राष्ट्रीय शिक्षा प्रणाली एवं भारतीय मानस (श्री अरविन्द - एकात्म शिक्षा दर्शन)

4 NATIONAL EDUCATION his instruments of knowledge and helps and encourages him in the process. He does not impart know- ledge to him, he shows him how to acquire knowledge for himself. He does not call forth the knowledge that is within; he only shows him where it lies and how it can be habituated to rise to the surface. The distinction that reserves this principle for the teaching of adoles- cent and adult minds and denies its application to the child is a conserva- tive and unintelligent doctrine. Child or man, boy or girl, there is only one sound principle of good teaching. Difference of age only serves to diminish or increase the amount of help and guidance necessary, it does not change its nature. The second principle is that the mind has to be consulted in its own

THE HUMAN MIND 5 growth. The idea of hammering the child into the shape desired by the parent or teacher is a barbarous and ignorant superstition. It is he himself who must be induced to expand in accordance with his own nature. There can be no greater error than for the parent to arrange beforehand that his son shall develop particular qualities, capacities, ideas, virtues, or be prepared for a pre- arranged career. To force the nature, to abandon its own dharma is to do it permanent harm, mutilate its growth and deface its perfection. It is a selfish tyranny over a human soul and a wound to the Nation, which loses the benefit of the best that a man could have given it and is forced to accept instead something imperfect and artificial, second rate, perfunctory andcommon. Every one has in him

6 NATIONAL EDUCATION something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find it, develop it and use it. The chief aim of Education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use. The third principle of Education is to work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be. The basis of a man's nature is almost, always, in addition to his soul's past, his heredity, his surroundings, his nationality, his country, the soil from which he draws sustenance, the air which he breathes, the sights, sounds, habits to which he is accustomed. They mould him not the less power- fully because insensibly, from that then we must begin. We must not

THE HUMAN MIND 7 take up the nature by the roots from the Earth in which it must grow or surround the mind with images and ideas of a life which is alien to that in which it must physically move. If anything has to be brought in from outside, it must be offered, not forced on the mind. A free and natural growth is the condi- tion of genuine development. There are souls which naturally revolt from their surroundings and seem to belong to another age and clime. Let them be free to follow their bent; but the majority languish, become empty, become artificial, if artificially mould- ed into an alien form. It is God's arrangement that they should belong to a particular nation, age, society, that they should be children of the past, possessors of the present, creators of the future. The past is our founda-

8 NATIONAL EDUCATION tion, the present our material, the future our aim and summit. Each must have its due and natural place in a National System of Education.

CHAPTER II THE POWERS OF THE MIND The instrument of the Education- ist is the mind or antahkarana, which consists of four layers. The reservoir of past mental impressions, the chitta or storehouse of memory, which must be distinguished from the specific act of memory, is the foundation on which all the other layers stand. All experi- ence lies within us as passive or poten- tial memory ; active memory selects and takes what it requires from that storehouse. But the active memory is like a man searching among a great mass of locked-up material; sometime he cannot find what he wants ; often in his rapid search he stumbles across many things for which he has no immediate need ; often too

10 NATIONAL EDUCATION he blunders and thinks he has found the real thing when it is something else irrelevant if not valueless, on which he has laid his hand. The passive memory or chitta needs no training, it is automatic and naturally sufficient to its task ; there is not the slightest object of knowledge coming within its field which is not secured, placed and faultlessly preserv- ed in that admirable receptacle. It is the active memory, a higher but less perfectly developed function, which is in need of improvement. The second layer is the mind proper or manas, the sixth sense of our Indian Psychology, in which all the others are gathered up. The function of the mind is to receive the images of things translated into sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, the five senses and translate these again into

THE POWERS OF THE MIND 11 thought-sensations. It receives also images of its own direct grasping and forms them into mental impressions. These sensations and impressions are the material of thought, not thought itself ; but it is exceedingly important that thought should work on sufficient and perfect material. It is therefore the first business of the Educationist, to develop in the child the right use of the six senses ; to see that they are not stunted or injured by disease, but trained by the child himself under the teacher’s direction to that perfect accuracy and keen subtle sensitiveness of which they are capable. In addi- tion, whatever assistance can be gain- ed by the organs of action should be thoroughly employed. The hand, for instance, should be trained to repro- duce what the eye sees, and the mind senses. The speech should be trained

12 NATIONAL EDUCATION the perfect expression of the know- ledge which the whole antahkarna possesses. The third layer is the intellect or buddhi, which is the real instrument of thought and that which orders and disposes of the knowledge acquired by the other parts of the machine. For the purpose of the Educationist this is infinitely the most important of the three I have named. The intellect is an organ composed of several groups of functions, divisible into two impor- tant classes; the functions and faculties of the right hand, the functions and the faculties of the left hand. The faculties of the right hand are com- prehensive, creative and synthetic ; the faculties of the left hand critical and analytic. To the right hand be- longs judgment, imagination, memory, observation ; to the left hand compari-

THE POWERS OF THE MIND 13 son and reasoning. The critical facul- ties distinguish, compare, classify, generalise, deduce, infer, conclude;they are the component parts of the logical reason. The right hand faculties comprehend, command, judge in their own right, grasp; hold and manipu- late. The right hand mind is the master of the knowledge, the left hand its servant. The left hand touches only the body of knowledge, the right hand penetrates its soul. The left hand limits itself to ascertain- ed truth, the right hand grasps that which is still elusive or unascer- tained. Both are essential to the completeness of the human reason. These important functions of the machine have all to be raised to their highest and finest working-power, if the Education of the child is not to be imperfect and one-sided.

14 NATIONAL EDUCATION There is a fourth layer of faculty which, not as yet entirely developed in man, is attaining gradually a wider development and more perfect evolu- tion. The powers peculiar to this highest stratum of knowledge are chiefly known to us from the pheno- mena of genius—sovereign discernment, intuitive perception of truth, plenary inspiration of speech, direct vision of knowledge to an extent often amount- ing to revelation, making a man a prophet of truth. The powers are rare in their higher development, though many possess them imperfectly or by flashes. They are still greatly distrusted by the critical reason of mankind because of the admixture of error, caprice and a biassed imagina- tion which obstructs and distorts their perfect workings. Yet it is clear that humanity could not have

THE POWERS OF THE MIND 15 advanced to its present stage if it had not been for the help of these faculties, and it is a question with which Educationists have not yet grappled, what is to be done with this mighty and baffling element, the element of genius in the pupil. The mere instructor does his best to discourage and stifle genius, the more liberal teacher welcomes it. Faculties so important to humanity cannot be left out of our consideration. It is foolish to neglect them. Their imper- fect development must be perfected, the admixture of error, caprice and biassed fancifulness must be carefully and wisely removed. But the teacher cannot do it ; he would eradicate the good corn as well as the tares if he interfered. Here, as in all educational operations, he can only put the growing soul into the way of its own perfection.

CHAPTER III THE MORAL NATURE In the economy of man the mental nature rests upon the moral, and the education of the intellect divorced from the perfection of the moral and emotional nature is in- jurious to human progress. Yet, while it is easy to arrange some kind of curriculum or syllabus which will do well enough for the training of the mind, it has not yet been found possible to provide under modern conditions a suitable moral training for the School and College. The attempt to make boys moral and religious by the teaching of moral and religious text-books is a vanity and a delusion, precisely because the heart is not the mind and to instruct the mind does not necessarily im- prove the heart. It would be an

THE MORAL NATURE 17 error to say that it has no effect. It throws certain seeds of thought into the antahkarana and, if these thoughts become habitual, they in- fluence the conduct. But the danger of moral text-books is that they make the thinking of high things mechanical and artificial, and what- ever is mechanical and artificial, is inoperative for good. There are three things which are of the utmost importance in dealing with a man's moral nature, the emo- tions, the samskaras or formed habits and associations, and the swabhava or nature. The only way for him to train himself morally is to habituate him- self to the right emotions, the noblest associations, the best mental, emotional and physical habits and the follow- ing out in right action of the fundamental impulses of his essential 2

18 NATIONAL EDUCATION nature. You can impose a certain discipline on children, dress them into a certain mould, lash them into a desired path, but unless you can get their hearts and natures on your side, the conformity to this becomes a hypocritical and heartless, often a cowardly compliance. This is what is done in Europe, and it leads to that remarkable phenomenon known as the sowing of wild oats as soon as the yoke of discipline at School and at home is removed, and to the social hypocrisy which is so large a feature of European life. Only what the man admires and accepts, becomes part of himself; the rest is a mask. He conforms to the discipline of society as he conformed to the moral routine of home and school, but considers himself at liberty to guide his real life, inner and private, according to

THE MORAL NATURE 19 his own likings and passions. On the other hand, to neglect moral and religious Education altogether is to corrupt the race. The notorious moral corruption in our young men previous to the saving touch of the Swadeshi Movement, was the direct result of the purely mental instruction given to them under the English System of Education. The adoption of the English System under an Indian disguise in Institutions like the Central Hindu College is likely to lead to the European result. That it is better than nothing, is all that can be said for it. As in the education of the mind, so in the education of the heart, the best way is to put the child into the right road to his own perfection and encourage him to follow it, watching, suggesting, helping, but not interfering.

20 NATIONAL EDUCATION The one excellent element in the English Boarding School is that the master at his best stands there as a moral guide and example, leaving the boys largely to influence and help each other in following the path silently shown to them. But the method practised is crude and marred by the excess of outer discipline, for which the pupils have no respect except that of fear, and the exiguity of the inner assistance. The little good that is done is outweighed by much evil. The old Indian System of the Guru commanding by his know- ledge and sanctity, the implicit obedience, perfect admiration, reve- rent emulation of the student, was a far superior method of moral discip- line. It is impossible to restore that ancient system ; but it is not impossi- ble to substitute the wise friend,

THE MORAL NATURE 21 guide and helper for the hired Instructor or the benevolent Policeman which is all that the European System usually makes of the pedagogue. The first rule of Moral Training is to suggest and invite, not command or impose. The best method of suggestion is by personal example, daily converse and the books read from day to day. These books should contain, for the younger student, the lofty examples of the past given, not as moral lessons, but as things of supreme human interest, and, for the elder student, the great thoughts of great souls, the passages of literature which set fire to the highest emotions and prompt the highest ideals and aspirations, the records of history and biography which exemplify the living of those great thoughts, noble emo- tions and aspiring ideals. This is a

22 NATIONAL EDUCATION kind of good company, satsanga, which can seldom fail to have effect so long as sententious sermonising is avoided, and becomes of the highest effect if the personal life of the teacher is itself moulded by the great things he places before his pupils. It cannot, however, have full force unless the young life is given an opportunity, within its limited sphere, of embodying in action the moral impulses which rise within it. The thirst of knowledge, the self-devotion, the purity, the renunciation of the Brahmin, the courage, ardour, honour, nobility, chivalry, patriotism of the Kshatriya,—the beneficence, skill, industry, generous enterprise and large openhandedness of the Vaisya, —the self-effacement and loving service of the Sudra,—these are the qualities of the Aryan. They constitute

THE MORAL NATURE 23 the moral temper we desire in our young men, in the whole Nation. But how can we get them if we do not give opportunities to the young to train themselves in the Aryan tradition, to form by the practice and familiarity of childhood and boyhood the stuff of which their adult lives must be made? Every boy should, therefore, be given practical opportunity as well as intellectual encouragement to develop all that is best in the nature. If he has bad qualities, bad habits, bad samskaras whether of mind or body, he should not be treated harshly as a delinquent, but encouraged to get rid of them by the Rajayogic Method of Sanyama, rejection and substitution. He should be encouraged to think of them, not as sins or offences, but as symptoms of a curable disease alter- able by a steady and sustained effort