{"id":4194,"date":"2013-07-13T01:54:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4194"},"modified":"2013-12-01T21:14:41","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T05:14:41","slug":"64-5-april-1967-vol-12-on-education-volume-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/12-on-education-volume-12\/64-5-april-1967-vol-12-on-education-volume-12","title":{"rendered":"-64_5-April-1967.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\nVII<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n


\n
\nCONVERSATIONS<\/span><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n


\n5 April 1967<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/font><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(Mother writes a note<\/i><\/span>.) It is an answer to a question. Do you know what I told the
\nteachers of the school? I have been asked another question. Here is the
\nbeginning of my reply:  <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe division between `ordinary
\nlife<\/i>‘ and `spiritual life’<\/i> is an
\noutdated antiquity.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Did you read his question? Read it again to me. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed the future. It seemed to me that nearly all the
\nteachers were eager to do something so that the children could become more
\nconscious of why they are here. At that point I said that in my opinion, to
\nspeak to the children of spiritual things often has the opposite result, and
\nthat these words lose all their value.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSpiritual things\u201d \u2013 what does he mean by spiritual things? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously, if the teachers recite them like a story\u2026 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Spiritual things\u2026 They are taught history or<\/span> spiritual things, they are taught science or<\/span> spiritual things. That is the
\nstupidity. In history, the Spirit is there; in science, the Spirit is there \u2013
\nthe Truth is everywhere. And what is needed is not to teach it in a false way,
\nbut to teach it in a true way. They cannot get that into their heads. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cI have suggested that it might be better to meet and
\nlisten to Mother’s voice,1<\/sup> for even if we don’t understand
\neverything, your voice would accomplish its own inner work, which we are not in
\na position to evaluate. About this, I would like to know<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n


\n1<\/font><\/span><\/sup>Tape-recordings
\nof Mother’s classes during the 1950s.<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 403<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

what is the best way of bringing the child into relation with you.
\nFor all the suggestions, including mine, seemed arbitrary to me and without any
\nreal value. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cMother, wouldn’t it be better if the
\nteachers were to concentrate solely on the subjects they are teaching, for you
\nare taking care of the spiritual life?\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I shall give him this reply: There is no \u201cspiritual life\u201d! It is
\nstill the old idea, still the old idea of the sage, the sannyasin, the\u2026\u00a0 <\/span>who represents spiritual life, while all the
\nothers represent ordinary life \u2013 and it is not true, it is not true, it is not
\ntrue at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

If they still need an opposition between two things \u2013\u00a0 <\/span>for the poor mind doesn’t work if you don’t
\ngive it an opposition \u2013 if they need an opposition, let them take the
\nopposition between Truth and Falsehood, it is a little better; I don’t say it
\nis perfect, but it is a little better. So, in all things, Falsehood and Truth
\nare mixed everywhere: in the so-called \u201cspiritual life\u201d, in sannyasins, in
\nswamis, in those who think they represent the life divine on earth, all that \u2013
\nthere also, there is a mixture of Falsehood and Truth. <\/span><\/p>\n

It would be better not to make any
\ndivision. <\/span> <\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n

(Silence)<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

  <\/span><\/p>\n

For the children, precisely because they are children, it would be
\nbest to instil in them the will to conquer the future, the will to always look
\nahead and to want to move on as swiftly as they can towards\u2026 what will be \u2014 but
\nthey should not drag with them the burden, the millstone of the whole
\noppressive weight of the past. It is only when we are very high in
\nconsciousness and knowledge that it is good to look behind to find the points
\nwhere this future begins to show itself. When we can look at the whole picture,
\nwhen we have a very global vision, it becomes interesting to know that what
\nwill be realised later on has already been announced beforehand, in the same
\nway that <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 404 <\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

Sri Aurobindo said that the divine life will manifest on earth,
\nbecause it is already<\/i> involved in the depths of Matter; from this
\nstandpoint it is interesting to look back or to look down below \u2013 not to know
\nwhat happened, or to know what men have known: that is quite useless. <\/span><\/p>\n

The children should be told: There are wonderful things to be
\nmanifested, prepare yourself to receive them. Then if they want something a
\nlittle more concrete and easier to understand, you can tell them: Sri Aurobindo
\ncame to announce these things; when you are able to read him, you will
\nunderstand. So this awakens the interest, the desire to learn. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I see very clearly the difficulty he is referring to: most people <\/span><\/i>\u2013 and in all the things that are written, or in the lectures
\nthey give <\/i>\u2013 use inflated speech, without any truth of personal
\nexperience, which has no effect, or rather a negative effect. That is what he
\nis referring to.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, that is why they should do as I have said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ah! But not so long ago, most of the teachers were saying, \u201cOh!
\nBut we must do this, because it is done everywhere.\u201d (Smiling)<\/i> They have
\nalready come a little distance. But there is much more to be covered. <\/span><\/p>\n

But above all, what is most important is to eliminate these
\ndivisions. And every one of them, all of them have it in their minds: the
\ndivision between leading a spiritual life and leading an ordinary life, having
\na spiritual consciousness and having an ordinary consciousness \u2013 there is only
\none consciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n

In most people it is three-quarters asleep and distorted; in many
\nit is still completely distorted. But what is needed, very simply, is not to
\nleap from one consciousness into another, but to open one’s consciousness (upward
\ngesture<\/i>)<\/span> and to fill it
\nwith vibrations of Truth, to bring it in harmony with what must be here \u2013 there
\nit exists from all eternity \u2013 but here, what must <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 405<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>be here: the \u201ctomorrow\u201d of
\nthe earth. If you weigh yourself down with a whole burden that you have to drag
\nbehind you, if you drag behind you everything that you must abandon, you will
\nnot be able to advance very fast. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mind you, to know things from the earth’s past can be very
\ninteresting and very useful, but it must not be something that binds you or
\nties you to the past. If it is used as a spring-board, it is all right. But
\nreally, it is quite secondary.  <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence)<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

  <\/span><\/p>\n

It would be interesting to formulate or to elaborate a new method
\nof teaching for children, to take them very young. It is easy when they are
\nvery young. We need people \u2013 oh! we would need remarkable teachers \u2013 who have,
\nfirst, an ample enough documentation of what is known so as to be able to
\nanswer every question, and at the same time, at least the knowledge, if not the
\nexperience \u2013 the experience would be better \u2013 of the true intuitive
\nintellectual attitude, and \u2013 naturally the capacity would be still more
\npreferable \u2013 at least the knowledge that the true way of knowing is mental
\nsilence, an attentive silence turned towards the truer Consciousness, and the
\ncapacity to receive what comes from there. The best would be to have this
\ncapacity; at least, it should be explained that it is the true thing \u2013 a sort
\nof demonstration \u2013 and that it works not only from the point of view of what
\nmust be learned, of the whole domain of knowledge, but also of the whole domain
\nof what should be done: the capacity to receive the exact indication of\u00a0 <\/span>how<\/span>
\nto do it; and as you go on, it changes into a very clear perception of what
\nmust be done, and a precise indication of when it must be done. At least the
\nchildren, as soon as they have the capacity to think \u2013 it starts at the age of
\nseven, but at about fourteen or fifteen it is very clear \u2013 the children should
\nbe given little indications at the age of seven, a complete explanation at
\nfourteen, of how to do it, and that it is the only <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 406<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

way to be in relation with the deeper truth of things, and that
\nall the rest is a more or less clumsy mental approximation to something that
\ncan be known directly. <\/span><\/p>\n

The conclusion is that the teachers themselves should at least
\nhave a sincere beginning of discipline and experience, that it is not a
\nquestion of accumulating books and retelling them like this. One can’t be a
\nteacher in this way; let the outside world be like that if it likes. We are not
\npropagandists, we simply want to show what can be done and try to prove that it
\nmust<\/span> be done. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you take the children very young, it is wonderful. There is
\nso little to do: it is enough to be<\/span>.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Never make a mistake. <\/span><\/p>\n

Never lose your temper. <\/span><\/p>\n

Always understand. <\/span><\/p>\n

And to know and see clearly why there has been this movement, why
\nthere has been this impulse, what is the inner constitution of the child, what
\nis the thing to be strengthened and brought forward \u2013 this is the only thing to
\ndo; and to leave them, to leave them free to blossom; simply to give them the
\nopportunity to see many things, to touch many things, to do as many things as
\npossible. It is great fun. And above all, not to try to impose on them what you
\nthink you know. <\/span><\/p>\n

Never scold them. Always understand, and if the child is ready,
\nexplain; if he is not ready for an explanation \u2013 if you are ready yourself \u2013
\nreplace the false vibration by a true one. But this\u2026 this is to demand from the
\nteachers a perfection which they rarely have. <\/span><\/p>\n

But it would be very interesting to make a programme for the
\nteachers and the true programme of study, from the very bottom \u2013 which is so
\nplastic and which receives impressions so deeply. If they were given a few
\ndrops of truth when they are very young, they would blossom quite naturally as
\nthe being grows. It would be beautiful work.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 407<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VII   CONVERSATIONS  5 April 1967     (Mother writes a note.) It is an answer to a question. Do you know what I told…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-on-education-volume-12","wpcat-118-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9743,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4194\/revisions\/9743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}