Education for Tomorrow

What innovations do we need? And Why?

1. The modern age is marked by breath-taking discoveries and inventions. But nothing is perhaps so significant and pregnant for the future as the discovery of the child and the modern educationist's efforts for the invention of the New Education which would be appropriate to the ever-fresh discoveries of the mysteries of the child.

2. The modern educationist has been wonderstruck by the tremendous feat of learning that the child performs in the first few years of its life. What is the secret, he has asked, of this tremendous speed of learning?

3. He has observed, with fresh eyes, the child craving for the moon, and its wonder at the stars that twinkle. And he has made fresh propositions. The child learns so fast, he says, because it has no other occupation than that of learning; or rather, for the child, all the occupations are occupations of learning. To it, all play is learning and all learning is a play. The child learns so fast, he continues, because it has before it a living book, the open book of Nature itself. And the child learns so fast, he concludes, because the child "reads" this book of Nature with its total being, by the happy exercise of all its faculties, by the concrete urge of experience.

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4. The modern educationist is led to apply these propositions to all aspects of education, and he finds that this application implies a radical change in the contents, methods and structure of education, and above all, in the very aim of education.

5. This is the central context of innovations in education all over the world.

6. We have begun to look upon the child as the creator of the New Future. And the educationist is, therefore, necessitated to look into the Future, not merely as a happy exercise of imagination or even of direction, but as an object of a serious and scientific study that can be used as a tool for current planning. Indeed, at no time was the Future so central to the present.

7. An important realisation has come to us that the future that the modern age has been labouring to fashion seems possible only on the basis of the fulfilment of one condition, namely, a universal and lasting peace. It has been realised that wars must be eliminated, that actual wars are fought primarily in the minds, and that, therefore, there is a need to change the very working of the minds.

8. The educationist is called upon to define this change and to present new contents, methods and structures of education that would, in their total effect, enable us to develop not merely the normal, beings but to develop it in such a way and to such a degree that we would be able to transmute ourselves, to eliminate from ourselves the wars that are fought in our minds, and to grow into a new kind of global beings.

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9. The modern educationist is called upon to find the right means of the education by which the growing child may, in due course, come to transmute its ordinary texture and grow into a new kind of being, into a new lotus of light that would radiate the breath of peace and harmony and live by intimate mutuality with the entire universe.

10. We must note that this task is new, its dimensions are multiple, and it invites the educationist to soar high above all his narrow preoccupations and to apply himself to the task of innovation with a new mind and a new heart. This task is imperative and urgent.

11. Is there, we have to ask, something in the child itself that has an inherent capacity to grow like an angel of light and to meet all the pains of growth without getting entangled into the knots of ordinary human thought and action, which limit and bind man into the stifling grooves of jealousies and rivalries and narrow and suicidal loyalties? For if there is nothing in the child which is intrinsically angelic, if it is true that eros and thanatos are the alpha and omega of the child, then it is impossible to predict any ultimate and harmonious survival of human existence on this planet.

12. But as we stand at the frontiers of science and of human potentialities developed to their highest value, we are led to an optimistic conclusion. The brilliant messages that come to us by flashes and inspirations, when studied impartially with a scrupulous scientific rigour, give a clue to the domains of knowledge that seem so pertinent to the basic premises of the educationist. These domains

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of knowledge await the quest of the educationist and there is a promise that just as he has discovered the child, he will discover also the soul of the child,the real angel of light. And in this discovery may lie, it is suggested, the true justification of his aspirations and his efforts.

13. The educationist has today spoken of "Learning to Learn" and of "Learning to Be"; he has spoken of the necessity of the freedom in the process of growth, and of the necessity of breaking the walls of the school and of removing the boundaries of studies. But it has been suggested that it is only when the soul of the child is discovered that we shall find the true justification of these pronouncements of the modern educationist. It has been suggested that there must be freedom in the process of education, not for any reason, but because the soul of the child is, in its nature, free, and that it can grow to its fullness under the conditions of freedom. There must be, it is affirmed, the breaking of the walls of the school, not for any reason, but because the soul is not a prisoner, and because it is the breaker of the bonds and fetters. The boundaries of studies must be removed, it is confirmed, not for any reason, but because the entire universe --the expanding universe -- is the soul's own home. Learning must be to learn, for that is the essential method of soul's growth in the universe, and learning must be to be, because to know, to possess, and to be is the natural breath of the soul. It is on these premises that, it is suggested, the entire story of innovations in education can be truly understood, and it is on these premises that our

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future innovations in education, I think, can find their right direction and goal.

14. Permit me, in this context, to present to you a passage from Sri Aurobindo that indicates the value of the modern educationist's discoveries and the direction of his task ahead :

"The discovery that education must be a bringing out of the child's own intellectual and moral capacities to their highest possible value and must be based on the psychology of the child-nature was a step forward towards a more healthy because a more subjective system; but it still fell short because it still regarded him as an object to be handled and moulded by the teacher, to be educated. But at least there was a glimmering of the realisation that each human being is a self-developing soul and that the business of both the parent and teacher is to enable and to help the child to educate himself, to develop his own intellectual, moral, aesthetic and practical capacities and to grow freely as an organic being, not to be kneaded and pressured into form like an inert plastic material. It is not yet realised what the soul is or that the true secret, whether with child or man, is to help him to find his deeper self, the real psychic entity within. That, if we ever give it a chance to come forward, and still more if we call it into the foreground as "the leader of the march set in our front," will itself take up most of the business of education out of our hands and develop the capacity of the psychological being towards a realisation of its potentialities of which our present mechanical view of life and man and external routine

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methods of dealing with them prevent us from having any experience or forming any conception." ¹

15. We speak today of the need for mass education. And in India, we have indeed a massive problem of mass education. Mass media are, no doubt, a powerful aid for the solution of this problem, and all the innovations that are being attempted in this direction are not only welcome but ought to be augmented both in regard to quantity and quality. But still we need to underline a very important phenomenon which has begun to emerge more rapidly in recent times. It is the phenomenon of an increasing demand, implicit or explicit, from the members of the masses to provide them individualized education. This is a phenomenon which is not sufficiently known. But the psychological law of awareness is that it always tends more and more towards 'self-awareness'. It is for this reason that wherever the mass media have begun to operate successfully, there has arisen, within a short period, a need to provide means of education that will cater to the problems of individual growth. Failure to provide this has led to a sense of suffocation among the masses and to an implicit or explicit unrest. One of the root causes of the massive youth unrest all over the world can be traced to such a failure. For while the masses of the youth have become more and more aware by various media of education, there has not been, at the same time, a sufficient realisation of the need to provide as soon

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1. Sri Aurobindo:Collected Works, Centenary Edition, Vol.XV, pp.27-28

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as possible individualized education to these large masses of the youth. We try to persuade ourselves that we can still postpone the demands of what may be called massive individualized education. But this postponement is neither possible nor desirable. An important field of innovation in education, therefore, is how to provide individualized education to larger and larger masses of people.

16. We come now to the area of individualized learning itself. Individualized learning means, it may be suggested, learning that is suitable and appropriate to the individual in question. Each individual, although a member of a group, and although he shares the commonness of the group to which he belongs, has still in him a special and unique combination of qualities, latent or active, which follow a special law of development towards the fulfilment of a specific and unique function. To use the Indian terminology, we may say that each one of us has his own swabhava and swadharma, and a learning process that answers to the rhythms and cycles of swabhava and swadharma is what may properly be called individualized learning. And it may safely be'said that the central preoccupation of all the modern educational methodology and innovations is to invent a flexible structure of education that would fulfill the demands of individualized learning.

17. And we may at once state the heart of the problem that is related to individualized learning. The central knot lies in the inter-twining of three needs in a meaningful process of learning, the need for self-learning, the need for different kinds and

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degrees of help from the teacher, and the need for a group or a collaborative study or work-experience. These needs are interlocked, and yet the organisation demanded by each is so different from the one demanded by the other, that a series of antinomies begins to emerge as soon as we try to conceive or work out some complex and flexible organisation which would harmonize all the needs.

18. A close examination of this issue may be suggested so that a satisfactory solution could be evolved. To most of us, who address themselves to the learning process which is circumscribed within the walls of the lecture system, syllabus system and examination system, and yet who aspire to initiate and organize a meaningful learning process, the solution of this problem is a thing of paramount importance.

19. It seems to me that in order to arrive at this solution, a number of difficult things need to be done patiently and laboriously, and each one of them could constitute a project of innovative experimentation. For instance, the grouping of students will need a new basis; and this will largely be determined by the nature of areas of studies in question. Teachers will need to prepare materials which can be studied by students without much help, and there will be a need of a new material which can be used as a part of the environment. Again, in regard to each area of study, we shall need to determine with some precision the essential elements, and differentiate them from that which is peripheral or which is a matter of detail. We shall need to determine several different ways and approaches to

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learn the same topic or subject. We may also need to enquire if there is something like most essential and indispensable knowledge that we, as human beings, must possess, and if so, what is the best method of acquiring it.

20. The way in which we should study, for instance, the inner meaning of Indian culture is evidently to be different from the way in which we learn, say, the details of some geographical area. History, for instance, can be learnt in several different ways. It can be learnt predominantly through an account of events, or else, through biographies or predominantly through the study of the growth of institutions or cultures. One may like to begin the study of history from modern times and then go backwards, or one may prefer to study "then" and "now" in a systematic sequence.

21. Moreover, areas of study where general stimulation is needed, methods of environmental influence by mass media may be found suitable. And areas of study where detailed precision is necessary, various methods of individual study or methods of individual consultation with the teachers will have to be employed.

22. There is also the question of time-tables. To create a situation in which time-tables could be flexible is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks of innovators in education. There are a number of areas of studies in regard to which regular and fixed time-tables are necessary, but there are others where a free pursuit without the constraints of "periods" is quite legitimate. It is true that a 'rough' solution is always possible, but I do not think that we, as

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educational scientists, should feel satisfied with any rough solutions. We need to invent a new system which reconciles all the needs of the total process of learning accurately and harmoniously.

23. There are still further areas for our innovative effort. We may state some of them.

24. We witness today an endless explosion of knowledge, and we do not know if we can psychologically contain this explosion. We need to ask, as in the Chhandogya Upanishad, if there is knowledge possessing which all can be known.

25. Is there, we may ask, an all-embracing project of work experience that would generate a continuing process of life-long education?

26. Is there a programme, we may ask, which would necessitate an effortless synchronization of the needs of personal development with the needs of collective development of humanity?

27. Is there, it may be asked, a tool of the acceleration of the summing up of the past and the unfolding of the future?

28. And we may ask if there is a secret which we can educationally provide to the child whereby it can grow continuously and yet remain a child, like Newton, playing with pebbles on the shores of the ocean of knowledge. In other words, is there a secret of perpetual progress and of perpetual youth?

29. All these are fascinating questions, and we can suggest that all of them are centrally relevant to answer the question as to why we need a new education for tomorrow.

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30. May I mention that I am one of you engaged in the task of innovations, and it is with a sense of identity with you that I have presented these questions so that we may all share together our quest. What I have presented is only a small fraction of a number of problems that confront us in the field of innovations. And this workshop is an excellent opportunity to pool together all our problems of innovations, our experiences and our reflections for the possible lines of fresh enquiry and experimentation. I am sure that the results of this workshop will be of immense value to the development of education in general and of education in India in particular.

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In the history of the development of education, we find in certain systems of education a stress on harmonious development of the physical, the vital and the mental aspects of personality. Such, indeed, was the Greek ideal of education, which has reappeared in the modern West, and which influences the modern educational thinking in India. It has also been recognised that there have been systems of education laying great stress on the building up of the character and on the inculcation of moral virtues. In some Systems of education, an attempt has been made to provide for the study of some religious texts and for some religious practices. There is also a tendency to suggest a system of education in which all the above elements would, in some way, be incorporated.

There are, however, certain important developments which necessitate a clearer and a more radical concept of integral education.

Firstly, there is, today, an unparalleled width and depth of inquiry, which requires a new kind of education that would simultaneously be comprehensive and specialized or varied so as to suit each individual. Secondly, the modern human personality has become, as never before, subject to psychological .

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turmoil, imposing a new dimension in education that still remains undefined and insufficiently explored. Thirdly, there is a greater quest all over the world for the synthesis of knowledge and culture. Ancient knowledge is being rediscovered in the context of modern knowledge. The humanist and the technologist are finding themselves in greater and greater need of each other; and the scientist and the mystic are getting ready to embrace each other. The educational implications of these developments are obvious. Our educational syllabi have to reflect the latest trends of synthesis, and our educational objectives must include the idea of preparing a new kind of man who can consciously and progressively harmonize within himself the broad vision of the humanist and the skill of the technologist, the disciplined willforce of the moralist and the refined imagination of the artist, scrupulous knowledge of the scientist and the sublime vision, wisdom and ever-growing perfection of the mystic.

At a still deeper level, we have the most profound concern of our times, namely, that of an unprecedented crisis which can be considered evolutionary in character, a crisis that occurs in a species at a time when some kind of mutation is imminent. As Sri Aurobindo declares :

"At present mankind is undergoing an evolutionary crisis in which is concealed a choice of its destiny; for a stage has been reached in which the human mind has achieved in certain directions an enormous development while in others it stands arrested and bewildered and can no longer find its way. A structure of the external life has been raised up by man's ever

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active mind and life-will, a structure of an unmanageable hugeness and complexity, for the service of his mental, vital, physical claims and urges, a complex political, social, administrative, economic, cultural machinery, and organized collective means for his intellectual, sensational, aesthetic and material satisfaction. Man has created a system of civilization which has become too big for his limited mental capacity and understanding and his still more limited spiritual and moral capacity to utilize and manage, a too dangerous servant of his blundering ego and its appetites. For no greater seeing mind, no intuitive soul of knowledge has yet come to his surface of consciousness which could make this basic fullness of life a condition for the free growth of something that exceeded it... . A greater whole-being, whole- knowledge, wholepower is needed to weld all into a greater unity of whole life." ¹

If human existence were of one piece, solely material-vital, or solely mental, or solely spiritual, problems of human life would not have reached the kind of criticality that we are facing today. But the human being is a triple web, a thing mysteriously physical-vital, mental and spiritual at once, and not knowing what are the true relations of these things, we have been led to a situation where we are obliged to listen to the conflicting voices and their imperatives, and we do not know what to follow and what to reject. Against this background, deeper questions

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1. Sri Aurobindo: The life .Divine Centenary Edition, vol.19, pp 1053-55)

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both of life and education have become extremely urgent and imperative.

The first danger in this situation is a resurgence of the old vital and material primitive barbarian in a civilized form. This danger is likely to overcome humanity if there is no high and strenuous mental and moral ideal controlling and uplifting the vital and physical man in us and no spiritual ideal liberating him from himself into his inner being. Even if this relapse is escaped, there is another danger. For there may come about a crystallization into a stable comfortable mechanized social living without ideal or outlook. The present world situation seems to be fast developing into that kind of crystallization over larger and larger areas of the world. Rational thought can, indeed, if it continues to develop on higher and higher domains, prevent this peril. Unfortunately, the rational thought of today is still disinclined to mediate between the life and the body on the one hand, and something higher and greater within the human being, the spiritual reality, on the other. In that situation, humanity may succumb to the comforts of mechanized social living and may even succeed in burying the deep call of the spirit. This burial would mean perilous suffocation of evolutionary urge to arrive at the fullest possible perfection of the individual and the society and the perfection of the relationship between the individual and the society.

Self-exceeding or self-transcendence is the fundamental law of the nature of the human being, and if humankind comes to the paralyzing situation where the urge to exceed the limits of the mental

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human being is buried under the heavy weight of the civilization of comfort and pleasure, of continuous competition and conflict and of disabling appetites of egoistic life, controlled by dehumanizing machinery of civilization, then the human being will have frustrated the purposes of evolution, and those powers which lie at the summit of the possibilities of human personality. This is the heart of evolutionary crisis, and this crisis can be averted only if we are able to work at the highest frontiers of human resources and open up the gates of the forces and powers which lie beyond these frontiers in the realm of the Spirit.

One favourable factor which is likely to help humanity is the contemporary dissatisfaction that has arisen with materialism, on the one hand, and on the other hand, with spirituality which has been negating the meaning and purposefulness of the material world. After centuries of experiments, materialism is gradually giving way to the pressures of new discoveries which require exploration of the psychical and spiritual domains. Similarly, centuries of experiments in the spiritual fields have shown that the neglect of material life and neglect of collective welfare result in poverty or bankruptcy and even in economic and political slavery. As Sri Aurobindo pointed out :

"It is therefore of good augury that after many experiments and verbal solutions we should now find ourselves standing today in the presence of the two that have alone borne for long the most rigorous tests of experience, the two extremes.... In Europe and in India, respectively, the negation of the materialist and

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the refusal of the ascetic have sought to assert themselves as the sole truth and to dominate the conception of Life. In India, if the result has been a great heaping up of the treasures of the Spirit,-- or of some of them,--it has also been a great bankruptcy of Life; in Europe, the fullness of riches and the triumphant mastery of this world's powers and possessions have progressed towards an equal bankruptcy in the things of the Spirit.... Therefore the time grows ripe and the tendency of the world moves towards a new and comprehensive affirmation in thought and in inner and outer experience and to its corollary, a new and rich self-fulfilment in an integral human existence for the individual and for the race." ¹

It has now become clear that the knowledge of the Spirit and the knowledge of Matter need to be blended and synthesized; supracosmic aim of life has to be enlarged by integrating with it the cosmic aim of life; the realizations of the Spirit have to be extended so as to cover the domain of Matter. And in doing so, all that is intermediate between Spirit and Matter has also to be perfected and brought into unity in complete integration. All this has to be done both at the collective level and at the individual level, and in doing so, we shall find it necessary to develop integral education.

If we analyse the human being, we shall find that between two poles of the body and the spirit, there are three other elements, the vital, the mental and the psychic. We shall again find that all these

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1. Sri Aurobindo: Centenary Edition, Vol. 18, pp. 8- 9

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elements have a constitutional relationship among them; they do not stand in relation of juxtaposition. The physical and the vital can, to a great extent, be controlled and guided by the mental, and up to a certain stage of development, the mind can act as the leader, justifying the description of the mental in the Taittiriya Upanishad, of manomaya as shariraprananeta (leader of the body and the vital). But the leadership of the mind is rather restricted, and as the rational, ethical and aesthetic powers begin to develop, the mind finds itself incapable of resolving the conflicts between the rational pursuit of truth, aesthetic pursuit of beauty, and ethical pursuit of the good. The mind is found also to be incapable of dealing successfully the forces of Unreason which surge up constantly from the vital and the physical, which, in turn, are greatly dominated by the forces of the subconscious and the unconscious. The time must come when the psychic being, which is called in the Upanishad antaratman or which is described in the Veda as the Mystic Fire (Agni), has to be brought forward as the priest (purohita) of the human journey. And as the psychic being develops, there comes about a powerful opening of the doors of the domains of the spiritual consciousness, which culminate in the supramental, which is called in the Taittiriya Upanishad, vijnanamaya, which alone has been found capable of establishing the true integration of all the powers of the being under its natural and spontaneous sovereignty.

The knowledge of the secrets of this entire process of development is largely contained in the

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Veda and the Upanishads, and what we find missing there has been discovered and perfected by Sri Aurobindo. It is in the light of all this knowledge that we can speak today with great assurance of the concept and practice of integral education and of the synthesis of the ancient secrets of the reign of Spirit over mind, life and the body and the modern secrets of utilisation of the life in perfecting the instrumentality of the body, life and mind.

Integral education would not only aim at the integral development of personality, but it would also embrace all knowledge in its scope. It would pursue physical and psychical sciences not merely to know the world and Nature in her processes and to use them for material human needs, but to know through them the Spirit in the world and the ways of the Spirit in its appearances. It would study ethics in order, not only to search for the good as the mind sees it, but also to perceive the supra-ethical Good. Similarly, it would pursue Art not merely to present images of the subjective and the objective world, but to see them with significant and creative vision that goes behind their appearances and to, reveal the supra rational Truth and Beauty. It would encourage the study of humanities, not in order to foster a society as a background for a few luminous spiritual figures so that the many necessarily remain for ever on the lower ranges of life, but to inspire the regeneration of the total life of the earth and to encourage voluntary optimism for that regeneration in spite of all previous failures. Finally, it would encourage unity of knowledge and harmony of knowledge, and it would strive to foster the spirit of universality and oneness.

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An important characteristic of integral education is its insistence on simultaneous development of Knowledge, Will, Harmony, and Skill as also of all the parts of the being to the extent possible from the earliest stages of education. And since each individual child is unique in the composition of its qualities and characteristics, its capacities and potentialities, its predominant inclinations and propensities, integral education in its practice tends to become increasingly individualized. Again, for this very reason, the methods of education become increasingly dynamic, involving active participation of the child in its own growth.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of three principles of teaching, and they all need to be fully implemented in the practice of integral education. Sri Aurobindo states,

" The first principle of true teaching is that. nothing can be taught. The teacher is not an instructor or task master, he is a helper and a guide. His business is to suggest and not to impose. ... The second principle is that the mind has to be consulted in its own growth. The idea of hammering the child into the shape desired by the parent or teacher is a barbarous and ignorant superstition. It is he himself who must be induced to expand in accordance with his own nature. ... The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use. ... The third principle of education is to work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which

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shall be. ... A free and natural growth is the condition of genuine development. ..." ^1`

These principles, when implemented, provide a basis of a system of a natural organisation of the highest processes and the movements of which the human nature is capable. The first task of the teacher is to observe every child and to develop dynamic methods by which the child can be lifted up in its totality into a higher light which can sharpen, chisel, purify, perfect and transform every part of the being in a state of constant balance and integrity. This would mean application of every possible method even to the minutest details and to the action which may seem most insignificant in their appearances with as much care and thoroughness as to the greatest. For there is nothing too small to be used and nothing too great to be attempted.

There are three instruments of the teacher: instruction, example and influence. The good teacher 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 not impose 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 benign fostering within. He will know that the example is more powerful than instruction. Actually, the example is not that of the outward acts but of the inner motivation of life and the inner states and inner activities. Finally, influence

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1. Sri Aurobindo, vol.17. Centenary Edition, pp. 204-5

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is more important than example. For influence proceeds from the power or contact of the teacher with his pupil, from the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into the pupil, even though in silence, all that which the teacher himself is or possesses. The good teacher is himself a constant Student. He is a child leading children, and a light kindling other lights, a vessel and a channel.

In our present system of education, we are too occupied with the mental development, and we give a preponderant importance to those qualities which are relevant to subject-oriented, book-oriented and examination-oriented system. We do not give so much importance to the development of powers of understanding as to the powers of memory. We do not emphasize the development of imagination as much as we emphasize the power of knowing facts. We do not give importance to the pursuit of Truth as much as to the pursuit of piece meal information. Some place is, indeed, being given to physical education and aesthetic education, but these aspects of education are so peripheral that they tend to be almost neglected. In regard to inner domains of personality, the situation is totally unsatisfactory. We Sometimes speak of value education, but the situation is so confusing that there is a great need to clarify the entire domain of moral and spiritual values which would also throw considerable light on what we should mean by psychic and spiritual education.

A question is often raised as to whether there is any valid distinction between moral and spiritual values. In answer, it must be said that much depends upon what we intend to include in our definition of

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the word "morality" or the word "spirituality". In Indian thought, the distinction between morality and spirituality has been clearly made and we have two definite terms, naitika and adhyatimika, 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 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 domains of duties, spirituality is fundamentally a search of the knowledge of the highest and the absolute by direct experience and of manifestation of this knowledge in every mode of feeling, thinking and acting.

Again, what is called religious is 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; (ii) certain prescribed acts and rituals and ceremonies, and (iii) a religious authority to which religious matters are referred for final decision.

Both moral and spiritual values 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 or of any acts specifically

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prescribed by any particular religion, and both of them are independent of any authority except that of direct, abiding and verifiable experience.

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. Both morality and religion in their deepest core touch spirituality and may prepare the change of consciousness, but spirituality not only aims at the total change of consciousness, but even its method is that of a gradual and increasing change of consciousness. In other words, spirituality is an exploration of consciousness through progressive change of consciousness.

In the spiritual consciousness, and in 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. No more in this operation is the imposition of a rule or an imperative on the individual nature. 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

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a short or 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 the 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 harmonization of all the aspects of works; and through this striving it realizes also the unity of works with the highest Knowledge and the deepest Love.

For the spiritual consciousness, what is commonly called agnosticism, scepticism, atheism, positivism or free thinking, has behind it a concern and a demand for a direct knowledge, which if rightly understood, recognised, respected and fulfilled, would become a powerful complement to what lies in consciousness behind the commonly accepted religious qualities of faith and unquestioning acceptance of dogmatic teachings and injunctions.

For spirituality always looks behind the form to essence and to the living consciousness; and in doing

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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."¹

Spirituality and spiritual values and the methods of realizing them are distinctive. A mere learning about spirituality is not spirituality; even the most catholic book on spirituality cannot be a substitute for the direct practice of inner change of consciousness by which one can perceive and realize the inner and higher Self and transform the workings of the outer instruments of nature. The education that aims at inculcation of spiritual values and at the synthesis of these values with the dynamic demands of life must be quite radical. It would not do merely to prescribe a few graded books on morality or spirituality and to allot a certain fixed quantities of hours for the study of these books. Spirituality is a

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1. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 19, Centenary Edition, page 857

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living process and spiritual or true education is a process of kindling inner light. Again, spiritual values are central values and they must therefore govern and guide all the values and aspects of education.

In various domains of education, spiritual consciousness can be aided by promoting certain specific values. In the domain of physical education, the values that we ought to promote are those of health, strength, plasticity, grace and beauty. In the domain of vital education, the values that we ought to promote would be those of harmony and friendliness, of courage and heroism, of endurance and preservence, and the irresistible will to conquer the forces of ignorance, division and injustice. In the domain of mental development, the values that we ought to seek would be those of utmost impartiality, dispassionate search of 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.

Moreover, life itself is the great teacher of life; therefore, unless spiritual values are the very atmosphere and life-breath of the educational environment, they cannot be truly and effectively brought home to the students.

The pursuit of the spiritual values is, in fact, the pursuit and cultivation of the truths and powers of two over-ruling aspects of personality, namely, what we have called the psychic and the spiritual.

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The psychic being is the real individual, the real person behind all personality; it is integrative but unegoistic, and, little by little, it projects itself into the body, life and mind, in proportion to their right development, and suffuses them with its light and purity and establishes by it progressive governance a harmony of the different parts of the being. It is that which knows its real mission as an individual expression in the totality of all the individuals in the world, a mission that is unique to itself. Its goal is a higher realisation upon earth and its law of action is that of mutuality and unity.

While the psychic is the inmost and deepest being in us, the spiritual is the highest and transcendental. While psychic life is the life of immortality and of endless time, and limitless space, the spiritual consciousness, on the other hand, means .to live the infinite and eternal, to throw oneself outside all creation beyond time and space.

And there is still a higher ingredient, supramental consciousness, which reconciles the transcendental tendency of the spiritual and the immanence of the psychic as also the powers and perfections of the mental, the vital and the physical.

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Integral Education as Life-long Education

Integral education is life-long education, and it begins even before the birth of body and continues throughout the life. And while in the beginning, a great stress falls on the development of the body, life and mind, much can be done both by parents and teachers to commence psychic education at the early stages of development. In fact, the psychic being is very responsive in childhood, and if the right atmosphere is provided to it, and if at the later stages, great care is taken to provide physical, vital and mental education on proper lines, psychic being can be helped to come more and more to the forefront, and discovery of the psychic being can be greatly facilitated. This discovery is considered in integral education as of supreme importance, because through it one becomes conscious of one's destiny and master of one's life.

Psychic Education

In her small but great book on Education, The Mother has stated the' following:

"The psychic being is a great discovery which requires at least as much fortitude and endurance as the discovery of new continents. A few

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simple words of advice may be useful to one who has resolved to undertake it.

"The first and perhaps the most important point is that the mind is incapable of judging spiritual things. All those who have written on this subject have said so; but very few are those who have put it into practice. And yet, in order to proceed on the path, it is absolutely indispensable to abstain from all mental opinion and reaction.

"Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required.

"Try to take pleasure in all you do, but never do anything for the sake of pleasure.

"Never get excited, nervous or agitated. Remain perfectly calm in the face of all circumstances. And yet be always alert to discover what progress you still have to make and lose no time in making it.

"Never take physical happenings at their face value. They are always a clumsy attempt to express something else, the true thing which escapes our Superficial understanding.

"Never complain of the behavior of anyone, unless you have the power to change in his nature what makes him act in this way; and if you have the power, change him instead of complaining.

"Whatever you do, never forget the goal which you have set before you. There is nothing great or small once you have set out on this great discovery; all things are equally important and can either hasten

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or delay its success. Thus before you eat, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the food you are about to eat may bring your body the substance it needs to serve as a solid basis for your effort towards the great discovery, and give it the energy for persistence and perseverance in the effort.

"Before you go to sleep, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the sleep may restore your fatigued nerves, bring calm and quietness to your brain so that on waking you may, with renewed vigor, begin again your journey on the path of the great discovery.

"Before you act, concentrate in the will that your action may help or at least in no way hinder your march forward towards the great discovery.

"When you speak, before the words come out of your mouth, concentrate just long enough to check your words and allow only those that are absolutely necessary to pass, only those that are not in any way harmful to your progress on the path of the great discovery.

"To sum up, never forget the purpose and goal of your life. The will for the great discovery should be always there above you, above what you do and what you are, like a huge bird of light dominating all the movements of your being." ^1.

As far as the aid that parents and teachers can give, it may first be noted that a good many children are under the influence of the psychic presence which

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1. The Mother, Collected Works, Centenary Edition, Vol. 12, pp.33-4

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shows itself very distinctively 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. To recognize these reactions and to encourage them wisely and with a psychic feeling would be the first indispensable step.

It is also important to note that to say good words, to give wise advice to a child has very little effect, if one does not show by one's living example the truth of what one teaches.

The best qualities to develop in children are sincerity, honesty, straightforwardness, courage, disinterestedness, unselfishness, patience, endurance, perseverance, peace, calm and self-control, and they are taught infinitely better by example than by speeches, however, beautiful.

The role of the teacher is to put the child upon the right road to his own perfection and encourage him 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.

These books should contain, for younger students, the loftiest examples of the past, given not as moral lessons but as things of supreme human interest, and for elder students, the great thoughts of great souls, the passages of literature which can set fire to the highest emotions and prompt the highest ideals and aspirations, the records of history

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and biography which exemplify the living of those great thoughts, noble emotions and inspiring ideals.

Opportunity should be given to students to emulate in action the deeper and nobler impulses which rise within them.

The undesirable impulses and habits should not be treated harshly. The child should not be scolded except with a definite purpose and only when it is felt indispensable. Particularly, care should be taken not to rebuke the child for a fault which one commits oneself. Children are very keen and clear-sighted observers; they take no time to find out the weaknesses and note them without pity.

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, he should be made to understand with kindness and affection what was wrong in the movement and precaution should be taken to see that he does not repeat it. A fault confessed must be forgiven. 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 sustained effort of the will, - falsehood being rejected and replaced by truth, fear by courage, selfishness by sacrifice, attachment by renunciation and malice by love.

Due 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 over-flowing of excessive strength, greatness and nobility. They should be purified and not discouraged.

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Affection that sees clearly, is firm and yet gentle and a sufficiently practical knowledge will create bonds of trust that are indispensable for the educator to make education of the child effective.

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 effort should be made to answer the question truthfully and in such a way as to make the answer accessible to the brain of the hearer.

With the growing awareness, the child should be taught to concentrate on the inner psychic presence and make it more and more a living reality.

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 may be removed by some methods, inner or outer.

When the psychic being begins to be discovered, we find that it burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of the ignorant mind, life and body. As Sri Aurobindo points out:

"The veiled psychic is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature... It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice

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of the mystic... It is the individual soul, caitya purusa, supporting mind, life and body, standing behind the mental, the vital, the subtle-physical being in us and watching and profiting by their development and experience... It is this secret psychic entity which is the true 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... If the secret psychic person can come forward into the front... the whole nature can be turned towards the real aim of life, the supreme victory, the ascent into spiritual existence." ¹

Mental Education

In regard to mental education, the processes and methods can best be determined by under- standing of the mind. Mind is concerned largely with the activities of understanding, and all understanding is a discovery of a centre around which the ideas or things in question are held together.

Mental education is a process of training the mind of students to arrive at such central conceptions around which the widest and most complex and subtle ideas can be assimilated and integrated.

It is again found that even these central conceptions point still to a beyond, to their own essential Meaning, which can be glimpsed and conceived by the mind, but which cannot be held

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1. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 18, Centenary Edition, pp.225-7

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and possessed fully in experience by the mind. This point marks the climax of the mental development as also a clear sign of the limitations of the mind. Having reached there its office is to fall into contemplation of silence and to open to the higher realms of experience, to receive clearly and precisely the intuitions and inspirations from those higher realms, and to give creative expression to them.

To train the mind on these lines, there are five phases of the programme:

Development of the power of concentration, and attention;

Development of the capacities of expansion, wideness, complexity and richness;

Organisation of ideas round a central or a higher ideal or a supremely luminous idea that will serve as a guide in life;

Thought control, rejection of undesirable thoughts so that one may, in the end, think only what one wants and when one wants;

Development of mental silence, perfect calm and a more and more total receptivity to inspirations coming from the higher regions of the being.

Multiplicity of ideas, richness of ideas, totality of points of view -- these should be made to grow by a developed power of observation and concentration and by a wideness of interests. Care should be taken to see that the central ideas are not imposed upon the growing mind -- that would be the dogmatic method, which tends to atrophy the mind. The mind should grow towards central ideas which should come

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as a discovery of the mind made through rigorous exercise of the rational faculty.

Stress should fall not only on understanding, but also on criticism and control of ideas; not only on comprehension, synthesis, creativity, judgment, imagination, memory and observation, but also on critical functions of comparison, reasoning, deduction, inference and conclusion. Both these aspects of human reason are essential to the completeness of the mental training.

One of the best methods is to create an atmosphere in which massive and powerful ideas are constantly thrown as a stimulation and challenge impelling the students to arrive at them or strive to grasp and assimilate them.

Thinkers alone can produce thinkers; and unless teachers are constantly in the process of building up great thoughts and ideas, it is futile to expect a sound or vigorous mental education.

An atmosphere vibrant at once with ideation and silence, an atmosphere surcharged with synthetic thoughts and most integral aspirations and an atmosphere filled with the widest realisation and a harmonious unity -- such an atmosphere is indispensable for perfect mental education.

A constant attempt should be made to present each topic to the student in a challenging way so as to stimulate him and create his interest in the topic. To find new and imaginative methods, to compile materials from various sources, to introduce new concepts and new interpretations in various subjects, to develop .new subjects, and above all, to attend

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in detail to all the psychological faculties and their development in such a way that the mental education does not veil the soul --this, in brief, should be the endeavour and its spirit.

Vital Education

We now come to vital education.

Vital education aims at training the life -force (that normally vibrates in emotions, desires and impulses) in three directions: to discover its real function and to replace its egoistic and ignorant tendency so as to become the master by a willingness and capacity to serve higher principles of the psychological constitution; to subtilise and sublimate its sensitivity which expresses itself through sensuous and aesthetic activities; and to resolve and transcend the dualities and contradictions in the character constituted by the vital seekings, and to achieve the transformation of the character.

The usual methods of dealing with the vital have been those of coercion, suppression, abstinence and asceticism. But these methods do not give lasting results. Besides, they only help in drying up the drive and dynamism of the life-force; and thus the collaboration of the life-force in self-fulfilment is eliminated.

The right training of the vital then is much more subtle and much more difficult, needing endurance, endless persistence and an inflexible will. For what is to be aimed at is not the negation of life but the fulfillment of life by its transformation.

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First, the powers of the senses have to be developed, subtilised and enriched. Next, there are inner and latent senses which are to be discovered and similarly developed. Third, the seekings of these senses have to be trained to reject grossness and coarseness and to enjoy the finer tastes and higher aesthetic experiences. Finally, there has to be a deeper and piercing observation of the desires, passions, ambitions, lusts, etc., their risings, revolts and contradictions, and an attempt by various methods to separate out in each movement the elements that contribute to the concord and harmony from those tending in the opposite direction, and to eliminate these latter from the very nature and fibre of our psychological constitution.

The effective methods of this last aspect are:

— to instill in the child, as soon as possible, the will towards progress and perfection;

— rational arguments, sentiment and goodwill, or appeal to the sense of dignity and self-respect, according to the nature of the child in question;

— to insist on the idea that the will can be developed, and that no defeat should be taken as final;

— to demand from the will the maximum effort, for the will is strengthened by effort;

— above all, the example of the educator shown constantly and sincerely.

But still the direction in which the effort has to be made can be known only by the training of the mind and by the opening of the secret knowledge that is within our psychic being. To develop therefore

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in the vital the habit to open to this light and to. act in that light would be to place the vital in its proper place as a will-force executing the inner and higher knowledge.

Vital education is greatly aided by stress on different kinds of fine arts and crafts. Sri Aurobindo has written at length on the contribution that Art can make to the integral education in his important book, "The National Value of Art". He has pointed out that the first and the lowest use of Art is the purely aesthetic, the second is the intellectual and the third and the highest is the spiritual. He has even stated that music, art and poetry are a perfect education for the soul; they make and keep its movement purified, deep and harmonious. He has added, "These, therefore, are agents which cannot profitably be neglected by humanity on its onward march or degraded to the mere satisfaction of sensuous pleasure which will disintegrate rather than build the character. They are, when properly used, great educating, edifying and civilizing forces." ¹

A great lesson in vital education is to develop the will of the individual and to encourage the exercise of the will in which what is valued most is not the result, but application and doing one's best.

Physical Education

On the subject of physical education, it must be mentioned that the physical is our base, and even the highest spiritual values are to be expressed through the life that is embodied here. Sariram

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1. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 17, Centenary Edition, p. 246

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adyam khalu dharmasadhanam, says the old Sanskrit adage, -- the body is the means of fulfillment of dharma, while dharma means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law of its working out and its action.

Of all the domains of education, physical is the one most completely governed by method, order, discipline and procedure. All education of the body must be rigorous, detailed and methodical.

The education of the body has three principal aspects: control and discipline of functions of the body; a total methodical and harmonious development of all the parts and movements of the body; rectification of defects and deformities, if there are any.

Physical education must be based upon knowledge of the human body, its structure and its functions. And the formation of the habits of the body must be in consonance with that knowledge.

The child should be taught right from the early stage the right positions, postures and movements.

A similar training should be with regard to the choice of food. The child should develop the taste that is simple and healthy, substantial and appetising. He must avoid all that merely stuffs and causes heaviness; particularly, he must be taught to eat according to his hunger and not make food a means to satisfy his greed and gluttony.

The child should also be taught the taste for cleanliness and hygienic habits. It is important to impress upon the child that he is not more interesting by being ill, rather the contrary. Children should be taught that to be ill is a sign of failing and inferiority, not of virtue or sacrifice.

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Freedom and Discipline

A very important problem in respect of integral education arises from its insistence on. proper synthesis between freedom and discipline. Since education is a creative process, and since compulsion and creativity cannot go together, freedom has to be a very important instrument of education. The ideal condition is obtained when discipline becomes the child of freedom and discipline is transformed into self-discipline.

We have to recognise that different children react to various activities of education differently. There are children who feel a powerful attraction towards creative activities such as arts, music, dance, composition of poetry, drama, etc. They should, of course, be given freedom to pursue these valuable activities. But there are instances where children who do not have this natural inclination towards creative activities are also compelled to be engaged in these activities. This is entirely unacceptable.

We may also need to note that there are children who do not easily respond either to the activities of creativity or activities of production, but who are deeply reflective and to whom abstraction of thought and clarity and beauty of ideation constitute a fascinating project. We must recognise that a deep exercise in ideation and organisation of ideas is a very active engagement. It is a great activity of concentration.

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At the same time, an exclusive pursuit of ideation without devoting any attention whatever to creative or productive activity may lead to a lopsided development of personality. But the remedy is not to make things compulsory, but to counsel children, to motivate and suggest to them how gradually various kinds of activities can be blended together for a harmonious development. But while counselling, the teacher must realise and appreciate that there are periods where psychologically even an exclusive development of ideative activity or productive activity or creative activity has its legitimate claims. To what degree this claim has to be satisfied and in what way this claim has to be subordinated to the other claims of development will demand from the teacher a very deep insight into the inner psychological workings of the formation of the personality and his sympathetic understanding of the psychological differences among various children.

It may also be noted that there are children who are deeply interested in activities of self-sacrifice or of purifying their base emotions, or of the worship of the noblest ideals of life. Sometimes they may show no interest in studies or in arts or in crafts and often teachers complain of their dullness or their lack of concentration in studies. But a good teacher should ask himself if the child in question is not inwardly engaged in what may be called activities of "purification".

There could also be children like Yuddhishthira who would not claim that they have learnt a lesson unless they have succeeded in practising it in their daily life. These are indeed noble children and the

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teacher should be able to appreciate their nobility and encourage it so as to lead it to its perfection.

During the course of educational process, students often come up with some very fundamental questions but they often remain unanswered. Why, for example, should one learn mathematics? What does really history teach us? What is the relationship between language and mathematics? What is the aim of life? There should be freedom to raise these questions and also enough time and readiness to answer them, even though they may not be a part of any prescribed syllabus.

Another important point that should be noted is that a great care should be taken to get the development of the child in such a way that inspite of the growth of knowledge, the student does not lose freshness and sense of wonder and mystery. This indeed is the most difficult part of the work of the teacher.

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I

1. Let me 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 is 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

2. But, as we begin to seek for the meaning of life long education and its central theme "to be", we are confronted with a number of implications which w their turn centre round the idea of personality and personality development. As M. Edgar Faure,

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1. Learning To Be, UNESCO, p. 181

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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." ¹

3. But there are controversies regarding what constitutes personality and the real meaning of the full richness of personality. There are also controversies regarding 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 institutions, but also a revolution in the entire object, mode and interrelations of social existence.

4. 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 modern educationist has come to realise that the child is not a plastic material to be moulded and pressed into a shape as desired and

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1. ibid, p. VI

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decided upon by the parents and educators. There is an insistence on free choice for the student 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 in 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 psychologi cal 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.

5. 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, 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

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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 personalities 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.

6. One can make a distinction between the real Person and the instruments of the person, viz. the body, life and mind. And between the person 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 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 tamos. 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 person, 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

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Vedanta, especially in the 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.

7. 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 bigger than the thumb'. It is, indeed, no bigger than the thumb when there 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

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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 full expression of its force.

8. 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

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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." ¹

The full richness of personality is the splendid, opulent and marvellous integration of the four fold 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 accepts 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.

9. 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 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 in dividuality 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 a refined or dense and massive exaggerations of the forces of what Yoga

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1. Sri Aurobindo: The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 21 (Centenary Edition), pp. 714- 5

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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 harmonious 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 modern 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

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made in the fields of 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 inner 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

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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 largenesses, and opens us to the touch of spiritual sympathy, universality, oneness." ¹

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

________________________

1. Sri Aurobindo: The Life Divine, Vol. 18 (Centenary Edition), p. 226

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removed; all is purified, set right, the whole nature harmonised, modulated in the psychic key, put in spiritual order." ¹

10. 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 Mind, 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.

11. 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.

12. It should be evident that the personality development as conceived here is a life long education. 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.

__________________

1. Sri Aurobindo: The Life Divine, Vol. 19 (Centenary Edition), pp. 907-8

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13. And, first, we may ask if we could find some principles which would guide us in our work of organizing 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.

14. There are several other guidelines that we find in Sri Aurobindo. While explaining the instruments of the 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 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." ¹

15. "What is his method and his system?" asks Sri Aurobindo and answers, "He has no method and every method. His system, is a natural organisation

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1. Sri Aurobindo: The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol.20 (Centenary Edition), p.60

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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 thorough ness as to the greatest, they in the end lift all into the Light and transform all." ¹

16. "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." ²

17. 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 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

_______________________

1. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol.20 (Centenary Edition), p.55.

2. Ibid., p. 233

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programme 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.

18. 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) creating a collective atmosphere with regard to certain pervasive ideas, and (f) initiating rapid and massive programmes of training.

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,

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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.

19. Next, we may examine the syllabus system with which our lecture system is so closely connected.

A syllabus as an over all 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.

Also, a syllabus as an instrument of a graded system of learning has its value and usefulness (at least in some areas of studies).

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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 the 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 the student, and the 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 a spontaneous and happy flowering.

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

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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

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the student pointing out to him the various paths 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 will power 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 full 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.

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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 every child has in him the materials for his perfection but these materials are in an undeveloped state or 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 over all 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.

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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.

20. And now we come to the Examination System.

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

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the 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 possess. As these so 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 contact to his students and provide the necessary nourishment to their curiosity and need

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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.

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

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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 time table 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 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.

II

21. These considerations suggest some lines on which a new organization for New Education suitable for personality development could be evolved. But before we come to further precisions, it may seem necessary to state some over all propositions regarding

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the spirit in which the new organisation should function, and the general role of the teachers in this New Education.

22. 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.

23. In New Education, students will not go to schools 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 at

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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.

But to radiate an inner calm and a cheerful dynamism so as to create an atmosphere conductive 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.

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24. As hinted earlier, there are, it seems, two important stages or aspects in the process of learning, the aspect of what may be 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. An 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 over all 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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25. 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.

26. 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 this 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 still 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 sensitive ness 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 con ducted 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 there should be laboratories for each branch of knowledge, and these laboratories might be organised in he 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.

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(ii) There will also be available here:

(a) selected standard and reference books related to the subject;

(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 by 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;

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(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 give 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.

27. 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 leisurebness, a natural rhythm of work, daily conversation, and easy passage from one activity to another, fostering of

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interests and 'romance' of learning, warmth of friendliness and free collaboration in work, joy of discovery and invention, deep and profound reflection, spontaneous m6ditation, creative expression, fun 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 in collaboration with each other on projects, etc.;

(d) Rooms of Exhibition, where students can organise various exhibitions of their work, --charts, plans, paintings, etc.;

(e) Hobby Rooms, where students can work freely on various hobbies, such as aeromodelling, 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

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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 be quite contiguous in location so that there is not much movement from one place to another.

28. 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 who may so wish, may also

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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 topic 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 idle 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;

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(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;

(n) The over all duration of various courses operating at present in the ordinary system need not be changed;

(o) 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 as 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 extra curricular, since all activities will be a part of

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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 and 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.

29. 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 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 'work sheets';

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(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 team work, and there are often needs for joint exploration and experimentation, joint pursuit of a subject, useful lectures. In all these cases, 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 working of the in dividual 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

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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 his own pace. 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.

30. 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 really true in experience; much of our

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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 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. Not that knowledge as information is not important; 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 the feeding of information.

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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 the mind. And this means a constant, persistent and steady practice of conce- ntration and purification.

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 the 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 from them 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

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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 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.

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A subject is uninteresting only so long as it is not sufficiently understood, and nothing is under stood 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 disequilibrium. We seem to have no standing ground.

Is there a secret knowledge knowing which everything can be 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 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 :

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(a) Whatever be the subject of topic on hand, there should be a constant endeavour at '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 to 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 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

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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 circum stances, 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, the defects of specialisation will intrinsically be corrected.

In recent times, a greater 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 study 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 inter disciplinary approach to studies. 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 no 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

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self-perfection should govern the rhythm and law of self development. 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 bifurcate 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 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 new future; we wish to 'sit down', to gravitate to some kind of sleep.

In recent times, however, new ideas of life long education and of integral education have begun to dominate forward- thinking educationists and sociologists. They advocate a freer and larger use of time; they discourage the idea of 'finishing' education. They maintain that there should be no compulsion to finish a course within a specified period, there should be no compulsion to pass the

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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.

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 that we have to permit our students to progress at their own pace and on the

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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 like to be carpenters, masons, decorators, cooks, technicians, linguists, surgeons, 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 not 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.

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 paint and philosophise; 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

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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 causes 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 beautiful; the vital will be trained to be dynamic, disciplined, obedient and effective; the mind will be cultivated to be intelligent,

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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." ¹

____________________

1. The Mother: On Education, Collected Works, Vol. 12, (Centenary Edition), p.35.

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It is not intended to present here a model of the required framework as the model, but as a tentative and experimental model that could be utilized, with the necessary modifications, for innovative experiments. The new model will be so flexible that it can accommodate or adjust itself with the various programmes of education of varying durations. In particular, this model will aim at providing the necessary structure and organization so as to permit the art of self learning and integral development of personality as also various combinations of programmes of agricultural, technical, vocational, artistic and academic education. It will also facilitate the creation of the atmosphere and stimulation needed for dynamic methods. Besides, it will also meet the needs of multi point entry system, non for mal education, part- time education, and of weaving examination system into the learning process itself.

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1. Grouping of Students

For each major stage of studies (lower primary, higher primary, etc.) there could normally be sections or groups of about 100 students. The differences of levels of capacities should not very much count in the formation of these large groupings. These groupings would be valid and useful for those areas of studies which yield easily to cooperative work, mass media or to the means of environmental influence. These would include works of productive labour, large portions of language learning, as also introductory or panoramic portions of a number of Subjects where demonstrations, exhibitions or stimulating and interesting lectures are suitable means of communication. These would also be relevant 'p what may be regarded as peripheral areas of studies, where the imparting of general information is intended. Areas of general explanations, general knowledge, general instructions are also appropriate to these large groupings.

In the general working of the organisation, it is better not to have any fixed time table for the work of these large groupings. Or, if it is found necessary for some reason to have a regular fixed timing, it is better to have it not for the main work but to confine it to what may be termed 'time for supplementary work.'

In any case, the fixed timings of various programmes of education should be so arranged that

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the hours of fresh study and labour which can be done by individual self learning are not affected in any way. (The major portion of the daily work should be available to the students for their individual self learning.)

For purposes of the individual self learning, there will be, in a sense, no groupings since each individual will be free to choose his own area of work and pursue it at his own pace.

(A) But each teacher will have a number of students who will come to him more or less regularly for consultation on the subject of his competence. These students would, in a sense, constitute for the teacher in question a kind of a natural group. For, although these students will mostly come individually for consultations, they might also come in the form of a group from time to time.

(B) There will be, however, another kind of grouping or break up of the large group, depending upon the mode of learning that a given topic imposes or upon the mode of learning chosen by the student. There are topics or areas which need to be pursued regularly, systematically, step by step, with rigour, measure and regulated or accelerated speed. Those who choose such topics or such a mode of learning will form a kind of a group even though each of them may do his work mostly by himself. There are other areas or topics, which may permit a leisurely and free pursuit. Those who choose such topics or such a mode of learning

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will form another group. These groupings will, however, be not tight and inflexible. The same student may belong toone group for a few topics and to another group for other topics; or, with regard to the same topic, he may offer to do both these kinds of work appropriate to both these groups. Thus, he will belong to both the groups.

It may be noted that the grouping mentioned above under (A) and (P) will be, more or less, temporary, meant for some specific purpose or project and therefore dissoluble with the purpose in view. These groups will normally tend to be homogeneous from the point of view of capacities, or interests, but there will be no rigidity in this respect. They will often need to have group classes, and sometimes, even a fixed time table for short or long periods. Normally, time tables should be fixed for a month or two, renewable for a longer period, if necessary.

Individual consultations with the teachers will also tend in the direction of regular prior fixation of timings in regard to each student. There are some obvious advantages and conveniences in such fixed appointments. But care should be taken to see that the teachers keep always one or two hours daily unfixed so that students may have the opportunity to come them from time to time without any prior engagement.

One final point about grouping. If we are watchful, we shall find that» from time to time, there emerge spontaneously extremely small groups of

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students who have common inclinations and high aspirations, some common character or common trait of personality, even though they may differ in respect of capacities. Their homogeneity is by virtue of character or personality rather than capacities. Such groups are very valuable. They should be recognized, and they should be given all the help needed individually or collectively. Such groups become, if properly encouraged, transmitters of enthusiasm, dedication and devotion to studies, work and ideals.

In regard to the above system of grouping, three obvious advantages Can be mentioned:

1. There has recently been a strong plea for multi point entry system, particularly, in relation to the solutions which have been suggested for the implementation of the programme for the universalization of elementary education. It will be noted that this idea of multi point entry system is extremely valuable, and this system will find a natural setting in the structure that is suggested here. Similarly, this structure will provide a favourable setting for 'unit' studies. And a new system of tests can easily operate in the proposed structure so that tests become a part of the natural rhythm of the process of learning.

2. It would be possible in this flexible organization , to ensure facilities for individual attention which is indispensable, particularly, in the field of moral and spiritual education.

3. Works of productive labour, can flourish in this setting with naturalness that is so essential to the joy of work. These works need not be given

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as tasks. But students can be stimulated and encouraged by means of nourishment of interests, environmental needs and influences, as also through the medium of hobbies. In this setting, even specialisation of vocational training can be initiated at early stages. General education, diversification of courses and vocationalization – all can blend harmoniously together.

II. Teachers

(a) The role of teachers in this new organization is crucial. The teachers should have not only competence with regard to their subjects but also the necessary spirit and zeal.

(b) In the initial stages, students will need to learn how to organize their freedom; teachers should, therefore, help students in this regard.

(c) For every unit of 100 students, there should be ' a coordinator or a 'First Teacher' whose functions will be as follows:

(i) He will be available to students for guidance so 'as to help them in organizing their work and in learning the art of self learning as also other ways of learning;

(ii) He may, by personal contact, provide motivation to the students for various works, topics or subjects, according to the needs and circumstances;

(iii) He will ensure that all the material needs of studies and work are provided for;

(iv) He will keep an overall record of the work of every student in the unit, and will see that the

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students get the necessary guidance from himself or from the other teachers, or else from the environment;

(v) He will also ensure that the entire organization runs smoothly and harmoniously;

(vi) He will work as a brother among brothers and will consult all concerned before arriving at decisions; and

(vii) He will also give the necessary help in framing time tables, particularly, in view of the fact that, since there will be no time tables fixed in advance for, the whole year, there will be the need to frame ad hoc time-tables for short or long durations in consultation with students and teachers for various subjects and for various purposes.

(d) In addition to the First Teachers, it seems practicable that, for each major subject, a full time competent teacher could take charge of about 30-40 students (this number may vary according to the special needs of a given subject and also the age and capacity of the students). These teachers may form themselves into a small committee to help the Coordinator, and maintain a personal contact with the students in the Unit.

(e) Problems of irregularity, indiscipline and misuse of facilities will primarily be dealt with by the Coordinator and his Committee. To this Committee may be nominated some of the best students of the Unit.

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(f) All administrative problems should be handled carefully so that all points of view are given their due weight, and decisions emerge out of consultations.

(g) All work should be carried out by utmost goodwill and cooperative action, rather than by any arbitary authority.

(h) There should be no place for gossips, politics, canvassing, manoeuvring, ugliness and untidiness. There should be an atmosphere of self control and utmost inner discipline.

(i) A full fledged working of this model will pre-suppose new educational material in the form of booklets, work sheets, charts, maps, pictures, albums, tapes, slides, film strips, magazines, journals, exhibits, tools, and equipment and apparatus. And new curricula and syllabi have to be worked out, particularly, in regard to interdisciplinary studies and inter weaving of work and knowledge. In these tasks, teachers will have to make their own contribution.

III. Organization of the Work

In the proposed organization, a special emphasis will fall upon 'individual work'. 'Individual Work' may be pursued in several different ways that have already been enumerated elsewhere.

At the end of every two or three months, each student will submit to the Coordinator a report on his work in regard to each topic, subject or work under study. This report will give details of the progress he has made in regard to what he has read or written or the reflections and conclusions he has arrived at. (It is understood that younger students

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will not be capable of giving this r kind of report, and in their case teachers themselves will prepare reports for them).

Tests will be given to the students where necessary, and their aim will be to provide to the students occasions for exercise, revision, comprehension, encouragement and self evaluation.

Tests for placement in the employment market should be conducted by a National Testing Service, and they should be open to anyone who wants to take them. These tests should be related to specific jobs or employment opportunities or certain pursuits of Studies and disciplines of knowledge and skill. They will also test physical fitness, artistic and other talents, practical skills and value orientation.

IV What will be Expected of Students

To learn the secret of self-education and to work hard so as to remain steadily on the road to self- perfection- this will be the student's constant endeavour.

To study and work widely and intensely, to study and work with joy and application, to study and work to grow and to remain perpetually youthful this will be the content of his main work.

But to become a fearless hero-warrior in the quest of Truth, Harmony, and Liberty, and to surpass the limitations of his nature by an inner change and transformation- this will be regarded as the very heart of his work.

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Aims of education determine the contents and methods of education. If our aim is that of life-long integral education, the contents of education have to be conceived quite differently from what are normally pursued in our present system of education.

In India, almost all schools follow a curriculum which was originally designed to arrive at the end of the educational process within a limited period and to fashion clerical abilities among students. Gradually, it has been expanded to suit the needs of producing lawyers, engineers, medical doctors, businessmen and teachers. Vocational courses have only been recently introduced, even though they have not flourished to any expected degree. Moreover, curricula are so designed that they do not cater to the needs of those who want to or are required to drop out of school system at early stages. Even the curriculum of class X, which is the first terminal point in our Indian system, is geared to the needs of higher levels of education. Upto class X, all prescribed studies are compulsory for everybody. Hence, no child can have an experience of free choice and free joy of learning until the completion of class X.

If a student wants to become a mason or a carpenter, our schools have nothing to offer to him. Similarly, if he wants to be a poet,, there is hardly

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anything which would be directly related in our curriculum which would nourish his abilities to become even a budding poet. If one wants to be a musician, the students will hardly find anything in his curriculum excepting a few classes in music meant as a part of general education. Examples of this kind can be multiplied.

Let us take the example of physical education, which has somehow secured some place in recent decades in our system of education. There are periods allotted to physical training or to Yoga classes. But what exactly is physical education, what is the importance of the human body, how miraculously human body works, what are different forms of physical education, --these and allied questions receive hardly any place in the curriculum. Something about the human body is, of course, taught in courses relating to physiology and hygiene, but the orientation is not related to physical education.

Moreover, we find that there are a number of interesting questions and studies which come up if we allow freedom of enquiry and freedom of pursuit of subjects of interest. Students often ask questions like this : " What is below the waters of the ocean?" " What kinds of animals live in the ocean?" " What has been the history of costumes?" " What has been the history of weapons?" " How to learn?" " How to widen interest?" How to concentrate?" These and allied questions are hardly answered because they do not form part of curriculum or syllabus

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A very important question is being debated in regard to value education. Should there be a special curriculum for this subject? Or else, should the study of values be integrated in different studies? The debate has been inconclusive, and in the meantime, no serious effort has been made to spell out the curriculum in respect of value education.

In regard to the study of languages, curricula do not manifest any concern for developing adequate competence to express oneself faultlessly, perfectly, and beautifully. Where more than one language are taught, there is no concern to correlate these languages and to advance the capacity of translating from one language to the other. In fact, there are no courses on translations in our schools or in colleges.

In one of his essays on national system of education, Sri Aurobindo had underlined the importance of language in the development of mental faculties. He had said that mental faculty should first be exercised on things, afterwards on words and ideas. But he had added

''our dealings with language are much too perfunctory and absence of fine sense for words impoverishes the intellect and limits the fineness and truth of its operation. The mind should be accustomed first to notice the word thoroughly, its form, sound and sense; then to compare the form with other similar forms in the points of similarity and difference, thus forming the foundation of the grammatical sense; then to distinguish between the fine shades of sense of similar words and the formation and rhythm of different sentences, thus forming the formation of the literary and the

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syntactical faculties. All this should be done informally, drawing on the curiosity and interest, avoiding' set teaching and memorising of rules. The true knowledge takes its base on things, arthas, and only when it has mastered the thing, proceeds to formalise its information." ¹

If these ideas of dealings with language have to be fulfilled, we have to think both of new contents and new methods of teaching languages.

The field of history needs a very special attention/It is not sufficiently realised that Indian history, with its uninterrupted continuity of more than five thousand years, has a rich account to be conveyed to students. Excepting China, no other country has had such a long historical account, and even in regard to China, the continuity is not so great as in the case of India. As compared to the students in other countries, the Indian students have, therefore, to be obliged to receive and assimilate a much greater burden not only of the quantity of information but also of the complexity of numerous currents of civilisation and culture which had again landmarks of various kinds, the interpretations or which are varied and numerous. The history books which are now used in our educational system were written during the British period, and they have only been slightly modified during the last fifty years;

The question as to how we must present Indian history to Indian students poses many problems, and they have not received the attention that' they deserve. Very often, the history of northern India

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over-shadows the history of southern India; the accounts of various dynasties that ruled parts of India at different times overshadow the accounts of civilisation and culture that developed in various forms in various parts of the country, retaining yet some kind of essential unity; much of the cultural ethos is treated marginally by proclaiming that the concerned literature is legendary or mythological in character; even the basic facts of the most important texts of the ancient Indian history, -- and for that matter of world history, --namely, of the Vedas, are not known even to the most educated Indians of today; the sheer poetic excellence of the Veda should have merited the full attention of the whole nation; even the three great national poets of Indian history, Valmiki, Vyasa and Kalidasa, and their works are hardly known and only very briefly mentioned in our history books; the great achievements which were registered by ancient Indians in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, natural scien ces, metallurgy, as also in the fields of grammar, ethics, philosophy, religion, psychic and spiritual sciences, yoga, art, music, dance, and architecture, hardly figure in our history books. Even the political account of Indian history suffers from great short comings and Indian students remain ignorant of how Indian polity developed through the ages and what great dreams and deeds were nurtured by the leading personalities of the country in different epochs.

Again, Indian history is taught in such. a way that while a student becomes conversant with, say, Maratha period, he remains quite unacquainted with the Mughal period or earlier periods or subsequent periods.

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Inter-connections of history are hardly presented or grasped.

It is true that many important facts about India's development are besieged by controversies in regard to their historical accuracies; it is also true that much is not known about many great men and women who flourished in different epochs of history; it is also true that the meanings of some of the greatest products of Indian literature have been interpreted differently by different scholars. But the answer to these questions is to undertake a programme of thorough going research instead of subjecting them to neglect or even oblivion. Our students deserve to be given a rich account of the heritage to which they have a natural right.

The question of the study of history is further complicated by the fact that, in order to keep abreast with the increasing drift towards human unity, which is spreading all over the world, we have to teach our students the entire history of the world in a meaningful manner. This subject is very vast, but at this stage, we need not enter into any further details. We may only make a remark that there is a need to present world history and its relationships with Indian history at least in three forms: in synoptic form, in. the form of an outline, and in the form of detailed exposition, so that they can suit the needs of at least three categories of students, namely, those who want to have a general and rapid view, those who want to be acquainted, and those who want to study at a deeper or scholarly level.

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Before we leave the subject of history, we may make a few important remarks which are associated with this subject. The first is in connection with the study of legends and mythologies. At one time, there was a great prejudice against ancient beliefs, their symbolism, and their literature which lacked scientific or philosophic rigour. This prejudice is gradually being corrected, and there is today a salutary movement to understand ancient legends and mythologies with fresh eyes. It seems, therefore, desirable that a study of legends and mythologies in so far as they constitute a part of the cultural ethos, should be brought to the notice of our young generations. In any case, our students should not have wrong facts about legends and mythologies. Accuracy of information on this subject is very important. Secondly, we have deplorable dearth of good biographies of great men and women of our country; a similar deficiency is not there in regard to world history, but our own knowledge of books concerning the same is very limited, and even that limited knowledge does not find any route of transmission to our teachers and students. This is a very important subject, and we must give considerable place to biographies, and accounts of important events should form a part of the contents of education. Thirdly, we have to take a great care to ensure that the study of the past and the present does not become a prison preventing the visions of the future. There are golden reaches of our consciousness, and from them and from the reaches between them and our ordinary mental consciousness there have descended forces and forms which have become embodied in literature,

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philosophy, science, in music, drama, art, architecture, sculpture, in great and heroic deeds and in all that is wonderful and precious in the different organised or as yet unorganised aspects of life. To put students in contact with these, Eastern and Western, ancient and present, would be to provide them with the air and atmosphere in which they can breathe an inspiration to reach again to those peaks of consciousness and to create still newer forms and forces which would bring the golden day nearer--this should be the aim of the study of history.

A very important area that is developing today is that of interdisciplinary studies. At present, this is pursued only at the higher level of education or at the level of research. But there is an urgent need to develop this subject even at lower levels of education. Basically, all subjects are complementary to each other; and there is no subject which is not , interesting, provided we can show the interrelationship of a subject with those subjects which are supposed to be interesting. Many may not know how much mathematics is connected with music, and how Pythagoras saw the relationship between these two subjects; and many do not know or appreciate the relationship between music and poetry. Again, mathematics is closely connected with logic,--there is even a view that mathematics and logic are one and the same and logic is often considered to be the key of metaphysics; there is an obvious connection between metaphysics and physics; and physics, chemistry and biology are closely interconnected; again, the main theme of biology is that of evolution,

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and evolution is closely related to the theme of man. Now, the study of man leads us to the study of history and geography; study of geography leads to the study of the earth, and the study of earth is connected with the study of planets and stars and galaxies and of the entire universe. In fact, it must be said that the pursuit of man to know himself and the universe and to relate himself with the universe as effectively and harmoniously as possible is the underlying idea of all education. This interrelationship of man and the universe is central to the aim of integral education. If integral education is concerned with the development of the physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual parts of the human being, it is also connected "with the knowledge that links universal Matter with universal Spirit. And this covers the entire gamut of knowledge and the means by which all knowledge can be united in one unity.

Closely connected with the problem of unity of knowledge is the contemporary problem of explosion of knowledge. Considering this unprecedented explosion, one is obliged to ask as to 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 specialisation; on the other hand, there is a pressure for interdisciplinary and holistic knowledge. Knowing more and more about less and less bestows upon the individual a specialised capacity and proficiency but it also creates disabling inefficiencies in respect of larger questions where multisided knowledge is indispensable.

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There is more to perplex us. Specialised knowledge and efficiency that the individual possesses today tend to become obsolete at a rapid rate. There is, consequently, increasing pressure to continue to learn all the time. But this leaves very little time to expand horizons in fields other than those of specialisation. With the passage of time, our inefficiency to deal with general questions of life goes on increasing.

At a certain stage, this situation, if not corrected, can really become alarming. Crises of various kinds are bound to multiply and this is what we witness today all over the world.

Against this background, an important question that can be raised is whether there is something like "essential knowledge" which every human being, as a human being, ought to possess and which ought to be communicated to every student during the educational career.

Reflecting on this question, it seems that there are at least three global subjects which can be considered to be essential and at the same time inherently interdisciplinary; if they could be taken up as the basic umbrella of curriculum, we can more easily combine the needs of general and specialised education. The first subject is that of man and the environment, the second subject, which is closely related to the first, is that of man and evolution; and the third subject is that of the aim of life.

As these areas are quite neglected, they require special consideration of educationists.

Two final remarks need to be made.

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We find that most of the books which are prescribed in schools and colleges are so written that they are extremely uninteresting. Students read them because they want to pass examinations, and often they take to short-cuts and resort to guide books which are even more boring and less instructive. There is a need to prepare learning materials in such a way that every subject is made interesting, vivid and even charming. It may be said that this is a tall order, but when we are thinking not of narrow or immediate goals, and when we are thinking of education for tomorrow, we need not hesitate to make tall orders.

Secondly, if integral education is to be freed from the evils of subject-oriented, book-oriented and examination-oriented system of education, if liberty and self- discipline are to be the hallmark of the methods of integral education, and if the emphasis is to be laid on self-education, we shall need to write books in different forms that will be required for different kinds of students, different kinds of backgrounds and different modes of learning. We have to think of preparing worksheets, workbooks, monographs, reference books, documentation books, and books which can be read along with TV or audio-tapes.

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The Workshop on "Education for Tomorrow" was organized by Sri Aurobindo Research Foundation on September 7-8, 1996 at Baroda, and it was conducted by Kireet Joshi (KJ), President, Dharam Hinduja International Centre of India Research. Ms. Kosha Shah, Director, Sri Aurobindo Research Foundation, Baroda, coordinated the workshop.

List of participants is at ANNEXURE-I.

At the outset, Ms. Kosha Shah welcomed the participants and made an introductory statement.

Thereafter, KJ explained that it was thought preferable to have a small group of educationists, teachers and experts who could reflect on the innovations in education which are being experimented upon in different parts of the world and to consider not only the implications of these innovations but also to visualise what kind of education is required to meet the highest needs of building a new world order. He said that the tasks that are normally given to educational committees and Com missions are limited to the immediate concerns. He added that the situation has, however, become so acutely difficult that there is an urgent need to think of the fundamentals and to visualise education for tomorrow.

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He said that the main questions that need to be discussed are: What is education? What is to be done if the higher ideals of education are to be implemented? What are the practical problems in carrying out this task? He also felt that one of the important tasks is to prepare a new programme of studies and total learning process. For that purpose, he said, we need to prepare new types of learning material corresponding to new types of curricula. He added that the programme of reconstruction could take a long time, but needs to be started as soon as possible.

Kireet Joshi then presented a paper entitled "Education for Tomorrow".

During the discussion that followed, PR said that everyone has a role to play in conceiving and implementing a programme of education for tomorrow. She said that there are in any society three circles: whereas outer circle is related to the sphere of influence that one can have on the society, media, etc., the innermost circle concerns the individual himself or herself. The intermediate circle is concerned with the interrelationship between the individual and the society. She felt that the internal activity can be conducted at the inmost circle. She added that each one of us needs to discover oneself by inner activity and that the task of self- discovery could be the best starting-point.

VNK said that "Education for Tomorrow" has to be integral in character and that a great emphasis should be laid upon the study of the mother tongue. He said that teaching children through a foreign tongue is cruelty.

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GM deplored the onslaught by the media which are dehumanising our children and adults. She underlined the need for New Education, but she wondered whether a new curriculum could be formulated which would promote humanising influence. She said that the direct human contact is diminishing at every level. Even in the field of music, she said, instead of listening to live performances, we prefer to hear recordings on cassettes.

RV referred to Sri Aurobindo's view that instead of mechanisation of life, natural growth and spontaneity should be promoted. She stressed that education should be a living process. She added that education should underline the need of the concrete experience and that even the abstract ideas should be so communicated through stories and other dynamic processes that abstractions are clothed with concreteness.

BD pointed out that while during earlier periods of history, the human being was oriented towards collectivity, in the post-industrial era, there is greater and greater emphasis on egoism and competition based upon narrow concerns of individuality. She said that the problems of today are problems of the dichotomy between individual and the collectivity. How to reconcile the growth of the individual and growth of collectivity is the central problem, she added. She also referred to the concept of integral education and asked how integral education could promote the growth of gnostic society where the needs of the individuals and needs of collectivity can be perfectly synchronized.

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PKSP stated that unless the present human consciousness undergoes a change, we cannot bring about any real change in the society. He felt that there is a need of total revolution, both individual and collective. He asked whether such a total change is possible.

KJ explained that the human being is basically angelic in character, because there is a soul in every human being. He added that if this angel in the human being can be affirmed, then the change will be possible and will even become inevitable.

KB observed that the present situation in the field of education is deplorable and that the values in the society and consequently the values that are influencing our children are going haywire. She remarked that materialism is on the ascendancy. She underlined the need to awaken the inner soul and said that a new syllabus should be framed which would have as its objective the awakening of the inner soul. She added that at present, our education is nurturing individuals to become competitive, mechanistic, materialistic; she added that the present system of education is manufacturing robot -like individuals. She stressed that radical innovations are essential.

JCD pointed out that the major defects of our system of education are connected with the present examination system and the present syllabus.

PR said that the entire system of education is to be changed. In regard to examinations, she said that various new forms of examination should be conceived, such as examinations with open books.

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Examination papers should be devised with imaginative questions that would really test the intelligence of the students instead of the power of memory, she added. She also favoured questions which would be both theoretical and objective. She further suggested the methods of learning which would underline learning by discovery and learning by doing.

AK commented that examinations are a big bugbear for children. She wondered whether a new system of education would be able to remove this fear from students. She also raised questions about experimentation in education. She wondered whether human beings should be used as guinea pigs.

BD expressed the view that education at all levels, lower or higher, should be that of self-development. She, however, added that other aspects of development also need to be kept in mind. She also made a distinction between education as a technique of teaching and education as a discipline and said that when this distinction becomes blurred as it has become today, unwanted consequences arise. She also underlined the dimension of value-education.

KJ agreed with BD and said that value education is very important and added that true education is inherently value-oriented. He, however, pointed out that there is a need to give to children enough facilities that would respect the pace and rhythm of each individual's process of development.

HMJ spoke of different theories of human personality. He made a distinction between the existential approach, the psychoanalytical approach

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and approach of Realism. He said that all these different approaches have behind them some basic truths; these basic truths, he added, need to be synthesized. He pleaded for the integral view of the human being. In the integral view, he said, development of integral consciousness is underlined. And if this view is applied to education, he said, the most important question is as to how to devise teachinglearning processes by which this consciousness can be developed. He said that there are two keys to the growth of awareness, namely, self-knowledge and self-discipline. He said that there is in everyone a psychic entity, antaratman of the Upanishad or Chaitaya Purusha. He said that education must aim at the awakening of the psychic entity because it is by the help of the psychic entity that narrowness, selfishness and egoism of the individual can be progressively eliminated and a complete harmony of the body, life and mind can be established. He, therefore, favoured the enlargement of the horizons of education. He said that we must raise the question whether the human nature can be changed and whether we should not plan new education which would aim at the change of human nature.

PR stated that very important experiments in education are currently being conducted in the West and that these experiments aim at creative development of talents of children. She said that it is by emphasising creativity that human nature can be changed in the right direction. In some of the experiments, she added, class system where children are divided into lower and higher divisions have been greatly modified. She added that there are many

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educational situations where all children belonging to different levels are placed in one class and this promotes greater interaction among children. She said that innovations in methodology of education need to be promoted. She underlined the need for creative education.

On the conclusion of this discussion, KJ presented his second paper entitled "The Concept of Integral Education".

He also circulated for self-study his third paper entitled "Methods and Practical Applications".

The fourth paper written by Kireet Joshi on "Personality Development" was next presented.

Thereafter, KJ circulated for self-study his next paper on "A model framework for teaching- learning suitable to integral education."

At the outset of discussion on the paper on "Personality Development", and other papers, JCD said that while many good ideas were presented, the question remains as to how one can implement them.

KJ observed said that none of these ideas can be implemented unless we have teachers, who first of all, understand quite well the implications of these ideas. Secondly, he added, they must themselves develop into new kinds of human beings. He said that teachers must have great interest in children and their development, and they should be able to interweave their own personal lives with the lives of the children. He said that unless this interweaving takes place, the kind of education that is proposed will remain impracticable. He also underlined the need for new kinds of learning material new contents

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of education, new methods of education and new kinds of books. He said that since none of these are immediately available, we have to think of a programme of education where, gradually, all that is required for implementation is sufficiently prepared, first on a small scale and later on a growing scale.

JCD said that there is a group of parents and management who would like to do something in the field of education. She said that parents are ready to pay higher fees if the school provides something more than what is commonly done in the ordinary schools. She, however, felt that the main difficulty comes from the governmental departments of education. She said that the department does not give financial assistance if innovative experimentations are proposed.

KJ stated that there is, first, the need to have increasing number of groups of teachers, parents, educational administrators ready to devote much of their time in thinking seriously on problems of education. This is to be supplemented by a number of seminars and workshops. There is also a further need to prepare learning material. He added that all these preliminary things have to be done as a prerequisite preparation before we could think of actual implementation.

JCD remarked that the great obstacle is that of political interference.

KJ pointed out that the difficulty is not merely that of politics, but even well meaning people are not prepared to understand that the kind of education

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that is needed today has to be radically different. He added that a lot of experimentation is needed, and one should be prepared to spend a few years in preparing a new climate.

JCD explained that while experiments can be proposed, there is lack of proper leadership. She also added that new leaders of education should be able to explain proposals of innovations to the higher authorities in their right perspective.

KJ intervened to point out that it was in the context of this need that he had, at one stage, made a proposal for the establishment of an Education Commission, not like the University Grants Commission or National Council for Educational Research and Training, but as a permanent body which would encourage constant discussion among teachers, parents, educationists, administrators and the people at large.

GM asked the question as to whether the system of integral education was implemented by the Mother in Pondicherry.

In reply, KJ replied that by the year 1972, the implementation of New Education had reached a certain climax of perfection. He added that as a result of a long process of experimentation, a new system of education was invented.

GM lamented that a feeling of helplessness arises because one does not know what help is available in practical terms. She also wondered whether new system of education would require 1 : 1 student -teacher ratio and whether such a ratio is viable or not.

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KJ explained that the question of studentteacher ratio can be solved if we have a different kind of grouping of students

He pointed out that in a new system, one could provide even eight teachers to one student, and at the same time, one would need only one teacher for hundreds of students. He observed that what is important is that different kinds of grouping of children can be conceived for different kinds of activities involved in the educational process.

GM remarked that in any case, we need a high quality of teaching staff. She wondered whether the needed staff is available.

KJ averred that if one wants to start a project of innovative education, we shall need to recruit fresh teachers and organise a programme of training .for them. He stressed that it was very important that new teachers receive training; children should be admitted to the new school only after the teachers are properly trained. He admitted that while problem of starting a new project is very difficult, it is not impossible.

AK said that while the ideas are all very good, we have to admit that they are very difficult to translate into practice. She added that we should have, in the first instance, a small number and also a kind of conviction.

RV suggested that we should have models of residential institutions, where children are placed in the hands of a team of dedicated teachers.

KJ commented that even residential institutions have certain limitations. The first limitation, he said,

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is that syllabus is prepared by the Board of Examinations, teachers are not free to make experiments to introduce innovations in the syllabus. The second problem, he said, is related to examination system, because children know that all that ultimately counts is passing of the examinations. As a result, many good things which can be done in residential schools achieve only a marginal place in the total system. He also referred to the difficulty arising out of the pressure from parents. He said that many parents want true and good education for their children, but they have fear about the future of their children who are required to fit themselves into the framework of the present competitive society which is getting more and more dehumanised and mechanised. As a result, parents put a big pressure upon teachers and schools. He admitted that these are some of the problems which are being faced by all those who want to launch upon innovative experimentation. At the same time, he said there are several good private and public schools in the country. He, however, added that these schools cannot be expected to bring about radical changes in the system of education. He further added that if a new system has to be developed we should start with a limited clientele and develop a very good programme of training of teachers. He said that the country needs a band of people who are prepared to give their life-time to building up small nuclei of experimentation. It is only at a later stage that generalisation of a new system can be conceived.

CD referred to the Amrit Higher Secondary School which has 3,500 students. He said that the

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teachers started this innovative new school with the cooperation of some like-minded parents. In this experiment, he pointed out, a different kind of evaluation system came to be developed, consisting of assignments, weekly evaluation, surprise tests, etc. He, however, regretted out that the difficulties came from the parents. He said that they could not accept the innovative system and wanted to have the same system of examinations as in some other ordinary schools. He also referred to the problem of financial constraints.

KS said that when we speak of education, we normally talk about students, teachers and parents, .but we do not think of educating society at large.

She stressed the need to concentrate on how society can be educated. She said that we should go about educating the society so that it is able to accept innovations in education.

KJ said that this problem could be dealt with at three levels. Firstly, he said, we should create small nuclei in different parts of the country. He referred to the experiments which were made at Sri Aurobindo Ashram and at Auroville. He said that there is a proposal to create 20 or 30 such communities all over the country. He explained that Auroville is a place where individuals who are ready to make experiments are brought together under the canopy of a township, where all activities of human life are represented. He said that the main aim of this township is to foster the actualization of human unity. On the model of this idea, he said, innovative education can come to be developed by the voluntary effort. This voluntary effort, he explained, needs to

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be supplemented by working on the government so that the government facilitates the voluntary effort. But even this is not enough, he added. He said that something has also been done at the international level so that the general climate becomes more and more favourable to innovative education. He acknowledged that there are no simple answers to various problems that are involved in this three-fold endeavour. He added that they have to be met, dealt with and they have to be resolved only gradually and progressively. He, however, emphasised that what is most important is to keep the fire of aspiration burning.

PR said that an important aspect that should not be forgotten is that of the cost factor. She stressed that financial management is also of prime importance. She also raised the question as to whether and how parents can be involved in carrying out innovations in education. She said that parents should become more and more aware of problems of education, particularly those problems which directly affect their children and the problems which are created by the children themselves

KS said that the parents know these problems but they do nothing about them.

KB remarked that one should not always criticise parents. Both teachers and parents should be prepared to cooperate in dealing with the problems.

SJ agreed with this suggestion and added that both parents and teachers should be involved in a cooperative manner.

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KS said that it is not enough to involve parents, students, and teachers; the entire society needs to be prepared for a new system of education and a new way of life so that the society is receptive to the changes. But again, she added, the problem is as to how to prepare the society, how to make society accept the change and how to bring about the needed changes. She said that the problem is as to how we can make people think in a different fashion, so that when there are innovations in the education system, they are ready for them and willing to cooperate. She added that with the cooperation of the society, things could go much faster. She pointed out that we need to start by creating an atmosphere of influence, wherever we are, at every level in order to increase the receptivity of the society to the process of change.

PR said that if one can go at one's pace in one's own circle, we can create a world of excellence. She referred to the problem of sex education and the experiments done by the Baroda University. She said that Snehaben (SJ) has an experimental school under the department of teachers' education which prepares teachers for B.Ed. In that school, the problem of sex education was experimented upon. At the next stage, she said, we shall need to deal with academic council, which is normally very rigid. She added that everyone should try in his/her own sphere of influence to loosen the grip of rigidity. It is only when different bodies of the university get together and draft a plan of action that fruitful experiments can be conducted. She also referred to various innovative ideas that were put forward for Baroda

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University. She said that she would like every student in the University to be computer literate. In addition, the ideal of academic excellence should be emphasised. She also underlined the need to develop the idea of interdisciplinary courses. She said that each teacher should chalk out one's own plan and endeavour to make it a plan of the department, which should further be developed as a plan of the faculty of the university. She added that what Kireet Joshi had suggested was being tried in her university. She, however, added that the University plan should also become the plan of every teacher.

HMJ raised the question as to whether education for excellence does not result in elitistic education which induces development of ivory towers. He said that what is important is collective development, and that while ideal of excellence is important, we should avoid the evils of elitism.

KJ said that one of the definitions of excellence refers to a situation where every individual is encouraged to work on his/her limitations to over-come them so that each one moves towards the excellence that one is capable of. He explained that if the ideal of excellence is pursued in this manner, evils of elitism can be avoided.

PR said that one must be encouraged to develop one's potentialities up to one's maximum possibilities.

GM said that there are innovative institutions which turn out better students.

PR said that one of the reasons why some of these institutions succeed is because they follow a

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particular philosophy. It makes them stick to certain ideas and enables them to look up to someone.

SJ observed that one of the reasons of the present deplorable condition in the country is that not only the students but even the teachers do not have the sense of belonging or commitment. She underlined the need to prepare teachers and to educate them properly. She said that commitment needs to be emphasised in our educational institutions.

RV stressed that no single individual can change a society; since it is individuals who make a society, individuals need to meet in a group and create the required environment or facility to create new environment.

KS commented that while it is true that society takes very long to change, the process is both individual and collective. She referred to Sri Aurobindo's concept of Collective Evolution and said that because Nature itself is evolving, we are also evolving collectively. She remarked that while individuals can make individual contributions, there is also need for the collectivity to make its own contribution. She said that there is something like massive action by massive awareness.

PR said that the first step is that of individual growth.

KS agreed but stated that collective growth is also necessary and as simultaneous step.

KJ referred to two methods of progress of which Sri Aurobindo has spoken:

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(i) Method of Revolutionary Individual Progression;

(ii) Method of Collective Evolutionary Progression.

He explained that in the first method, the emphasis on the individual is much greater, while in the latter method the emphasis is upon collective effort. He said that one has to lay emphasis on both methods and employ one or other or both according to the possibilities of the given stage of development.

KS observed that people have apprehension about socalled philosophers who are very eager to distribute their knowledge; most people feel that knowledge is only in the head and not in the heart, and yet they apply it to everyone. She said that many difficult problems arise in the society because a number of people preach what they do not practise. She added that one should avoid prescriptions which are not backed by sufficient experimentation and practical application.

The programme of the second day began with a discussion on various aspects of education. JCT wanted to know how vital and mental education are different from each other and how these two aspects of education can be implemented in schools.

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KS commented that there is a wide-spread misconception about psychic and spiritual education. A distinction was sought to be made between psychic and spiritual education on the one hand and moral and religious education on the other. It was pointed out that psychic and spiritual education cannot be equated with a kind of education in moral science since the two stand on different planes. She added that psychic and spiritual education emphasize a higher orientation of life which is much superior to orientation that is involved in moral education.

RV pointed out that the concept of methods of teaching evokes the sense of some kind of mechanisation. She said that in higher education, teachers are oriented only to their subjects of specialization. She underlined the need for the teachers to undergo special courses of training.

GM said that while physical, vital, and mental education deal with shaping of an individual out of an amorphous substance, in psychic education, she added, we deal with the true motive of life. She pointed out that the subject of motive or purpose of life is very controversial, since teachers may differ from each other in regard to this very important subject. She, therefore, felt that we need to keep psychic education out of any ordinary school programme.

KJ said that integral education should not mean juxtaposition of education of different elements of personality. Integral education is not education of the body, plus education of the vital plus education of mental, but education of underlying personality of which physical, vital and mental are instrumental"

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manifestations. The real entity which is manifested is what is called the psychic being. Therefore, he added, the education of the psychic is already involved when we attempt to educate the instrumental personality consisting of the body, life and mind.

KJ stressed that the necessity of psychic education is paramount in the context of the present circumstances through which humanity is passing today. He pointed out that at different stages of civilisation, different goals of education could have been conceived, and quite legitimately, but the necessity of psychic education in the present stage of historical development of humanity is demonstrated by the fact that the gravitational pull which modern civilisatiion has intensified ties down humanity to lower impulses of violence, division, etc. This can be counteracted only if the nobler elements of human personality are fostered with special insistence.

KJ traced the main stages of human history and pointed out that it has become inevitable in the present stage of history to face the crisis which consists of an acute conflict between the higher aspiration of humanity and pulls of the lower life which are being greatly supported and nourished by the enormous structures of modern technological civilisation. He pointed out that human being is essentially evolutionary in character, and evolution implies an upward urge to exceed oneself. Human beings have, therefore, a natural tendency to exceed their own limitations. And yet, the present civilisation has provided such means to human beings that they feel disinclined to raise themselves from their limits.

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He referred to the statement of Sri Aurobindo that the humanity is passing through an evolutionary crisis because while, on the one hand, there are favourable factors which would facilitate the development of humanity towards higher evolution into super-humanity, there are also powerful obstructions which tie down humanity to its present state of limitations.

KJ, therefore, underlined the need for human beings to free themselves from the gravitational pulls of various limitations which have at present become acute. At the same time, he said that humanity has to have freedom of choice, and it is, therefore, left to humanity to decide whether it wants to move towards higher levels which evolutionary urge implies or whether it wants to remain arrested where it is at present. Under these circumstances, he said, if we limit our education only to physical, vital and mental education, then the chances of children receiving the appropriate education to be the instruments of higher evolutionary progression will necessarily be much more limited.

GM said that one could only prepare the ground and the child will have to be free to make a choice.

KS said that this kind of work requires infinite patience.

KJ said that physical, vital and mental education can be fully integrated only if we give chance to the psychic and spiritual education. He added that the main problem for implementing the psychic and spiritual education is related to the teachers

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CD pointed out that by emphasising psychic and spiritual education as the only method of integral education, we are not limiting the available alternative possibilities.

KJ said that while he would avoid using the word "exclusive" and while philosophically, one could always think of a number of alternatives to deal with any given problem, a stage is reached in the process of experimentation, where, having thought of all sorts of possibilities, one is obliged to eliminate various hypotheses when they are found unworkable.

In the present situation, he added, we have arrived at a point where one is scientifically obliged to conclude that there is no alternative left for mankind except to develop psychic and spiritual education.

MD said that the evolutionary concept of Sri Aurobindo needs to be clarified.

KJ said that there are many theories of evolution. He pointed out that, basically, the idea was put forward by Darwin in the modern times although the Upanishads speak of evolution and there was also the original Vedic idea of evolution. He also referred to the modern thinkers like Bergson, Samuel Alexander, Smutts and Whitehead. He also referred to Tiellhard de Chardin. He said that while there are many theories of evolution, the question is to find out certain crucial facts which will enable us to decide as to which one of these theories of evolution can answer those crucial facts. In this connection, he traced the experiment in the evolution that was proposed and carried out by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He said that if we were

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to study this entire account of evolutionary experiment, then one could see the enormous relevance and inevitability of the programme of evolution presented by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He added that it was in the context of that great programme that he could speak confidently of necessity of psychic and spiritual education.

After the above discussion, KJ presented the next paper entitled "Contents of Education".

While introducing the above paper, KJ had said that through that paper, he wanted to share with the participants a curriculum related to self-knowledge and self-control which seems to emerge as a very important ingredient of integral education. He added that the curriculum was tentative and it needed to be enriched by a discussion with educationists, who are interested in essential and higher aims of education. He explained that corresponding to that curriculum, there is also a need to think of contents of education in a new light and also to think of preparing suitable books which would be needed to implement the proposed curriculum. He also explained that as an annexure to that paper, he had appended the following three stories: (1) Story of Initiation--an Indian (Gujrati) Story; (2) A Cap for Steve by Morley Callaghan--an American Story; and (3) A Secret for Two-- also an American Story. He said that those stories were a kind of samples to explain what kind of stories we need to collect from the East and the West so that under the influence of such stories a sense of universality can be cultivated. He said that the children who are

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to be citizens of the world should be free from the sense of division between the East and the West; they should be able to swim in the vast ocean of the universe. In this context, he said, stories play a great role in the growth of synthetic elements of personality. He explained that the stories that he wanted to collect should illustrate the themes of illumination, love and heroism. He referred to a question which was raised during the course of discussion as to what was the method of vital education. He said that his basic answer was that one of the most important instruments of vital education is that of good stories. He invited the participants to the task of collecting good stories from the world literature. He, however, explained that stories should have been written in chaste language and that they should be of deep human interest, and that they should vibrate with the uplifting atmosphere.

During the discussion, KS referred to the theme of psychic and spiritual education. Commenting upon what was said earlier on that subject, she said that what is being offered in our life is a choice between the life of joy and sorrow and the life guided by the psychic and spiritual light. She said that the choice is always difficult, and even the path that has to be followed in regard to psychic and spiritual education is very difficult, but the results obtained in the long-run will be worthwhile.

HMJ said that the present system of education in India has certain basic ideals. He, however,

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wondered whether the Government which is implementing the present system of education is fully aware of the cultural implications of that system. He also pointed out that there are several other demands in our system of education, which include those connected with the medium of instruction where the emphasis is upon the mother tongue of the child, priorities regarding removal of poverty, etc. He also referred to many schools which were established under the influence of Gandhi and Vinobha Bhave. In contrast, there is the ordinary system culminating in the system which is propagated by the University Grants Commission. He also pointed out that the Indian Government is a Federal Government and that different State Governments have their own special emphases on education. He also referred to the schools established by the Central Schools Organisation, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. He also referred to Convent Schools, which have their own unique goals. He said that all these different kinds of schools can be contrasted with the ideal of integral education which was being discussed in the Workshop. He pointed out that the ideal of integral education carries forward the Rigvedic and Upanishadic tradition. In his view, India has reached a point where any kind of patch-work would not help the promotion of the goals that have to be realized in India. He pleaded for a total transformation which can begin only with psychic and spiritual education. He, however, wondered as to what would be the role of teachers, administrators

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and others who are engaged in the present system of education.

KJ said that he would advise that wherever one may be, one can always find enough room to explore and implement integral education. He added that when enough work is done by each one, circumstances will arise which would facilitate the opening of a major gate for implementation of integral education. He stated that he was confident that, sooner rather than later, humanity was bound to look for a system of education that could be conducive for integral education.

GM said that according to her, the time has already come when we must say : "No, no more of this present ordinary system." She, however, raised another question as to at which level students should be allowed to make a choice of subjects.

KJ said that free choice should be given right from the stage of Kindergarten education. He explained that Kindergarten education should be so organised that in a big hall, a number of things should be made available and each should be allowed to play with any article in which they may feel interested. He said that teachers should be present to watch the children and intervene only when they are likely to hurt themselves. At the primary level, he said, reading, writing and arithmetic are important and the learning material regarding these subjects should be made so interesting that children feel attracted to this learning material. Even then, he felt that none of these subjects should be made

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compulsory. He said that over a short period, different children would take up one or two or all the three subjects; in the meantime, children should also be encouraged to learn music or art or clay work or things of that kind. He felt that over a period of four or five years of primary education, children could be expected to arrive at a certain competence in regard to reading, writing and calculating ordinary sums. In addition, children will have also indicated their interest in music, art, craft work, drama, recitation of poems, etc. He also referred to language and history and said that in a sense a study of every subject can be reduced to study of language and history. He felt that while history is important as a study of the past, care should be taken to see that children are enabled to cultivate visions of the future.

He also referred to the study of mathematics and said that while one aspect of mathematics is a theory of numbers, another aspect is the practical ability for calculations. He said that both these aspects are important, and even though calculations could be done by computers, one should not forget that mental calculations are vital for the development of the mental faculty.

MS pointed out that Vedic mathematics has been found by him to be of great help in developing the mental faculty. He also pointed out that psychic and spiritual education has now become a necessity. He, however, felt that teachers need to be helped in

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conducting education for the development of psychic and spiritual potentialities.

MDV said that the greatest difficulty is that people get imprisoned within the walls of dogmas. He felt that there was a great need to liberate the people from dogmas. He also referred to the new idea of UGC to promote the "cafeteria approach". He also referred to Upanishadic concept of Sachchidananda and welcomed the idea of new contents of education.

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8

List of Participants

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Kireet Joshi (b.1931) studied Philosophy and Law at the Bombay University. He was awarded Gold Medal "and Vedanta Prize when he
stood first class first in the M.A. Examination. He was selected for I.A.S. in 1955 but resigned in 1956 in order to devote his life to the study and practice of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga at Pondicherry. He was responsible for the establishment of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Educational Research at Auroville.

Invited by the Union Government of India he joined the Ministry of Education as Educational Adviser in 1976 and later as Special Secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development. He was Member of the University Grants Commission from 1982 to 1988. He was also Member-Secretary of National Commissions on Teachers which submitted two voluminous reports in 1985.

His works include, "A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth", "A Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man", "A Philosophy of the Role of the Contemporary Teacher", "Education for Personality Development", and "Sri Aurobindo and The Mother". He has also edited "The Aim of Life" and "The Good Teacher and the Good Pupil". He is currently the Honorary President of the Dharam Hinduja International Centre of Indie Research. He is also Honorary Chairman of the Value Eduaction Centre. He has recently been appointed Chairman of the Auroville Foundation.