Education for Tomorrow - The Concept Of Integral Education

THE CONCEPT OF INTEGRAL EDUCATION

In the history of the development of education, we find in certain systems of education a stress on harmonious development of the physical, the vital and the mental aspects of personality. Such, indeed, was the Greek ideal of education, which has reappeared in the modern West, and which influences the modern educational thinking in India. It has also been recognised that there have been systems of education laying great stress on the building up of the character and on the inculcation of moral virtues. In some Systems of education, an attempt has been made to provide for the study of some religious texts and for some religious practices. There is also a tendency to suggest a system of education in which all the above elements would, in some way, be incorporated.

There are, however, certain important developments which necessitate a clearer and a more radical concept of integral education.

Firstly, there is, today, an unparalleled width and depth of inquiry, which requires a new kind of education that would simultaneously be comprehensive and specialized or varied so as to suit each individual. Secondly, the modern human personality has become, as never before, subject to psychological .

turmoil, imposing a new dimension in education that still remains undefined and insufficiently explored. Thirdly, there is a greater quest all over the world for the synthesis of knowledge and culture. Ancient knowledge is being rediscovered in the context of modern knowledge. The humanist and the technologist are finding themselves in greater and greater need of each other; and the scientist and the mystic are getting ready to embrace each other. The educational implications of these developments are obvious. Our educational syllabi have to reflect the latest trends of synthesis, and our educational objectives must include the idea of preparing a new kind of man who can consciously and progressively harmonize within himself the broad vision of the humanist and the skill of the technologist, the disciplined willforce of the moralist and the refined imagination of the artist, scrupulous knowledge of the scientist and the sublime vision, wisdom and ever-growing perfection of the mystic.

At a still deeper level, we have the most profound concern of our times, namely, that of an unprecedented crisis which can be considered evolutionary in character, a crisis that occurs in a species at a time when some kind of mutation is imminent. As Sri Aurobindo declares :

"At present mankind is undergoing an evolutionary crisis in which is concealed a choice of its destiny; for a stage has been reached in which the human mind has achieved in certain directions an enormous development while in others it stands arrested and bewildered and can no longer find its way. A structure of the external life has been raised up by man's ever

active mind and life-will, a structure of an unmanageable hugeness and complexity, for the service of his mental, vital, physical claims and urges, a complex political, social, administrative, economic, cultural machinery, and organized collective means for his intellectual, sensational, aesthetic and material satisfaction. Man has created a system of civilization which has become too big for his limited mental capacity and understanding and his still more limited spiritual and moral capacity to utilize and manage, a too dangerous servant of his blundering ego and its appetites. For no greater seeing mind, no intuitive soul of knowledge has yet come to his surface of consciousness which could make this basic fullness of life a condition for the free growth of something that exceeded it... . A greater whole-being, whole- knowledge, wholepower is needed to weld all into a greater unity of whole life." ¹

If human existence were of one piece, solely material-vital, or solely mental, or solely spiritual, problems of human life would not have reached the kind of criticality that we are facing today. But the human being is a triple web, a thing mysteriously physical-vital, mental and spiritual at once, and not knowing what are the true relations of these things, we have been led to a situation where we are obliged to listen to the conflicting voices and their imperatives, and we do not know what to follow and what to reject. Against this background, deeper questions

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1. Sri Aurobindo: The life .Divine Centenary Edition, vol.19, pp 1053-55)

both of life and education have become extremely urgent and imperative.

The first danger in this situation is a resurgence of the old vital and material primitive barbarian in a civilized form. This danger is likely to overcome humanity if there is no high and strenuous mental and moral ideal controlling and uplifting the vital and physical man in us and no spiritual ideal liberating him from himself into his inner being. Even if this relapse is escaped, there is another danger. For there may come about a crystallization into a stable comfortable mechanized social living without ideal or outlook. The present world situation seems to be fast developing into that kind of crystallization over larger and larger areas of the world. Rational thought can, indeed, if it continues to develop on higher and higher domains, prevent this peril. Unfortunately, the rational thought of today is still disinclined to mediate between the life and the body on the one hand, and something higher and greater within the human being, the spiritual reality, on the other. In that situation, humanity may succumb to the comforts of mechanized social living and may even succeed in burying the deep call of the spirit. This burial would mean perilous suffocation of evolutionary urge to arrive at the fullest possible perfection of the individual and the society and the perfection of the relationship between the individual and the society.

Self-exceeding or self-transcendence is the fundamental law of the nature of the human being, and if humankind comes to the paralyzing situation where the urge to exceed the limits of the mental

human being is buried under the heavy weight of the civilization of comfort and pleasure, of continuous competition and conflict and of disabling appetites of egoistic life, controlled by dehumanizing machinery of civilization, then the human being will have frustrated the purposes of evolution, and those powers which lie at the summit of the possibilities of human personality. This is the heart of evolutionary crisis, and this crisis can be averted only if we are able to work at the highest frontiers of human resources and open up the gates of the forces and powers which lie beyond these frontiers in the realm of the Spirit.

One favourable factor which is likely to help humanity is the contemporary dissatisfaction that has arisen with materialism, on the one hand, and on the other hand, with spirituality which has been negating the meaning and purposefulness of the material world. After centuries of experiments, materialism is gradually giving way to the pressures of new discoveries which require exploration of the psychical and spiritual domains. Similarly, centuries of experiments in the spiritual fields have shown that the neglect of material life and neglect of collective welfare result in poverty or bankruptcy and even in economic and political slavery. As Sri Aurobindo pointed out :

"It is therefore of good augury that after many experiments and verbal solutions we should now find ourselves standing today in the presence of the two that have alone borne for long the most rigorous tests of experience, the two extremes.... In Europe and in India, respectively, the negation of the materialist and

the refusal of the ascetic have sought to assert themselves as the sole truth and to dominate the conception of Life. In India, if the result has been a great heaping up of the treasures of the Spirit,-- or of some of them,--it has also been a great bankruptcy of Life; in Europe, the fullness of riches and the triumphant mastery of this world's powers and possessions have progressed towards an equal bankruptcy in the things of the Spirit.... Therefore the time grows ripe and the tendency of the world moves towards a new and comprehensive affirmation in thought and in inner and outer experience and to its corollary, a new and rich self-fulfilment in an integral human existence for the individual and for the race." ¹

It has now become clear that the knowledge of the Spirit and the knowledge of Matter need to be blended and synthesized; supracosmic aim of life has to be enlarged by integrating with it the cosmic aim of life; the realizations of the Spirit have to be extended so as to cover the domain of Matter. And in doing so, all that is intermediate between Spirit and Matter has also to be perfected and brought into unity in complete integration. All this has to be done both at the collective level and at the individual level, and in doing so, we shall find it necessary to develop integral education.

If we analyse the human being, we shall find that between two poles of the body and the spirit, there are three other elements, the vital, the mental and the psychic. We shall again find that all these

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1. Sri Aurobindo: Centenary Edition, Vol. 18, pp. 8- 9

elements have a constitutional relationship among them; they do not stand in relation of juxtaposition. The physical and the vital can, to a great extent, be controlled and guided by the mental, and up to a certain stage of development, the mind can act as the leader, justifying the description of the mental in the Taittiriya Upanishad, of manomaya as shariraprananeta (leader of the body and the vital). But the leadership of the mind is rather restricted, and as the rational, ethical and aesthetic powers begin to develop, the mind finds itself incapable of resolving the conflicts between the rational pursuit of truth, aesthetic pursuit of beauty, and ethical pursuit of the good. The mind is found also to be incapable of dealing successfully the forces of Unreason which surge up constantly from the vital and the physical, which, in turn, are greatly dominated by the forces of the subconscious and the unconscious. The time must come when the psychic being, which is called in the Upanishad antaratman or which is described in the Veda as the Mystic Fire (Agni), has to be brought forward as the priest (purohita) of the human journey. And as the psychic being develops, there comes about a powerful opening of the doors of the domains of the spiritual consciousness, which culminate in the supramental, which is called in the Taittiriya Upanishad, vijnanamaya, which alone has been found capable of establishing the true integration of all the powers of the being under its natural and spontaneous sovereignty.

The knowledge of the secrets of this entire process of development is largely contained in the

Veda and the Upanishads, and what we find missing there has been discovered and perfected by Sri Aurobindo. It is in the light of all this knowledge that we can speak today with great assurance of the concept and practice of integral education and of the synthesis of the ancient secrets of the reign of Spirit over mind, life and the body and the modern secrets of utilisation of the life in perfecting the instrumentality of the body, life and mind.

Integral education would not only aim at the integral development of personality, but it would also embrace all knowledge in its scope. It would pursue physical and psychical sciences not merely to know the world and Nature in her processes and to use them for material human needs, but to know through them the Spirit in the world and the ways of the Spirit in its appearances. It would study ethics in order, not only to search for the good as the mind sees it, but also to perceive the supra-ethical Good. Similarly, it would pursue Art not merely to present images of the subjective and the objective world, but to see them with significant and creative vision that goes behind their appearances and to, reveal the supra rational Truth and Beauty. It would encourage the study of humanities, not in order to foster a society as a background for a few luminous spiritual figures so that the many necessarily remain for ever on the lower ranges of life, but to inspire the regeneration of the total life of the earth and to encourage voluntary optimism for that regeneration in spite of all previous failures. Finally, it would encourage unity of knowledge and harmony of knowledge, and it would strive to foster the spirit of universality and oneness.

An important characteristic of integral education is its insistence on simultaneous development of Knowledge, Will, Harmony, and Skill as also of all the parts of the being to the extent possible from the earliest stages of education. And since each individual child is unique in the composition of its qualities and characteristics, its capacities and potentialities, its predominant inclinations and propensities, integral education in its practice tends to become increasingly individualized. Again, for this very reason, the methods of education become increasingly dynamic, involving active participation of the child in its own growth.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of three principles of teaching, and they all need to be fully implemented in the practice of integral education. Sri Aurobindo states,

" The first principle of true teaching is that. nothing can be taught. The teacher is not an instructor or task master, he is a helper and a guide. His business is to suggest and not to impose. ... The second principle is that the mind has to be consulted in its own 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. ... 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. ... A free and natural growth is the condition of genuine development. ..." ^1`

These principles, when implemented, provide a basis of a system of a natural organisation of the highest processes and the movements of which the human nature is capable. The first task of the teacher is to observe every child and to develop dynamic methods by which the child can be lifted up in its totality into a higher light which can sharpen, chisel, purify, perfect and transform every part of the being in a state of constant balance and integrity. This would mean application of every possible method even to the minutest details and to the action which may seem most insignificant in their appearances with as much care and thoroughness as to the greatest. For there is nothing too small to be used and nothing too great to be attempted.

There are three instruments of the teacher: instruction, example and influence. The good teacher will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will not impose his opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the benign fostering within. He will know that the example is more powerful than instruction. Actually, the example is not that of the outward acts but of the inner motivation of life and the inner states and inner activities. Finally, influence

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1. Sri Aurobindo, vol.17. Centenary Edition, pp. 204-5

is more important than example. For influence proceeds from the power or contact of the teacher with his pupil, from the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into the pupil, even though in silence, all that which the teacher himself is or possesses. The good teacher is himself a constant Student. He is a child leading children, and a light kindling other lights, a vessel and a channel.

In our present system of education, we are too occupied with the mental development, and we give a preponderant importance to those qualities which are relevant to subject-oriented, book-oriented and examination-oriented system. We do not give so much importance to the development of powers of understanding as to the powers of memory. We do not emphasize the development of imagination as much as we emphasize the power of knowing facts. We do not give importance to the pursuit of Truth as much as to the pursuit of piece meal information. Some place is, indeed, being given to physical education and aesthetic education, but these aspects of education are so peripheral that they tend to be almost neglected. In regard to inner domains of personality, the situation is totally unsatisfactory. We Sometimes speak of value education, but the situation is so confusing that there is a great need to clarify the entire domain of moral and spiritual values which would also throw considerable light on what we should mean by psychic and spiritual education.

A question is often raised as to whether there is any valid distinction between moral and spiritual values. In answer, it must be said that much depends upon what we intend to include in our definition of

the word "morality" or the word "spirituality". In Indian thought, the distinction between morality and spirituality has been clearly made and we have two definite terms, naitika and adhyatimika, having their specific and distinguishing connotations. The word "morality" connotes a pursuit of the control and mastery over impulses and desires under the guidance and supervening inspiration of a standard of conduct formulated in consideration of man's station and duties in the society or in consideration of any discovered or prescribed intrinsic law of an ideal. Morality is often conceived as a preparation for spirituality. Spirituality, on the other hand, begins when one seeks whatever one conceives to be the ultimate and absolute for its own sake unconditionally and without any reserve whatsoever. Moreover, while morality is often limited to the domains of duties, spirituality is fundamentally a search of the knowledge of the highest and the absolute by direct experience and of manifestation of this knowledge in every mode of feeling, thinking and acting.

Again, what is called religious is distinguishable from the moral and the spiritual. The differentia by which religion can be distinguished from morality and spirituality are: (i) a specific religious belief; (ii) certain prescribed acts and rituals and ceremonies, and (iii) a religious authority to which religious matters are referred for final decision.

Both moral and spiritual values can be practised irrespective of whether one believes in one religion or another or whether one believes in no religion. Both morality and spirituality can be independent of rituals and ceremonies or of any acts specifically

prescribed by any particular religion, and both of them are independent of any authority except that of direct, abiding and verifiable experience.

Spirituality proceeds directly by change of consciousness, change from the ordinary consciousness to a greater consciousness in which one finds one's true unegoistic being and comes first into direct and living contact and then into union with the Spirit. In spirituality, this change of consciousness is the one thing that matters, nothing else. Both morality and religion in their deepest core touch spirituality and may prepare the change of consciousness, but spirituality not only aims at the total change of consciousness, but even its method is that of a gradual and increasing change of consciousness. In other words, spirituality is an exploration of consciousness through progressive change of consciousness.

In the spiritual consciousness, and in the knowledge that it delivers, there is the fulfillment of the highest that morality and religion in their deepest core seek and succeed only when they cease to be limited within their specific boundaries. It replaces the moral law by a progressive law of self-perfection spontaneously expressing itself through the individual nature. No more in this operation is the imposition of a rule or an imperative on the individual nature. The spiritual law respects the individual nature, modifies it and perfects it, and in this sense, it is unique for each individual and can be known and made operative only during the course of the change of consciousness. In its progressive movement, it may, if necessary, provide

a short or long period of governance by a moral law, but always as a provisional device and always looking for going beyond into a plane of spontaneous expression of the Right and the Good. To spiritual consciousness, moral virtue is not valuable in itself, but only as an expression of a complex of certain qualities which are, for the time being, for the given individual necessary and useful in an upward journey. For the spiritual consciousness, what is commonly called vice has, too, behind it a complex of certain qualities which have a certain utility in the economy of Nature, and can, therefore, be converted by placing them in their right place, as a complement to what lies in consciousness behind the commonly called virtues.

Spirituality is not confined merely to the aspect of conduct; it includes all works and strives by the method of a progressive change of consciousness for the perfect harmonization of all the aspects of works; and through this striving it realizes also the unity of works with the highest Knowledge and the deepest Love.

For the spiritual consciousness, what is commonly called agnosticism, scepticism, atheism, positivism or free thinking, has behind it a concern and a demand for a direct knowledge, which if rightly understood, recognised, respected and fulfilled, would become a powerful complement to what lies in consciousness behind the commonly accepted religious qualities of faith and unquestioning acceptance of dogmatic teachings and injunctions.

For spirituality always looks behind the form to essence and to the living consciousness; and in doing

so, it brings to the surface that which lies behind, and its action is therefore of a new creation. Spirituality transcends the forms and methods of morality and religion and recreates its own living and progressive forms.

In the words of Sri Aurobindo," Spirituality is in its essence an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, self, soul which is other than our mind, life and body, an inner aspiration to know, to feel, to be that, to enter into contact with the greater Reality beyond and pervading the universe which inhabits also our own being, to be in communion with It and union with It and a turning, a conversion, a transformation of our whole being as a result of the aspiration, the contact, the union, a growth or waking into a new becoming or new being, a new self, a new nature."¹

Spirituality and spiritual values and the methods of realizing them are distinctive. A mere learning about spirituality is not spirituality; even the most catholic book on spirituality cannot be a substitute for the direct practice of inner change of consciousness by which one can perceive and realize the inner and higher Self and transform the workings of the outer instruments of nature. The education that aims at inculcation of spiritual values and at the synthesis of these values with the dynamic demands of life must be quite radical. It would not do merely to prescribe a few graded books on morality or spirituality and to allot a certain fixed quantities of hours for the study of these books. Spirituality is a

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1. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 19, Centenary Edition, page 857

living process and spiritual or true education is a process of kindling inner light. Again, spiritual values are central values and they must therefore govern and guide all the values and aspects of education.

In various domains of education, spiritual consciousness can be aided by promoting certain specific values. In the domain of physical education, the values that we ought to promote are those of health, strength, plasticity, grace and beauty. In the domain of vital education, the values that we ought to promote would be those of harmony and friendliness, of courage and heroism, of endurance and preservence, and the irresistible will to conquer the forces of ignorance, division and injustice. In the domain of mental development, the values that we ought to seek would be those of utmost impartiality, dispassionate search of the Truth, Calm and Silence, and widest possible synthesis. The values pertaining to the aesthetic development would be those of the vision of the Beauty and creative joy of the deepest possible aesthetic experience and expression.

Moreover, life itself is the great teacher of life; therefore, unless spiritual values are the very atmosphere and life-breath of the educational environment, they cannot be truly and effectively brought home to the students.

The pursuit of the spiritual values is, in fact, the pursuit and cultivation of the truths and powers of two over-ruling aspects of personality, namely, what we have called the psychic and the spiritual.

The psychic being is the real individual, the real person behind all personality; it is integrative but unegoistic, and, little by little, it projects itself into the body, life and mind, in proportion to their right development, and suffuses them with its light and purity and establishes by it progressive governance a harmony of the different parts of the being. It is that which knows its real mission as an individual expression in the totality of all the individuals in the world, a mission that is unique to itself. Its goal is a higher realisation upon earth and its law of action is that of mutuality and unity.

While the psychic is the inmost and deepest being in us, the spiritual is the highest and transcendental. While psychic life is the life of immortality and of endless time, and limitless space, the spiritual consciousness, on the other hand, means .to live the infinite and eternal, to throw oneself outside all creation beyond time and space.

And there is still a higher ingredient, supramental consciousness, which reconciles the transcendental tendency of the spiritual and the immanence of the psychic as also the powers and perfections of the mental, the vital and the physical.