WHAT IS EDUCATION? I "Father," I addressed him softly as he came out of the bath room, clad in his white dhoti and looking nowhere with his upward gaze. His lips were repeating the gayatri mantra and his feet were speeding towards the puja room, where he would soon perform his daily worship of ritual sandhya and havan, recitation of Vedic hymns and sacrifice by lighting fire in the tinders and offering to it the oblations of clarified butter and fragrant materials, herbs and grains. None was expected to stop him on his way to the worship, and it was unusual for me to dare to commit this impropriety. It had seemed to me that there was no alternative; I had

LAW AND LIFE My very first encounter with Law was at once embarrassing, instructive and fruitful. I was seeking admission to the Bombay Law College and I had to pass through an interview. It was 12th June 1951, and the interview began at 10.30 a.m. "Why have you chosen to study Law ?" This was the first question that Professor Chitle, the Principal of the College, threw at me. Frankly speaking, I did not have a clear and convincing reply. Basically, I had only two alternatives: to become a teacher or to become a lawyer. It seemed to me that I had a pre-dominant inclination to become a teacher; but the profession of teaching gave no prospects of financial prosperity

THE PRINCESS I It was 1967. I was introduced to her in April that year by one of the leading industrialists who had appointed me his adviser,—not for industrial enterprises, but for something else. He was Chairman of a number of charitable institutions, mostly devoted to education, health and social reforms. I was supposed to advise him on these matters. In that month of April, there was a Seminar at Geneva on "Modernising Management", and he was requested to preside over that Seminar. He had asked me to accompany him, and we came to stay in the famous hotel "Riviera". It was there that my Chairman had introduced me to her at the breakfast table, saying, "Meet my friend.

APPENDIX-II Being equal minded towards happiness and suffering, gain and loss, victory and defeat, engage yourself in the battle. 2.38 Become, O Arjuna, free from dualities, ever-balanced, unconcerned with acquisition and preservation and seated in the inmost self. 2.45 Perform action, O Arjuna, being fixed in Yoga, renouncing attachments and seated in equality in regard to success and failure. Equality is verily Yoga. 2.48 Page-311 He whose mind is not perturbed by adversity, who does not crave for happiness, -who is free from attachment, fear and honour, — he is the man of wisdom with intelligence fi

PART FOUR Vedic System of Cosmic Knowledge The Vedic system of the cosmic knowledge is the same that we find behind the later Puranic symbols. Both in the Vedic system and the Puranic system, the cosmic existence consists of the unity of seven principles of existence and seven worlds corresponding to these principles, and they can be stated as follows: Principle World 1. Pure Existence — Sat World of the highest truth of being (Satyaloka) 2. Pure Consciousness — Chit World of infinite Will or conscious force (Tapoloka) 3. Pure Bliss — Ananda World of creative delight of ex

PART ONE Veda and Yogic Knowledge There seem to be three main grounds on which we are led to conclude that the Veda contains a huge mine of wisdom and even a mature system of yogic knowledge.5 First of all, the Veda reveals its full consistent meaning only when its language is interpreted through certain key words, which are ambiguous, and while they mean something very ordinary, in one sense, they mean something very extra-ordinary in another sense. To take only one example, the word go means a cow, in one sense, but it also means light in another sense. Now it is found that if the word go is interpreted to mean cow in the Veda, it serves well up to a cer

Preface It is extremely significant that the earliest records, in which we find statements of the awakened thought of ancient humanity, speak of five greatest ideals for which humanity has constantly aspired for throughout its long historical pilgrimage, namely, God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality. But even more significant is the fact that these earliest records, namely the texts of the Vedas, present to us a systematic account of the methods that were developed in ancient times by which these five great ideals were sought to be realised, even though the language of these texts is symbolic and needs to be interpreted meticulously by the contemporary humanity. Fortunately, Sri

Pre-Content This book is addressed to all young people who, I urge, will study and respond to the following message of Sri Aurobindo: "It is the young who must be the builders of the new world, —not those who accept the competitive individualism, the capitalism or the materialistic communism of the West as India ^future ideal, nor those who are enslaved to old religious formulas and cannot believe in the acceptance and transformation of life by the spirit, but all those who are free in mind and heart to accept a completer truth and labour for a greater ideal. They must be men who will dedicate themselves not to the past or the present but to the fu

Select Bibliography Anirvan Shrimat, Vedic Exegesis, in Cultural Heritage of India, Ramakrishana Mission Institute of Culture, 1958, Calcutta, second revised edition, Vol. I. Apte, V.M., The Vedangas, in Cultural Heritage of India, R M Institute of Culture, 1958, Calcutta, second revised edition, Vol. I. Balasubramanian, R., Primal Spirituality of the Vedas, Delhi, 1996. Balasubramanian, R. (ed.), The Enworlded Subjectivity: Its Three Worlds and Beyond, PHISPC, Centre For Studies in Civilizations, New Delhi, 2006. Bhave, Shrikrishna Sakharam, The Soma hymns of the Rig Veda: A fresh interpretation. Oriental Institute, 1957-62, Baroda, 3 Vols, Bloom

PART TWO Process and Methods of the Vedic Yoga Is it possible to arrive at some precision in regard to the actual processes and methods of yoga, particularly when the Vedic texts are voluminous and also because ritualism of Vedic religion and esoteric knowledge of the psychological principles and methods of yogic realizations are intertwined in the language in which the Vedic texts are composed? Fortunately, Sri Aurobindo has written two great books, 'The Secret of the Veda’ and 'Hymns to the Mystic Fire’, which have developed the psychological theory based on the data available in the Vedic texts themselves, and a study of these works can help us