{"id":51,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=51"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:34","slug":"20-lecture-in-baroda-college-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/20-lecture-in-baroda-college-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-20_Lecture in Baroda College.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nLecture in Baroda College*<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nI<\/font>N ADDRESSING <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>you on an occasion like
\nthe present, it is inevitable that the mind should dwell on one
\nfeature of this gathering above all others. Held as it is towards
\nthe close of the year, I am inevitably reminded that many of its
\nprominent members are with us for the last time in their college
\nlife, and I am led to speculate with both hope and anxiety on
\ntheir future careers, and this not only because several familiar
\nfaces are to disappear from us and scatter into different parts of
\nthe country and various walks of life, but also because they go
\nout from us as our finished work, and it is by their character and
\nlife that our efforts will be judged. When I say, our efforts, I
\nallude not merely to the professorial work of teaching, not to
\nbook-learning only, but to the entire activity of the college as a
\ngreat and complex educational force, which is not solely meant
\nto impart information, but to bring out or give opportunities for
\nbringing out all the various intellectual and other energies which
\ngo to make up a man. And here is the side of collegiate institutions of which this Social Gathering especially reminds us, the
\nforce of the social life it provides in moulding the character and
\nthe mind. I think it will not be out of place, if in dwelling on
\nthis I revert to the great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
\nwhich are our famous exemplars, and point out a few differences
\nbetween those Universities and our own and the thoughts those
\ndifferences may well suggest.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nI think there is no student of Oxford or Cambridge who
\ndoes not look back in after days on the few years of his undergraduate life as, of all the scenes he has moved in, that which
\ncalls up the happiest memories, and it is not surprising that this
\nshould be so, when we remember what that life must have meant
\nto him. He goes up from the restricted life of his home and
\nschool and finds himself in surroundings which with astonishing<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*An address delivered by Professor Ghose at the College Social Gathering \u2014 from
\nthe Baroda College Miscellany \u2014 Vol. V, No. II \u2014 September 1899, pp. 28-33.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 130<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nrapidity expand his intellect, strengthen his character, develop
\nhis social faculties, force out all his abilities and turn him in
\nthree years from a boy into a man. His mind ripens in the contact with minds which meet from all parts of the country and have
\nbeen brought up in many various kinds of trainings, his unwholesome eccentricities wear away and the unsocial, egoistic elements
\nof character are to a large extent discouraged. He moves among
\nancient and venerable buildings, the mere age and beauty of
\nwhich are in themselves an education. He has the Union which
\nhas trained so many great orators and debaters, has been the
\nfirst trial ground of so many renowned intellects. He has, too,
\nthe athletics clubs organized with a perfection unparalleled
\nelsewhere, in which, if he has the physique and the desire for
\nthem he may find pursuits which are also in themselves an education. The result is that he who entered the university a raw
\nstudent, comes out of it a man and a gentleman, accustomed to
\nthink of great affairs and fit to move in cultivated society, and
\nhe remembers his College and University with affection, and in
\nafter days if he meets with those who have studied with him he
\nfeels attracted towards them as to men with whom he has a
\nnatural brotherhood. This is the social effect I should like the
\nColleges and Universities of India also to exercise, to educate
\nby social influences as well as those which are merely academical
\nand to create the feeling among their pupils that they belong to
\nthe community, that they are children of one mother. There are
\nmany obstacles to this result in the circumstance of Indian
\nUniversities. The Colleges are not collected in one town but are
\nscattered among many and cannot assemble within themselves
\nso large and various a life. They are new also, the creation of
\nnot more than fifty years \u2014 and fifty years is a short period in the
\nlife of a University. But so far as circumstances allow, there is
\nan attempt to fill up the deficiency, in your Union, your
\nDebating Club and Reading Room, your Athletic Sports and
\nSocial Gathering. For the success of this attempt time is needed,
\nbut your efforts are also needed: and I ask you who are soon to
\ngo out into the world, not to forget your College or regard it as
\na mere episode in your life, but rather as one to whose care you
\nmust look back and recompense it by your future life and work,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 131<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nand if you meet fellow-students, alumni of the same College,
\nto meet them as friends, as brothers.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThere is another point in which a wide difference exists.
\nWhat makes Oxford and Cambridge not local institutions but
\ngreat and historic Universities? It is the number of great and
\nfamous men, of brilliant intellects in every department which
\nhave issued from them. I should like you to think seriously of
\nthis aspect of the question also. In England the student feels a
\npride in his own University and College, wishes to see their
\ntraditions maintained, and tries to justify them to the world by
\nhis own success. This feeling has yet to grow up among us. And
\nI would appeal to you \u2014 who are leaving us \u2014 to help to create
\nit, to cherish it yourselves, to try and justify the College of its
\npupils. Of course, there is one preliminary method by which
\nthe students can add fame to their College. Success in examinations, though preliminary merely, and not an end in itself,
\nis nevertheless of no small effect or importance. You all know
\nhow the recent success of an Indian student has filled the whole
\ncountry with joy and enthusiasm. That success reflects fame not
\nonly on India but on his University and College, and when the
\nname of the first Indian Senior Wrangler is mentioned, it will
\nalso be remembered that he belonged to Cambridge and to
\nSt. John’s. But examinations, however important, are only a
\npreliminary. I lay stress upon this because there is too much of
\na tendency in this country to regard education as a mere episode,
\nfinished when once the degree is obtained. But the University
\ncannot and does not pretend to complete a man’s education; it
\nmerely gives some materials to his hand or points out certain paths he may
\ntread, and it says to him, \u2014 "Here are the materials I have given into your hands, it is for you to make of them
\nwhat you can"; or \u2014 "These are the paths I have equipped you
\nto travel; it is yours to tread them to the end, and by your success in them justify me before the world."<\/font><\/p>\n

\nI would ask you therefore to remember these things in your
\nfuture life, not to drop the effects of your College training as
\nno longer necessary, but, to strive for eminence and greatness in
\nyour own lines, and by the brilliance of your names add lustre
\nto the first nursing home of your capacities, to cherish its memory<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 132<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwith affection as that which equipped your intellects, trained
\nyou into men, and strove to give you such social life as might fit
\nyou for the world. And finally I would ask you not to sever
\nyourselves in after days from it, but if you are far, to welcome
\nits alumni when you meet them with brotherly feelings and if
\nyou are near to keep up connection with it, not to regard the
\ndifference of age between yourselves and its future students but
\nassociate with them, be present at such occasions as this social
\ngathering and evince by your acts your gratitude for all that it
\ndid for you in the past.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 133<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lecture in Baroda College*   IN ADDRESSING you on an occasion like the present, it is inevitable that the mind should dwell on one feature…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","wpcat-4-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","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=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}