INDIAN CULTURE: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE The history of India would remain enigmatic, particularly, the remarkable phenomenon of the continuity of Indian culture through the millennia would remain a mystery, if we do not take into account the role that spirituality has played not only in determining the direction of her philosophical and cultural effort but also in replenishing the springs of creativity at every crucial hour in the long and often weary journey. It is true that spirituality has played a role in every civilisation and that no culture can claim a monopoly for spirituality. And yet, it can safely be affirmed that the unique greatness an

INDIAN IDENTITY AND CULTURAL CONTINUITY The history of India is so long and complex and the continuity of Indian culture so enigmatic and astonishing that it is difficult to bring out in a brief compass those quintessential elements which distinguish India's identity and the real secret of her continuity through millennia. To many, who are not acquainted with Indian modes of life and thought feel so baffled that they might even declare that there is no such thing that one can trace from the confusing multiplicity and variety any single central thread by means of which Indianness can be understood or defined. To them, India still seems to be somewhat p

YOGA AND KNOWLEDGE Knowledge may be regarded as the most fundamental aim of Yoga. Even Hathayoga, which utilises the body as its instrument and aims at its perfection, lays down that the enjoyment of knowledge of our liberated being which brings us into unity or union with the Supreme, is its consummation. A complete mastery of the body and the life and a free and effective use of them established upon a purification of their workings serves as a basis for the more important matter of the psychical and spiritual effects to which that base can be turned. At this stage, Hathayoga takes its stand on the connection between the body and the mind and the spirit and between th

-08_Sri Aurobindo^s Philosophy of the Ideal of Human Unity.htm SRI AUROBINDO'S PHILOSOPHY OF THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY I Globalisation is an attractive word; for it evokes in us a noble sentiment of "one earth" and of humankind as one race born of one common Mother Earth; it raises in us a dream of the ideal of human unity and of universal fraternity. But when we examine the current phenomenon of globalisation, we find that it is a growing network spreading over the whole globe in which the old forces of competition and resultant asymmetrical relations constitute the central forum of action and reaction. Here globality is the globality of market forces that are free to develop heg

PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION- II 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 fulfilment of its ideals of true knowledge and comprehensive knowledge, appears to be overtaken by the forces of Unreason. It has, therefore, become i

VEDIC KNOWLEDGE AND SUPERMIND IN THE LIGHT OF SRI AUROBINDO Sri Aurobindo made a very important statement in The Foundations of Indian Culture, in which he spoke of the immediate work of India. He said that there were three tasks that India had to accomplish. The first task is to recover the ancient spiritual knowledge in its fullness, in its amplitude — this is the first task. And this means of course, basically, the recovery of the Veda, Upanishads, the Gita, the Puranas and Tantras. This is, one might say, the basic stuff of what can be called the ancient spiritual knowledge of India. I underline the word "knowledge" b

CONCEPT OF EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIAN TRADITION AND CULTURE : ITS CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE Introductory Questions At the outset, let us ask the question as to why we need to explore the concept of education in the Ancient Indian Tradition, and why we want to ascertain the relevance of that concept to the present time. Justification for this exploration could arise if we ask a further question as to whether our present system of education is relevant to our own times, and if we are prepared to undertake a critique of the present system. Do we need to change present system of Education? There is a view that the present system of educ

PHILOSOPHY OF INDIAN ART From various accounts which have evidential value, it is clear that India pursued the quest of the knowledge and the experience of reality through a multiple and even integral approach. The basic quest of India was to discover the causes of disintegration and to find effective remedies by which disintegration can be prevented. In positive terms, this was the quest for immortality, and the ancient literature gives us convincing proof of this quest as also of the victory that was attained. We also find accounts of the processes by which this victory was attained. In this process the major role was played by a difficult psychological discipline

PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION - I The need for value-oriented education requires clarification. Value-Oriented Education Inherent in the Concept of Education There are at least three fundamental assumptions of the educational process: There is, first, the pursuit of man to know himself and the Universe and to relate himself with the Universe as harmoniously 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

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF SRI AUROBINDO Sri Aurobindo wrote a series of articles on education in the Karma Yogin during 1909-10 under the title "A System of National Education" and "The National Value of Art". He also wrote "A Preface to National Education" which appeared in the Arya in 1920 in two parts. His book, "The Synthesis of Yoga" in which we find extraordinary insights in regard to education, appeared serially in the Arya from August 1914 to January 1921 in four parts. In "A National System of Education", Sri Aurobindo points out that the question is not between modernism and antiquity, but between an imported civilisation an