or voluntarily self-imposed. It is for the teachers to create such conducive conditions that all that is desirable comes to be valued among pupils as also in the general atmosphere. Even if something is to be compulsory, under certain circumstances, that compulsion should fade away as soon as possible, and it should be interwoven in the process of self-discipline. Problems of conflict between liberty and discipline often arise, but the solutions depend upon how discipline is enforced, not by external means, but by internal adhesion on the part of all the concerned. Discipline is best when it is self-discipline and when it is the child of freedom. It is only when the child comes to accept a process of discipline that the teacher has the right to demand from the child unwavering adherence to discipline, whenever there is deviation from discipline out of unjustifiable relaxation or idleness or a whim of momentary defiance or negligence. No education and much less spiritual education can be perfected without discipline, just as even in the functioning of the physical body, every part and every organ has to function with the perfect sense of discipline and co-ordination. In the very atmosphere of the educational process, there must be an overriding sense of self-imposed discipline and it must be the responsibility of everyone to adhere to what is accepted as a part of discipline. Absence of compulsion, minimum of rules and overriding self-discipline coupled with freedom of choice given to every individual to pursue his or her own lines of inquiry, pace of progress and direction of progress, —a combination of these elements would lead to the resolution of problems that are bound to arise when the entire education process is to vibrate with freedom, joy, creativity and happiness that comes from constant progress.
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It is mistakenly thought that spiritual education should be pursued, if at all, only at advanced levels of education. Actually, a study of child's psychology indicates that children are, in many ways, budding angels; with their innocence, unpretentious sincerity, ready obedience and their sense of trust and confidence in all those who can deal with them with love and encouragement, children are often morally and spiritually superior to the adults. A number of children respond splendidly to truth, beauty and goodness, and if they receive the right encouragement in the right manner, the formation of the character can greatly be imprinted with orientation towards these great values. These values are imbibed by children, not so much by lectures as by encouragement that they receive from their teachers and parents. A good story, — long or short, — if told at the right moment, can make a tremendous impact, which cannot be wiped out throughout the entire life, and it continues to inspire the right action even in times of crisis and under heavy pressures of temptations.
Three remarks may, however, be made which relate to the question as to how spiritual education can be introduced in our present system of education and what reforms in the present system would be necessary, if we are to make spiritual education an effective instrument of the aims that we have in view, — particularly in regard to turning our system into a genuine system, as an instrument of enhancing the global effort to meet the challenges of the contemporary crisis, and as an aid to the fulfillment of the idea and practice of integral education.
• It may be recalled that all major Reports on education, Commissions and Committees have acknowledged and underlined the theme of value-education, and even of moral and spiritual education. Dr. Radhakrishnan had recommended a series of measures by which moral education can be a preparation for the spiritual education; he had also recommended the need to provide for study of different religions. He had stressed the importance of the spiritual state of silence and made recommendations as to how this state of consciousness can be promoted. The Kothari Commission Report had also emphasised the need to synthesise science and spirituality and had even brought out the truth of the ancient Indian ideal, which spoke of true knowledge as that which leads to spiritual liberation, —sa vidyaya vimuktaye. Shri Prakasa Committee had given detailed recommendations in respect of moral and spiritual education. Value-education came to the forefront during the 70s and 80s, and there was also a report on imparting value-orientation to teachers' training programmes. The National Education Policy 1986 had one full chapter on value education and had underlined the need to foster eternal values and values embedded in Indian culture through the entire educational programme in the country. The duties of citizens as laid down in the Constitution include the promotion of Indian heritage, which implies the study of Indian spirituality. With all these enabling factors, there should be no great difficulty to propose and implement spiritual education.
There are, however, those who maintain that the mind is the highest faculty of the human being; that the limitations of mental consciousness can never be broken, and that there is no such thing as spirituality or that there are no spiritual states of consciousness. But this contention is now as outmoded as the contention that anybody un-acquainted with modem developments of Physics may hold out that the atom is the last limit of unimaginable outburst of energy. There are also those who feel that spiritual education will foster communalism; but this is only a superstition. In reality, communalism can rightly be combated only if we can foster universality and unity, — which, in the ultimate
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analysis can be accomplished through spiritual education. The greatest antidote to communalism, we might affirm, is spiritual education.
•But and this is the second remark if we are to introduce spiritual education, three things will have to be undertaken: firstly, we have to change the present system of teachers' training so radically that every teacher under training receives education for integral development of personality, which will, by implication, include the overarching programme of spiritual education; (ii) the present lecture-oriented, book-oriented, syllabus-oriented, and examination-oriented system will have to be replaced by child-centered and youth-centered education that will employ dynamic methods of exploration, experimentation, practice of values and those processes, which will lead to the fostering of spiritual states of consciousness and powers; and (iii) we shall have to institute widespread education of parents and other partners of education so that the theme of spiritual education finds full support of the people.
None of these things is impracticable or impossible, but we cannot minimise the difficulties involved in these tasks. It must, however, be emphasised that because the tasks are difficult, we tend to find excuses to escape from these difficulties. But difficulties have to be overcome, and we must chalk out a programme of overcoming these difficulties and implement that programme with perseverance and without any depressing or cynical thought.
•And this brings us to the third remark. Our state, whether in the country or in the world, presents us a powerful confrontation between the best possibilities and the worst possibilities; it is a battle being fought at a critical point, and if we do not act, we shall automatically be registering ourselves as members of the army of those who are working for the realisation of the worst possibilities; if, however, we make a choice and join the army of those who are working for the realisation of the best possibilities, we can be sure that we shall have done the right thing and that, irrespective of immediate results, we shall have enhanced the power of that force which is best for our country and the world. To work for spiritual education is to my mind, to join the army, however small it may be, that holds out the promise of the eventual fulfillment of humanity.
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There are three respects in which spiritual education will differ from religious education, and as a consequence, will render it free from the objection that it is inadmissible or controversial as far its relevance to common schools is concerned.
* * *
First of all, spiritual education will build itself on strong foundations of physical, vital and mental education, without which the sources of spiritual education will remain dry and infertile.
Secondly, spiritual education will combat dogmatism in regard to any theory or doctrine, — scientific, philosophical, theological, religious, moral or aesthetic, and will admit critical inquiry and insist on continuous quest so as convert any belief, faith or hypothesis into verifiable knowledge and experiential evidence.
Thirdly, spiritual education will provide to students, appropriate to their age and ability, acquaintance, thought and experience of the objects of the spiritual domain, namely, soul. God and their respective energies and powers.
It may be added that all those who advocate spiritual education, normally, consider spiritual entities and their energies and powers to have supervening and integrating role in respect of the development of the body, life and mind, and would therefore regard the education of these elements (viz., body, life and mind) to be incomplete and inadequate without recourse to spiritual education and would therefore regard education in its very fundamental nature and principle as spiritual.
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In religious education, a special emphasis will be laid on the promotion of specific rituals and ceremonies and prescribed acts as the only means of approaching the domain of Spiritual Knowledge and experience. There will be also a special emphasis on providing those rational arguments which would favour the preferred belief or doctrine.
In spiritual education, a special emphasis will be laid on eliminating or subordinating the role of rituals, ceremonies and prescribed acts and would thus liberate the processes from routines tied up with the institutional frameworks of any given religion. Thus, spiritual education would provide, only optionally, acquaintance with churches, temples, mosques, etc., and that, too, only as illustrative information about religion, without any intention or provision for advocacy of any adherence to any particular religion.
In particular, spiritual education would lay emphasis on yogic disciplines which consist of exercises by which human consciousness can be trained to develop its normal operations so as to develop their actual and latent capacities and lead them to the perfection.
The distinction of yogic disciplines is that they aim at the experiences of the processes, energies and entities of the spiritual domain, and insist on their methodised verification and repeatability.
Finally, spiritual education would insist on developing and promoting research in spiritual knowledge by means of appropriate tests that would eliminate elements of subjectivity and exclusivism, in favour of objectivity and integrality.
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It is true that religions, when they are freed from the limitations of mechanical rituals and ceremonies and from the dogmatism of doctrines, beliefs and faith, lead to spirituality or experience or realisation of the energies, powers and entities of the spiritual domain, but this is not certain. More often than not, adherents remain confined to some sense ofsacredness or sense of commitment or piety and nothing more, or even to confinement to the routines of rituals and
ceremonies prescribed by religious authority.
On the other hand, spirituality can also be attained through methods of yoga, which are based on constant processes followed by constant results and which may involve religious practices and beliefs, but which are not indispensable and which carry with them tests and methods of scrutiny by which authenticity, objectivity and truth-claims can be judged and verified.
It is true that even in the field of yoga, exclusive claims of truth which reject the rival claims of truth are and have been advocated. But, in the field of yoga, on account of its methodology, the conflict among the rival claims can be combated and resolved by means of methods and disciplines of enlargement,
integration and inclusiveness.
Yoga librates the spiritual effort from the following limitations with which it is normally confined in religions:
• Institutional framework, including the necessity of allegiance and obedience to the system of hierarchy of authority for judgement of propriety of right conduct and scriptural interpretation of truth of belief and doctrine. • Routine of rituals and the ceremonies. • Exclusivism of the doctrines or beliefs regarding the methods of the effort and the experiences to which these methods lead.
• Institutional framework, including the necessity of allegiance and obedience to the system of hierarchy of authority for judgement of propriety of right conduct and scriptural interpretation of truth of belief and doctrine.
• Routine of rituals and the ceremonies.
• Exclusivism of the doctrines or beliefs regarding the methods of the effort and the experiences to which these methods lead.
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Yoga insists in its methods on psychological refashioning of elements of consciousness in the individual, permitting each individual the freedom to develop on one's own line of growth appropriate to one's own psychological make-up, temperament and combination of cognitive, conative and affective elements as also appropriate to one's own rhythm of growth and force of personality.
Yoga demands no allegiance to any doctrine or scripture or any sanctioning authority. Even its tradition of knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern the achievement, experiences and realisation is not indispensable. For yoga can begin with a Word that can be heard by the individual within his own heart, and the required knowledge and guidance can grow within oneself, petal by petal, by the power of inwardly felt aspiration to know, possess and to the highest and the best. The commencement of yoga may come about by one's own natural development; and one can reach it by the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; one may approach it by a slow illumination or leapt to it by a sudden touch or shock; one may arrive at it by a pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by constant and daily influence. Yoga has no fixed gate for entry, and it admits hundreds of gates or alternative gates, and even a direct opening into the realm of experiences of the Soul and Spirit, of Infinity.
The pursuit of Yoga follows methods of personal discovery or living repetition and possession of past discovery and working out of all the things found. Again, the methods of yoga are those of practical psychology, similar to those in physical sciences, and they are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis and constant result. Yoga depends upon this perception and experience that our inner psychological elements, combinations, functions forces can be separated or dissolved, can be combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved in its new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. Yoga is an attempt to realise perfection of the being, —
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psychological and physical by devising self-conscious means and willed arrangements of activities and by ever-increasing expression of inner potentialities in a persistent and guided effort to untie our being with the divine reality and divine nature.
There are several features in Yogic methods which are similar to those in religions. In Bhaktiyoga, for example, there is an important role assigned, not only to faith, but also to prayer, adoration and worship. Rituals and ceremonies, too, are not entirely excluded. But the important point is that Yogic methods aim at living contact with the object of faith, prayer, adoration and worship. Experience and realization of the Divine love and the perennial source of that love are to be experienced and realized. Moreover, in Yoga, there is constant insistence on consecration, discipline and purification, renunciation and concentration of consciousness, and there is a constant freedom to utilize methods of Yoga of Knowledge, Yoga of Divine Will and Rajayoga and Hathayoga, in accordance with the needs of each individual's temperament and complexity of consciousness. Even as a part of Bhaktiyoga, where faith plays a prominent role, doubt is not excluded. Doubt too has a utility and necessity. If doubt is excluded, one would remain obstinate in an ignorant belief and limited knowledge, and one is unable to escape from errors. Ignorance and blindness in the faith are obstacles to a large success, invite much disappointment and disillusionment, fasten on false finalities and prevent advance to greater formulations of truth and perfection. What is needed is a great and wide spiritual and intelligent faith, intelligent with the intelligence of that larger reason which assents to high possibilities.
Even real religion, which is spiritual only begins when outward worship corresponds to something really felt within the mind, some genuine submission, awe or spiritual aspiration. But so long as it is only an idea of the Godhead to which one renders reverence of homage, we have yet not got into the beginning of Yoga. The aim of Yoga being union, its beginning must always be a seeking after the Divine, a longing after some kind of touch, closeness of possession. When this comes on us, the adoration becomes always primarily an inner worship; we begin to make ourselves a temple of Divine, our thoughts and feelings a constant prayer of aspiration and seeking,
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our whole life becomes service and worship. It is this new soul-tendency which is the heart of Yoga. Outward worship may not necessarily be dispensed with, but it will increasingly become only a physical expression or outflowing of devotion and adoration, the wave of the soul throwing itself out in speech and symbolic act. In Yoga, there must be accompaniment of self-purification and this purification will be much more than moralist's seeking for the right and blameless action; it is a constant effort to grow into likeness to Divine, it is a constant effort of liberation from our lower nature so to change into Divine nature.
Prayer is often supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. But prayer in Yoga is essentially an ardent aspiration, and it is a bridge of relationship between the individual soul and God. The prayer is not a bribe offered to God for favour, but it is a spontaneous breath of the soul in search of God, and this search receives response from God. Every response of God to prayer demonstrates the effectivity of prayer. The form that we. normally give to prayer is not itself essential, so long as there are living vibrations of the will and aspiration. Prayer is only a joy of relationship with the Divine. At higher and higher reaches of Yoga, one can reach the highest motiveless devotion, which is that of Divine love pure and simple without any other demand or longing.
In the process of spiritual education, all the methods of Bhaktiyoga have a place, provided two important conditions are fulfilled : one, external formalities are subordinated and are made optional; and secondly there is a constant pressure towards building up living relationship with the Divine, which can be tested, verified and can be repeated. The important point in Yoga is that the object of Yoga is constantly emphasized, namely, union with the divine, and psychological change by means of which the faculties of body, life and mind are sought to be perfected.
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The central thrust of the critique of spiritual education is to demand justifiable epistemology and ontology of spirituality, and it rightly questions if formulations such as cultivation of inner space, search for meaning, spiritual quest and manifestations such as awe, wonder, mystery sensing can distinctly be equated with spirituality. It is true that these formulations, do refer to some of the preliminary steps that belong to the realm of spirituality, but we need to
go farther so as to arrive at a clear precisions.
The central issue in regard to the proposal for spiritual education is that of the truth claim of spiritual knowledge. Is there, it is being asked, a domain of reality distinctly correspondent to spirituality? Can that domain be known? Can there be evidence of that domain, and can that stand scrutiny of critical rationality?
Indeed, if spiritual experiences were a matter of sporadic occurrence or of a sudden momentary flash, then, considering the variety of spiritual experiences and considering the conflicts in regard to the truth-claims of various spiritual experiences, one would have hesitated to assign much value to the realm of spiritual experiences. But the dismissal of the claims of spiritual experiences on the ground that they are occasional or extremely rare or riddled with conflicts turns out to be untenable in the light of the systematic body of knowledge with regard to spiritual experiences that has been developed over millennia by a large number of seekers in different parts of the world. Methods of spiritual seeking have been developed, and their assured results have come to be verified, repeated, reiterated and even expanded. In India, these systems have come to be grouped under the word Yoga, the connotation of which includes methodized efforts:
a) which aim at self-perfection, and b) which are marked by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being, as also c) which are claimed to lead to a union of the human individual with the universal and the transcendental Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the universe. * * *
According to Yoga, spiritual experiences, are in themselves not hazardous or accidental. There is always a psychological base for these experiences. Certain
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intensity in the being is a precondition; that intensity may pertain to the operations of thought or emotions or will, or even to some bodily condition or even to some subtlety of sense experience. Even if they seem to occur suddenly or without any conscious or willed psychological preparation, they are always connected with some secret processes of preparation of which the conscious mind may not be aware. Yoga goes farther and points out that Spiritual experiences can be made to occur, even at will, by a conscious application of certain specific methods on a regular and sustained basis. During the long history of Yoga, methods have been developed, tested repeatedly, and the resultant spiritual experiences or supra-physical experiences have been tested; thus, as in science, so in Yoga these methods are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis and constant result. In India, Yoga has been recognized, and on account of millennia of experimentation, it has come to be regarded as shastra or science, which consists of the systematic body of the knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern the spiritual experiences and spiritual realizations. This shastra has been built upon the perception and experience that our inner elements, functions, forces can be separated or resolved or they can be new combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. Yoga is an attempt to realize psychological and physical perfection for our being by devising self-conscious means and willed arrangements of activity and by ever increasing expression of inner potentialities in a persistent and guided effort to unite our being with the divine reality and divine nature.
Just as in science, we first observe the natural force of electricity or of steam and its normal occurrences or normal operations, and then we handle these operations scientifically by means of experimentation and willed arrangements, so that we can generate electricity or steam at will and in the measure of requirements, even so Yoga observes and deals scientifically with the ranges of the psychological being, and it arrives at the discovery and utilization of greater secrets of physical, psycho-physical and other higher realities. As in all true science, the object is an assured method of personal discovery or living repetition and possession of past discovery and a working out in full details of all the things found. As in science, so in Yoga, there is a high intention to hold the truth, the light found in our inner power of being and turn it to our power of
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being, our psychic self, our spirit, our self of knowledge and will, our self of love and joy, our self of life and action.
There is a view that because the Spirit is other than and distinctive from Matter, Life and Mind, the former is also the negation of the latter; consequently, there is a view that spiritual education is the education, relating to the Transcendental, and therefore of withdrawal from Matter, Life and Mind.
This view is present in various religions of the world, if not in all of them, and if not equally prominently or predominantly. But there is in them also an ideal aspiration that has been expressed in the religious formula of the Kingdom of God on the Earth or of the City of God, — a view which can be sustained only if God is not only transcendental and immanent, but also having a Will to be tied up with earth sovereign.
It has also been argued by a number of educationists that school education has been designed all over the world, (and this is particularly true of the common schools in the modem world,) in order to equip the children to relate their selves with the universe, and specially with the planet earth, and to empower the children effectively and enjoy fruitfully activities on the earth, and it is for this reason that the idea of spiritual education is resented by them on the supposition that since spiritual education is transcendental in character, it will defeat the very purposes of the school education. They conclude, therefore, that spiritual education should have no place in school education.
Undoubtedly, if spirituality has the only or ultimate message that the salvation of the earthly human beings is supra-terrestrial or supra-cosmic or acosmic, then school education which deals with the requirements of the terrestrial life,
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can at the best been only conceived as a preparatory programme, not as a necessary or indispensable programme.
Indeed, spiritual education is in common schools would be justified as
indispensable only if the spiritual is not only the culmination of earthly faculties and powers but also their condition of their fulfilment and perfection.
Spiritual education would ideally consist of two processes. First, it would be a process of discovery, — discovery of the soul and of the Supreme Divine of which the cosmos is a partial and evolving expression.
Secondly, it would be a process of combining and reconstructing of the cognitive, affective and conative processes as a result of which inertia, on the one hand, and feverish activities, on the other, are so purified, balanced and enlightened that equilibrium and equality are so established that peace and self-existent bliss replace our transitory satisfactions which are besieged by physical pain and emotional suffering.
It is in accomplishing these two processes that our entire psychological complex undergoes a radical change and we feel gifted with new faculties of cognition, affection and conation, and our personality comes to be guided by wisdom that is accompanied by courage and heroism to conquer the causes of injustice, and the motive of harmonisation becomes empowered by skills that can execute the needed works effectively and dexterously.
It is acknowledged that this is a life-long process, and education that is given in the schools can only be a preliminary and introductory process. It is also acknowledged that in this process of progression, a time comes when there is, psychologically, a pressure to consecrate oneself to these processes entirely and
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whole-heartedly, and this is the time when the individual has to exercise will for the needed efforts which can be successful only if that will is truly free, autonomous and self-conscious.
The implication is that the process of education must be so conducted that the individuals are constantly given opportunities to learn the experiences of freedom, and the entire process of progress in learning should be irrigated by the atmosphere of quest and discovery conducted in freedom that generates self-consciousness, self-criticality and self-determination that acts impartially, disinterestedly and luminously.
It will be found that the educational processes will be the processes of widening, heightening and deepening of consciousness, and there will be a central attack on inertia, dualities of pressures of the narrowness of egoism and confusion, errors and half-lights. The process of spiritual education will, therefore, battle against this attack and the central experiences of spirituality will flower and the .soul and the Supreme Divine and Divine Will are discovered and possessed by process of expansion, universalisation, union and knowledge by identity.
Spiritual education will exclude no domain of knowledge, and humanistic, aesthetic, scientific and technological studies will all be encouraged in their fullness and in their interconnections. These studies will have sharpness and criticality, so that their boundaries are constantly expanded and knowledge is constantly remedied of its partialities, angularities and errors.
In this integral vision of spirituality, Spirit is not only transcendental, but all here, the cosmos in its totality is the manifestation of the Spirit. Thus, there will be no barrier between the knowledge pertaining to this cosmos and the knowledge that pertains to the Spirit.
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This will justify the recent trends on education towards the education of the whole child, integral education and interdisciplinarity. The only deficiency is that of a programme that can foster these trends with the needed focus and centrality. We need a programme for integral development of personality that will foster value-oriented education, skill-oriented education and that will introduce to the students the connections between values, skills, and interdisciplinary information, knowledge and wisdom, which will unite science, philosophy, humanistic studies, art and spirituality. That minimum introductory programme may be tentatively regarded as a programme of spiritual education in common schools.
In practical terms, what does spiritual education amount to?
Discover of Soul and God and His Power and Attributes:
These are not to be manufactured; but they are to be discovered, and manifested in our surface consciousness of the mind, life and body. * * *
These are not to be manufactured; but they are to be discovered, and manifested in our surface consciousness of the mind, life and body.
The child does not have mental capacity to think about them. but the child has a remarkable sensitivity to feel the Soul and God.
The child is sensitive to affection, care, attention, warmth and assurance of security, whenever needed.
Here the role of the parents is of paramount importance. For parents can provide affection, etc.
There are, however, occasions, which require special treatment, and where ideas regarding Soul and God, articulated in the form in which children can understand, can be transmitted to them.
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For example, one of the occasions is when the child confronts darkness and is seized with the fear of the unknown.
Words such as the following can be very comforting: "In your heart is a light, a fire that can never be extinguished. Allow the light to radiate all around. Darkness will do no harm to you." "In you and all around you is the Presence of all-loving God, your Protector and your Friend. Call Him, and He will protect you. Darkness will do no harm to you."
Words such as the following can be very comforting:
"In your heart is a light, a fire that can never be extinguished. Allow the light to radiate all around. Darkness will do no harm to you."
"In you and all around you is the Presence of all-loving God, your Protector and your Friend. Call Him, and He will protect you. Darkness will do no harm to you."
Indeed, this is a process of invoking FAITH and a belief in the Soul and God.
Is invoking Faith irrational?
Is nourishment of a belief unjustified? Is it indoctrination?
Invoking Faith would be irrational, or non-rational, if Faith cannot be sought to
be transformed into experiential and verifiable and repeatable knowledge.
But Yoga affirms that there are methods by the practice of which Soul and God can be known.
Hence, our next step should be to introduce to the children, as early as that can be practicable, to the ideal of practices of concentration, of heroic courage and prayer in humility by which one can be put on the path to know the Soul and God.
For example, we can narrate or present to children:
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But between the first step and the second step, many other things can be done:
(a) Stories (b) Songs > With themes of Help in Darkness and Loneliness can be very useful. (c) Poems (d) Film Strips
(a) Stories
(b) Songs > With themes of Help in Darkness and Loneliness can be very useful.
(c) Poems
(d) Film Strips
There are also Fairy Tales or Tales of help from invisible beings.
(In our times, stories of this kind are discouraged. But these stories have in them spiritual truths, which can be verified in deeper experiences.)
This is the reason why
Myths
Legends Fairy Tales and
Folklore have thrived and will continue to thrive.)
In today's world, children will, sooner than later, come to hear comments such as:
"These stories are not true. There are no fairies, There is no God. Science does not believe in God, and we need to be scientific. These stories are imaginary. Miracles do not occur. Stories of miracles are all false. Do not believe in them." ***
"These stories are not true.
There are no fairies,
There is no God. Science does not believe in God, and we need to be scientific.
These stories are imaginary.
Miracles do not occur. Stories of miracles are all false. Do not believe in them."
***
Let us not be disheartened by these comments. But explain to the children:
Many of these stories are SYMBOLIC, and how even in Science, we use symbols like 3+b = 5, where b symbolises 2.
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Discuss Symbolism, if the children can endure the discussion.
Explain that
MIRACLES do occur and all experienced and mature people have experienced miracles. (Historically, true stories of miracles are those of JOAN OF ARC.)
MIRACLES do occur and all experienced and mature people have experienced miracles.
(Historically, true stories of miracles are those of JOAN OF ARC.)
Science should be encouraged, and children shall be encouraged to understand how Yoga utilises proven methods for verification, and how superstitions, dogmas and mere beliefs shall be sought to be tested by the methods of Yoga.
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of
Education
for
We may begin with a brief reference to the 1972 Report of the International Commission on Development of Education, established by UNESCO, — the Report which conveys its theme so aptly through its own title, "Learning to be". The Report had become very famous during the seventies, but it has unfortunately receded into the background. To know, to possess and to be this the central demand of life, and, rightly, this ought to be the central demand of education, particularly when, as in the Report, there is a clear and categorical recognition of the need for a fundamental identification of life and education. As the Report states in the very first principle of 21-point programme for a global strategy in education: "Every individual must be in a position to keep learning throughout his life. The idea of lifelong education is the keynote of the learning society."1
But, as we begin to seek for the meaning of lifelong education and its central theme "to be", we are confronted with a number of implications which in their turn centre round the idea of personality and personality development. As M. Edgar Faure, the Chairman of the Commission, states, one of the underlying assumptions of the Report is "that the aim of development is the complete fulfilment of man, in all the richness of his personality, the complexity of his forms of expression and his various commitments."2
But there are controversies regarding what constitutes personality and the real meaning of the full richness of personality. There are also controversies regarding
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1 Learning To Be, UNESCO, p. 181
2 Ibid, p. VI
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the conflicts of the demands of personality development with those of professional efficiency. There are also pressures of society to demand men of professions rather than men of developed personalities. Contrarily, there are assertions in favour of personality development against the pragmatic necessities of their professional excellence. And then there is a deeper issue as to whether the fullness of personality can be achieved in the present state of society and civilisation. Indeed, education for personality development seems to necessitate not only a revolutionary change in the aim, content and structure of-educational object, mode and interrelations of social existence.
For us, what is most significant is the logic of the new educational methodology which reinforces at every turn the need to place the child and its personality at the centre of the entire edifice of education. The modem educationist has come to realise that the child is not a plastic material to be moulded and pressed into a shape as desired and decided upon by the parents and educators. There is an insistence on the free choice for the students to choose his own subjects of study, his pace of progress, and even (within limits) his teachers. There is a recognition of individual differences, necessitating variation m psychological treatment, presentation of materials of study, and criteria for judgment of performance. There is a demand for new syllabi and for flexible syllabi which would correspond to the psychological needs of the growth of the personality of the students. There is, again, a demand for the abolition of the examination system, and need, therefore, to discover a more rational and psychological system that can replace the system of tests, checks and counter-checks. All these demands and needs point to the idea of education for the all-round development of personality.
But what is personality? And how to prepare ourselves for the education for personality development? Personality is sometimes identified with character, but very often a distinction is made between the two. According to this distinction,
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character means the fixed structure of certain recognisable qualities while personality means the flux of self-expressive or sensitive and responsive being. But when we examine the distinction between the fixed structure and the flux, we find that the fixity and the flux are only relative terms, and in the movement of Nature, nothing is fixed. Personality may then be regarded as a plastic expression of certain forces and ends of Nature combined for the time being. Deeper psychological research affirms, as in the system of Yoga, that this combination of forces can be disturbed, it can be modified, it can be totally changed. Personalities can be multiplied within the same individual; the conflicting personalities in the individual can be harmonised; one can become capable of putting forth the needed personality according to the ^circumstances or the demands of the work or situation, even while the other personages would remain behind, contributing to the efficacy of the personality put in the front. One can even go beyond all personality and know the real person that assumes so many personalities.
One can make a distinction between the real Person and the instruments of the person, viz., the body, life and mind. And between the persona and the instruments there is what one might call the force of the person that expresses itself and gives a special turn, a special power of configuration, a certain stamp to the instruments. It is this special stamp or power of configuration that gives rise to the specific formation of a pattern of qualities and the specific formation of a pattern of qualities and drives to our body, life and mind. It is that which we should call properly 'personality'. In the language of the Samkhya psychology, we might say that body, life and mind are the expressions of Prakriti marked by the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. The normal human being is simply an instrument of Prakriti, dominated largely by tamas or rajas, expressing indeed some pattern of these qualities, but as yet unable to become aware of the inner persona, Purusha. In the Samkhya, the Purusha is a mere Witness which is inactive, and it is not proper to speak of the force of the Purusha. But in the Vedanta, especially in the
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original Vedanta of the Upanishads, and in some of its best developed forms, the inner person has its own force, often called the soul-force, which when awakened, pours itself into the instruments of Prakriti, and it is this meeting of the Soul Force and Prakriti of Nature that causes the real formation of Personality. The greater the opening of Nature to receive the flow of the Soul-Force, the greater is the resultant personality, and the fullness of Personality would be achieved initially by full development of mind, life and body under the sovereign guidance, rule and will of the Soul-Force, and-a complete coursing of the energies of the Soul-Force, into the stuff, vibrations, activities, modes of mind, life and body, into the movements of sattva, rajas and tamas, with the power of their complete refinement, change and transformation.
The Soul-Force vibrates with the power and presence of the inner person, the true individual, which is quite different from the ego, a product of Nature or Prakriti. The true individual is called, in Sanskrit, the Chaitya Purusha, the one which is described in the Upanishads as 'no longer than the thumb'. It is, indeed, no bigger than the thumb when mere is as yet no awakening in us Of its presence and its force, but it is that which grows in us in answer to the needs of our internal and external growth, and the secret of all development of personality lies in that presence and in its force. It has, therefore, been affirmed that if one wants to develop the needed personality or wants to have mastery over one's own personal development, and even of the circumstances of our development, then the right method is to discover and seek a living contact with that inner person. In the absence of this contact, one will always remain subject to the formations of qualities in oneself, and will have no power to control, guide and perfect these formations. It is, therefore, concluded that the fullness of personality can come about only by the complete emergence of the inner person and the fall expression of its force.
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This force has, if we study closely, four basic expressions. It expresses itself through four Powers: a Power for knowledge, a Power for strength, a Power for mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange, a Power for works and labour and service. Accordingly, we have four basic personalities: the personality of knowledge, the personality of strength, the personality of harmony, and the personality of skill. "The psychological fact is", says Sri Aurobindo, "that there are these four active powers and tendencies of the Spirit and its executive Shakti within us and the predominance of one or the other in the more well-formed part of our personality gives us our main tendencies, dominant qualities and capacities, effective turn in action and life. But they are more or less present in all men, here manifest, there latent, here developed, there subdued and depressed or subordinate, and in the perfect man will be raised up to a fullness and harmony which in the spiritual freedom will burst out into the free play of the infinite quality of the spirit in the inner and the outer life and in the self-enjoying creative play of the Purusha with his and the world's Nature-Power. "3
The full richness of personality is the splendid, opulent and marvellous integration of the fourfold personality. The full heart of Love is tranquillised by knowledge into a clam ecstasy and vibrates with strength; the strong hands of Power labour for the world in a radiant fullness of joy and light; the luminous brain of Knowledge accept and transforms the heart's obscure inspirations and lends itself to the workings of the high-seated Will. All these powers are founded together on a soul of sacrifice that lives in unity with all the world and accepts all things to transmute them. This we may say, is the condition of man's integrality.
Such then is the basic idea of the integral personality and the process of its formation. In this idea we find the completion of several other ideas of personality
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3 Sri Aurobindo: The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 21 (Centenary Edition, pp.714-5
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or the remedy of dangers presented in several processes of exaggerated formations of egoism and individuality. According to one conception, personality is identified with egoistic individuality having a certain sense of ends or values. And fullness of personality in this sense would mean an enlarged development of egoistic individuality by means of an increased power of mind, an increased power of vital force, by refined or dense and massive exaggerations of the forces of what Yoga calls 'Ignorance'. This would manifest even a violent and turbulent, exaggerated, vital ego, satisfying itself with a supreme tyrannous or anarchic strength of self-fulfilment. Or, it would manifest a mighty exhibition of an overpowering force, self-possessed, self-held, even an ascetically self-restrained mind-capacity and life-power, strong, calm or cold or formidable in collected vehemence, subtle, dominating, a sublimation at once of the mental and vital ego. These are indeed superhuman manifestations, but even on a lower key, these manifestations are appalling, and one shudders at the idea of personality development if such is to be the result of education for personality development.
There is, of course, an idea of a harmonising development of personality in which body, life and mind are developed integrally and with a kind of balance that would avoid exaggerations of the vital or mental ego. Something of this kind was attempted as an ideal in the early Greek culture, and this is often proposed-all over the world as a salutary aim for education. At its highest, it attempts a harmony of the triangular disposition of the individual, a harmony of the aesthetic, ethical and rational tendencies. The highest ideal that is formulated is that of the pursuit of the Truth, Goodness and Beauty.
But modem psychological studies have revealed the tendencies of intrinsic conflict of these three ideals as understood and practised by the human mind. There have also been revealed the tendencies of the unconscious which constantly bombard the shifting harmonies of personality, and the researches made in the fields of
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parapsychology reveal deeper complexes and complications whose harmony is extremely difficult to achieve. What we call harmony is most often a compromise of tendencies, an apparently working order concealing under a brittle cover a mass of uncontrolled and unregenerate or unregulated impulses, tendencies, dreams, imaginations, systems of ideas and motives. There is, in fact, a sort of controlled disequilibrium, but not a happy mastery of a rich harmony.
The inner Soul, the timer person of the Indian psychology, has an inherent power of purification and harmonisation. It detects the error and falsehood spontaneously; it turns effortlessly to all that is noble and heroic and mysterious and wonderful. The development of personality that is accompanied with or initiated by an awakening to this inmost soul, this psychic entity, prevents egoism and exaggerated formation of egoism; it harmonises effectively the aesthetic, the ethical and the rational. It has even a power to transmute the passions and impulses; it can even set right the subconscious and open it to the supreme light by which it can finally be transformed. "It is", in the words of Sri Aurobindo, "this secret psychic entity which is the original Conscience in us deeper than the constructed and conventional conscience of the moralist, for it is this which points always towards Truth and Right and Beauty, towards Love and Harmony and all that is a divine possibility in us, and persists till these things become the major need of our nature. It is the psychic personality in us that flowers as the saint, the sage, the seer; when it reaches its full strength, it turns the being towards the Knowledge of Self and the Divine, towards the supreme Truth, the supreme Good, the supreme Beauty, Love and Bliss, the divine heights and largeness, and opens us to the touch of spiritual sympathy, universality, oneness. "4
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4 Sri Aurobindo: The Life Divine, Vol. 18 (Centenary Edition), p. 226
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The coming forward of the psychic person marks a momentous stage in the development of personality. It then begins to govern overtly and entirely our outer nature of mind, life and body, and then this can be cast into soul-image of what is true, right and beautiful, and in the -end, the whole nature can be turned towards the real aim of life, the supreme victory. A transformation of the mind, life and body by the presence and the power of the psychic being is effected. This process may be rapid or tardy according to the resistance in our developed nature.
But ultimately, by the greater and greater infusion of the psychic light, every part of the being is psychicised. As Sri Aurobindo describes it:
Every region of the being,, every nook and corner of it, every movement, formation, direction, inclination of thought, will, emotion, sensation, action, reaction, motive, disposition, propensity, desire, habit of the conscious or subconscious physical, even the most concealed, camouflaged, mute, recondite, is lighted up with the unerring psychic light, their confusions dissipated, their tangles disentangled, their obscurities, deceptions, self-deceptions precisely indicated and removed; all is purified, set right, the whole nature harmonised, modulated in the psychic key, put in spiritual order.5
There are, still, according to Sri Aurobindo, higher levels of consciousness, ranges of the powers of the fourfold personality in the superconscious. These ranges are those of what Sri Aurobindo has termed the higher Mind, the Illumined Min, Intuitive Mind, Overmind and Supermind. An account of all this would form a subject by itself, and in an introductory paper as this we cannot dare enter into this field.
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5 Sri Aurobindo: The Life Divine, Vol. 19 (Centenary Edition), pp.907-8
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What we need to stress now is that the secret of personality development is an awakening to the psychic person and the development of body, life and mind in such a manner that they might aid in this .awakening and might become well trained instruments of the fourfold personality of knowledge, strength, harmony and skill.
It is should be evident that the personality development as conceived here is a lifelong edification. And yet, it is a process that must begin' right from the earliest stage, and must determine the drift, the content, and method of all our stages of education. And it seems inevitable that an education motivated by the development of personality demands a radical change in our approach, attitudes, methods, structure, system of evaluation, of syllabus and of contact with the students.
And, first, we may ask if we could find some principles which would guide us in our work of organising some practical organisation of education for personality development. In a series of articles that Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1909-10, as a leader of Indian nationalism, in order to expound what he conceived to be the lines on which a system of National Education could be evolved, he enunciated three fundamental principles to which reference is made earlier.
There are several other guidelines that we find in Sri Aurobindo. While explaining the instruments of work of the teacher, he writes in his Synthesis of Yoga:
Teaching, example, influence, — these are the three instruments of the Guru. But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or his opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the divine fostering
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within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will give a method as an aid, as a utilisable device, not as an imperative formula or a fixed routine. And he will be on his guard against any turning of the means into a limitation, against the mechanising of process.6
"What is his method and his system?" asks Sri Aurobindo and answers, "He has not method and every method. His system is a natural organisation of the highest processes and movements of which the nature is capable. Applying themselves even to the pettiest details and to the actions the most insignificant in their appearance with as much care and thoroughness as to the greatest, they in the end lift all into the Light and transform all."7
"This imperfect nature of ours", explains Sri Aurobindo, "contains the materials of our perfection, but inchoate, distorted, misplaced, thrown together in disorder or a poor imperfect order. All this material has to be patiently perfected, purified, reorganised, new-moulded and transformed, not hacked and hewn and slain or mutilated, not obliterated by simple coercion and denial. "8
These principles, it will be observed, are subtle and complex, and no rigid formula of practice can be derived from them. They impose a great responsibility on the teacher and demand from him extraordinary qualities of a profound psychologist.
It would also seem that the education governed by these principles stands in need of a very flexible structure or organisation, in which the paramount place is
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6 Sri Aurobindo: The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 20 (Centenary Edition), p. 60
7 Ibid., p. 55
Ibid.,.233
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automatically assigned to the varied needs of student's growth. In such a system, it is not merely the 'subjects' of study that should count. A much greater importance will have to be assigned to the inner aspiration, experience of freedom, possibility of educating oneself, self-experimentation, discovery of the inner needs and their relation with the programmes of studies, and the discovery of the aim of life and the art of life.
A great stress will fall upon each student's individual work, and there has to be subtlety in forming flexible groupings of the students.
Our present structure of education is imprisoned within the walls of a triple system, and if we wish to make education for personality development a practical proposition, we must examine this triple system in some depth and suggest some practicable solutions. This imprisoning system is the lecture system, syllabus system, and the examination system.
We may begin with a few remarks regarding the Lecture system.
A lecture or a speech as a creative expression of the inner spirit is a living vibration and it has an indispensable place in any ideal system of education.
Again, a lecture which is an informal talk has also an important place in education.
Also, lectures have a great utility in (a) introducing a subject, (b) stimulating an interest for a subject, (c) presenting a panoramic view of a subject, (d) explaining general difficulties or hurdles which are commonly met by a large number of students in their studies, (e) crating a collective atmosphere with regard to certain pervasive ideas, and (f) initiating rapid and massive programmes of training.
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Finally, lectures as reports of research work have their undeniable place and value.
But where the above aims or conditions are absent, lectures become dry, boring, ineffective, irrelevant to the interests of the students and therefore useless.
Also, instead of being given a legitimate and rightful place, lectures in the present system are given almost a central place. It has been regarded as the central task of teachers to lecture and to cover the syllabus through their lectures. As a result, teachers are most often uncreative in their lectures; they are in a hurry to pour out their knowledge without much regard for the interest and attention of the students. Students tend to remain mostly passive, often inattentive and become in due course restless, and even violent. The present lecture system is thus quite unpsychological and devoid of much educational value. This must be changed radically.
Next, we may examine the syllabus system with which our lecture system is so closely connected.
A syllabus as an overall view of an idea of a subject has necessary place in any ideal system of education.
A curriculum as an instrument of certain goals to be achieved has also an important place.
Also, a syllabus has a great utility in presenting to the student the various elements involved in what he is going to learn, in stimulating his interest in those elements, and in creating in him a 'prospective' attitude towards his studies.
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Also, a syllabus as an instrument of a graded system of learning has its value and usefulness (at least in some areas of studies).
But a syllabus cut out rigidly and fixed uniformly for all the students alike is a heavy chain that smothers the innate tendencies of curiosity, variation, digression, play and spontaneity. It also cuts across a genuine development towards the synthesis and globality of a wide sweep of integral comprehension.
A wrong notion also grows that only what is given in the syllabus is that which is to be learnt; what falls outside the syllabus is often ignored and remains ignored indefinitely.
Instead, of giving a legitimate place to me syllabus, it has come to be regarded as a backbone of the entire structure of the educational system. This situation must radically change.
A syllabus as a general panoramic view in the vision of the teacher and as a guideline for the student has a legitimate function, and this function has to be preserved. But in the actual operation of the educational process, there have to be what may be called 'evolutionary' syllabi. A syllabus should grow according to the needs of the inner growth of me student, and me student should be free to develop and weave the various elements of his studies into a complex harmonious whole on the lines of his deeper quest and according to the rhythm of the inner flowering of his personality.
We should aim at progress, but at free progress. We should aim at perfection, but a perfection that is spontaneous and happy flowering.
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The progress of the student has to be related to the motivation of the student. Curiosity as a motive has to be fostered and nourished. It has to be deepened and enlarged. But a time must come when mere curiosity is transformed into a serious search after the Truth. It is this transformation that marks a real progress.
A time comes in the process of learning when the student is awakened to the necessity of mastery or perfection. When this motivation begins to operate, more and more thorough programmes of training can be proposed, for it is with this motivation that training becomes a rigorous but joyous exercise.
Many of the difficulties of the teachers in dealing with the students arise because most programmes of study are programmes of training, and these are presented to the students whether they are psychologically ready or not.
There has to be a long period of general culture during which attention is to be paid to the cultivation of deep interest and love for studies and a large and wide grasp of the world and its mysteries. Stress on specialisation and mastery and perfection has also to be there, but a serious attention to this aspect should be given, it seems, only when the motivation for it begins to arise in the consciousness of the student.
All this implies a new handling of the students and their interests. It also implies the paramount importance of the observation of students and a deep psychological understanding of their motivation and their needs of growth.
A sound principle of teaching is, as we have noted elsewhere, that the child should be consulted in his own growth, and so, instead of imposing a programme of studies, the teacher has to work with the student point out to him the various paths
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of progress and asking him to choose what he would like to pursue. The teacher can certainly guide, counsel, help in choosing, but he should not impose.
It is true that finding a vocation and the necessary training for the chosen vocation are indeed important motivation of study, and they have to be given an important part in our total scheme. But we have at first to note that the chief vocation of man is to be Man and to transcend the limitations of manhood. And the key to the making of a Man is to develop the faculties of original, subtle, and complex thinking capable of seizing the heart of things and men and events, and the willpower to control and harmonise the various impulses, instincts and desires by means of the perception of a noble ideal and an unfailing resolution to realise that ideal. There has also to be a mil growth of the body and its powers of Strength, agility, plasticity, health and grace. And all this development of the body, life and mind is to be under the guidance of a secret knowledge that was the privilege of India to have once possessed in a great measure, and she can now recover and develop it even in a greater measure. This is the knowledge of the psychic and the spiritual.
Whatever else may be the vocation of the individual, to possess this knowledge of the inner spiritual being and to guide his mind, life and body in the light of this knowledge this has to be chief programme of the vocation of every student. A wide, special and flexible syllabus for the discovery of and training for this vocation has to be the major concern of New Education.
But this chief programme has also to be related to each student for the specific role that he has to play in the world-activities.
A psychological handling of the student reveals the fact that ever child has in him the materials for his perfection but these materials are in an undeveloped state or
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they are ill-organised. The specific role and vocation of each is intrinsically related to the harmonisation and perfection of these materials and to the natural and right rhythm of this process of perfection.
It will also be found that each man's natural vocation is intrinsically related to a natural tendency towards the mastery of a specific Technology, if we use that term in its widest sense in which not only scientific technologies but also language and law are included in its connotation. It is this natural tendency towards technology that should be encouraged right from the early stages of education. And for this purpose, there should always be available ample facilities for the cultivation of interests in various technologies and for their mastery in due course.
But care has to be taken to see that the study of technology does not become mechanical. And to prevent this we must realise that technology is a tool of expression. This would mean that the overall emphasis should fall upon the inner springs of self-development which would -necessitate expression, and which; in turn, would necessitate the use of tools of expression.
It is also to be noted that while technology is oriented towards utility, and therefore all technological training has to be for serving certain utilities of life, the ultimate aim of technological training should not be 'utilitarian' in its vulgar sense. The aim of technology is and must be to be the vehicle of the expression of an ideal, an aspiration, an inspiration and a perfection.
A new organisation and syllabus for Technology would result from the above considerations.
And now we come to the Examination System.
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Tests as means of judging achievement are necessary and often indispensable. As such, they have an important place in any ideal system of education.
Tests are also useful for stimulation, for providing opportunities to the students to think clearly and formulate ideas adequately, for achieving precision, exactness, for arriving at a global view of the subjects of study, for self-evaluation, and for gaining self-confidence.
Tests can also be a matter of fun and play.
But tests as a threat and as a means of securing the students' motivation for studies are a barbaric misuse of a useful instrument.
Tests coming as they do only once in a year in a decisive way, the uniformity of tests in disregard of the individual differentiation, an almost exclusive reliance on written tests which encourage cramming or unreflective reproduction of the material read or studied these are among the elements that hurt sensitivity of psychologists and educationists whose hearts yearn to foster the minds and hearts of the students with deep understanding, tenderness and affection in relation to the psychological needs of their growth of personality.
The fact that even a silly, mechanical mind can pass the tests, and that, too, with honours, is sufficient to pass a verdict against the present system of tests.
The fact that the most important aspects of culture that we wish our children to cultivate lie entirely beyond the scope of our tests is sufficient to show what a marginal place tests should occupy in our total system of education. The great values of truthfulness; sincerity, cheerfulness, benevolence, right judgement, sacrifice, friendship these are some of the things which we wish our children to
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possess. As these do not come under the sweep of the examination system, they tend to be neglected or ignored or given a very inferior place in the educational process. But it is these rather than many other superficial things that should have a sovereign place. Means must be found by which sovereign things achieve their sovereignty.
The examination system must be radically changed.
The motivation for studies has to come from a natural curiosity, a sense of inner need of a profound quest, and an inevitable necessity for the search after the Truth and Perfection. The teacher's genius will be judged by the way in which he can give the right and timely ©outset to his students -and provide the necessary nourishment to their curiosity and need for a quest or stimulate them by striking ideas, projects, stories, and daily conversations, and much more by example and influence.
Let not tests be a substitute for these profound and deep things which constitute the very heart of education.
There are what may be called 'romantic' periods of study and they come to different students at different stages of development. These are the periods of general expansion or a passion for a given preoccupation or falling in love with education. These are the periods entirely unsuitable for tests.
There are others when students need to clarify their vague ideas and sentiments;
they need precision and system. These are the periods when oral or written tests appropriate to these needs can be given.
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There are again periods of assimilation at the end of which there is need to review in a connected manner the different elements of study. Here tests for comprehension or an extensive exposition would be relevant.
There are also periods when there is a will to undergo a rigorous programme of training. During such periods, even a series of difficult and strenuous tests would be perfectly justified.
Tests would be particularly needed where the courses of Technology (understood in its largest sense) are concerned.
Tests have thus to be of a varied nature, and for each student, tests must come in such a way that they are helpful to his growth.
Tests must not be the means of passing or failing, of promotion or detention, but means of a self-evaluation, stimulation, and for correction and perfection.
Moreover, tests may be oral or written or practical, according to the need and circumstance.
It is also to be realised that impromptu tests can be more effective both in their power of stimulation and in arriving at a right judgement of the actual capacity of performance of the student.
It will be seen that in this view of tests, there will be no need to prefix any timetable for tests; they should be given to the students as and when necessary.
In any case, it has to be realised that the right way of judging a student and his progress is by an inner contact, an inner feeling for the student, an inner tact and
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discrimination. These qualities have to be developed by the teachers. And it is when these qualities are developed that they will vibrate in the atmosphere a power that encourages and nourishes the great virtues of the inner soul of the student.
These considerations suggest some liens on which a new organisation for New Education suitable for personality development could be evolved. But before we come to further precisions, it may seem necessary to state some overall propositions regarding the spirit in which the new organisation should function, and the general role of the teachers in this New Education.
There will be, it may be said, four features of New Education:
(a) A sincere pursuit of the Truth, a persistent seeking of an organisation of progressive Harmony, and a spontaneous Freedom fulfilling itself through growing order and perfection.
(b) Informality in instruction, joy in learning, utter dedication, strictness in training, and the widest comprehension in the student-teacher relationship — these will govern the new methods of education.
(c) An ever-fresh youthfulness, a constant prospective thrust towards New Future, and a happy thirst for continuous progress these will govern the atmosphere of New Education.
(d) A search for the highest aim of life, a stress on the integral development of personality, and a living expression of the unity of mankind, — these will be the universal preoccupations of the teachers and students.
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In New Education, students will not go to school and colleges in order to listen to lectures, but for a quest, for finding out the answers to their questions, for consulting the teachers, when needed.
The very disposition of the classes will be radically changed, so that students have facilities to consult the teachers for a short or long time according to the needs. Instead of their being at the head of the class, the teachers will be found convenient places so that they are readily available to those who need them for help, guidance, consultation.
The teacher's main occupation will be to observe his students, their inclinations and capacities, so as to be able to help them with deep sympathy and understanding. One of his important activities will be to write out something special for each of his students which will be useful for his general and specific growth. This involves a great deal of research work, but that is the privilege of his station in life.
The teacher will not be a mere lecturer; rather he will be an animator. He will inspire much more than instruct; he will guide by example and by the influence of his inner soul and its noble aspirations.
To aid the student in awakening the inner will to grow and to progress that will be the constant endeavour of the teacher.
To evolve a programme of education for each student in accordance with the felt needs of the student's growth, to watch the students with deep sympathy, understanding and patience, ready to intervene and guide when necessary, to stimulate the students with striking words, ideas, questions, stories, projects and programmes this will be the main work of the teachers.
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But to radiate an inner calm and a cheerful dynamism so as to create an atmosphere conducive to the development of the higher faculties of inner knowledge and intuition that will be-regarded as the very heart of the work of the teacher.
As hinted earlier, there are, it seems, two important stages or aspects in the process of learning, the aspects of what may fee called 'culture' and that of what may be called 'training'. The two are indeed interlocked, and in such a complex process as that of education, it is impossible to make clear-cut distinctions and compartments. And yet, it seems important to make some pragmatic distinctions, and some definite provisions for these two aspects.
Both these words 'culture' and 'training' have certain associations, and they need to be clarified after a detailed discussion. For our present purpose, however, we shall attribute to the word 'culture' that process of learning which is a result of a spontaneous and natural growth of faculties, capacities and personality by virtue of an easy stimulation of the environment, or a happy and attractive influence, something that may in a way be described as a leisurely growth of genius. And by 'training', we shall mean the process of learning which involves regular, persistent, methodical, rigorous and meticulous exercises, This occurs where the natural growth has reached a high point of maturity which demands a further development of precision, clarity, efficiency, and overall perfection. It is also needed sometimes or often where the inherent urge is either absent or not so prominent, or else where there is an obstacle or a blockade in the growth. Or, again, there may be a need to stimulate an interest or capacity which is not active, either because it is only latent or it is absent. Or, finally, it may be needed where there is a mere laxity due to inertia and indifference.
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If we examine them carefully, we shall find that most of our educational methods aim at providing some adequate-inadequate aids which are pertinent only to the aspect of training. But since they do not apply to the stage or aspect of culture, there is an artificiality in the atmosphere, and there is an undercurrent of a psychological revolt on the part of the students.
In the New Education, this defect must be eliminated. For this elimination, it seems, two things are needed.
Firstly, there must be on the part of the teacher a recognition that:
(a) Education must be a happy process, and happiness is a fruit of the inherent urge to grow, unhampered by external pressures.
All educational processes must aim at achieving this happiness among the students. And all help, guidance and facilities should be provided towards the end.
(b) The right method of education has therefore to be that of 'culture', and all processes of training should gradually or rapidly be transformed into those of culture.
(c) However, where this transformation has till not taken place, the right time for the programme of 'training' is when the student feels inwardly the need for clarity, precision or perfection, and when he is willing to impose upon himself an outer discipline for a short or long period (according to the needs of the situation) of vigorous and persistent (or even repetitive) exercises.
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(d) In the absence of this inner will, there may be a need to impose outer discipline; but this imposition should be only a temporary device, and the aim should be to eliminate it gradually and totally. In any case, the imposition from outside must not be arbitrary and should not be offensive to the sensitiveness and sensibility of the students.
Secondly, for purposes of organisation, it may be convenient to have different organisations for 'culture' and for 'training', with a kind of flexibility so that students can use these organisations easily according to the psychological needs of their growth.
All programmes of 'training' should be conducted in what may be called 'Laboratories'. Normally, we have laboratories only for natural and applied sciences; and the normal work there is called 'practicals'. Recently, with the advent of language laboratories, the conception has gained in connotation, and we can, for our present purposes, enlarge it still further. Thus, we might propose that here should be laboratories for each branch of knowledge, and these laboratories might be organised in the following way:
(i) Information will be available here about:
(a) what the subject in question means, and why it should be studied;
(b) a few alternative syllabi for the subject;
(c) an analysis of the various steps involved in the learning of the subject systematically and thoroughly;
(d) an idea of the different ways of preparing for these various steps.
(ii) There will also be available here:
(a) selected standard and reference books related to the subject;
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(b) interesting and stimulating booklets or story books and other relevant documentation pertaining to the various topics of the subject;
(c) programmed books pertaining to the subject; these books often need to be supplemented by what may be called 'Work Sheets', i.e. educational material so prepared that it can be studied only the active participation and exercise of the student's intelligent reflection and application. These work sheets should be of various types to permit alternative approaches;
(d) a series of graded exercises which the students can handle on their own with the least help from the teacher; (there should be a facility for self-correction);
(e) various kinds of test papers, including what may be called 'final test papers'; (these final test papers are those which the students under training may be required to answer in order to judge for themselves if they have achieved the necessary mastery).
(iii) The following activities will be encouraged:
(a) determination to work hard, work regularly, and to develop the habits of punctuality and discipline;
(b) to fix up a short or long programme of work, and to stick to it rigorously (laxity in this may disqualify a student from the joining of the given programme of the laboratory work);
(c) to arrange, from time to time, a short programme of lectures and seminars where a number of difficult problems will be discussed and dealt with rapidly and effectively;
(d) to given written reports of the work done;
(e) to pass certain tests (written, oral or practical);
(f) any other activities to achieve clarity, precision, efficiency, mastery.
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We may now suggest a few ideas for the organisation of the stage or aspect of culture or of spontaneous and natural growth. Every student is normally in this stage with regard to most of his activities and returns to it after every short or long period of growth by training. He is often in this stage in regard to most of his activities simultaneously with his being in the other stage with regard to one or more of the other activities. This is the interlocking of the two stages, and therefore, many of the features envisaged for laboratory work should more or less be available for what we have called 'cultural work'. But in cultural work, there will be a stress on freedom, a sense of leisureness, a natural rhythm of work, daily conversation, and easy passage form one activity to another, fostering of interests and 'romance' of learning, warmth of friendliness and free collaboration in work, joy of discovery and invention, deep and profound reflection, spontaneous meditation, creative expression, fund and frolic of exercise, free consultation and discussion, development of consciousness, growth of spherical thought and action. These elements should also be present in the 'laboratory work', but there the stress will be on rigour, measure and mastery.
An adequate organisation of the 'cultural work' will need the following rooms:
(a) A Room or Rooms of Silence to which students who would like to do uninterrupted work or to reflect or meditate in silence can go when they like;
(b) Rooms of Consultation, where students can meet their teachers and consult with them on various points of their seeking;
(c) Rooms of Collaboration, where students-can work with each other on projects, etc.;
(d) Rooms of Exhibition, where students can organise various exhibitions of their work, — charts, plans, paintings, etc.;
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(e) Hobby Rooms, where students can work freely on various hobbies, such as aero-modelling, carpentry, fret-work, etc.;
(f) Rooms for Dancing, Music, Painting, Dramatics, etc.;
(g) Lecture Rooms where teachers can hold discussions with their students and where they can deliver lectures short or long, according to the need;
(h) Store Rooms where materials for exhibitions, hobbies, etc., can be stored carefully and systematically.
We may call these Rooms 'Halls of Culture' and it may be suggested that all these Halls as well as Laboratories should he quite contiguous in location so that there is not much movement form one place to another.
And now, a few ideas may be suggested which will describe the actual working of New Education.
It is necessary to point out that while the New Education will be proposed for general acceptance, it will not be imposed upon any one. Having ensured this basic assumption, the following points may be suggested for the actual operation of the work:
(a) There will be no compulsion with regard to any subject of study;
(b) The choice of a subject for study will be freely made by each student, and this choice should reflect a real and serious quest of the student;
(c) At the beginning of the session, students will be invited to indicate what lines of study or what particular topics they would like to explore;
(d) In order to facilitate the choice of topics, teachers may present to the students a suggestive but detailed list of suitable topics; teachers may
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so wish, may also give a few talks to the students to explain the main outline of their subjects in order to stimulate their interest; students may also be advised to consult the material available in respect of laboratories to have a detailed idea of the various subjects;
(e) Each topics thus selected will constitute a short or a long project according to the nature of the topic;
(f) In exploring each project, students will take the help of the teacher or teachers whom they might choose from among those competent to deal with it;
(g) Teachers, on their part, will endeavour to relate the exploration of the projects to the inner needs of the students and the methods of exploration will be so organised as to permit the cultivation of intuition and higher faculties of knowledge and action;
(h) In guiding students, teachers will be expected to endeavour to widen and intensify the area of exploration so as to avoid narrow specialisation or mere ideal superficiality.
(i) Normally, students will work in the Halls of Culture but, according to the needs, students will be permitted or recommended to join laboratories for a given topic or subject;
(j) Each student's programme of studies will be flexible, supple and evolutionary;
(k) In the selection of topics of study, students will not be restricted to any single faculty;
(l) There will be no lecture classes fixed in advance for the whole year. But teachers may arrange, by agreement with their students, lecture classes when necessary, particularly in relation to the 'laboratory' work;
(m) Lectures will be confined to their legitimate and justifiable purposes indicated earlier;
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(n) The overall duration of various courses operating at present in the ordinary system need not be changed;
(6) Tests will be given to the students, when necessary, particularly in relation to the 'laboratory work"; tests will be confined to their legitimate and justifiable purposes ad indicated earlier;
(p) At the end of every two or three months, each student will submit to the 'Coordinator' a report of his work in regard to each topic or subject. This report will give details of the progress he made in regard to what he has read or written or the reflections and the conclusions which might have been reached. It will also give an account of various activities in which he may be engaged whether under the supervision of the teachers or not. No activity will be regarded as extracurricular, since all activities will be a part of education and of his programme of self-development;
(q) These reports will be transmitted to the Coordinator through the respective' teachers (or directly where in regard to certain activities work is done without the supervision of any teacher). In doing so, they will mention the students' regularity of sustained effort, development of capacities, understanding of their subjects and the power of answering questions orally, practically or in writing with sufficient clarity in precision;
(r) Teachers will also give help by suggesting if a given student needs to do laboratory work in regard to a given topic or subject;
(s) The quality of the work will be considered more important than the quantity of the work, although the latter should not be meagre, but commensurate with high standards.
It will be seen that in this working, a special emphasis falls upon individual attention and upon providing necessary facilities for the maximum development of
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each student. There will thus be a great stress on 'individual work'. The individual work may be pursued in several different ways:
(a) by quiet reflection or meditation;
(b) by referring to books or relevant portions of books suggested by the teacher;
(c) by working on 'worksheets';
(d) by consultations or interviews with the teachers;
(e) by carrying out experiments;
(f) by solving problems;
(g) by writing compositions;
(h) by drawing, designing, painting, etc.;
(i) by any other work, such as decoration, cooking, carpentry, stitching, embroidery, etc.
At the same time, there can be several situations in which a 'group work' is desirable and necessary. There are a number of projects in which there can be a division of labour and the need for the coordination of the work done by the participants; there can be educational games of teamwork, and there are often needs for joint exploration and experimentation, joint pursuit of a subject, useful lectures. In all these eases, collective work is very useful, and it should be encouraged.
But care should be taken to see that the needs for individual excellence are not sacrificed for the sake of the demands resulting from the consideration of the economy of the collective work. Often the collective work tends to be mechanical, and this tendency should be discouraged. It is preferable that the collective works are of a short duration of one or two months at a time. Longer periods may be needed in relation to 'laboratory' work, but in the determination of the general
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working of the individual and group work, there should be no rigidity. Grouping is best done when it is encouraged to be formed spontaneously on the basis of natural affinities of character of personality. The organisation should constantly grow so as to make the working supple and plastic.
It will also be seen that in this working there is no compulsion with regard to any subject of study, and the student will be free to choose any combination of subjects and to progress at this own place. At the same time, this imposes upon the student a good deal of discrimination and an intimate understanding of the process of education itself. The aim of education, the value of different subjects of study, the need for mastery and perfection, and the psychological process by which one can develop one's own personality are some of the most important and difficult things on which students have to reflect deeply in order to take intelligent decisions with regard to their progress.
It should be the function of the teacher to provide to the students all the necessary elements of information and material relevant to these important questions and to present them in their full perspective.
In doing so, the following recommendations may be useful:
A. Learning by Practising:
One of the great defects of learning through reading and through books and lectures is the gulf that has been created between theoretical knowledge and realisation by experience. Much of our knowledge is theoretical, and we do not know how much of it is true in experience; much of our knowledge is abstract, and we do not enjoy it as a matter of deep and intimate possession of our very being. Much of our knowledge is ineffective, impotent, and we do not know in
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experience that knowledge is Power; much of our knowledge is a burden, and under the weight of the 'explosion' in knowledge, we do not know how to master knowledge, how to look 'steadily and whole'.
This situation is due to the fact that we have lost the real art of learning; for the
secret of learning is, as was known to the ancient seers, the experience which comes by an inner and sincere practice.
To know what is the Truth, one must practise the Truth in words, thoughts and actions. To be able to possess the Truth, one must practise day and night self-control and self-mastery.
There are, as the ancients declared, states of consciousness in which the necessary knowledge occurs intuitively; and it is the knowledge occurring in the right consciousness that is effective and fruit-bearing; for all operations of action, precise and detailed information is indispensable; but information received by mere listening or reading is most often a dead burden or a source of our imprisonment within narrow grooves and partial beliefs and opinions.
Information must grow from consciousness, and paramount importance must be given to the growth of profound and sincere states of consciousness rather than to me feeding of information.
And these states of consciousness come by an intense aspiration to know, by a great calm and silence, by stopping of the chattering noise of words and turmoil and riots in me mind. And this means a constant, persistent and steady practice of concentration and purification.
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This process can greatly be aided by inner and outer action, by a process of creativity, by a process of experimentation and productivity. If we examine life closely, we find that every circumstance of life has a message in it. Life is a great teacher of life. Every incident of life can be a field of experimentation of inner or outer action. Our attempt should be to cultivate the right attitude towards life situations and derive form the educational experience proper to the need of our growth. We are here on the earth not merely to be deep and wide in our consciousness, but also to deal with outer situations, to control and master them, and also to create situations appropriate to the needs of our inner growth and our . internal and external perfection.
A good teacher will always utilise daily situations of the student's life and turn them into occasions for the inner art of learning.
In recent times, there is a great awakening to the value of learning by doing. A number of programmes and projects are being suggested to use as stimulation which would evoke active responses. A great stress is being laid on learning through craft and manual work, works of production and experimental exercises, handling of material and technological occupation. There is also a powerful and salutary movement to utilise creative activities such as art, music, dance, composition of poetry, prose, drama. All education is, it is contended, ecstasy that comes from creativity.
All these ideas are undoubtedly excellent, but often each one of them is made into an exclusive gospel of right education, and in stressing this activity or that, the inner heart of learning is missed, namely, the growth of inner consciousness, inner concentration, and inner life of sincerity. Outer action may and often does help the inner; the outer perfection has undoubtedly to be a part of the total; but the
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foundation has to be inward, and if this is not centrally understood and practised, there is in the end bound to be a failure.
A good teacher will use any or many or all of these activities, according to the needs and circumstances, varying in each individual case, not imposing or
insisting on this or that activity. And yet, his fundamental preoccupation will be with that which lies behind the activity the inner bud in the heart of the child opening petal by petal and blossoming towards fullness.
B. Search for meaning and Unity of Knowledge:
There is fundamentally no subject which is not interesting, and there is no subject which is not immediately or remotely related to any other subject.
A subject is uninteresting only so long as it is not sufficiently understood, and nothing is understood unless everything is understood.
And yet, when we pursue everything we are led into an endless movement and we seem to be drifting away somewhere towards a greater vagueness and incomprehension.
We are baffled by multiplicity, variety, endlessness. There are details and details, and there is a constant explosion of knowledge. We are in a state of constant equilibrium. We seem to have no standing ground.
Is there a secret knowledge knowing which everything is known? The ancient Upanishads affirm such a Secret Something. But it is neither this subject nor that subject, nor it is all subjects put together. And yet it is in every subject, and in all subjects. In a sense, to learn this subject or that subject is not so important, nor is it
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important to learn the interrelation of subjects. The important thing is to learn and understand that secret. That Something is the Meaning of Meaning, the Meaning of this, of that, of all.
The method of learning That is an entirely inner process. It cannot really be taught. One can only awaken to it and realise it. No learning is that awakening, and yet all learning can be made an occasion for that awakening.
Three things may be suggested as an aid to this process of learning:
(a) Whatever be the subject of topic on hand, there should be a constant endeavour 'understanding ', 'comprehension'. To get at the heart, at the meaning to grasp, to hold it in the centre of consciousness, — this should be the primary indispensable operation of learning.
(b) Not to limit or narrow down to a limited number of subjects, but to encourage the development of interests for larger and larger fields of knowledge and activity, constant enlargement of interests, faculties and frontiers of knowledge, — this should be a necessary general operation of learning.
It is this enlargement that brings the perception of the inner meaning of all. We begin to perceive that there is in every field and all fields taken together an essentiality, universal generality or commonness, and an endless variety of particulars, details and uniqueness.
All superficiality is a waste of time and energy; to do something and not do it well betrays an insincerity which is the enemy of all progress. Therefore, while enlarging interests there should be a measure, so that the multiplicity of activities
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does not necessitate superficiality or inadequate attention. To do a thing as quickly as possible and as perfectly as possible gives us the right measure and balance.
A great help in this process is the growth of panoramic view of the world, a synoptic vision of the whole, the spherical thought, spherical consciousness.
(c) The third aid is the development of skill of perfection, efficiency, speed of performance, mastery. This should be a consequential operation of all learning. There may be here a selection of a limited number of fields and, in certain circumstances, where there is a need of invention and some pioneering work, even narrow specialisation. But even here, the stress will be on the discovery of That, the secret Something. Given this motivation, this stress, this defects of specialisation will intrinsically be corrected.
In recent times, a great and greater need for specialisation is felt, but also a greater sense and value for enlargement and for general education. To arrive at some satisfactory solution, two things have ;been suggested:
(1) Man, it is said, is the best subject of study for Man. And in the study of man, it has been argued, we have all the wideness and generality that we need and hope for.
There has thus grown the idea of 'core' or 'common' subjects of which the study of Man or some humanistic studies form an indispensable part. This study is proposed as an obligatory study in the syllabi of various humanistic and technological courses.
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(2) The second powerful and salutary idea is that of an interdisciplinary approach to students. A stress is laid upon the perception of connections, relations, the underlying unity of knowledge.
These are, indeed, excellent ideas, but they are often thought of and presented as a real remedy for our complex and difficult problems of curricula and syllabi. But the psychology of education is subtle and does not easily make itself subservient to rigid formulas. Such an attempt is therefore not likely to be the final solution.
A good teacher will not doubt regard man and his future, his circumstances and the events that shape his destiny as extremely important, and will undoubtedly underline the necessity and importance of the study of Man, but he will not impose it.
A good teacher will no doubt encourage the study of multiplicity of subjects and interdisciplinary approach, and he will take care to see that it does turn into an artificiality and superficiality. He will see that globality of thought and sphericity of thought are encouraged; but he will permit them to grow naturally and spontaneously. He will not impose them in the form of a logical web.
He will remember constantly that he is not a teacher of a subject or subjects, but a helper in the search after the Meaning of Meaning, the secret of the Unity of all knowledge.
C. Perpetual Education and Perpetual Youth:
A constant aspiration for progress and perfection, a thirst for progress and a zeal, utsaha, for self-perfection should govern the rhythm and law of self-development.
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To progress constantly is to remain young perpetually, and constant progress comes by perpetual education.
To limit the hours of education during the day and during the year, to organise education on the idea of finishing it one day, to birfurcate education into curricular and extra-curricular courses, to regard studies as work and games, as mere play and pastime, to give exclusive value to reading, writing, reasoning and eloquence, and to regard all else as secondary or as mere decoration — these tendencies are inimical to the conception of all life as education.
We have fear of time and space. We want our children to get at the certificates as soon as possible. We want them to elbow their places in a in a limited corner of the world fraught with merciless competition. We want them to be 'settled' soon, somewhere in a 'comfortable' place.
There are indeed many sociological reasons for these fears and anxieties. But the root cause is that we do not ourselves live for a sew future; we wish to 'sit down', to gravitate to some kind of sleep.
In recent times, however, new ideas of lifelong education and of integral education have begun to dominate forward thinking educationists and sociologists. They advocate a free and larger use of time; they discourage the idea of 'finishing' education. They maintain that there should no compulsion to finish a course within a specified period, there should be no compulsion to pass the tests, there should be no 'promotions' and 'detentions'.
These are excellent ideas, and they should all find a place in New Education. A good teacher will not prescribe a course, he will allow it to evolve; he will not give tests, he will stimulate an ever-growing progress.
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But he will also take care to see that there is an awakening to the ocean of Time and to the secret and calm Eternity that causes constant progression.
To live in eternity and to live for constant progression is, it is said, to be left for mystics and for some extraordinary individuals. But the time has come when that mysticism and extraordinariness are demanded even of us.
The significant fact is that the idea of Evolution is spreading everywhere, and in this idea is the force for perpetual education. We are gradually becoming aware that evolution itself can evolve, that Man himself is an evolutionary laboratory. To study our own evolution, to aid this evolution is to liberate ourselves from stagnancy. A good teacher will, therefore, propose a project on Evolution to all his students; all else, all other studies and activities will form part of this major and all-embracing study. In this study are contained the implications of perpetual education.
It is in this context we have to permit our students to progress at their own pace and on the lines of their self-development. But what about jobs? What about occupations? How and when will the students be fit, we shall be asked, for their work, their job? But our experience shows that the students, if they are free to choose their pursuits, very much tike to be carpenters, masons, managers, pilots, chauffeurs. And with this free pursuit, they will work out their natural inclinations and be fit in good time for the professions of their choice. But how much fear is born of the fact that we want our children to be carpenters, musicians, dancers we want them to be doctors, managers, lawyers, engineers! We have ourselves false values and hence the entire system is saddled with false demands, and the result is a vicious circle.
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The secret of our profession lies in our personality; but personality is not a fixed entity; it is a vibration of qualities and attributes durable for a certain season of experience; it must change with the growth of experience and with this change of personality the profession, the work and its scope must change also. A poet need not remain a poet all his life, throughout every phase of varied experiences; a surgeon needs very often to pain and philosopher; a philosopher needs often to be a warrior and a statesman. A mystic may need to be a charioteer in a battlefield.
It has been pointed out that the entire domain of the secrets of the growth of personality has remained ignored, and the consequence is that most of us possess smothered personalities, and most often we are engaged in a work that has no correspondence with our real genius, with our inner delight of existence. Most of us live in deep conflict, alienated from ourselves. It is this inner conflict which cause ageing, and even in our youth we feel so old and worn out.
But as we have noted elsewhere, we shall strive to perceive still deeper, to fathom into the secret of the true person, behind all personality, and seek there the real power of solving our conflicts and integrating different personalities. This is a deep and precious wisdom, the self-knowledge which reveals that the secret of perpetual youth is not a mere progression, but a deeper art of progression, namely, the constant harmonisation of our outer work and circumstances with the inner needs of the manifestation of the powers of the real Person seated deep within us.
It is this secret of eternal youth that will be the inner soul of New Education.
This education will insist on the development of the mind, life and body; it will so develop them as to make the instruments of the discovery of the inner psychic being and ultimately as instruments of the perfect manifestation of the inner and higher realities. The effort will be to make the body supple, strong, agile, and
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beautiful; the vital will be trained to be dynamic, discipline, obedient and effective; the mind will be cultivated to be intelligent, observant, concentrated, rich and complex. But at every stage, the paramount importance will be given to
the needs of the psychic and spiritual growth. As the Mother writes, "The will for the great discovery should be always there soaring over you, above what you do and what you are, like a huge bird of light dominating all the movements of your being"9
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9 The Mother: On Education, Collected Works, Vol. 12, (Centenary Edition), p.35.
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A PROGRAMME OF STUDIES RELATED TO
INDIA AND INDIAN VALUES
The chronology of events of Indian history is very complex, and our history books often present this chronology in such a way as to render a synoptic view of Indian history extremely difficult. In any case, our textbooks fail to present to our students a connected story of the development of essential ideas and movements which are directly related to the values which need to be underlined.
A study of Indian history should be encouraged among all teacher-trainees, as one of the central aims of education is to provide to every student irrespective of whether he wants to be a doctor or an engineer, an artist or a scientist, a writer or an artisan, should become a true Indian and should receive from his teacher, whatever his speciality, that great heritage of Indian culture to which he is a natural heir. This would mean that all teachers, whether their specialisation is in the field of mathematics or language, in science or literature, in home-science or physical culture, should have the necessary equipment which would enable them to transmit Indianness to the children and students who would be placed under their care. This does not mean that every teacher should be a specialist in Indian history but he should have at least a sound and authentic idea of Indian culture and of those achievements which fill us with pride in our heritage.
Therefore, the aim should be to provide to teacher-trainees a bird's eye view of Indian history and some detailed idea of some of the great movements and events as also of inspiring biographies, not only of kings and queens, but also of our great builders of religion and spirituality, of philosophy and ethics, of language and literature, science and technology, of art, of music and dance and sculpture and architecture. In addition, a brief idea of the various aspects of Indian life and of the values which are embedded in arts and crafts, in music and dance, in festivals and in the general attitude relating to the ultimate aims of life which provide a clue to the enigma of the continuity of Indian culture and to the problems of building up a greater and more glorious cultural edifice for the Indian people should be provided.
Finally, a somewhat detailed account of the story of the freedom struggle which constitutes our immediate past which presents us with a record of an unusual stirring of the Indian spirit which has thrown up large waves of ideas and motives which seem destined to guide India's course towards the future should also be included.
This would show the need for a new model of the presentation of Indian history. What exactly should be a new model is an extremely important question, and it calls for a special treatment at the hands of experts. In practical terms, a few important lines on which a programme of the study of Indian history should be envisaged as an integral part of the teachers' training programme, is outlined:
A Rapid View of Indian History
Part I .
(i) The question of India's antiquity
(ii) Mohenjodaro and Harappa
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(iii) Upanishad; Ramayana and Mahabharata
(iv) Vasistha, Vishwamtira, Lopamudra, Yajnavalkya, Maitreyi
Part II
(i) Buddha and Mahavira
(ii) Buddhism and Jainism
(iii) Invasion of Alexander the Great
(iv) Chandragupta Maurya
(v) Ashoka
(i) Kushans and Kanishka
(ii) Chandragupta, Samundragupta and Vikramaditya
(iii) Gupta Period: the Golden Age of India
(iv) Kalidasa, Varahamihira, Aryabhatt, Brahmgupta
(v) Fa-Hieun's account of India
(i) Harsha Vardhana
(ii) Huen Tasang's account of India
(i) The coming of Islam, Tenets of Islam
(ii) Succession of Sultans, Razia Begum
(i) Babar's account of India
(ii) Beginnings of Sikhism: Guru Nanak
(iii) Akbar
(iv) Abul Fazal, Faizi and Tansen
(v) Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb
(vi) Great Saints: Narsi Mehta, Tulsidas, Meerabai, Surdas, Chaitanya, Tukaram
(vii) Establishment ofKhalsa: Guru Gobind Singh
(viii) Vijay Nagar
(ix) Annals of Rajputana
(x) Rana Pratap
(xi) The rise of Maratha Power
(xi) Shivaji
(xii) Sufism
VII
(i) Arrival of Europeans in India. East India Company
(ii) Conflict and chaos of the 18th century
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VIII
(i) Triumph of the British over Rivals in India
(ii) War of Independence of 1857
(iii) Rani Lakshmibai, Nanasaheb and Tope
IX
(i) Renaissance in India and struggle for Freedom
(ii) Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Dayananda, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda
(iii) Birth of Indian National Congress
(iv) The first demand. The Moderates: Ferozshah Mehta, Ranade and Gokhale
(v) The demand of the Nationalists: Swarajya as the goal
(vi) Tilak and Sri Aurobindo
(vii) The Mantra of Bande Matram
(viii) Birth of new literature, art and science
(ix) Bankim Chandra, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore
(x) The Revolutionaries
(xi) The coming of Gandhi
(xii) The role of Annie Beasent
(xiii) Jalianwala Bagh
(xiv) Chittranjan Dass
(xv) Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru
(xvi) Political ideology of Satyagraha
(xvii) Non-cooperation and Awakening of Masses
(xviii) New leaders emerge
(xix) Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Azad, Vallabbhai Patel, C.Rajagopalachari
(xx) Declaration of the goal of Complete Independence
(xxi) Jail experience of eminent leaders
(xxii) Gandhi and Jinnah
(xxiii) Gandhi and British Viceroys
(xxiv) Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose
(xxv) Gandhi and his constructive programme
(xxvi) Freedom struggle becomes a mass movement
(xxvii) Role of women in the freedom struggle
(xxviii) New Constitution of 1935
(xxix) Congress leaders join the government
(xxx) Congress leaders withdraw from the government
(xxxi) The British repression. Problems of communal disharmony. Churning of Indian masses
(xxxii) Second World War and India
(xxxiii) Cripps proposals
(xxxiv) Rejection of Cripps proposals and Quit India Movement
(xxxv) Subhash Chandra Bose and Indian national Army
(xxxvi) Defeat of the Axis Powers and the End of the Second World War
(xxxvii) Attlee and Mountbatten
(xxxviii) Acceptance of the tragic proposal of Partition
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(xxxix) 15th August 1947 Birth of Free India
15th August 1947: Sri Aurobindo's 75th Birthday: Sri Aurobindo's message on the birth of Free India.
X
(i) Jawaharlal Nehru and Free India
(ii) The new Constitution of India 1949
(iii) India adopts Planning
(iv) Problems of contemporary India
(a) National integration (b) Poverty and unemployment (c) Politics, economics and morality (d) Power and productivity (e) Integrated rural development (f) India and her neighbours (g) India's educational policy (h) India and the world (i) New cultural awakening (j) Science and spirituality
(a) National integration
(b) Poverty and unemployment
(c) Politics, economics and morality
(d) Power and productivity
(e) Integrated rural development
(f) India and her neighbours
(g) India's educational policy
(h) India and the world
(i) New cultural awakening
(j) Science and spirituality
Achievements of Indian Culture
1. Religion and Spirituality:
(a) The aim of life and paths of wisdom (b) Materialism, Asceticism and the Middle Path (c) Spirit of tolerance, assimilation and synthesis (d) True understanding of religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism. (e) Synthesis of spiritual experience.
(a) The aim of life and paths of wisdom
(b) Materialism, Asceticism and the Middle Path
(c) Spirit of tolerance, assimilation and synthesis
(d) True understanding of religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism.
(e) Synthesis of spiritual experience.
2. Indian Literature:
(a) Sanskrit and Tamil (b) Birth of modem Indian languages (c) Great literary masters: a detailed study of one of them.
(a) Sanskrit and Tamil
(b) Birth of modem Indian languages
(c) Great literary masters: a detailed study of one of them.
3. Indian Art:
(a) The aim of Indian art (b) An in-depth of one of the schools of Indian painting, dance, drama, sculpture or architecture (c) Folklore and folk dances (d) Indian arts and crafts
(a) The aim of Indian art
(b) An in-depth of one of the schools of Indian painting, dance, drama, sculpture or architecture
(c) Folklore and folk dances
(d) Indian arts and crafts
4. Indian Philosophy and Science:
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(a) Methods of knowledge: Intuition, Reason and Sense-experience
(b) An in-depth study of one of the great Indian scientists or philosophers
(c) Indian contributions to mathematics, astronomy, medicine, logic and psychology
(d) Indian systems of Yoga, their synthesis
5. Theme of Heroism in Indian Culture:
(a) Spirit of adventure and the creed of the Indian fighters (b) An in-depth study of one of the greatest heroes of Indian history (c) Indian heroism and the ideal of the conquest of truth
(a) Spirit of adventure and the creed of the Indian fighters
(b) An in-depth study of one of the greatest heroes of Indian history
(c) Indian heroism and the ideal of the conquest of truth
6. Indian Festivals:
(a) An in-depth study of one of the festivals of India (b) Festivals of India and national integration (c) Festivals and daily life in India
(a) An in-depth study of one of the festivals of India
(b) Festivals of India and national integration
(c) Festivals and daily life in India
7. Indian Sports and Games: „
(a) Place of physical culture (b) An in-depth study of Yogic Asanas and their relationship with physical health and higher fulfillment (c) An in-depth study of one of the indigenous games and sports of India (d) Modern India and the world of sports
(a) Place of physical culture
(b) An in-depth study of Yogic Asanas and their relationship with physical health and higher fulfillment
(c) An in-depth study of one of the indigenous games and sports of India
(d) Modern India and the world of sports
8. The Theme of Perennial India:
(a) The greatness of India and continuity of Indian culture (b) A diagnosis of the weakness of contemporary India (c) How to build new India (d) India and the ideal of human unity
(a) The greatness of India and continuity of Indian culture
(b) A diagnosis of the weakness of contemporary India
(c) How to build new India
(d) India and the ideal of human unity
Part III
An in-depth study of the one of the following themes:
(a) Tolerance and synthesis in Indian culture (b) Unity and diversity of India (c) Remedy of India's social evils (d) Synthesis of democracy and socialism in the Indian context (e) The contemporary Indian youth: His aspirations (f) The young India's cultural efflorescence (g) India and new paths of progress Page 199
(a) Tolerance and synthesis in Indian culture
(b) Unity and diversity of India
(c) Remedy of India's social evils
(d) Synthesis of democracy and socialism in the Indian context
(e) The contemporary Indian youth: His aspirations
(f) The young India's cultural efflorescence
(g) India and new paths of progress
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CAN VALUES BE TAUGHT?
There is a profound Indian view about teaching which declares that the first principle of teaching is that nothing can be taught. This paradoxical statement may seem at first sight incomprehensible. But when we look closely into it, we find that it contains a significant guideline regarding the methodology of teaching. It does not prohibit teaching, since it is stated to be the first principle of teaching. It does, however, suggest that the methods of teaching should be such that the learner is enabled to discover by means of his own growth and development all that is intended to be learnt. It points out, in other words, that the role of the teacher should be more of a helper and a guide rather than that of an instructor. This would also mean that the teacher should not impose his views on the learner, but he should evoke within the learner the aspiration to learn and to find out the truth by his own free exercise of faculties.
The truth behind this role of the teacher is brought out by the contention that 'nothing can be taught' to the mind which is not already concealed as potential knowledge in the inmost being of the learner. One is reminded of the Socratic view that knowledge is innate in our being but it is hidden. Socrates demonstrates in the Platonic dialogue, 'Meno'1, how a good teacher can, without teaching, but by asking suitable questions, bring out to the surface the true knowledge which is already unconsciously present in the learner. As we know, Socrates and Plato distinguished between opinions on the one hand, and knowledge, on the other. They point out that whereas opinions can be formed on the basis of questionable sense experiences, knowledge which consists of pure ideas is independent of sense-experience and can be gained by some kind of experience which is akin to remembrance. In other words, according to Socrates and Plato, knowledge is 'remembered' by a process of uncovering.
Again, according to Socrates and Plato, virtue is knowledge. Therefore, what is true of knowledge is also true of virtue. Just as knowledge cannot be taught but can only be uncovered, even so virtue, too, cannot be taught but can only be uncovered. But here, again, it does not mean that there is no such thing as teaching or that the teacher has no role to play. It only means that the teacher has to be cognisant of the fact the learner has in him a potentiality and that his role consists of a delicate and skilful operation of uncovering what is hidden or latent in the learner.
There is, indeed, an opposite view, which is advocated mainly by behaviourists, who maintain that the learner has no hidden potentialities except some rudimentary capacities of reflex responses and that anything and everything can be taught to the learner by suitable processes of conditioning which can be designed according to the goals in view. Thus Watson claimed that learners can be trained to become whatever you design them to become. According to this view, everything can be taught; all virtues and values can be taught and cultivated by suitable methods of conditioning.
It is not our purpose to enter into a debate with behaviourism. But it is a fact that even behaviourism acknowledges that conditioning presupposes innate reflexes, and that the process of conditioning is dependent upon a reward-punishment system which, whether acknowledged or not, can be explained only if the learner has within him an innate drive
________________________________
1 Professor Kireet Joshi, The Good Teacher and The Good Pupil, ed., Auroville Press, Auroville, 2005 (reprint), pp. 119-131. Plato, Protagoras and Meno, Harmondsworth, Penguine, 1985, pp.130-8.
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towards some kind of goal seeking and fulfillment. In other words, even if we admit that external stimulation and conditioning are effective instruments of learning, it does not mean that stimulation and conditioning could work upon a subject that would be devoid of an innate capacity or drive to respond.
Moreover, the claims of behaviourism have been questioned by several rival theories of psychology. The school of mathematical logic, for example, rejects behaviourism and prescribes that the aim of teaching should be more limited and that the claims as to what can be taught should be more modest. It maintains that the aim of teaching should be to teach procedures and not solutions and that the methods should be so employed that the mental processes are taken in the direction of mathematical logic. The Gestalt psychology maintains that there are in the learner basic perceptual structures and schemes of behaviour which constitute some kind of basic unity. It underlines, therefore, the presence of an innate intuition in the learner and it prescribes intuitive methods based on perception, which are found largely in audio-visual pedagogy. Psychoanalysis has discovered an unimaginable large field of innate drives of which our active consciousness is normally unconscious. But Freudian form of psychoanalysis which posited eros and thanatos as the two ultimate but conflicting innate drives in man, has been largely overpassed by Adler, Jung and others. Modem psychic research is discovering in the subconscious a deeper layer which can properly be termed as subliminal, since it is found to be the seat of innate capacities of telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. As psychology is advancing, we seem to be discovering more and more of what is innate in the learner. As the same time, we are becoming more and more conscious of the necessity to be increasingly vigilant about the methods which we should employ in dealing with the learner.
It is, however, sometimes argued that there is a valid distinction between knowledge and values and that while knowledge can be taught, values cannot be taught. But when we examine this view more closely, we find that what is meant is that the methods which are valid and appropriate in the field of learning in regard to knowledge are not applicable to the field of learning in regard to values. We may readily accept this contention, and we may insist on the necessity of recognising the fact that corresponding to each domain of learning there are valid and appropriate methods and that the effectivity of learning will depend upon an ever-vigilant discovery of more and more appropriate methods in each domain of learning. It is clear, for example, that while philosophy can be learnt by a process of discussion, swimming cannot be learnt by discussion. In order to learn to swim, one has to plunge into water and swim. Similarly, the methods of learning music or painting have to be quite different from those by which we learn mathematics or physics. And indeed, when we come to the realm of values, we must recognise the necessity of a greater scruple in prescribing the methods which can be considered to be distinctively appropriate to this field.
One speciality of the domain of values is that it is more centrally related to volition and affection, rather than to cognition. At the same time, it would not be right to assume that value-oriented education should be exclusively related to training of volition and affection. This point needs to be underlined because of two reasons. Firstly, it is sometimes assumed that value-oriented education should be exclusively or more or less exclusively limited to certain prescribed acts of volition and that the value-oriented learning should be judged by what a learner 'does' rather than what he 'knows'. In our view, this is too simplistic and exclusive, and we should avoid the rigidity that flows from this kind of gross exclusivism. Secondly, this is an opposite view it is sometimes argued that learning is primarily a
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cognitive process and, therefore, value-orientation learning should largely or preponderantly be limited to those methods which are appropriate to cognition. This, too, is a gross exclusivism which should be avoided. While methods appropriate to volition and affection should be more preponderant, methods appropriate to cognition also should have a legitimate and even an indispensable place. This is reinforced by the fact that the striving towards values stirs up the totality of the being and cognition no less than volition and affection is or can be stimulated to its highest maximum degree, provided that the value-oriented learning is allowed its natural fullness.
Instruction, example and influence are the three instruments of teaching. However, in our present system of education, instruction plays an overwhelmingly important role, and often when we think of teaching we think only of instruction. It is this illegitimate identification that causes much confusion and avoidable controversies. If we examine the matter carefully, we shall find that in an ideal system of teaching, instruction should play a much less important role than example and influence of the teacher. It is true that in the domains of learning where cognitive activities play a more dominant part, instruction through methods other than lectures and discussions should play a larger role.
In a system of education, where teaching and instruction are almost identified there is very little flexibility where example and influence can play their legitimate role. Moreover, our present system is a continuous series of instruction punctuated by homework and tests which accentuate the rigidity of procedure and mechanical adherence to schedule of timetable, syllabi and examinations. In this rigid and mechanical structure, the centre of attention is not the child but the book, the teacher and the syllabus. The methods which are most conducive to the development of the personality of the child such as the methods of self-learning, exercise of free will, individualised pace of progress, etc., do not have even an elbow room. Indeed, if this is the system of education and if we are to remain content with this system of education, most important elements of learning will for ever remain outside this system and we cannot confidently recommend any effective system of learning, much less any effective programme of value-education.
It is hoped that sooner rather than later, our system of education will change in the right direction. An increasing number of educationists and teachers will come forward to break the rigidities of our educational system. It is possible to make our system more and more flexible and with the right type of training imparted to teachers, a more healthy system of education will eventually be introduced and will become effective.
To comment on our present system of examinations, apart from a number of undesirable aspects of our examination system, the one which is particularly conducive to what may be called "anti-value" is the tendency which promotes the idea that passing of an examination and earning of degree is the aim of education. Radical measures should be adopted to combat this idea and to introduce such changes in our examination system whereby the educational process can remain unalterably fixed on the right aims of education.
A radical change in the examination system is a necessary condition of any meaningful value-oriented education.
It is sometimes argued that values can best be taught through the instrumentality of a number of subjects rather than through any specific or special subject, whether call it by the name of "moral education" or "ethics", or "value-education". There is a great force behind this contention and a well-conceived programme of studies of various subjects should naturally provide, both in their content and thrust, the requisite materials for value-education.
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The question, however, is whether our current programmes of studies have been so carefully devised as to emphasise those aspects which can readily provide to teachers and students the required opportunities, conditions and materials for value-education. But even if our programmes of studies are revised, there will still remain the specific area of value-education which should receive a special, although not exclusive, attention and treatment. In other words there should be a core programme of value-education in the totality of educational programmes. This core programme should be so carefully devised that various threads of this programme are woven into the complex totality of all the other programmes of studies: and this can perhaps be done more easily, if we develop a curriculum for the development of Integral Personality. Here yet the central theme of value-education would not form a mere appendage of all other subjects but would stand out as the overarching and the supervening subject of basic importance. A suitable study of this core programme should form an important part of teachers' training programmes in our country.
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WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Making of a teacher differs significantly from making, say, of an advocate or a surgeon. The teacher is more than a mere skilled performer in a branch of his profession. Of course, he must have the best of skill in accustoming the pupil to the austere joy of mastering a difficult theme, be it quadratic equation or the equation E=MC2 or any other theme. But, in the end, when the frontiers of knowledge change, the importance and even the validity of what is learnt may not survive. What survives is the discipline of learning and the values acquired in the process. Whatever be the topic the teacher teaches, the ultimate values of his professional endeavour bear on the habits of living and thinking and enjoying life the art of life on what the pupil loves and cares for. Thus, the teacher inspires the life of the pupil which is the one single theme of all of education. Skills in teaching are, no doubt, important but they do not take the teacher far. An otherwise unashamedly dissolute teacher may teach effectively; he also influences lives of the pupils no less, but sadly. Contact with great and good teachers as also with great ideas is the foundation of moral and spiritual education. The most effective weapon of a teacher is the silent power of example; it matters in the end and always. It is, therefore, necessary that teacher education should aim not at merely cultivation of professional skills but in making of man a man of higher character and noble vision. This consideration brings to teacher-education a very different purpose and responsibility which are not equally relevant to other professional education.
We should not minimize the magnitude of the problem of teacher education; consider, for example, the large number of teachers that need training of different kinds and different levels (including the university level) and at different periods in their career. The entire process has to be viewed as a whole in a well conceived and integrated fashion and with sensitiveness to the intellectual and human values.
A number of the teacher education institutions suffer from lack of adequate facilities, and they do not adhere to the norms regarding physical facilities or provision of adequate staff. Colleges of education are often either under-staffed or the staff are under-qualified. There are serious curricular deficiencies, and evaluation in teacher education is far from satisfactory. Due to various reasons, academic sessions for B.Ed. are delayed, and in some cases, effective teaching lasts only for three to six months, although the number of working days in a teacher education institution is expected to be at least 220 in a year.
Many private colleges have sprung up and in a number of degree colleges, teacher-education courses have been instituted without ensuring the availability of suitable facilities and qualified staff. Even capitation fees are being charged, thereby commercialising teacher education.
In this context it would be pertinent to refer to the reports of the enormous corruption not only in seeking admission to teacher training institutions but also in passing the examination with inadequate training. The teachers who have gone through this polluting mill and profited by it can hardly be expected to stand for high principles of rectitude and correct behaviour.
In many universities, correspondence courses leading to the awarding of B.Ed. and M.Ed. degrees have been started. But serious questions are being raised as to whether such correspondence courses are really relevant in field where a personal contact between the
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trainer and the trainee is extremely important, and where the major objective is making of the man in the teacher and not merely a technician. These questions require an urgent answer in view of the fact that the number of students both in regular colleges and in correspondence courses has considerably increased.
There is in our country a backlog of untrained teachers in several States. And since there is no manpower planning in teaching profession, it is difficult to suggest any rational policy which States can follow in regard to the intake of fresh student-teachers.
It seems obvious that urgent measures need to be taken to:
(a) Introduce effective changes in the teacher education curriculum, particularly with a view to providing a powerful orientation towards value-education;
(b) Suggest a rational duration for pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes;
(c) Suggest effective methods of evaluation of trainees; and
(d) Suggest measures for the maintenance of standards of teacher-education and to meet various deficiencies and avoid evils which are prevalent in the field of teacher education.
We need to ensure that the teachers who would be in charge of the care of the children, adolescents and youths of our country are not only well-trained in professional skills related to their subjects of specialisation but will also have effective personality and character capable of providing the needed guidance and inspiration to the growing minds and hearts of the young, as also a wide vision of our country and the world serving as a sure basis for patriotism, international understanding and voluntary optimism for a peaceful, progressive and glorious future.
The value-orientation and skill-oriented education should be treated as a central thrust not only of our teachers' training programmes but also for our schools and colleges meant for the children, adolescents and youths. The aspirations of the value-oriented teachers can be fulfilled only if increasing number of schools and colleges in our country begin to provide value-oriented education.
Before concluding it would be appropriate to emphasise the need to provide in-service training in value-oriented education to all the teachers who are at present engaged in teaching. The teachers in colleges and universities should also pursue a programme of value-oriented education and undergo training in this regard also need to be underlined.
The teachers are destined to play a major role in the shaping of the destiny of mankind. In view of the fact that destiny stands today in a balance, fraught with dangerous possibilities of upheavals, catastrophes and cataclysms, central attention must be paid to the task of building up a large number of men and women into teachers who can stand in the coming days as hero-warriors and as leaders and pioneers dedicated to the highest values, the promotion of which alone can ensure the survival and fulfillment of the human race. In this task, programmes of value-oriented education are indispensable.
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The fundamental thrust of the curriculum that we may develop will result from the emerging and imperative need to develop new types of teachers that can respond to the oft-repeated ideal of education for integral development of personality which would be both value-oriented and skill-oriented, and which would be sensitive to both science and aesthetics, and which would not only be global in character and outlook but also empowered to discharge corresponding responsibilities. This may appear to be a tall goal, but considering the speed with which the contemporary world is spinning forward, it may seem that even our farthest forward looking ideas will soon become common place. It is with that sense that we can think of the following new thrusts to the programmes of teacher's education:
1. We may think of 4 or 5 year integrated programme of teacher's integrated education and thus of providing to the candidates for teacher education sufficient time to develop their own integral personality, their valueorientation, their skill-orientation and their global outlook and its allied abilities, such as multilingualism and wide knowledge of India and the world as also sensitiveness to empathise with the students of today and tomorrow who have begun to manifest new attitudes and new inclinations, which need to be understood, appreciated and channelised towards the fulfilment of the highest aspirations of humanity.
2. In consonance with the aims of semester system and credit system, we need to emphasise the theme of interdisciplinarity and even though we may retain the present day streams of arts, science and commerce, we need to ensure that the products of Indian Institution of Teacher Education are interdisciplinary and are able to enter into the new fields of inquiry without psychological blockades of rigidity and inability.
3. We have in India already an experience of integrated teacher education programme which was initiated by the NCERT and successfully implemented at its Mysore Campus. Even today the Mysore University has continued this 4 or 5 year integrated programme for arts, science and commerce, and we can learn a great deal from its curriculum and even adopt many of its elements.
4. At same time, we can think of developing a few foundational courses, which break the boundaries of the present day streamlines and which would also respond to the holistic demands that our educational system is now beginning to make upon teachers. In this context, we may propose to have
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in the new curriculum that we shall have to frame the following foundational courses, which can all be spread over 4 years/5 years:
1. General Knowledge Course;
2. Contemporary Global World;
3. Skill-oriented Education;
4. Value-oriented Education;
5. Fundamental Duties;
6. Indian Culture
7. Philosophy of Education and Life
8. Education for Personality Development
In addition, we will also conceive two or three or four Core Courses, again spread over 4 or 5 years. These Core Courses can be envisaged to aid the teachers in their actual school work where they will be serving as teachers. These courses can be as follows:
9. Education for Integral Development of Personality
10. Education Through Indian Culture
11. Multisided Physical Education
12. Multilingual Courses
We may briefly analyse the above mentioned Foundational and Core Courses:
1. General Knowledge Course:
As far as the General Knowledge Course is concerned, we may conceive of this course to consist of two components. The first component would only acquaint the students with the domains in respect of which we may expect students to possess some acquaintance with prominent names, terms, phrases, etc., in regard to these domains (Annexure -1). They may include:
1. The nature of the universe;
2. Relationship of the earth with the universe;
3. Matter, life and mind;
4. Evolutionary process;
5. Mystery of the human body and human intelligence;
6. A bird's eye view of the world history;
7. What is Philosophy?
8. What is Religion?
9. The visual arts;
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10. Music and dance;
11. Languages and Literatures;
12. Countries of the world.
The second component of this course would consist of a number of alternatives, and students may be allowed to select any two or three alternative studies. This may include, with greater details, the following topics:
(a) Amazing facts of any five domains;
(b) Some details of Indian history and geography and the world history and geography;
(c) Latest issues in any one of the following themes:
(1) Physics;
(2) Chemistry;
(3) Biology and Evolution;
(4) Biotechnology;
(5) Medicine;
(6) Psychology; and
(7) Philosophy
(d) Technical terms (and meanings) of any one domain ofarts or any of the domains of sciences or any one of the domains of industries and commerce;
(e) Basic details of the main periods of Indian history;
(f) Detailed information regarding modem art, modem music, greatest contemporary poets; or
(g) Detailed information regarding Sanskrit, Gujarati, Hindi and English literature, etc.
2. Contemporary Global World:
This course may have two components (Annexure II). The first component may consist of the study of:
1. Greek Culture, Renaissance and contemporary scientific climate;
2. Religions of the past and the contemporary attitudes;
3. Relevance of lessons of French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Russian Revolution, Discovery and development of USA, to the contemporary world;
4. World of Science and the Future;
5. World of Industry and Commerce and the Future;
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6. Evolution of Humanity and the Future question of human progress, fulfilment, new directions;
The second component may consist of a number of alternatives and students may be allowed to have a choice to choose two or three of the following and similar subjects:
(a) Philosophy of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity;
(b) Contemporary Crisis and the Future;
(c) International Sports;
(d) Contemporary interdisciplinary studies;
(e) Prospect of a New World Culture;
(f) New Movements in Health and Healing;
(g)UNO and international agencies their origin, their significance and their role;
(h) Commercial Geography and ICT;
(i) Contemporary International Relationship;
(k) Problems of Human Unity;
(1) Frontiers of Physics and Biotechnology;
(m) Theories of Justice;
(n) Problems of Energy;
(o) Philosophy of Science: Induction, Critical Rationality, March of Knowledge;
(p) Synthesis of Science and Spirituality;
(q) Contemporary challenges of Education;
(r) Utopias and New Visions of the Future;
(s) Space Travel and Implications for the Future;
(t) Contemporary World-Art and Contemporary World of Drama/Dance/ Cinema;
(u) Nationalism and Internationalism.
3. Skill-oriented Education:
The third course Skill-Oriented Education will also have two components. The first component would provide a general idea of what exactly skill means and what kind of skills are demanded in the contemporary world. It may also provide a short discussion on psychology of skill development and how basic skills of head, heart and hand can be blended. Finally, this course may also provide to every student skills for running a home and an office. (Annexure III)
The second component of this course may allow a student to choose two or three of the following, so that every student gets opportunity to develop corresponding skills:
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(1) Computer and shorthand in various languages;
(2) Reception and role of PRO in various organisations;
(3) Reporting various kinds of meetings, events, personalities (in contemporary world);
(4) Knowledge of History and Geography for Cultural Tourism;
(5) Writing a book on a subject of choice or Magazine or Articles (on various subjects Arts, Science, Commerce, Sports, General-Knowledge);
(6) Research;
(7) Musical Skills;
(8) Teaching and Communication;
(9) Engineering Skills Electrical, Mechanical, Civil;
(10) Correspondence;
(11) Story-telling;
(12) Translation.
4. Value-Oriented Education:
The course on Value-Oriented Education, in its first component part, would provide basic philosophy of Value-Oriented Education, and its second component would provide exploration in any of two or three allied themes (Annexure IV):
(a) Explorations in―
(1) Aim of Life;
(2) Truth, None-Violence, Continence, Non-Stealing, NonCovetousness;
(3) Secrets of Learning to grow towards Excellence;
(4) Liberty, Equality, Fraternity;
(5) Secrets ofSelf-control, and Self-mastery through Illumination, Heroism and Harmony;
(6) Truth, Beauty and Goodness;
(b) Study of Five great and perennial quests God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality;
(c) History of Indian system of Values;
(d) Utilitarianism versus Intuitionism: Solution.
5. Fundamental Duties:
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The course related to Fundamental Duties, in its first component would provide to the student a general introduction to the following themes (Annexure V):
(1) History of Freedom Struggle;
(2) History of National Flag and National Anthem;
(3) Ideals referred to in (a) Preamble to the Constitution; (b) Directive Principles; and (c) Fundamental Duties;
(4) Concepts of Duties and Rights;
(5) Critical study of concept of Nationalism, Freedom and Internationalism;
(6) Meaning of Scientific Temper, Humanism and Freedom to inquire;
(7) Meaning of Excellence.
In addition, in its second component, it would provide to the students a possibility of more detailed study of two or three of the any following or allied themes:
(a) India's problems of environmental protection in the context of the "Inconvenient Truth" by A.L. Gore;
(b) Community Service relating to:
(1) Village Work;
(2) Road building;
(3) Cottage Industries;
(4) Technical Help to villagers and in regard to the knowledge and practices concerning —
(a) Soil; (b) Crops; (c) Marketing; (d) Weather, etc.; (e) Organic Farming, etc.
(c) Problems of National defence and how to participate in National Defence;
(d) History of India's Spirit of Synthesis;
(e) Excellence in National Development (Any two Domains);
(f) Excellence in Integral Development of Personality (qualities regarding physical health, vital heroism, rational thought, ethical qualities, aesthetic qualities, spiritual qualities);
(g) Valuable lessons of Indian history and heritage;
(h) Ideal of Fraternity;
(i) Meaning of Sovereignty, Unity, Integrity and Solidarity of the nation;
(j) Importance of Education, particularly Education of the Child.
6. Indian Culture:
The course relating to Indian Culture, will provide in its first component general information and discussion on the following topics (Annexure VI):
(1) What is Culture? Distinction between Civilisation and Culture;
(2) Indian Rationality;
(3) Indian Aesthetics (Literature, Art, Music, Dance, Drama);
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(4) Indian Ethics and Dharma; .
(5) Indian Religion and Spirituality;
(6) Distinctive Features of Indian Culture;
(7) Indian Renaissance.
In the second component, it will provide a possibility of choosing any two or three of the following or allied themes for a more detailed study
(a) Significance of―satyam eva jayate;
(b) Dharma in daily life of Indians;
(c) Veda and Indian Culture;
(d) Indian Natya Shastra;
(e) Lessons of Ramayana;
(f) Lessons of Mahabharata;
(g) Significance of Puranas;
(h) Significance of Ramayana and Mahabharata;
(i) Indian Women;
(k) Problems of Hindu-Muslim Unity;
(1) Masterpieces of Indian Art;
(m) Masterpieces of Indian Architecture;
(n) Problems of Indian Polity and Unity of India; and
(o) Yoga
7. Philosophy of Education and Life:
There has been one criticism of the educational system that it is divorced from life. This is a valid criticism because, even philosophically, the aims of education and life should be co-terminus. However, when thought is being developed for relating education to life, there is no clarity as to how education and life can be correlated. A deeper reflection is absolutely necessary in the proposed programme. We may, therefore, provide for a philosophical exploration of the aims of life as also of how thinkers of the East and the West have endeavoured to develop their philosophy of education in the context of the aims of life. Many other subjects and topics can also be included. Some of the relevant topics have been indicated in the relevant Annexure VII.
8. Education for Personality Development:
If one of the acknowledged aims of education is the development of the multisided integral personality, the teachers of today and tomorrow should be empowered to develop their own integral personality and they should have a good philosophical and psychological grounding in the concept of personality and in the processes of
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integration of personality. Keeping this in view, we may suggest the topics under this subject, which have been indicated in the relevant Annexure VIII.
CORE COURSES:
As far as the core courses are concerned, one general remark that we make is that they are necessary for conducting class teaching, and they will have to involve a good deal of project work and practicals.
9. Education for Integral Development of Personality:
If the teacher is conceived as a gardener and a child as the bud that contains within itself the potentialities of full-blown flower, we may be able to get the insights as to what has to be the role of the teacher while tending the bud so that it receives necessary environment, atmosphere, influence and some kind of intervention of intelligent and deliberate but extremely careful and restrained care of the teacher. The teacher is not merely an instructor, but she provides atmosphere and environment through her own internalised values, capacities and also her knowledge and wisdom. Only thinkers can produce thinkers, and only the courageous can impart inspiration towards heroism; only light can kindle lamps, and only the kind and the compassionate can provide to the students the required warmth and uplifting influence. How to implement this oft repeated precept into actual practice of teaching and learning in a class situation has to be worked out carefully. In the relevant Annexure-IX a tentative curriculum has been presented.
10. Education Through Indian Culture:
In the Annexure X, a tentative statement has been made for the consideration of the Committee.
11. Multisided Physical Education:
One of the great deficiencies in Indian system of education is its neglect of meaningful programme of physical education. Sometimes what goes under the programme of yoga has not been sufficiently well planned and what goes under P.T. is so perfunctory that it neither serves the purposes of health nor of strength nor of agility of the physical bodies of the students. A healthy and strong body should be regarded as pre-requisite for any candidate to be a good teacher. Only then the teacher will be able to inspire the child to become a good gymnast, athlete or swimmer, body builder or a good yogi having the right type of the body for spiritual accomplishments.
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In the relevant AnnexureXI details of this programme have been suggested, and it may be recommended that every student in the IITE should undergo a comprehensive and multisided physical education, and the Institute must find the required time for this purpose.
12. Multilingual Courses:
In the relevant Annexure XII, it is suggested that provisions should be made in this Institute to empower every student to have competence in Gujarati and in English so that both can be used as media of instruction.
It is further suggested that every student should have competence to read, write and understand Hindi, along with the capacity to translate Hindi into Gujarati and English and vice-versa.
It is also further suggested that every student should have knowledge of Sanskrit so that she can understand, read, speak, converse in Sanskrit at a minimum level and also be able to translate simple passages of Sanskrit into Gujarati or English.
Finally, it is also suggested that if the products of IITE are to be global, they should also have sufficient exposure in one additional foreign language such as French, which has large canvas in the world, and which is also accepted as a language of the United Nations and its agencies.
It is to be understood that most of the students have great linguistic deficiencies, and the Committee may like to consider this problem and suggest some crash courses for students to acquire capacities of eloquence both in Gujarati/Hindi and English.
In addition to the above, the Curriculum Committees may like to make recommendations on the following:
• Credit to be given for the various topics under the Foundational Courses and under the Core Courses.
• Credit to be given to Core Courses in Arts, Science and Commerce and other interdisciplinary courses.
• Expected time hours that can be recommended for Core Courses, Foundational Courses and Optional Courses.
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• A complete scheme of 4 or 5 year integrated courses.
• Acceptability of the proposed courses by the NCTE.
It may also be added that the Credit System should be made so flexible that interdisciplinary courses can be framed by students according to their inclinations and proficiency. In particular, it may be emphasised that we need to promote:
• Multilingualism
• Issue of Cultural History and the Future
• Interdisiciplinarity of the themes such as the following:
a) Ideal of Human Unity
b) Evolution and Future of Human Species
c) History of Religions
d) Classics
e) Philosophy, Astronomy and Classical Languages, etc.
Some thought needs to be devoted to the framing of Time-Tables and to the question of compulsory attendance at lectures.
If the Credit System has to succeed, and if students are to be encouraged to develop the capacity of self-learning (in the light of UNESCO's thoughts in "Learning: Treasure Within"), we shall have to modify greatly the present Timetable system, and while students may be required to be present in Lecture Halls/Video-Libraries/Book Libraries/Portals Rooms/Libraries, etc., we have to allow students to study through self-learning rather than through attendance at Lectures, according to full-time fixed time-tables. New Types of Time-Tables have been thought of.
We may also suggest several Specialised Courses, a tentative list of which is given at Annexure XIII.
The student may be required to offer any three Specialised Courses. In the Annexure XIV, we present for consideration some detailed proposals for a specialised 5-year course for Personality Development, which includes lists of Life-Skills.
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In Annexure XV, we present suggested details for a specialised course in Philosophy of Education And Life.
Annexure XVI suggests topics to be included in a 5-yeasr course in Physical, Vital and Mental Education.
Examination Reforms need to be revised in the light of the following:
• Examination on Demand (as in NIOS)
• Examination of Skills
• Examination of Personality Development
• Examination of Physical Fitness
We may summarise a tentative proposal for 5 year M.Ed. Programme in the following table:
Areas
1. Basic Studies & Exercises :
Some Details
General Knowledge
Global World
Value-Oriented Education
Skill-Oriented Education
Fundamental Duties
Indian Culture
Physical Education & Health:
Gymnastics
Athletics
Swimming
Yogic Asanas
Pranayama
Games (Indian & Western)
Personality Development:
Good Stories
Inspiring poems & songs
Biographies
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Science
Appreciation of Art &
Towards wisdom,
Heroism,
Harmony, and
Works (including physical labour)
2. Communication & Language Proficiency: Gujarati, English, Sanskrit
ICT
Workbooks & programmed
books
Counselling
3. Liberal Studies (Literature, Fine Arts, Philosophy)
4. Physical, Human & Commercial Sciencies
5. Educational Studies (Professional)
6. Internship & Innovative Initiatives (regarding Aims, Methods, Contents of Education)
******
M.Ed. (Hons) : One Additional Foreign Language
+ One Interdisciplinary study : e.g. Philosophy + Sanskrit + Indian Art + Astronomy
M.Ed. (Special) :0ne Additional Foreign Language + A Specialised Pedagogical Study
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ANNEXURE IX
Education for Integral Development of Personality To Know Oneself and to Control Oneself
(An Exploratory Draft Programme)
Classes I and II
I. Stories and plays to illustrate the following themes:
1. The ideal of truth:
To speak the truth, whatever the consequences.
2. Aspiration for perfection:
Whatever you do, do it as perfectly as you can.
3. Dreams of the new world:
Where truth alone prevails, where beauty and goodness pervade.
II. Special exhibitions on the above themes.
III. Teachers may recommend the following exercises and help each child to practise them:
1. Exercises in remembering and repeating noble aspirations and thoughts.
2. Exercises in observations and accurate description (leaves, plants, flowers, minerals, scenes, animals, figures, human body, artistic pictures, musical pieces, building, objects, events).
3. Art of bathing, art of cleaning the teeth, art of dreaming, art of sitting and standing in right postures.
4. Exercises in control of the senses:
Control in regulating calls of nature, thirst and appetite;
Control in speech;
Control in behaviour;
Control in movement and action.
Classes III and IV
I. Development of the sense of wonders:
1. Examples from astronomy: distance, vastness, galaxies, expanding universe.
2. Examples from physics: what is matter behind what we see and touch?
3. Examples from chemistry: what is water? Is it mere oxygen and hydrogen or something more?
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4. Examples from other sciences: caterpillar and butterfly, language and understanding, outer man and inner man.
II. Training of the senses and their powers:
1. Knowledge of the senses: five senses of knowledge, five senses of action.
2. Exercises of vision and hearing: art and music as instruments.
3. Exercises of concentration in sense activities,.
4. Inner senses: capacities to see the invisible and to hear the inaudible.
III. Awareness of the body:
1. Elementary knowledge relating to health, strength and beauty of the body.
2. Art of relaxation and art of sleeping.
3. The body as the temple of the spirit.
IV. Teachers may recommend, according to circumstances, me following attitudes and exercises:
1. One should study, not to pass examinations, but to discover the secrets of the world.
2. Work with the body is indispensable for true knowledge and experiences.
3. Practise of concentration in every activity: concentration is the key to all progress.
4. Practise of quietude and silence in "Rooms of Silence".
5. Impromptu periods or moments when children are asked to be as quiet as possible.
Directions to Teachers (Class I — IV)
Some practical hints that result form the application of methods of psychological and value-oriented development are suggested here:
(a) It may first be noted that a good many children are under the influence of the inner psychic presence which shows itself very distinctly at times in their spontaneous reactions and even in their words. All spontaneous turning to love, truth, beauty, knowledge, nobility, heroism is a sure sign of the psychic influence.
(b) To recognise these reactions and to encourage them wisely and with a psychic feeling would be the first indispensable step.
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(c) The best qualities to develop in children are:
sincerity perseverance honesty peace
straightforwardness calm
cheerfulness self-control
courage self-mastery
disinterestedness truth
patience harmony
endurance liberty
(d) These qualities are taught infinitely better by examples than by beautiful speeches.
(e) The undesirable impulses and habits should not be treated harshly. The child should not be scolded. Particularly, care should be taken not to rebuke a child for a fault which one commits oneself. Children are very keen and clear-sighted observers; they soon find out the educator's weaknesses and note them without pity.
(f) When a child makes a mistake, one must see that he confesses it to the teacher or the guardian spontaneously and frankly; and when he has confessed it he should be made to understand with kindness and affection what was wrong in the movement and that he should not repeat it. A fault confessed must be forgiven.
(g) The child should be encouraged to think of wrong impulses not as sins or offences but as symptoms of a curable disease alterable by a steady and a sustained effort of the will falsehood being rejected and replaced by truth, fear by courage, selfishness by sacrifice, malice by love. (h) Great care should be taken to see that unformed virtues are not rejected as faults. The wildness and recklessness of many young natures are only the overflowing of an excessive strength, greatness and nobility.
(i) An affection that is firm yet gentle, sees clearly, and a sufficiently practical knowledge will create bonds of trust that are indispensable for the educator to make the education of a child effective.
(j) When a child asks a question, he should not be answered by saying that it is stupid or foolish, or that the answer will not be understood by him. Curiosity cannot be postponed, and an effort must be made to answer
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questions truthfully and in such a way as to make the answer comprehensible to his mental capacity.
(k) The teacher should ensure that the child gradually begins to be aware of the psychological centre of his being, the psychic being, the inner seat of the highest truth of our existence.
(1) With that growing awareness, the child should be taught to concentrate on his presence and make it more and more a living fact.
(m) The child should be taught that whenever there is an inner uneasiness, he should not pass it off and try to forget it, but should attend to it, and try to find out by an inner observation the cause of the uneasiness, so that it can be removed by inner or other methods.
(n) It should be emphasised that if one has a sincere and steady aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet in one way or another, externally by study and instruction, internally by concentration, revelation or experience, the help one needs to reach the goal. Only one thing is absolutely indispensable, the will to discover and realise. This discovery and this realisation should be the primary occupation of the being, the pearl of great price which one should acquire at any cost. Whatever one does, whatever one's occupation and activity, the will to find the truth of one's being and to untie with it must always be living, always present behind all one does, all that one thinks, all that one experiences.
All the above suggestions are to be implemented from day to day under various circumstances and in the context of living problems of the growth of children.
The role of the teacher is to put the child upon the right road to its own perfection and encourage it to follow it, watching, suggesting, helping, but not imposing or interfering. The best method of suggestion is by personal example, daily conversation and books read from day to day.
Class V
I. Science and Values:
A simple statement of the major facts of evolution:
1. Emergence of matter.
2. Emergence of life in matter.
3. Emergence of mind in life.
4. Man is evolving.
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5. Striking phenomenon of the mutation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.
6. Future possibilities of the evolution of man. Yoga is a scientific and methodised effort of the evolution of man.
II. Aids for the Development of Value-Consciousness and Experience:
1. To ask oneself: what am I?
2. Story of the search of Svetaketu and Nachiketas.
3. Listening to music: selected ragas (Indian) and harmonies (Western)
4. Picture of the beauty of nature.
5. Study of great personalities: the Buddha (a detailed study).
6. Need for physical fitness: what it means (topic for study and reflection).
III. Teachers may recommend the following exercises according to circumstances and in response to the individual needs of each student:
1. Resolve daily to be truthful, to be free from fear and to have goodwill for everyone.
2. Works of labour and community service with an inner motive of dedication.
3. Clarity of thought: there is a distinction between appearance and reality (Examples from science, history, literature and philosophy).
4. Cleanliness and purity of the body, exercises for the body.
Class VI
I. Science and Values
Striking facts revealed by science:
1. Extraordinary phenomenon of intelligence in animals and birds.
2. Possibility of intelligence even in matter or material objects.
3. Complex organisation of social life in certain species of insects, animals and birds.
4. Man's intelligence: is it superior to the intelligence of animals and birds in every respect.
5. Value-oriented methods of developing intelligence and knowledge:
Concentration silencing of the mind
Intense search for the truth
Sincerity in thought, word and deed
Deep humility
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II. Aids for Developing of Value-Consciousness and Experience:
1. Introspection: distinction between thought, will, emotion, impulse, sensation, perception, and functions of the body.
2. Story of Arjuna at the beginning of the Mahabharata War to illustrate the above distinctions (other similar stories)
3. Determination of the aim of life:
The Meaning of an idea
Ideals of truth, beauty and goodness
Ideal of perfection
4. Study of great personalities: Jesus Christ (a detailed story).
5. Listening to music: selected ragas (Indian) and harmonies (Western).
6. Examples of poetic excellence: regional poetry, Sanskrit poetry, English poetry.
7. Need to control and master the lower nature (topic for study and reflection).
8. Diet and health.
II. Exercises to be recommended:
1. To makes in daily life the choice for control and mastery, for regularity and punctuality; the choice for truth and perfection, for work and perseverance to the end of the work, for seriousness of purpose and inner joy and equality in all circumstance.
2. To remember the aim of life and to:
(a) Review daily before retiring one's actions, thoughts, feelings, in relation to the aim of life.
(b) Try to harmonise thoughts, words, feelings and deeds to as to progress more in this direction.
3. To observe in oneself and to practise through daily effort and exercise:
(a) Creative urge towards poetry, music, art, crafts, dance, drama, reading, writing.
(b) Capacities to feel wideness, intensity and height of consciousness and experience.
4. Works of labour and community service with an inner motive of dedication learning the art of sweeping rooms, courtyards, washing of dishes and clothes, and elements of first aid.
5. Enlarge interests: there is no subject which is not interesting.
6. Will always for health, strength, agility, plasticity and beauty. Remember: it is not virtue to fall ill. If ill:
(a) Examine diet
(b) Examine habits
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(c) Examine feelings, thoughts and actions correct them and recover health.
7. Daily one hour of relaxation and games, etc.
Class VII
1. How are plants different: from animals?
2. Do plants and trees have feelings?
3. Experiments of Jagdish Chandra Bose.
4. Experiments of effects of music on plants.
5. Study of flowers as symbols of psychological states and powers.
II. Aid for the Development of Value-Consciousness and Experience:
1. Calm and intimate company of plants, trees and flowers.
2. A study of the:
(a) Stories of Bodhisattva from the Jatakas.
(b) Parables from the Bible.
(c) Questions put to Yuddhishthira on the bank of the lake and his answers.
(d) Messages received by Prophet Mohammad from the Angel.
(e) Account of Rabindra Nath Tagore's experience of his opening to poetic inspiration.
(f) "Powers of the Mind" from Swami Vivekananda.
3. Topic for deep study and reflection: how to progress continuously?
4. Study of great personalities: Prophet Mohammad (a detailed study).
III. Methods for the development of the following qualities and skills:
Quietude
Interest in languages
Poetry and music
Clarity of thinking
Will-power
IV. Exercises to be recommended:
1. Develop awareness.
2. Go deep, very deep within in search of the soul. (Concentrate on the region of the "solar plexus" and collect all your consciousness, and go deeper and deeper in that region, with quietude/and practice this often.)
3. Study repeatedly and practise the message given in:
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(a) The description of the Sthithaprajna as given in the Gita.
(b) "The Sermon on the Mount", from the New Testament.
(c) "If you hast the work, this is they work", by Sri Aurobindo:
4. Works of labour and community service with an inner motive of dedication.
5. Daily one hour of exercises, games, etc.
Class VIII
1. Surprising mysteries of the human body as revealed by science.
2. Value-oriented concept of the body:
(a) The body as the temple of the spirit.
(b) The subtle body and its functions.
(c) The concept of chakras (centres of vibrations) and their functions.
(d) The concept of kundalini: how it can be awakened in different ways.
3. Yogic concept of the perfection of the body by a total psychological transformation.
1. The ideal and practice of brahmacharya (example of Dayananda Saraswati).
2. Study of passages from Plato, particularly from (he Apology and The Republic.
3. Study of passages from the Upanishads, particularly Isha Upanishad.
4. Contemplation on the concept of "Universals".
5. Topic for deep study and reflection: "What is my role in the world?"
6. Reflection:
(a) What is the aim. of learning languages? How to enrich knowledge of languages?
(b) What is the essence of mathematics?
(c) What is science?
Is language a science?
Is mathematics a science?
Is history a science?
Is geography a science?
(d) What is the difference between science and art?
7. A detailed study of the life and work of Tiruvalluvar.
8. Daily one hour of exercises and games, etc.
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Class IX
1. The concept of matter in modem science and yoga.
2. The concept of life in modern science and in yoga.
3. Importance of the sun and its energy for the life on the earth.
4. The nature of the light of the sun (Saura Agni}: how if is different from the light of ordinary fire (Jada Agni) and electricity (Vidyut Agni).
5. The concept of Agni in yoga.
6. Speed of light: its importance in science. Position of an object moving at the speed of light. The concept of the mobile-immobile. Compare this with: "It moves. It moves not" the Upanishadic description of reality.
7. The concept of time in modem science.
8. Speed of consciousness exceeds that of light according to yogic knowledge.
1. What is the process of thinking? How is thinking different in science from that in philosophy?
2. What is technology? How should technology be learnt?
3. What is the difference between art and technology?
4. Observation of the different levels of being in man: the distinction between the physical man, the vital man, the mental man, the spiritual man and the integral man.
5. Topic for deep study and reflections: "Unity of knowledge" or "All knowledge, scientific, philosophic or yogic, tends ultimately to be identical."
III. Exercises to be recommended:
Repeated study and contemplation of Chapter XI of the Bhagavad Gita.
Vow of the Buddha Selected Psalms
Islamic prayers
Selected portions from Tulsidas
Songs ofMirabai, Surdas, Tukaram, Ramprasad, and ofher saints
Prayer of Swami Vivekananda
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Class X
I. Sciences and Values:
1. Our knowledge regarding man:
(a) Man in evolution
(b) Has man made progress?
(c) Limitations of man
2. The phenomenon of death. What is death? (in the physical, psychological and yogic senses). Can death be conquered?
3. Dependence of bodily life on respiration, food, blood circulation and sleep. Is this dependence necessary or indispensable?
4. The yogic powers of mastery over food, sleep, respiration and blood circulation. Limitation of these powers; dangers of these powers, real perfection.
5. The right attitude towards food, sleep, respiration and other limitations of the body. Need for temperance: avoidance of extremes. Need for change of consciousness. Mastery over bodily limitations possible only at the highest levels of yoga.
6. The concept of the divine body.
II. Aids for the Development of the Yogic Consciousness and Experience:
1. Elementary powers of expression.
Necessity and methods of development of these powers, particularly, in relation to:
(a) Faultless language expression.
(b) Faultless bodily expressions: recitation, singing, eurhythmics and dramatics.
(c) Faultless deeper expressions: poetry, dance, art and craft.
2. Elementary powers of perceptions.
Necessity and methods of development of these powers, particularly in relation to:
(a) Refined vision and audition, appreciation of art and music.
(b) Inner yogic visions and voices.
(c) Sympathetic feeling and understanding, experience of cooperation, harmony, mutuality and oneness.
3. Elementary powers of action.
Necessity and methods of development of these powers, particularly in connection with:
(a) The relationship between knowledge and action.
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(b) The relationship between ideal and practice.
(c) The relationship between dedication and heroism.
5. Study of great personalities (A detailed study of life of Mahavira)
6. Why and how to study? (A topic for study and reflection.)
1. Remember and practise in daily life:
(a) Work, not to come first, but to do your very best.
(b) You have no right to criticise anybody, unless you ean do better than the one whom you want to criticise.
(c) Cultivate in yourself those qualities which you want others to cultivate.
(d) Select books, magazines, and films with utmost care, and under the guidance of some teachers whom you trust.
(e) Do not indulge; do not kill your emotions, but leam the difficult art of control, purification, mastery and transformation.
(f) You have within yourself an inner soul, full of purity, joy and love and light. You are to discover it and bring it forward in all your activities, thoughts and feelings.
2. Continue to enlarge interests.
3. Continue to will for health, strength, agility, plasticity and beauty.
4. Daily one hour of exercise and games, etc.
IV. Programmes of Self-Education
The following exercises may be recommended:
1. Observation and developments of the natural tendencies, preferences, inclinations and interests.
2. Where have I reached in my progress?
3. What are my defects?
4. How to face defects without depressions?
5. What should I do to overcome my defects?
6. Preparation of a programme of self-discipline.
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7. Am I talking too much? To learn to speak only what is necessary.
8. Am I lazy? To resolve to remove idleness.
9. How to organise my life and my activities?
V. Study of selections from Valmiki and Vyasa
VI. A detailed study of the life and work of Guru Nanak.
Class XI
1. The role of intuition in discoveries and inventions of science. Yoga as a conscious methods of the development of intuition.
2. Ancient Indian sciences and yoga.
3. Ancient Indian knowledge and modem scientific knowledge; some striking examples.
4. Systems of yoga: Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Tantra, Integral Yoga.
1. Need for the systematic knowledge of the principles and methods of yoga.
2. Need for the Teacher: the real inner Teacher.
3. Need for inner aspiration in the student.
4. The right attitude towards time: to do everything as quickly and perfectly as possible.
5. Study of great personalities: Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda (a detailed study).
Reflections on:
1. Scientific and philosophical methods of knowledge.
2. Can science and philosophy explain the ultimate reason of events and processes of the world?
3. Value and limitations of the philosophical concepts of:
Deism
Pantheism
Theism
Monism
Omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence of God.
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4. Value and limitations of the philosophical proofs of the existence of God.
5. Can God be experienced? Affirmation of spiritual experiences. Varieties of spiritual experience. Yoga as a systematic knowledge of spiritual experience.
Class XII
1. Yoga as an exploration of existence by an enlargement of consciousness.
2. Yoga, like science, is a systematic body of knowledge. Yoga, like science, is non-dogmatic.
Yoga, like science, accepts the criterion of verification by experience.
Yoga is science, per excellence (statements from Swami Vivekananda on this subject).
3. Materialism, science and yoga.
4. Need for the synthesis of science and spirituality.
5. Science and the discovery of the fourth dimension.
6. Discovery of the manifold dimensions of human personality.
II. Central Experience of Inner Consciousness:
1. Experience of the true individuality:
(a) Experience of the Witness Self.
(b) Experience of the Psychic Being in formation.
(c) Experience of the discovery of the Psychic Being-experience of the second birth.
2. Experience of Silence or of nirvana.
3. Experience of the Cosmic Consciousness.
4. Integral experience of the simultaneous Silence and Dynamism.
5. Supramental time-vision.
III. Aids for the Development of the Yogic Consciousness and experience:
A brief study of the following topics:
1. All life must be accepted, but all life must be transformed.
Works of knowledge
Works of love
Works of life-force
Problems in accepting and transforming these works.
2. Synthesis of the four main theories of the aim of life:
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Supracosmic
Supraterrestrial
Cosmic-terrestrial
Integral
3. Development of a vision of ideal perfection, individual and collective.
4. Man's present condition and possibilities of his further evolution.
5. Psychological experiences of various parts and domains of being. Conflicts between the rational being, the aesthetic being and the ethical being. How to resolve these conflicts?
1. Sustained exercises of clear thought.
2. Intensive introspection.
3. Progressive harmonisation of various parts of the being.
4. Creative work with sustained enthusiasm and the spirit of perfection in expression.
5. Programmes of dedicated community service.
6. Consistency in aspiration, effort and dedication.
7. Equality in success or in failure, while working constantly for the triumph of the Truth. 8 Development of the powers of philosophical reasoning, scientific observation and experimentation, artistic expression, and technological skill. Harmonisation of these powers by rigorous internal exercises of will.
V. Programmes of Self-Education:
To discover within oneself the secret guide and teacher and to take up the charge of educating oneself progressively and integrally.
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ANNEXURE-X
EDUCATION THROUGH INDIAN CULTURE TO CHILDREN OF INDIA
Class I to IV
The first lesson may underline the concept of reverence to the highest, which is common in all parts of India, and which transcends barriers of religions and beliefs. The most important phrase is: — namo namah — salutation, and salutation again. The message of this phrase has become embedded in the entire style of life in India and even in greetings to each other Indians make various gestures of salutations.
Truth is another word that has to be underlined. The search for the Truth supersedes every other search in Indian culture.
The story of the Buddha to be told to the children in detail his search for the truth was so intense that he renounced all else, — his kingdom, his wife, his child, everything that was dear and near, everything that was pleasant.
Renunciation (***) is another important common element in Indian culture. India celebrates renunciation and values it most.
The story of the search for the Truth and renunciation is further illustrated by the story of Nachiketas.
The story of Nachiketas can be recounted as given in the Kathopanishad. The story of renunciation is also illustrated through the story of Sri Rama, which can be told to underline Sri Rama's renunciation and his emphasis on action to uphold the truth.
The story of Harischandra can also be told it illustrates both Truth and renunciation.
The story of Shivi can also be told in the same connenction.
The ideal of Truth is so much emphasized that India when it became free adopted the following as its official motto: — satyam evajayate.
From where is this motto derived, let us make a search.
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It would be found in Mandukya Upanishad. What are Upanishads? They are the highest literature of India. It is in the Upanishads that we find the description of ancient India. Kings and princes and ordinary children are found here in search of Truth and they knock on the doors of the huts of the Rishis in the forest.
The seekers of knowledge in search of teachers have since that time remained an ideal feature of Indian culture.
While telling this, the following statements may be emphasized: Our culture is the culture of tydga.
Even kings used to abdicate their kingdoms in order to seek the highest knowledge and Truth towards the end of their life. The story of Kunti, Gandhadri and Dhritrashtra can be told in this context.
Ten taktyena bhunjita is another concept that can be introduced from the Ishopanishad.
Abdication of desires is the one message in all religions which are prevalent in India. During the freedom struggle, the idea of abdication was most important. The story of freedom struggle to be told in this connection.
Reference may also to be made o light and sound show of Andaman Nicobar. The story of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, story of Sri Aurobindo, the story of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Subhash Chandra Bose, Khudiram Bose, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, etc. This is the India that should be loved and cherished.
Another aspect of Indian culture is "sarva hitaya" work for the benefit of all. Reference from Bhagavadgita, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam, etc., can be told. In this connection, we can tell the story of Sri Rama; for public welfare he sacrificed his personal life; story of Sri Krishna and Arjuna; *** solidarity of people was the ideal given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna; story of goodwill; the story of Christ; Buddha's story of compassion and the idea of sarvodaya, can be emphasised here.
Search for good, love, and joy (ananda). Indian culture is mil of festivals of joy, kavya, sangita, stories of Sri Krishna, Shiva, and Mahalaksmi.
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For Class V to XII Class V
The curriculum of class V may be divided in three parts:
Part I
This part should be devoted to the following topics:
a) The story of Sanskrit in India ;
b) Important authors, who wrote in Sanskrit, and whose works are memorable ;
c) The story of Tamil : famous authors in Tamil and famous works in Tamil
d) The story of Pali and authors who wrote in Pali : memorable works in Pali;
e) The story of Prakrit: great authors who wrote in Prakrit and memorable works in Prakrit;
f) Origin and development of the modem Indian languages: Names of all modem Indian languages and famous authors and the works in these languages;
g) The story of Arabic, Turkish and Persian in India: famous authors and famous works in these languages.
Arrival and development of English in India: famous Indian authors and famous works of Indian authors in English.
Two greatest works of India in Sanskrit: The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. An outline of the contents of there two works.
Definition of Culture.
What is Indian Culture?
Spirituality, brilliance of intellectuality and profusion of creativity.
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(Note: Curriculum of class VI to VIII in Indian culture may be prescribed only for those students, who want to pursue the course of Indian culture at an advanced level. For those who do not wish to do so, may be allowed to take up at this stage, an advanced course in any other subject in which they are interested in a special way.)
Story of Astronomy and Mathematics in India: famous authors in Astronomy and Mathematics and famous works of these famous authors.
The following topics may be emphasized:
a) The concept of Brahmanda;
b) Ancient Indian concept of the Earth that moves around the sun; The ancient Indian concept of planets. The concept of Gravitation in ancient India.
c) Life and works of Varahamihir;
d) Invention of the concept of zero;
e) Indian Mathematical sciences: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry. Measurements and calculations up to highest possible integers and lowest possible fractions;
f) An account of great advances in Astronomy and Mathematics in ancient India, which anticipated discoveries of the modem period of the world history.
g) Advances in Astronomy and Mathematics in modem India, which absorbed western advances in the modem period.
Ancient Indian Physics and Chemistry:
a) The concept of five basic elements: ether, air, fire, water, and earth;
b) Sankhya theory of evolution and Vaisheshika theory of atom;
c) The concept of speed of light;
d) Ancient chemistry in India;
e) Ancient chemistry and Ayurveda.
Development of Ayurveda in ancient India, and its continuity right up to the present day.
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The following topics to be emphasized:
a) Knowledge of the human body; anatomy and physiology (in bare outline);
b) Concept of Doshas;
c) Theory of health and strength in Ayurveda: relationship with Physical exercises of Hatha Yoga;
d) Concept of longevity;
e) Indian surgery;
f) Plastic surgery and its survival right up to the arrival of the British in India;
g) Present status of Ayurveda in India;
h) Indian games, wrestling, and exercises for physical perfection;
a) Famous Indian stories: Panchtantra and Hitopadesh and Jataka stories;
b) History of Sanskrit drama with special reference to (i) Bharata Muni and Abhinavagupta (ii) famous Sanskrit dramas prior to Kalidasa;
c) Kalidasa: his poetry and drama;
d) Post-Kalidasian drama;
e) Katha Sarit Sagar;
f) Use of Prakrit in Sanskrit dramas;
g) Bare outline of the great stories and dramas, written in India in Arabic and Persian;
h) Bare outline of stories and dramas written in modem Indian languages;
i) Indian authors in English: Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo.
The curriculum of class X will be devoted to Indian Art. Special reference to:
a) Indian concept of Art; illustrations in Poetry, Music, Painting, Architecture and Sculpture;
b) Various stages of development in Art, particularly paintings.
c) Outstanding paintings, right up to Mughal period;
d) Indian architecture, temples, palaces, churches, Gurudwaras and others;
Mughal architecture in India: Importance of Taj Mahal.
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a) Systems of Indian Philosophy: Main schools and their fundamental doctrines;
b) Indian ethics: outline study of ethics and yoga of Geeta.
c) Dharmashashtras and Nitishashtras of India;
d) Arthshashtra of India (a bare outline);
e) Other numerous social sciences;
f) Concept of 64 sciences and arts.
a) Religions in India; spirit of tolerance and synthesis;
b) Systems of Yoga and systems of synthesis of Yoga;
c) Indian polity and India Renaissance;
d) Leaders of Indian Renaissance;
e) Problem of contemporary Indian culture and external Influences;
f) Towards a great synthesis of the East and the West.
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Specialised Courses
(Any 3 Subjects)
Annexure-XIII
Teaching any One or Two School Subjects
Teaching New Subjects of Development of Personality
Teaching Groups of Hobbies
Teaching Group of Vocational Courses
Teaching Physical Education
Teaching Gifted Creativity
Teaching Differently Abled Children
Teaching Early Childhood Education (Including Health, Nutrition and First Aid)
Ayurveda, Allopathy, Homeopathy and Unani Teaching Complete Harmony of Body, Mind and Consciousness through Yoga Teaching Computer Philosophy of Education Psychology of Education Sociology of Education Education of Aesthetics Education of Values Education about Religions Development of Integral Personality
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Life Skills
Annexure-XIV-1
Sixty-four Arts mentioned in ancient texts:
1. Singing;
2. Playing on musical instruments;
3. Dancing;
4. Union of dancing, singing, and playing instrumental music;
5. Writing and drawing;
6. Tattooing;
7. Arraying and adoring an idol with rice and flowers;
8. Spreading and arranging beds or couches of flowers, or flowers upon the ground;
9. Colouring the teeth, garments, hair, nails and bodies, i.e. staining, dyeing, colouring and painting the same;
10. Fixing stained glass into a floor;
11. The art of making beds, and spreading out carpets and cushions for reclining;
12. Playing on musical glasses filled with water;
13. Storing and accumulating water in aqueducts, cisterns and reservoirs;
14. Picture making, trimming and decorating;
15. Stringing of rosaries, necklaces, garlands and wreaths;
16. Binding of turbans and chaplets and making crests and top-knots of flowers;
17. Scenic representations, stage playing;
18. Art of making ear ornaments;
19. Art of preparing perfumes and odours;
20. Proper disposition of jewels and decorations, and adornment in dress;
21. Magic or sorcery; .,
22. Quickness of hand or manual skill;
23. Culinary art, i.e. cooking and cookery;
24. Making lemonades, sherbets, acidulated drinks, and spirituous extracts with proper flavour and colour;
25. Tailor's work and sewing;
26. Making parrots, flowers, tufts, tassels, bunches, bosses, knobs, etc., out of yarn or thread;
27. Solution of riddles, enigmas, covert speeches, verbal puzzles and enigmatical questions;
28. A game, which consisted in repeating verses, and as one person finished, another person had to
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commence at once, repeating another verse, beginning with the same letter with which the last speaker's verse ended, whoever failed to repeat was considered to have lost, and to be subject to pay a forfeit or stake of some kind;
29. The art of mimicry or imitation;
30. Reading, including chanting and intoning;
31. Study of sentences difficult to pronounce. It is played as a game chiefly by women and children and consists of a difficult sentence being given, and when repeated quickly, the words are often transposed or badly pronounced;
32. Practice with sword, single stick, quarter staff and bow and arrow;
33. Drawing inferences, reasoning or inferring;
34. Carpentry, or the work of a carpenter;
35. Architecture, or the art of building;
36. Knowledge about gold and silver coins, and jewels and gems;
37. Chemistry and mineralogy;
38. Colour jewels, gems and beads;
39. Knowledge of mines and quarries;
40. Gardening; knowledge of treating the diseases of trees and plants, of nourishing them, and determining their ages;
41. Art of cock fighting, quail fighting and ram fighting;
42. Art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak;
43. Art of applying perfumed ointments to the body, and of dressing the hair with unguents and perfumes and braiding it;
44. The art of understanding writing in cipher, and the writing of words in a peculiar way;
45. The art of speaking by changing the forms of words. It is of various kinds. Some speak by changing the beginning and end of words, others by adding unnecessary letters between every syllable of a word, and so on;
46. Knowledge of language and of the vernacular dialects;
47. Art of making flower carriages;
48. Art of framing mystical diagrams, of addressing spells and charms, and binding armlets;
49. Mental exercises, such as completing stanzas or verses on receiving a part of them; or supplying one, two or three lines when the remaining lines are given indiscriminately from different verses, so as to make the whole an entire verse with regard to its meaning; or arranging the words of a consonants, or leaving them out altogether; or putting into verse or prose sentences represented by signs or symbols. There are many other such exercises;
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50. Composing poems;
51. Knowledge of dictionaries and vocabularies;
52. Knowledge of ways of changing and disguising the appearance of persons;
53. Knowledge of the art of changing the appearance of things, such as making cotton to appear as silk, coarse and common things to appear as fine and good;
54. Various ways of gambling;
55. Art of obtaining possession of the property of others by means of mantras or incantations;
56. Skill in youthful sports;
57. Knowledge of the rules of society, and of how to pay respect and compliments to others;
58. Knowledge of the art of war, of arms, of armies, etc.;
59. Knowledge of gymnastics;
60. Art of knowing the character of a man from his features;
61. Knowledge of scanning or constructing verses;
62. Arithmetical recreations;
63. Making artificial flowers;
64. Making figures and images in clay.
Vidyas as mentioned by Narada to Sanatkumar in Chhandogya Upanishad, Chapter VII. 1.2:
1. Grammar;
2. pitryam the rites for the manes;
3. Rashim-mathematics;
4. Daivam subject of natural disturbances;
5. Nidim mineralogy;
6. Vako vakyam logic;
7. EkayanamEthics;
8. Deva-vidyam Etymology;
9. Brahma-vidyam knowledge of the Vedas -Rig, Yajur and Sama regarding pronunciation, ceremonial, prosody and lighting of fire;
10. Bhutavidyam science of five elements;
11. Kstaravidyam science of archery;
12. Nakshatrav-vidyam astrology;
13. SarpaVidyam-Science of serpents;
14. Devajana-vidyam fine arts.
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1. Chess
2. Reading Book are treasure of knowledge and this hobby will certainly come helping a long way in life.
3. Playing the Guitar
4. Ballroom Dancing
5 Woodworking
6. Gardening
7. Car Restoration
8. Metalworking
9. Marksmanship
Marksmanship requires pure concentration and a steady hand.
10. Collecting like postal stamps, first day covers, coins, etc.
11. Camping/Backpacking
12. Ship in a Bottle
13. Whittling
14. Geocaching
15. Sports: Football, Hockey, Cricket, weightlifting, running, bouldering, kho-kho, kabbadi. Baseball, etc.
16. Model Building
17. Leatherworking
18. Bowling
19. Archery
20. Letter Writing
21. Martial Arts
22. Yoga -Asana, Pranayama, Meditation.
23. Hiking
24. Photography
25. Pool/Billiards
26. Mountaineering
27. Cooking
28. Blacksmithing
29. Flying
30. Magic
31. Learning a Foreign Language
32.Blogging 33.Fencing
34.Drawing and Painting 35.Amateur Astronomy 36.Genealogy 37.Adventure Races 38.Knitting
39.Computer Programming 40.Aeromodeling 41.Amateur Radio 42.Animals/pets/dogs 43.Astrology 44.Beadwork 45.Beatboxing 46.Bird watching 47.Boating 48.Bonsai Tree
49.Bringing Food To The Disabled 50.Building A House For Habitat For Humanity 51.Building Dollhouses 52.Butterfly Watching 53.Button Collecting 54.Calligraphy 55.Candle Making 56.Canoeing 57.Car Racing 58.Cloud Watching 59.Collecting Antiques 60.Collecting Artwork 61.Compose Music 62.Computer activities 63.Crafts 64.Crochet/ 65.Crocheting 66.Crossword Puzzles
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67.Dolls making
68.Embroidery
69. Freshwater Aquariums
70. Frisbee Golf-Frolf
71. Go Kart Racing
72. Grip Strength
73. Handwriting Analysis
74. Home Repair
75. Horse riding
76. Hot air ballooning
77. Hula Hooping
78. Jewelry Making
79. Jigsaw Puzzles
80. Juggling
81. Kites
82. Learning An Instrument
83. Learning To Pilot A Plane
84. Legos
85. Listening to music
86. Making Model Cars
87. Matchstick Modeling
88. Papermaking
89. Parachuting
90. Piano
91. Pottery
92. Puppetry
93. Pyrotechnics
84. Rafting
85. Reading
86. Reading To The Elderly
87. Rescuing Abused Or Abandoned Animals
88. Robotics
89. Rock Collecting
90. Scrap booking
91. Skeet Shooting
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92. Singing In Choir .
93. Skateboarding
94. Sketching
95. Sky Diving
96. Soap Making
97. Storytelling
98. Swimming
99. Tea Tasting
100. Toy Collecting
101. Tutoring Children
102. Video Games, such as Age of Mythology, etc.
103. Writing
104. Scale Modeling/Dioramas
105. Beautician
106. Art of telling Jokes
107. Food Decorating
108. Basket making
109. Rice sculpture
110. Animal communication
111. Hobbies related to the religions of the world
112. Fashion Designing (Specialised course)
113. Cosmetics
114. Making Perfumes
115. Child care
116. Diets
117. Natural remedies'
118. Modeling
119. PATIO ART: HOW TO MAKE STAINED GLASS WIND CHIMES FOR YOUR HOME AND GARDEN
120. Mosaic Art and Style
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I DRAWING AND PAINTING (Specialisation in any of the five or six)
1. Surreal Painting
2. Romance
3. Madhubani Painting
4. Miniature Painting
5. Impressionism
6. Renaissance Art
7. Abstract Paintings
8. Semi Abstract Paintings
9. Mughal Paintings
10. Rajasthani Paintings
11. Mathura Art
12. Figurative Paintings
13. Landscape Paintings
14. Ceramics
15. Sculpture
16. Glass Painting
17. Basholi, Guler-Kangra and Sikh Lepakshi Painting
18. Batik Painting
19. Indian Murals Paintings
20. Indian Folk Paintings
21. Silk Paintings
22. South Indian form of Painting (Thanjavur)
23. Atavahana Paintings (2nd century B .C. to 2nd century A,D.)
24. Kushana School of Paintings (1st to 3rd century A.D.)
25. Gupta Period Paintings (4th too 6th century A.D.)
26. Vakataka Paintings (4th to 6th century A.D.)
27. Early Western Chalukya Paintings (6th to 8th century A.D.)
28. Bhanja Paintings (8th century A.D.)
29. Pallava Paintings (7th to 9th century A.D.)
30. Early Pandyan Paintings (7th to 9th century A.D.)
31. Early Chera Paintings (8th to 9th century A.D.)
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32. Rashtrakuta Paintings (8th to 10th century A.D.)
33. Chola School of Paintings (9th to 13th century A.D.)*
34. Hoysala Paintings (llth to 13th century A.D.)
35. Kakatiya Paintings (11th to 13th century A.D.)
36. Vijayanagara Paintings (14th to 17th century A.D.)
37. Nayaka Period Paintings (17th to 18th century A.D.)
3 8. Paintings of Medieval Kerala (16th to 18th century A.D.)
39. Pala and Medieval Eastern School of Paintings (9th to 16th century A.D.)
40. . Medieval Western Paintings (llth to 15th century A.D.)
41. Pahari Paintings (16th to 19th century A.D.')
42. Deccant or Dakhani Paintings (17th to 19th century A.D.)
43. Mysore and Tanjore Traditional Paintings (17th to 19th century A.D.)
44. Gujarati painting—glass painting, Kalampari art
45. Fabric Painting
46. Encaustic Painting-involves working with pigment, wax, and heat
47. Chinese/Japanese painting (including Sumi-e), both of which are distinctive and very beautiful styles of brush painting.
48. Portraits individuals, groups of people, couples and self-portraits.
49. Comic animation
II COMPUTER RELATED COURSES (Five year course)
Computer Teacher Course (5 year course) 1st year
1. Computer Fundamentals
2. Operating System concepts Linux & Unix
3. Windows XP/7/Vista
4. MS Word
5. MS Excel
6. MS Power point
7. Access & Outlook
8. Bharatiya Open Office
9. Networking
10. Web Server Concepts
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11. Introduction to FLASH
12. TALLY
13. Introduction to Basic Java
2nd Year Course;
Page 1.Maker
2. Corel DRaw
3. Photoshop
4. Editing a layer mask
5. Opacity of Layer
6. Illustrator
7. FLASH
8. Leap Office/ISM
Multilingual Web Technology
1. Software Engineering Technique
2. C/C++
3. CCB&MT
4. HTML/DHTML
5. JavaScript/VB Script
6. Asp.net
Page 7.Front
8. Dream Weaver
9. Photoshop
10. Flash
11. GIF Animator Introduction
12. Internet/Project
13. Concept of Web Server
14. TCP/IP
15. Java Script
16. Oracle
17. SQL Server
18. Project
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3rd to 5th Year:
MULTIMEDIA
1. Image Editing CorelDraw Photoshop In Design
2. Advance Image Editing Illustrator
3. 2D Animation Flash
Swish MAX GIF Animator
4. Audio
Sound Forge
5. Video-Editing Premier
6. 3D Animation 3DMAX Poser
7. Maya Software
8. Animated Film Projects
9. Ecommerce
III Computer Hardware (1 year Course).
IV Cooking (National and International Cuisine).
V Classical Dances (Indian Classical e.g. Kathak, Manipuri, Kathkali, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Oddisi etc.)
VI Musical Instruments-Flute, Sitar, Santoor, Tabla etc.
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VII. Vocal Ragas (Indian Ragas)
VIII Agriculture IX Horticulture X Floriculture
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