The Educational Thoughts of Sri Aurobinda
Ghosh
Mukul Sk,
Assistant Teacher,
Brahmantuli Nayapara (P) School,
Jangipur, Murshidabad,
West Bengal, India.
Abstract: The history of Indian education has crossed through so many milestones
since the days of Aryan civilization. Differences have been witnessed. But the
spirit of the Indian culture has always been the essence of education. The
colonial system of education during the period of India's struggle for freedom
ignited so many prominent souls of the soil who evolved new education, suited
to the people of India. Sri Aurobinda, who as a well-known philosopher and
humanist, a yogi, a poet, a seer, a national leader, and also a nationalistic
thinker of India in contemporary period, thought about education for the people
of the nation. He was a follower of vedanta philosophy. His educational views
can be summed up as Spiritualistic Humanism or Divine Humanism, because he
insisted on the spiritual awakening of the human being. Sri Aurobindo believes
that human beings are the fragments of the Divine. So, it is possible for man
to achieve higher status through spiritual transformation. His educational
thought is also consistent with this idea. Education, to him, is nothing but a
joyous journey in the unending path of evolution, from the physical life to the
life divine, reaching the supra-mental existence. In this paper, I would like
to discuss how Aurobindo's educational thoughts are relevant even today.
Keywords: Spritual, Philosophy, Humanism, Existence Nationalistic
Discuss: The history of Indian education has
crossed through so many milestones since the days of Aryan civilisation.
Differences have been witnessed. But the spirit of the Indian culture has
always been the essence of education. The colonial system of education during
the period of India's struggle for freedom ignited so many prominent souls of
the soil who evolved new education, suited to the people of India. Sri
Aurobinda, who as a well-known philosopher and humanist, a yogi, a poet, a
seer, a national leader, and also a nationalistic thinker of India in
contemporary period, thought about education for the people of the nation. He
was a follower of vedanta philosophy. His educational views can be summed up as
Spiritualistic Humanism or Divine Humanism, because he insisted on the
spiritual awakening of the human being. Sri Aurobindo believes that human
beings are the fragments of the Divine. So, it is possible for man to achieve
higher status through spiritual transformation. His educational thought is also
consistent with this idea. Education, to him, is nothing but a joyous journey
in the unending path of evolution, from the physical life to the life divine, reaching
the supra-mental existence.
Though Aurobinda, the great seer, patriot,
poet, philosopher and the savior of mankind, had his own ideas on education. To
him, there is no such state as ignorance. Every individual has his elegant
store-house of knowledge which is only to be unveiled through purification of
the understanding. So education must be life-oriented, and should have its
basis upon the very yogic process the objective of which is the harmonious and
total development of all the aspects-physical. Mental, intellectual, moral,
social and aesthetic. The true spirit of education should be bliss or ananda,
for which these is an eternal cry of human soul. Let us discuss the ideas of
Sri Aurobinda regarding education of Man.
Aurobinda resented against the system of
education which regarded a child as an object to be handled and molded by the
teacher, to be educated. On the contrary, the realization must come that each
human being is a self-developing soul and that the business of both parent and
teacher is to enable and 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. He realized, "within the universal mind and soul of humanity is
the mind and soul of the individual with its infinite variations, its
commonness and its uniqueness, and between them there stands an intermediate
power, the mind of a nation, the soul of a people. And of all these three
education must take account if it is to be, not a machine-made fabric, but a
true building or a living evocation of the powers of the mind and spirit of the
human being."
Aurobinda thoroughly observed a man's growth.
not only physical but also psychological. To the ordinary man, psyche means a
few desires, some imperative, intellectual and aesthetic cravings, some tastes
etc. But Aurobinda observes that every part of us, intellect, sense-mind,
nervous or desire-self, the heart, the body has each, as it were, its own
formation and complex individuality and neither agrees with itself nor with the
others nor with centralized ego which we call ourselves.
Like Plato Aurobinda classified three types
of men the man who is dominated by the being of the body, the man, whose
dominant being is the vital self, ruling over the mind and the man whose master
is the being of mind. So physical man, the vital man and the mental man are the
three types of men in accordance with the variation in their innate
ingredients. Education has to follow this natural course of development,
peculiar to every individual.
Aurobinda thought that the true basis of
education in the study of the human mind, infant, adolescent and adult and the
central educational aim in the building of the powers of the human mind and
spirit. It is the evoking of knowledge and will and of the power to use
knowledge, character and culture. To Aurobinda, the chief aim of education
should be to keep the growing soul to draw out the best and make it perfect for
a noble use. Aurobinda formulates three principles of education: the first
principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught. A child or a man
learns by himself. The modem trend of education, as advocated by all the great
educators of both East and the West, is that all education is self-education.
The second principle is that mind has to be consulted in its growth. The German
educator, Pestalozzi experimented in his schools that the course of development
of each individual must be followed in the educational process. The third
principle of education is to work from the near to the far, from that which is
to that which shall be. A free and natural growth is the condition of genuine
development.
Sri Aurobinda's educational thought has drawn
our attention to the role or nature in education. He says, it is by allowing
Nature to work that we get the benefit of the gifts she has bestowed on us. So
Aurobinda advises all to interest the child in life, work and knowledge, to
develop his instruments of knowledge with the utmost thoroughness, to give him
the mastery of the medium he must use. Afterwards, the rapidity with which he
will learn will make up for any delay in taking up regular studies. This
reminds us of Rousseau's famous saying, "It is better to lose time than to
gain it-with reference to child's education, which, he thought, should be
natural, negative, and absolutely child-centric.
Like all the great educators, Sri Aurobinda
has laid stress upon the training of the senses of the children as the senses
are the gateways of learning and conducive to the development of thinking
process Aurobinda emphasizes the accuracy and sensitiveness of the senses,
which depend on the unobstructed activity of the nerves, which are the channels
of their information and the passive acceptance of the mind which is the
recipient. Aurobinda has realized that the channels may be obstructed due to
emotional disturbances or inhibitions. These obstructions can be removed
through some yogic processes which bring about calmness and quietude for the
senses and mind to function properly. The processes are known as Nadi suddhi
and Chitta suddhi
The sense organs and mind, the sixth sense,
being trained properly, the gateways of knowledge may be unlocked to the child.
The power of observation should be developed, which requires sufficient
attention and closeness. Aurobinda's system of education emphasizes the
usefulness of memory, judgement, and imagination for the proper development of
the child. Intellectual activity should both be imaginative; creative,
comprehensive and critical, analytic, penetrative, Reasoning should be the very
important part of human education.
Sri Aurobinda eulogized the ancient Aryan
system of education where the child had to grow in close proximity with nature.
The Aryan knew that man was not separate from the universe, but only a
homogeneous part of it. Sri Aurobinda like Rabindranath Tagore was for the
revival of the Asramik system of education, and Brahmacharya, a very important
period for studentship.
To Sri Aurobinda, we, human beings are
composed of many parts, each of which contribute something to the total
movement of our consciousness, thought, will, sensation, feeling, action, but
we are not aware of these. For the physical, the vital, the mental, the
psychic, and the spiritual parts in human personality, subjects of study should
be varied in number. The physical activity and yogic exercises are very
important and integral part of education. Literature, Language, History,
Geography, Mathematics, Sciences, Moral education, Music, Poetry, Philosophy,
Universal religion and interesting creative activities should be in the
curricula. But these should be introduced and taught to the students depending
upon their capacities, interests and propensities- Aurobinda says, “the school
gives the materials, it is for the students to use them this is the formula.
Information cannot be the foundation of intelligence, it can only be part of
the material out of which the knower builds knowledge, the starting point, the
nucleus of fresh discovery and enlarged creation. An education that confines
itself to imparting knowledge, is no education." It is very interesting to
note that Aurobinda, a nationalist leader, did not ignore modem truth and
knowledge. So his approach to education was a synthetic one, harmonising all
divergences. So he prescribed both Sanskrit and Indigenous Indian languages so
as to get to the heart and intimate sense of our own culture and also English
or any other foreign tongue so as to know helpfully the life, ideas and culture
of other countries and establish our right relations with the world around us.
The method of Aurobinda's education, is the
method of self-discovery, self-scrutiny. He is required to use his own powers
and abilities to learn, assimilate and apply the knowledge in new and novel
situations. The teacher's business is to help, guide the child. He does not
actually train the pupil's mind, he only shows hin, how to perfect his
instruments of knowledge and helps and encourages him in the process He does
not impart knowledge to him, he shows him how to acquire knowledge for himself
So far we have been discussing all the very
important aspects of Sri Aurobinda's educational thought. The discussion reflects
that Sri Aurobinda was all in one-a philosopher, a national leader, a poet, a
dreamer, an educator and the saviour of mankind from the traumas of life. His
educational doctrine opens a new chapter in Indian education-the chapter of
all-comprehensive education not only for an individual bat for the total human
race. His idea of evolution of a man and men to reach the supramental state is
unique and education proper, he thought, can open the flood-gate of that
all-enlightening supra-conscious Reality.
Works Cited
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