SPIRITUALITY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY One of the central issue of today is that of the uses and misuses of Science and Technology, of Science and Values, of Science and Spirituality, — in brief, the issue of what Sri Aurobindo has called the denial of the materialist and the refusal of the ascetic. Fortunately, it can be said that humanity has over passed the stage of naive materialism, which was based on the vicious circular argument that physical senses are the only means of knowledge, since this very statement cannot be established by means of physical senses. No more are we like the uninstructed stranger who on witnessing the operation of the s

-10_Problems of Knowledge and Sri Aurobindo^s Concept of the Supermind.htm PROBLEMS OF KNOWLEDGE AND SRI AUROBINDO'S CONCEPT OF THE SUPERMIND But our nature sees things through two eyes always, for it views them doubly as ideas and as fact and therefore every concept is incomplete for us and to a part of our nature almost unreal until it becomes an experience. SRI AUROBINDO, The Life Divine. There is an ascending movement of knowledge which seeks to find its fulfilment in the attainment of the highest, completest and the most indubitable knowledge. In this search it rises higher and higher and on the way it stops at certain stations wondering at each whether it is not

APPENDIX TIMELESS AND SPACELESS REALITY AND SPACE AND TIME An extract from Sri Aurobindo's "The Life Divine". The original status is that of the Reality timeless and spaceless; Space and Time would be the same Reality self- extended to contain the deployment of what was within it. The difference would be, as in all the other oppositions, the Spirit looking at itself in essence and principle of being and the same Spirit looking at itself in the dynamism of its essence and principle. Space and Time are our names for this self-extension of the one Reality. We are apt to see Space as a static extension in which all things stand or move together in a fixed order;

BONDAGE, LIBERATION AND PERFECTION One of the greatest contributions of the Indian science of Yoga is that of the discovery of the state of the human soul's bondage, and that of the fashioning of the various methods which would ensure liberation and its other consequences relating to perfection. Every human being is required to deal with a given environment and a certain set of circumstances, and at a certain stage, a conscious feeling begins to grow that there is something in the human personality which needs to be distinguished from the environment and circumstances in an effort either to escape from the burden of life and its responsibilities or to

PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL EDUCATION Why do we need Spiritual Education? What does it really mean? Is it practicable? And what reforms could we propose in our educational system so as to have the right place for spiritual education in it? All these are important and difficult questions, and within the short time available, we can only touch upon them very briefly and inadequately. We need spiritual education, firstly, because we want a true national system of education. Education, in order to be national, must reflect that basic urge, which is distinctive of our national history, which is the real genius of our country, which accounts for the amazing

THE MOTHER: HER LIFE AND WORK (A Brief Outline) The Mother (Mirra Alfassa) was born in Paris on the 21st February, 1878. Her mother was Egyptian and her father was Turkish - both of them were perfect materialists. As a result, although she had inner experiences, including that of the divine presence, right from her childhood, she was in her external life an atheist until she entered into adulthood. In her early years, she had a good grounding in music (piano), painting and higher mathematics. By the age of eighteen, she had begun to feel an intense need to KNOW, but all that she learnt and studied would explain nothing. Her need to know led her into tw

PHILOSOPHY OF INDIAN PEDAGOGY I Presuppositions of Pedagogy All systems of pedagogy, Eastern or Western, have certain presuppositions which are derived from a larger canvas of human experience. These presuppositions include the following: Human growth takes place by means of a natural process, supported or aided by certain deliberate processes and methods; Human growth implies increasing self-consciousness, development of skills and faculties, and the capacities required to meet the challenges of life and of the cultural context in which one is required to meet the demands of the individual and collective life; At a d

About the Book Sri Aurobindo has significantly been described as adventure of consciousness. Even in his quest of India's freedom, during the first decade of the last century, he departed courageously from the orthodox and conservative path of the Moderates and infused in the country a new electric force of Nationalism. He chalked out a new path of Swadeshi, boycott, passive resistance, and national education, — the path that ultimately came to be adopted as the national programme during the subsequent period of the struggle. He even ventured to search for a spiritual force that could be applied to the political struggle so as to liberate the countr

-07_Sri Aurobindo^s Philosophy of Nationalism and Internationalism.htm SRI AUROBINDO'S PHILOSOPHY OF NATIONALISM AND INTERNATIONALISM I There is a sense of something mysterious, invisible and intangible when we think of the concept and reality of the nation. For it is difficult to seize the essentiality of the truth of nationality and nationalism. A nation may exist, and yet it may not be recognisable; it may take birth and grow, and yet be overpowered or overshadowed by larger aggregates such as empires or leagues. The development of a nation may take long periods of centuries for its destructive formation as in the case of France, Germany and India. It may develop in many direction

YOGA, SCIENCE, RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY We may begin with a preliminary elucidation of the three terms, science, religion and philosophy. Science may be defined as a quest of knowledge, which lays a special emphasis on detailed processes in order to arrive at utmost precision, and the distinguishing methods of this quest are those of impartial observation, experimentation by working on falsifiable hypothesis, verification in the light of crucial instances and establishment of conclusions which are repeatable and which are also modifiable in the light of advancing quest. Religion may also be looked upon as quest of knowledge, but the object is to rel