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

A SYSTEM OF
NATIONAL EDUCATION
BY
AUROBINDO GHOSE
TAGORE & Co., MADRAS.

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SRI BHA...
CHICKPET
BANGALORE CITY

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A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.

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A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL
EDUCATION
BY
AUROBINDO GHOSE
PUBLISHED BY :
TAGORE & CO., MADRAS.

First Published 1921.
Printed at Everymans Press, 1, McLean Street, Madras.

CONTENTS.
Publishers Note.—
The Human Mind .... .... .... 1
The Powers of the Mind .... .... 9
The Moral Nature .... .... .... 16
Simultaneous and Successive Teaching .... 27
The Training of the Mind .... .... 36
Sense Improvement by Practice .... .... 48
The Training of the Mental Faculties .... 53
The Training of the Logical Faculty .... 63
2004754

All Rights Reserved.

PUBLISHERS NOTE.
The Publishers have much pleasure in
presenting this volume which is but a
compilation of a series of articles from the
pen of Srijut Aurobindo Ghose contributed
several years ago. In view of the fact that
much interest and enthusiasm are evinced
at the present moment in National Educa-
tion the Publishers trust that the main
theme enunciated by India's greatest yogi
in this book will be of immense use in
guiding the army of nation-builders in their
re-modelling of the Education of the youth
of the country.

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A System of National Education
I. THE HUMAN MIND
The true basis of Education is
the study of the human mind, infant,
adolescent, and adult. Any system
of Education founded on theories of
academic perfection, which ignores
the instrument of study, is more
likely to hamper and impair intellec-
tual growth than to produce a perfect
and perfectly equipped mind. For
the Educationist has to do, not with
dead material like the artist or
sculptor, but with an infinitely subtle
and sensitive organism. He cannot
shape an educational masterpiece out
of human wood or stone ; he has to
work in the elusive substance of mind
and respect the limits imposed by the
fragile human body.

2 NATIONAL EDUCATION
There can be no doubt that the
Educational System of Europe is a
great advance on the many methods
of antiquity, but its defects are also
palpable. It is based on an in-
sufficient knowledge of human psycho-
logy and it is only safeguarded in
Europe from disastrous results by the
refusal of the ordinary student to
subject himself to the processes it
involves, his habit of studying only so
much as he must to avoid punishment
or to pass an immediate test, his
resort to active habits and vigorous
physical exercise. In India the disas-
trous effects of the system on body,
mind and character are only too appa-
rent. The first problem in a National
System of Education is to give an
Education as comprehensive as the
European and more thorough, with-
out the evils of strain and cramming.

THE HUMAN MIND 3
This can only be done by studying the
instruments of knowledge and finding
a system of teaching which shall be
natural, easy and effective. It is
only by strengthening and sharpening
these instruments to their utmost
capacity that they can be made effec-
tive for the increased work which
modern conditions require. The
muscles of the mind must be thorough-
ly trained by simple and easy means ;
then, and not till then, great feats of
intellectual strength can be required
of them.
The first principle of true
teaching is that nothing can be
taught. The teacher is not an In-
structor or Taskmaster, he is a helper
and a guide. His business is to
suggest and not to impose. He does
not actually train the pupil's mind,
he only shows him how to perfect

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.