3. AN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY CENTRE

    The conditions under which men live upon earth are the result of their state of consciousness. To seek to change the. conditions without changing the consciousness is a vain

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chimera. All who have had the perception of what could be .and should be done to improve the situation, in the different domains of human life, economical, political, social, financia1, educational or hygienic, are precisely the individuals who have developed their consciousness more or less to an exceptional degree and put themselves in contact with higher planes of consciousness. But their ideas remained on the whole theoretical; or, if an attempt was ever made to realise them practically, it always failed lamentably in the long or short run; for no human organisation can change radically unless human consciousness itself changes. Prophets of a new humanity have followed one another, religions spiritual or social, have been created, their beginnings were at times full of promise: but, as humanity was not transformed at heart, the old errors arising from human nature itself have reappeared gradually and after a time it was found that one was left almost .at the same spot from where one had started with so much hope .and enthusiasm. In this effort, however, to improve human conditions there have always been two tendencies, which .although apparently contrary to each other should rather be complementary and together work out the progress. One seeks p collective reorganisation, something that would lead towards an effective unity of mankind: the other declares that all progress is made first by the individual and insists that it is the individual who should be given conditions in which he can progress freely. Both are equally true and necessary, and our effort should be directed along both the lines. Collective progress and individual progress are interdependent. Before the individual can take a leap forward, it is necessary that. something of an antecedent progress be achieved jn the collective life. A way has therefore to be found whereby the two-fold progress can go on simultaneously.

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    It is in answer to this pressing need that Sri Aurobindo conceived the scheme of his International University, so that the. elite of humanity may be made ready who would be able to work for the progressive unification of the race and who at the same time would be prepared to embody the new force descending upon earth to transform it. Some broad idea would serve as the basis for organising this university centre and as a guide for the programme of studies. Most of these have already been dealt with in the various writings of Sri Aurobindo and in the series of articles on Education that have appeared in the Bulletin of Physical Education.

    The most important one is that the unity of the human race can be achieved neither through uniformity nor through domination and subjection. A synthetic organisation of all nations, each one occupying its own place in accordance with its own genius and the role it has to play in the whole, can alone effect a comprehensive and progressive unification which may have some chance of enduring. And if the synthesis is to be a living thing, the grouping should be done around a central idea as high and wide as possible, and in which all tendencies—even the most contradictory, would find their respective places. That idea is to give man the conditions of lite necessary for preparing him to manifest the new force that will create the race of tomorrow.

    All urge of rivalry, all struggle for precedence and domination, should disappear giving place to a will for harmonious organisation, for clear sighted and effective collaboration.

    To make this possible, children from their very early age, must be accustomed not merely to the idea but to its. practice. Therefore the International University Centre will be international not because students Rom all countries

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will be admitted here, nor because the education will be given in their own mother tongue, but particularly because the cultures of the different regions of the earth will be re presented here in such a way as to be accessible to all, not merely intellectually, in ideas, theories, principles and languages, but also vitally in habits and customs, in art under all forms—painting, sculpture, music, architecture, decoration—and physically too through natural scenery, dress, games, sports, industries and food. A kind of world-exhibition has to be organised in which all the countries will be represented in a concrete and living manner; the ideal is that every nation with a very definite culture would have a pavilion representing that culture, built on a model that most displays the habits of the country: it will exhibit the nation's most representative products—natural as well as manufactures, products also that best express its intellectual and artistic genius and its spiritual tendencies. Each nation would thus find a practical and concrete interest in this cultural synthesis and collaborate in the work by taking over the charge of the pavilion that represents it. A lodging house also could be attached, large or small according to the need, where students of the same nationality would be accommodated: they will thus enjoy the very culture of their own motherland and at the same time receive at the centre the education which will introduce them as well to other cultures existing upon earth. Thus the international education will not be simply theoretical, on the school bench, but practical in all details of existence.

    A general idea of the organisation only is given here : the application in details will be shown gradually in the Bulletin Of Physical Education as things are actually carried out.

    The first aim then will be to help individuals to become conscious of the fundamental genius of the nation to which

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they belong and at the same time to put them in contact with the modes of living of other nations so that they may know and respect equally the true spirit of all the countries upon earth. For all world organisations, to be real and to be able to live—must be based upon mutual respect and understanding between nation and nation as well as between individual and individual. It is only in the collective order and organisation, in a collaboration based upon mutual goodwill that lies the possibility of man being lifted out of the painful chaos where he is now. It is with this aim and in this spirit that all human problems will be studied at the University Centre : and their solution will be given in the light of the Supramental Knowledge which Sri Aurobindo has revealed in his writings.

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    Even as the individual has a psychic being which is his true self, governing more or less openly his destiny, each nation too has its psychic being which is its true self, moulding its destiny from behind the veil: it is the soul of the country, the national genius, the spirit of the people, the centre of national aspiration, the fountain-head of all that is beautiful, noble, great and generous in the life of a country, True patriots feel its presence as a tangible reality. It is this which in India has been made almost into a divine being and .ail who love truly their country call it " Mother India " (Bharat Mata), and it is to her that they daily address a prayer for the welfare of their country. It is she who symbolises and. incarnates the true ideal of the country, its true mission in the world.

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   One would like to see in other countries too the same veneration for the national soul, the same aspiration to become fit instruments for the manifestation Pf its highest ideal, the same ardour towards progress and so each people to identify itself with its national soul and so find its true nature and role, making thereby each one a living and immortal being in spite of all accidents of history.

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