VII THE ASCENT OF THOUGHT AND THE ASCENT OF SPEECH "In a complete silence only is the Silence heard; in a pure peace only is its Being revealed. Therefore to us the name of That is the Silence and the Peace." (Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 302.) "There sight attains not, nor speech attains, nor the mind... That which remains unexpressed by the word, that by which the word is expressed, know that indeed to be the Brahman..." (na tatra cakṣur gacchati na vāg gacchati no mano... yad vācānabhyuditaṁ yena vāg abhyudyate tadeva brahma tvaṁ viddhi...) (Kena Upanishad, 3, 4: Sri Aurobindo's translation.

VIII SRI AUROBINDO AND THE CRISIS OF MODERN MAN The Age of Anxiety The twentieth century has been called the 'Age of Human Predicament'. The man of our epoch has been suffering from an all-pervading sense of anxiety with its background of frustration, maladjustment and inner disintegration. The art of the time, and more comprehensively its literature, reflect in various ways manifestations of this constant undercurrent of anxiety. Thomas Hardy's novels have given a poignant picture of mankind's predicament in the universe. Hardy saw mankind 'swept from darkness to darkness, like a straw on a torrent, by a ruthless, mysterio

APPENDIX SRI AUROBINDO ON THE TASK BEFORE HUMANITY "The salvation of the human race lies in a more sane and integral development of the possibilities of mankind in the individual and in the community. The safety of Europe has to be sought in the recognition of the spiritual aim of human existence, otherwise she will be crushed by the weight of her own unillumined knowledge and soulless organisation. The safety of Asia lies in the recognition of the material mould and mental conditions in which that aim has to be worked out, otherwise she will sink deeper into the slough of despond, of a mental and physical incompetence to deal with the facts of life

X MAN, THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL BEING (The Malady and its Cure) "A Bliss, a Light, a Power, a flame-white Love Caught all into a sole immense embrace; Existence found its truth on Oneness' breast And each became the self and space of all. The great world-rhythms were heart-beats of one Soul, To feel was a flame-discovery of God, All mind was a single harp of many strings, All life a song of many meeting lives; For worlds were many, but the Self was one." (Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book III, Canto III, p. 323) Earth-life appears to us to be a vast arena where individuals and c

Editors' Note The present work accompanies the main festschrift volume Amal-Kiran: Poet and Critic edited by Nirodbaran and R.Y. Deshpande Foreword , The following letter of mine addressed to Sri K.D. Sethna on July 1, '94 will sufficiently explain to the readers the story behind the genesis of this booklet. Amal-da, Bonjour\ A couple of weeks back Nirod-da, as one of the editors of a forthcoming publication to be brought out on your ninetieth birthday that falls on November 25, '94, asked me to write an article on you. I readily agreed. At first I thought of composing a piece of three or four

The Wonder That is K. D. Sethna alias Amal Kiran A Peep into His Writings [K.D.S. is the abbreviation of 'K.D. Sethna' otherwise known as 'Amal Kiran' — a name given him by Sri Aurobindo, signifying 'The Clear Ray'. The seniors in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram refer to him as Sethna or Amal while the juniors address him as 'Amal-da', 'da' being the abbreviation of the Bengali word 'Dada' which means 'elder brother'. In the following essay, K.D.S. will be indifferently referred to as 'KD. Sethna', '•Sethna', 'Amal Kiran 'or' Amal-da.} NINETY springs have crowded into Amal Kiran's life. But looking at him who can imagine he has become a

-004_Sri Aurobindo^s Seven Principles of Education.htm I Sri Aurobindo's Seven Principles of Education The world knows Sri Aurobindo as a Mahayogi, a great philosopher, a renowned poet and an accomplished literary critic. But not many people know that he has been a great educationist as well. Even those who are aware of the fact that Sri Aurobindo was a very successful teacher, — first at the Baroda College during the years 1899 and 1906, then in the Bengal National College, Calcutta, in the years 1906 and 1907, — have not much cared to study his educational thoughts and insights or may not even be cognisant of the other fact that the great propounder of Integral Yoga kept up a life-long

VII Training in the Use of the "Free Progress" System (A few practical words to the students) The Mother favoured the "Free Progress" System of education for the outstanding students for the full flowering of all their potential and for the development of their true swadharma, self-nature. But it is not very easy on the part of an untrained average student to utilise the methodology of free progress in the right way. For example, in the Higher Course of SAICE, where the free progress system is in full operation since 1968, it is found that many students fumble in practice in making the proper choice. For, there, an indi

XII Two Potent Sources of Dilution More than sixty years have passed since the Mother established the Ashram School with a very high goal in view — the goal of building up a new type of humanity and preparing the children for a glorious future. At first, she herself held the reins. The students and the teachers, the parents and the guardians, all understood sufficiently well the aims and the mission of this unique Centre of Education. But after the Mother's physical withdrawal from the scene, a distinct change has come in on all fronts, slowly and imperceptibly at first but markedly and quite fast in recent years. Let us try to understand how this

XI On Discipline A student who has been properly trained in the art of employing in the right way the principle of "Free Progress" cannot but be automatically disciplined. And what is pleasing is that this discipline will come from within himself, a happy and highly beneficial self-discipline, and not something imposed upon him from outside by an alien authority, be he a teacher, a parent or a guardian. This imposed discipline cannot but stunt the free growth of a child and hamper the spontaneous flowering of his inborn personality. Especially, if a particular student is trained to appreciate genuine beauty, — and by beauty we do not mean at all conventional