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

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

24 NATIONAL EDUCATION
of the will, falsehood being rejected
whenever it rises into the mind and
replaced by truth, fear by courage,
selfishness by sacrifice and renuncia-
tion, malice by love. Great care will
have to be taken that unformed virtues
are not rejected as faults. The wild-
ness and recklessness of many young
natures are only the overflowings of
an excessive strength, greatness and
nobility. They should be purified,
not discouraged.
I have spoken of morality ; it is
necessary to speak a word of religious
teaching. There is a strange idea
prevalent that by merely teaching the
dogmas of religion children can be
made pious and moral. This is an
European error, and its practice leads,
either to mechanical acceptance of a
creed having no effect on the inner
and little on the outer life, or it crea-

THE MORAL NATURE 25
tes the fanatic, the pietist, the ritualist
or the unctuous hypocrite. Religion
has to be lived, not learned as a creed.
The singular compromise made in the
so-called National Education of Bengal
making the teaching of religious beliefs
compulsory, but forbidding the practice
of anushtana or religious exercise, is a
sample of the ignorant confusion which
distracts men's mind on this subject.
The prohibition is a sop to secularism
declared or concealed. No religious
teaching is of any value unless it is
lived, and the use of various kinds of
sadhana, spiritual self-training and
exercise, is the only effective pre-
paration for religious living. The
ritual of prayer homage, ceremony is
craved for by many minds as an essen-
tial preparation and, if not made an
end in itself, is a great help to spiritual
progress ; if it is withheld, some other

26 NATIONAL EDUCATION
form of meditation, devotion or religi-
ous duty must be put in its place.
Otherwise, Religious Teaching is of
little use and would almost be better
ungiven.
But whether distinct teaching in
any form of religion is imparted or not,
the essence of religion, to live for God,
for humanity, for country, for others
and for oneself in these, must be made
the ideal in every School which calls
itself National. It is this spirit of
Hinduism pervading our Schools which
—far more than the teaching of Indian
Subjects, the use of Indian methods or
formal instruction in Hindu Beliefs
and Hindu Scriptures—should be the
essence of Nationalism in our Schools
distinguishing them from all others.

CHAPTER IV
SIMULTANEOUS AND SUCCESSIVE
TEACHING
A very remarkable feature of
modern training which has been sub-
jected in India to a reduction ad
absurdum is the practice of teaching
by snippets. A subject is taught a
little at a time, in conjunction with a
host of others, with the result that what
might be well learnt in a single year
is badly learned in seven and the boy
goes out ill-equipped, served with
imperfect parcels of knowledge, master
of none of the great departments of
human knowledge. The system of
Education adopted by the National
Council, an amphibious and twy-
natured creation, attempts to heighten
this practice of teaching by snippets
at the bottom and the middle and
suddenly change it to a grandiose

28 NATIONAL EDUCATION
specialism at the top. This is to base
the Triangle on its apex and hope that
it will stand.
The old system was to teach one
or two subjects well and thoroughly
and then proceed to others, and cer-
tainly it was a more rational system
than the modern. If it did not impart
so much varied information, it built up
a deeper, nobler and more real culture.
Much of the shallowness, discursive
lightness and fickle mutability of the
average modern mind is due to the
vicious principle of teaching by snip-
pets. The one defect that can be
alleged against the old system was that
the subject earliest learned might fade
from the mind of the student while he
was mastering his later studies. But
the excellent training given to the
memory by the ancients obviated the
incidence of this defect. In the future

SUCCESSIVE TEACHING. 29
Education we need not bind ourselves
either by the ancient or the modern
system, but select only the most per-
fect and rapid means of mastering
knowledge.
In defence of modern system it is
alleged that the attention of children
is easily tired and cannot be subjected
to the strain of long application to a
single subject. The frequent changes
of subject gives rest to the mind. The
question naturally arises: are the child-
ren of modern times then so different
from the ancients, and, if so, have we
not made them so by discouraging
prolonged concentration ? A very
young child cannot, indeed apply him-
self; but a very young child is unfit for
School teaching of any kind. A child
of seven or eight, and that is the
earliest permissible age for the com-
mencement of any regular kind of