VI (a) It is possible to look upon Yoga as a means of escape from the world and its life. It may be argued that the world- existence is a cosmic illusion or that it is born out of cosmic ignorance and desire, and that there is no issue in it except to find out the quickest means to come out of this sorrowful world-existence. In fact, extreme forms of Yoga have preached asceticism and world-negating attitudes. In these cases, Yoga has become divorced from life and some kind of antagonism between yoga and life has been conceived and practised. These extreme forms of Yoga have been exclusive in character, and where yoga and life do not meet, there can be no question of any s

On Materialism The materialist has an easier field; it is possible for him by denying Spirit to arrive at a more readily convincing simplicity of statement, a real Monism, the Monism of Matter or else of Force. But in this rigidity of statement it is impossible for him to persist permanently, (p. 7) * (...) The denial of the materialist although more insistent and immediately successful, more facile in its appeal to the generality of mankind, is yet less enduring, less effective finally than the absorbing and perilous refusal of the ascetic. For it carries within itself its own cure. Its most powerful element is the Agnosticism which, admitting the Unknowable behin

Preface "Know thyself". This has been one of the great messages of the East and the West since ancient times, and yet it has not been sufficiently pursued and applied. But it appears that the crisis through which humanity is passing today can be resolved if, as a first and essential step, this message is understood in greater fullness than ever before. For it is becoming increasingly clearer that without a radical change in human consciousness, we shall not be able to take the right road that needs to be taken. We need, therefore, to understand human consciousness in its full complexity and its multiple dimensions with a central focus on self-knowledge. Fortunately, we find

ON MATERIALISM ON MATERIALISM Extracts from "The Life Divine" by Sri Aurobindo Compiled by Kireet Joshi THE MOTHER'S INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH, New Delhi in association with MIRA ADITI , Mysore THE MOTHER'S INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH 200I Excerpts taken from Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library First edition, 1972 Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry Compiled by Kireet Joshi The publication or this book was facilitated by a grant received by the Mother's Institute of Research from t

NOTES RELATING TO PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND LIFE Perennial Aims of Education There are three fundamental ideas underlying the educational process. There is, first, the pursuit of man to know himself and the universe and to relate himself with the universe as .effectively as possible. This pursuit constitutes the very theme of human culture, and education derives its fundamental thrust from the cultural setting at a given point of time. Secondly, there is a process of transmission of the accumulated results of the past to the growing generation so as to enable it to carry forward the cultural heritage and to build

ANNEXURE IX Education for Integral Development of Personality To Know Oneself and to Control Oneself (An Exploratory Draft Programme) Classes I and II I. Stories and plays to illustrate the following themes: 1. The ideal of truth: To speak the truth, whatever the consequences. 2. Aspiration for perfection: Whatever you do, do it as perfectly as you can. 3. Dreams of the new world: Where truth alone prevails, where beauty and goodness pervade. II. Special exhibitions on the above themes. III. Teachers may recommend the following exercises and help each child to practise them: 1. Exerci

PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION - III (Issue of "FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES") We are passing through a critical stage of a battle between the best possibilities and the worst possibilities. At a time when forces of unity and harmony can triumph and science and technology can be used to abolish poverty and deprivation, precisely at that time, the forces of violence and gravitational pulls of impulses of the lower human nature are pressing forward on a global scale. Rationality, in which humanity has placed great trust for arriving at the fulfillment of its ideals of true knowledge and comprehensive knowledge, appears to be overtaken

Philosophy and Process of Education for Integral Development of Personality I We may begin with a brief reference to the 1972 Report of the International Commission on Development of Education, established by UNESCO, — the Report which conveys its theme so aptly through its own title, "Learning to be". The Report had become very famous during the seventies, but it has unfortunately receded into the background. To know, to possess and to be this the central demand of life, and, rightly, this ought to be the central demand of education, particularly when, as in the Report, there

-22_Natasa^s Illness.htm Leo Tolstoy Page – 228 Natashas Illness Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 in an aristocratic Russian family. He wrote between 1863 and 1877 his two great masterpieces. War and Peace and Anna Karenina. War and Peace is an immense panorama of Russian life in the early nineteenth century, including Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia. The two major characters, Andrey and Pierre exemplify the major moral conflicts of the book: between romantic self-realisation and service to others. The inner tensions Tolstoy dramatized so powerfully in these two books began to overwhelm him personally. He underwent a shattering psychological crisis which culminated in 1879. Tol

Part VI Courage of the Handicapped Roosevelt at the famous Yalta conference in February 1945, two months before his death. Churchill on the left, Stalin on the right. Triumphant Courage Introduction Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times as President of the United States of America. Nobody did it before him and nobody will in the future as now American presidents can only be elected twice. FDR., as he was popularly known, had the most eventful presidency. He took office at one of America s darkest hours, at the time of the great economic depression, when millions were without jobs, and was elected to pull the countr