III. A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION (i) THE HUMAN MIND THE true basis of education is the study of the human mind, infant, adolescent and adult. Any system of education founded on theories of academic perfection, which ignores the instrument of study, is more likely to hamper and impair intellectual growth than to produce a perfect and perfectly equipped mind. For the educationist has to do, not with dead material like the artist or sculptor, but with an infinitely subtle and sensitive organism. He cannot shape an educational masterpiece out of human wood or stone; he has to work in the elusive substance of mind and respect the limits

APPENDIX I. THE SCIENCE OP LIVING—The Mother (From Bulletin VoL 2 No. 4 Page 15.) II. A TRUE NATIONAL EDUCATION—Sri Aurobindo (From "A Preface on National Education" Arya 1921 January. Printed for the second time in Bulletin Vol. 3 No. I Page 2.) III. A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION—Sri Aurobindo IV. BRAIN OF INDIA—Sri Aurobindo V. EDUCATION 1—The Mother (Taken from Bulletin Vol. 3 No. 2 Page 13.) VI. EDUCATION II-PHYSICAL EDUCATION—The Mother (Taken from Bulletin Vol. 3 No. 2 Page 13.) VII. EDUCATION III-THE 'EDUCATION OF THE VITAL —The Mother (Taken from Bulletin Vol. 3 No. 3 Page 25.) VIII. EDUCATION IV-MENTAL EDUCATION—The Mother (Taken from Bulletin Vol.

X. MESSAGE I TAKE the opportunity of the publication of this issue of the "Bulletin d'Education Physique" of the Ashram to give my blessings to the Journal and the Association—J.S.A.S.A. (Jeunesse Sportive de l 'Ashram de Sri Aurobindo). In doing so I would like to dwell for a while on the deeper raison d'etre of such Associations and especially the need and utility for the nation of a widespread organisation of them and such sports or physical exercises as are practised here. In their more superficial aspect they appear merely as games and amusements which people take up for entertainment or as a field for the outlet of the body's energy and natural instinct of activity or for a mea

IV. SUPERMIND AND HUMANITY WHAT then would be the consequence for humanity of the descent of Supermind into our earthly existence, its consequence for this race born into a world of ignorance and inconscience but capable of an upward evolution of its consciousness and an ascent into the light and power and bliss of a spiritual being and spiritual nature? The descent into the earth-life of so supreme a creative power as the Supermind and its truth-consciousness could not be merely a new feature or factor added to that life or put in its front but without any other importance or only a restricted importance carrying with it no result profoundly affecting the rest of eart

PREFACE This scheme is written to help a group of people who wanted to organise Physical Education in Bengal As physical education cannot go all alone, divorced from other education such as vital, mental, psychic and spiritual and general education, so all the branches of education were included and touched in this scheme. An appendix is made for the consultation of special references and a special appendix is included in order to give a broader knowledge about our ideal, for those who want to study in further details. The section of psychic and spiritual education could not be included in this volume. This section will be dealt with in the Bulletin of Physical Ed

VI. PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF all the domains of human consciousness, the physical is the one most completely governed by method, order, discipline, procedure. The lack of plasticity and receptivity in matter has to be replaced there by an organisation of details, at once precise and comprehensive. In this organisation one must not forget, however, that all the domains of the being are interdependent and interpenetrating. Yet, even if a mental or vital impulsion is to be expressed physically it must submit to an exact and precise procedure. That is why all education of the body, if it is to be effective, must be rigorous and detailed, foreseeing and methodical. That will be

VIII. MENTAL EDUCATION OF all education, that of the mind is the most well-known and the most in use. And yet, except in a few rare cases, there are lacunae which make of it something very incomplete and, in the end, quite insufficient. Generally speaking, education is taken to mean the required mental education. And when a child has been made to undergo, for a number of years, a course of severe training, which is more like stuffing the brain than educating it, it is considered that whatever is necessary for his mental growth has been done. But it is nothing of the kind. Even when the training is given with due measure and discrimination and does not impair the brain,

I. THE SCIENCE OF LIVING TO KNOW ONESELF AND TO CONTROL ONESELF AN aimless life is always a miserable life. Everyone of you should have an aim. But do not forget that on the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life. Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested, this will make your life precious to yourself and to all, But whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realised unless you have realised perfection in yourself. To work for your perfection the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish

II. THE DIVINE BODY A DIVINE life in a divine body is the formula of the ideal that we envisage. But what will be the divine body? What will be the nature of this body, its structure, the principle of its activity, the perfection that distinguishes it from the limited and imperfect physicality within which we are now bound? What will be the conditions and operations of its life still physical in its base' upon the earth by which it can be known as divine? If it is to be the product of an evolution, and it is so that we must envisage it, an evolution out of our human imperfection and ignorance into a greater truth of spirit and nature, by what process or stages can it grow