education as a training that will fit him to be an efficient, productive and well disciplined member of the society and the State. All these are no doubt aspects of the human being and she has given them a considerable prominence subject to her larger vision, but they are outward things, parts of the instrumentation of his mind, life and action, not the whole of the real man.

India has seen always in man the individual a soul, a portion of the Divinity enwrapped in mind and body, a conscious manifestation in Nature of the universal self and spirit. Always she has distinguished and cultivated in him a mental, an intellectual, an ethical, dynamic and practical, an aesthetic and hedonistic, a vital and physical being, but all these have been seen as powers of a soul that manifests through them and grows with their growth, and yet they are not all the soul, because at the summit of its ascent it arises to something greater than them all, into a spiritual being, and it is in this that she has found the supreme manifestation of the soul of man and his ultimate divine manhood, his paramārtha and highest purushārtha. And similarly India has not understood by the nation or people an organised State or an armed and efficient community well prepared for the struggle of life and putting all at the service of the national ego,— that is only the disguise of iron armour which masks and encumbers the national Purusha,—but a great communal soul and life that has appeared in the whole and has manifested a nature of its own and a law of that nature, a Swabhava and Swadharma, and embodied it in its intellectual, aesthetic, ethical, dynamic, social and political forms and culture. And equally then our cultural conception of humanity must be in accordance with her ancient vision of the universal manifesting in the human race, evolving through life and mind but with a high ultimate spiritual aim,—it must be the idea of the spirit, the soul of humanity advancing through struggle and concert towards oneness, increasing its experience and maintaining a needed diversity through the varied culture and life motives of its many peoples, searching for perfection through the development of the powers of the individual and his progress towards a diviner being and life, but feeling out too though more slowly-after a similar  

perfectibility in the life of the race. It may be disputed whether this is a true account of the human or the national being, but if it is once admitted as a true description, then it should be clear that the only true education will be that which will be an instrument for this real working of the spirit in the mind and body of the individual and the nation. That is the principle on which we must build, that the central motive and the guiding ideal. It must be an education that for the individual will make its one central object the growth of the soul and its powers and possibilities, for the nation will keep first in view the preservation, strengthening and enrichment of the nation-soul and its dharma and raise both into powers of the life and ascending mind and soul of humanity. And at no time will it lose sight of man's highest object, the awakening and development of his spiritual being.

(From "A Preface on National Education", ARYA 1921 January.)  

de l'esprit, de l'âme de l'humanité avançant à travers le conflit et l'accord vers l'unité, augmentant son expérience et maintenant la diversité nécessaire à l'aide des cultures et des mobiles de vie variés de ses nombreux peuples, recherchant la perfection à l'aide du développement des pouvoirs de l'individu et de son progrès vers une existence et une vie plus divines, mais tâtonnant quoique plus lentement, vers une perfectibilité similaire dans la vie de la race. On peut se demander si ceci est une vraie description de l'être humain ou national; mais une fois que cette description est admise comme vraie, alors il devient clair que la seule vraie éducation sera celle qui est l'instrument de l'action réelle de l'esprit dans la pensée et le corps de l'individu et de la nation. Tel est le principe sur lequel nous devons construire, tel est le mobile central et l'idéal directeur. Cette éducation de l'individu, doit avoir pour seul objet central, la croissance de l'âme et de ses pouvoirs et de ses possibilités; car la nation envisagera d'abord la préservation, le renforcement et l'enrichissement de l'âme nationale et de sa loi; elle soulèvera les deux jusqu'aux pouvoirs de la vie, de la pensée et de l'âme ascendantes de l'humanité. A aucun moment elle ne perdra la vision du plus haut objet de l'homme: l'éveil et le développement de son être spirituel,

(Extrait de "A Preface on .National Education", ARYA, Janvier 1921.)

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L'ÉDUCATION d'un être humain doit commencer à sa naissance et se prolonger pendant toute la durée de sa vie.

A dire vrai, si l'on veut que cette éducation ait son maximum d'effet, il faut la commencer avant la naissance; et dans ce cas, c'est la mère elle-même qui procède à cette éducation au moyen d'une double action: une sur elle-même, pour son propre perfectionnement, une sur l'enfant qu'elle est en train de former -physiquement. Car il est certain que la nature de l'enfant qui va naître dépend, considérablement de la mère qui le forme, de son aspiration et de sa volonté, ainsi que de l'entourage matériel dans lequel elle vit. Veiller à ce que les pensées soient toujours belles et pures, les sentiments nobles et beaux, et l'entourage matériel aussi harmonieux que possible, dans une grande simplicité, est la part de l'éducation qui doit s'appliquer à la mère elle-même, et si elle ajoute à cela une volonté consciente et précise de former l'enfant suivant le plus haut idéal qu'elle peut concevoir, alors seront réalisées les conditions les meilleures pour que l'enfant fasse son apparition dans le monde avec son maximum de possibilités. Combien d'efforts difficiles et de complications inutiles seront ainsi évitées.

Pour être complète, une éducation doit avoir cinq aspects principaux, s'adressant aux activités principales de l'être humain: le physique, le vital, le mental, le psychique et le spirituel. Généralement ces phases de l'éducation se succèdent dans un ordre chronologique accompagnant la croissance de l'individu;

mais l'une n'est pas faite pour remplacer l'autre, et toutes doivent continuer, se complétant l'une l'autre, jusqu'à la fin de la vie.

Education

THE education of a human being should begin at his very birth and continue throughout the whole length of his life.Indeed, if the education is to have its maximum result, it must begin even before birth: it is the mother herself who proceeds with this education by means of a two-fold action, first, upon herself for her own improvement, and secondly, upon the child which she is forming within her physically. Certain it is that the nature of the child about to be born will depend very much upon the mother who forms it, upon her aspiration and will as much as upon the material surrounding in which she lives. The part of education which the mother has to go through is to see that her thoughts are always beautiful and pure, her feelings always noble and fine, the material surrounding as harmonious as possible, full of a great simplicity. And if in addition she has a conscious and definite will to form the child according to the highest ideal she can conceive, then the very best conditions are provided for the child to come into the world with the maximum of possibilities. How many difficult efforts and useless complications are avoided thereby!

Education to be complete must have five principal aspects relating to the five principal activities of the human being: the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual. Usually, these phases of education succeed each other in a chronological order following the growth of the individual. This, however, does not mean that one should replace another but that all must continue, completing each other, till the end of life.

We propose to study these five aspects of education one by  

one and also their reciprocal relations. But before we enter into the details of the subject, I wish to make a recommendation to the parents. The majority of them, for various reasons, take very little thought of a true education to be given to children. When they have brought, a child into the world and when they have given him food and satisfied his various material wants by looking more or less sufficiently well to the maintenance of his good health, they think they have fully discharged their duty. Later on, they would put him to school and hand over to the teacher the care of his mental education.

There are other parents who know that their children should receive education and try to give it. But very few among them, even among those who are most serious and sincere, know that the first thing to do, in order to be able to educate the child, is to educate oneself, to become conscious and master of oneself so that one does not set a bad example to one's child. For it is through example that education becomes effective. To say good words, 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. Sincerity, honesty, straightforwardness, courage, disinterestedness, unselfishness, patience, endurance, perseverance, peace, calm, self-control are all things that are taught infinitely better by one's example than by beautiful speeches. Parents, have a high ideal and act always in accordance with that ideal. You will see little by little your child reflecting this ideal in himself and manifesting spontaneously the qualities you wish to see expressed in his nature. Quite naturally a child has respect and admiration for his parents; unless they are quite unworthy, they will appear always to their children as a demigod whom they will seek to imitate as best as they can.

With very few exceptions, parents do not take into account the disastrous influence their defects, impulses, weaknesses, want of self-control have on their children. If you wish to be respected by your child, have respect for yourself and be at every moment worthy of respect. Never be arbitrary, despotic, impatient, ill-tempered. When your child asks you a question, do not answer him by a stupidity or a foolishness, under the pretext that he cannot

understand you. You can always make yourself understood if you take pains for it, and in spite of the popular saying that it is not always good to tell the truth, I affirm that it is always good to tell the truth, only the art consists in telling in such a way as to make it accessible to the brain of the hearer. In early life, till twelve to fourteen years the child's mind is not accessible to abstract notions and general ideas. And yet you can train it to understand these things by using concrete images or symbols or parables. Up to a sufficiently advanced age and for some who mentally remain always children, a narrative, a story, a tale told well teaches much more than a heap of theoretical explanations.

Another stumbling-block to avoid. Do not scold your child -except with a definite purpose and only when quite indispensable. A child too often scolded gets hardened to rebuke and comes to attach not much importance to words or severity of tone. Particularly, take care not to rebuke him for a fault which you yourself commit. Children are very keen and clear-sighted observers: they soon find out your weaknesses and note them without pity.

When a child has made a mistake, see that he confesses it to you spontaneously and frankly; and when he has confessed, make him understand with kindness and affection what was wrong in his movement and that he should not repeat it. In any case, never scold him, a fault confessed must be forgiven. You should not allow any fear to slip in between you and your child; fear is a disastrous way to education: invariably it gives birth to dissimulation and falsehood. An affection that sees clear, that is firm yet gentle and a sufficiently practical knowledge will create bonds of trust that are indispensable for you to make the education of your child effective. And never forget that you have to surmount yourself always and constantly so as to be at the height of your task and truly fulfil the duty which you owe towards your child by the mere fact of your having brought him into existence.  

IT is an invaluable possession for every living being to have learnt to know himself and to master himself. To know oneself means to know the motives of one's actions and reactions, the why and the how of all that happens in oneself. To master oneself means to do what one has decided to do, to do nothing but that, not to listen to or follow impulses, desires or fancies.

To give a moral law to a child is evidently not an ideal thing; but it is very difficult to do without it. The-child can be taught, as he grows up, the relativity of all moral and social laws so that he may find in himself a higher and truer law. But here one must proceed with circumspection and insist on the difficulty of discovering that true law. The majority of those who reject human laws and proclaim their liberty and their decision to "live their own life" do so only in obedience to the most ordinary vital movements which they disguise and try to justify, if not to their own eyes, at least, to the eyes of others. They give a kick to morality, simply because it is a hindrance to the satisfaction of their instincts.

No one has a right to sit in judgment over moral and social laws, unless he has taken his seat above them; one cannot abandon them, unless one replaces them by something superior, which is not so easy.

In any case, the finest present one can give to a child would be to teach him to know himself and to master himself.

July 1930

The Mother  

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Report on the Quarter

OF all the branches of physical education, gymnastics (and of course weight lifting) are the best means for body building and development. It builds up great strength yet gives suppleness in the body and this has a very lasting effect and is maintained for many years even after a person has given up training. One can compare the body condition and general fitness of gymnasts on the one hand and athletes and other games players on the other hand, who have given up training for many years. Almost invariably it will be seen that the gymnast is the better preserved.

But for all that, gymnastics does not attract as many adherents as do some of the other branches of physical education. This is largely due to the absence of direct competition in gymnastics as it is not usually organised on competitive lines. But it can be so organised if necessary and is actually being done more and more, in the Olympic Games and other meetings. We ourselves have introduced gymnastic competitions into our scheme during this quarter and it was an innovation which was most successful.

This being the first time the competitions were held it found many of the entrants rather untrained for their events and so the general standard was not very high. Yet it has given a great fillip to this side of the scheme and many have already started serious training for the next year's competitions.

We commenced the competitions early in November and completed them within a week. The events consisted of the following:—

1. Dips. 2. Push up on Parallel Bars. 3. Chinning on Rings. 4. Bent Knee Skipping. 5. Hand Balancing.

For the very little children we had only a marching competition and for the lesser developed or rather old groups we  

DE toutes les branches de l'éducation physique, la gymnastique -B— (y compris naturellement les haltères) est le meilleur moyen de bâtir et de développer le corps. Elle procure une grande force tout en conférant de la souplesse, et ses effets prolongés durent encore pendant des années après que l'entraînement a cessé. Si on compare les conditions corporelles et l'aptitude générale de gymnastes, d'une part, et d'autre part celles d'athlètes et de joueurs, qui, tous, ont cessé de s'entraîner depuis plusieurs années, on verra que les gymnastes ont presque invariablement conservé une meilleure forme.

Malgré cela la gymnastique n'attire pas autant d'adhérents que certaines autres branches de l'éducation physique. Gela est dû largement à l'absence d'émulation. La. gymnastique en effet est rarement organisée en concours. Cela peut pourtant se faire, et cela se fait d'ailleurs tous les jours davantage, dans les Jeux Olympiques et autres réunions. Ce trimestre, nous avons nous-mêmes introduit un concours de gymnastique dans notre programme; ce fut une innovation excessivement heureuse.

Comme c'était le premier concours organisé, plusieurs des participants n'étaient guère entraînés, ce qui ne donna pas un niveau général très élevé. Cela a néanmoins stimulé cette partie de nos activités et plusieurs participants ont déjà amorcé un sérieux entraînement en vue du concours de l'an prochain.

Le concours commencé au début de Novembre et terminé en une semaine se composait comme suit:

1. Répulsions des bras (le corps allongé, les mains à plat sur le soi.) . 2. Flexions aux barres parallèles.

3. Tractions aux anneaux.

4. Sautillements d'une jambe sur l'autre, étant accroupi.

either dropped some of the difficult events or modified them and made them easier.

The various groups' were divided into sub-groups according to estimated capacity and the first, second and third in each event in each sub-group received a prize card on the prize distribution day. We print here a reproduction of the prize card with an explanation of the picture.

Points were awarded to each one for each event, according to performance (and in some cases according to style also) and the one scoring the highest aggregate of points in each group received a Championship badge.

As soon as the competitions were over we started serious training for the gymnastic display on the 2nd December. At the same time preparations were set going for the theatricals and dance recitals on the 1st December.

Before the commencement of the Programme proper on the 1st December there was the Prize Distribution for the students of the school and a large number of fine books were given as prizes.

In the programme this year we did not include any play. Instead there were a number of recitations in English, French, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati. Then came the Dances. This time there were three sets of dances, one by the younger group, the Cinderella Ballet, another by the older girls, the famous Shiva-Parvati traditional Ballet and finally a solo performance, an interpretation of music in dance.

These dances were exceedingly well arranged and the performance was of a high standard. The costumes were colourful and the music which was specially composed for the dances, was particularly fine and expressive. The English recitation of Savitri was another high light of the show and a large section of the audience thrilled to those wonderful lines of poetry as they rang out in breath catching cadences.

The Programme of the 2nd December also was a success. It commenced as usual with the March Past of the whole J. S. A. S. A. led by our band. There were 15 items altogether, each having its own particular interest. The acrobatics, vaulting  

Le programme du 2 Décembre fut lui aussi un grand succès.

and the malkham events were especially well received.

We publish elsewhere in this issue a copy of the Programme of the 1st and 2nd December.

At the end of the Programme the Prize Cards and the Championship Badges of the gymnastics competition were distributed and in addition a special medal was awarded to the person who showed the best results during the year both in studies and on the playing fields. This award is in keeping with the principle of total development as was so clearly explained in the Mother's article "Concentration and Dispersion" which appeared in a previous number of this Bulletin.  

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10. Danse en musique

(a) La Beauté se prépare à descendre sur la terre. Il ne faut négliger aucun détail afin d'être parfaite. Maintenant je suis prête.

(b) Prête? mais j'attends quelque chose, j'attends . . . j'attends . . . cela viendra-t-il? Petit à petit, du dedans surgit la joie de vivre—maintenant elle est là : je suis sure de la victoire.

(c) J'ai trouvé ce que je cherchais. C'est ici en toute chose, je l'ai trouée en bas, je l'a trouvé en haut; je l'ai trouvé ici et là. . . partout!

SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM SCHOOL

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Seventh Anniversary

Programme

the 1st December 1950

on the School Playground

at 5 p. m.

Distribution of Prizes

at 5. 30 p. m.

1. To the Divine Mother (Poem in Gujerati)

December 2, 1950

at 4-30 p. m.

School Playground

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Prize Distribution

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