{"id":89,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:50","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=89"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:50","slug":"40-the-brain-of-india-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\/40-the-brain-of-india-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-40_The Brain Of India.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nSECTION
\n<\/span>SIX<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nTHE BRAIN OF INDIA<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font><\/b>HE<\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

time has perhaps come for the Indian
\nmind, long preoccupied with political and economic issues, for a
\nwidening of its horizon. Such a widening is especially necessary
\nfor Bengal.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe Bengali has always led and still leads the higher thought
\nof India, because he has eminently the gifts which are most
\nneeded for the new race that has to arise. He has the emotion
\nand imagination which is open to the great inspirations, the
\nmighty heart-stirring ideas that move humanity when a great step forward has to
\nbe taken. He has the invaluable gift of thinking with the heart. He has, too, a subtle brain which is able within certain limits to catch shades of meaning and delicacies of
\nthought, both those the logic grasps and those which escape the
\nmere logical intellect. Above all, he has in a greater degree than
\nother races the yet undeveloped faculty of direct knowledge,
\nlatent in humanity and now to be evolved, which is above reason
\nand imagination, the faculty which in Sri Ramakrishna, the supreme outcome of
\nthe race, dispensed with education and commanded any knowledge he desired easily and divinely. It is a
\nfaculty which now works irregularly in humanity, unrecognised
\nand confused by the interference of the imagination, of the
\nlimited reason and of the old associations or samskāras<\/i> stored in
\nthe memory of the race and the individual. It cannot be made a
\nrecognised and habitual agent except by the discipline which the
\nancient Indian sages formulated in the science of Yoga. But
\ncertain races have the function more evolved or more ready for
\nevolution than the generality of mankind, and it is these that will
\nlead in the future evolution. In addition, the race has a mighty
\nwill-power which comes from the long worship of Shakti and
\npractice of the Tantra that has been a part of our culture for many
\ncenturies. No other people could have revolutionised its whole
\nnational character in a few years as Bengal has done. The Bengali
\nhas always worshipped the Divine Energy in her most terrible as
\nwell as in her most beautiful aspects; whether as the Beautiful or<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 327<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe Terrible Mother he has never shrunk from her whether in
\nfear or in awe. When the divine force flowed into him he has
\nnever feared to yield himself up to it and follow the infinite
\nprompting, careless whither it led. As a reward he has become
\nthe most perfect ādhāra<\/i> of Shakti, the most capable and swiftly
\nsensitive and responsive receptacle of the Infinite Will and
\nEnergy the world now holds. Recently that Will and Energy has
\nrushed into him and has been lifting him to the level of his future
\nmission and destiny. He has now to learn the secret of drawing
\nthe Mother of Strength into himself and holding her there in a
\nsecure possession. That is why we have pointed to a religious
\nand a spiritual awakening as the next necessity and the next inevitable development.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nBut along with his great possessions the Bengali has serious
\ndeficiencies. In common with the rest of India he has a great
\ndeficiency of knowledge, the result of an education meagre in
\nquantity and absolutely vicious in method and quality. And he
\nis inferior to other Indian races, such as the Madrasi and Maratha, in the capacity of calm, measured and comprehensive deliberation which is usually called intellect or reasoning power, and
\nwhich, though it is far from the whole of thought, is essential
\nto the completeness of thought and action. By itself the logical
\nor reasoning intellect creates the accurate and careful scholar,
\nthe sober critic, the rationalist and cautious politician, the conservative scientist, that great mass of human intelligence which
\nmakes for slow and careful progress. It does not create the hero
\nand the originator, the inspired prophet, the mighty builder, the
\nmaker of nations; it does not conquer nature and destiny, lay its
\nhand on the future, command the world. The rest of India is
\nlargely dominated by this faculty and limited by it, therefore it
\nlags behind while Bengal rushes forward. The rest of India has
\nfeared to deliver itself to the Power that came down from above
\nto uplift the nation; it has either denied its call or made reservations and insisted on guiding it and reining it in. A few mighty
\nmen have stridden forward and carried their race or a part of it
\nwith them, but the whole race must be infused with the spirit
\nbefore it can be fit for the work of the future.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nOn his side the Bengali, while in no way limiting the divine<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 328<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ninrush or shortening the Titan stride, must
\nlearn to see the way he is going while he treads it. For want of a trained
\nthought-power, he follows indeed the ideas that seize him, but he does
\nnot make them thoroughly his own. He thinks them out, if at all,
\nrapidly but not comprehensively, and, in consequence, though
\nhe has applied them with great energy to the circumstances
\nimmediately around him, a new set of circumstances finds him
\nperplexed and waiting for a lead from the few men to whom he
\nhas been accustomed to look for the source of his thought and
\naction. This is a source of weakness. For the work of the present, and still more, for the work of the future, it is imperatively
\nnecessary to create a centre of thought and knowledge which will revolutionise the brain of the nation to as great an extent as its
\ncharacter and outlook has been revolutionised. A new heart
\nwas necessary for our civilisation, and, though the renovation is
\nnot complete, the work that has been done in that direction will
\nensure its own fulfilment. A new brain is also needed, and
\nsufficiency of knowledge for the new brain to do its work with
\nthoroughness.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 329<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n2<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\nA<\/font> <\/font>
\nNEW <\/font>
\n<\/b>centre of thought implies a new
\ncentre of education. The system prevailing in our universities
\nis one which ignores the psychology of man, loads the mind
\nlaboriously with numerous little packets of information carefully
\ntied with red tape, and, by the methods used in this loading
\nprocess, damages or atrophies the faculties and instruments by
\nwhich man assimilates, creates, and grows in intellect, manhood and energy. The new National Education, as inaugurated
\nin Bengal, sought immensely to enlarge the field of knowledge
\nto which the student was introduced, and in so far as it laid
\nstress on experiment and observation, employed the natural
\nand easy instrument of the vernacular and encouraged the
\nplay of thought on the subject of study, corrected the habit
\nof spoiling the instruments of knowledge by the use of false
\nmethods. But many of the vicious methods and ideas employed by the old system were faithfully cherished by the new,
\nand the domination of the Council by men wedded to the old
\nlines was bound to spell a most unfavourable effect on the integrity of the system in its most progressive features. Another vital
\ndefect of the new education was that it increased the amount of
\ninformation the student was required to absorb without strengthening the body and brain sufficiently to grapple with the increased
\nmass of intellectual toil, and it shared with the old system the
\ndefect of ignoring the psychology of the race. The mere inclusion
\nof the matter of Indian thought and culture in the field of knowledge does not make a system of education Indian, and the instruction given in the Bengal National College was only an improved European system, not Indian or National. Another
\nerror which has to be avoided and to which careless minds are
\nliable, is the reactionary idea that in order to be national, education must reproduce the features of the old tol<\/i> system of Bengal.
\nIt is not eighteenth century India, the India which by its moral
\nand intellectual deficiencies gave itself into the keeping of foreigners, that we have to revive, but the spirit, ideals and methods of<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 330<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe ancient and mightier India in a yet more effective form and
\nwith a more modern organisation.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhat was the secret of that gigantic intellectuality, spirituality and superhuman moral force which we see pulsating in the
\nRamayana and Mahabharata, in the ancient philosophy, in the
\nsupreme poetry, art, sculpture and architecture of India ? What
\nwas at the basis of the incomparable public works and engineering achievement, the opulent and exquisite industries, the great
\ntriumphs of science, scholarship, jurisprudence, logic, metaphysics, the unique social structure? What supported the heroism and self-abandonment of the Kshatriya, the Sikh and the
\nRajput, the unconquerable national vitality and endurance?
\nWhat was it that stood behind that civilisation second to none,
\nin the massiveness of its outlines or the perfection of its details ?
\nWithout a great and unique discipline involving a perfect education of soul and mind, a result so immense and persistent would
\nhave been impossible. It would be an error to look for the secret
\nof Aryan success in the details of the instruction given in the old
\nAshrams and universities so far as they have come down to us.
\nWe must know what was the principle and basis on which the
\ndetails were founded. We shall find the secret of their success in
\na profound knowledge of human psychology and its subtle application to the methods of intellectual training and instruction.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nAt the basis of the old Aryan system was the all-important
\ndiscipline of Brahmacharya. The first necessity for the building
\nup of a great intellectual superstructure is to provide a foundation
\nstrong enough to bear it. Those systems of education which
\nstart from an insufficient knowledge of man, think they have provided a satisfactory foundation when they have supplied the
\nstudent with a large or well-selected mass of information on the
\nvarious subjects which comprise the best part of human culture
\nat the time. The school gives the materials, it is for the student
\nto use them, \u2014 this is the formula. But the error here is fundamental. Information cannot be the foundation of intelligence,
\nit can only be part of the material out of which the knower
\nbuilds knowledge, the starting-point, the nucleus of fresh discovery and enlarged creation. An education that confines itself
\nto imparting knowledge, is no education. The various faculties<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 331<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nof memory, judgment, imagination, perception, reasoning, which
\nbuild the edifice of thought and knowledge for the knower, must
\nnot only be equipped with their fit and sufficient tools and materials, but trained to bring fresh materials and use more skilfully
\nthose of which they are in possession. And the foundation of the
\nstructure they have to build, can only be the provision of a fund
\nof force and energy sufficient to bear the demands of a continually
\ngrowing activity of the memory, judgment and creative power.
\nWhere is that energy to be found?<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe ancient Aryans knew that man was not separate from
\nthe universe, but only a homogeneous part of it, as a wave is part
\nof the ocean. An infinite energy, Prakriti, Maya or Shakti, pervades the world, pours itself into every name and form, and the
\nclod, the plant, the insect, the animal, the man are, in their phenomenal existence, merely more or less efficient
\nādhāras<\/i> of this
\nEnergy. We are each of us a dynamo into which waves of that
\nenergy have been generated and stored, and are being perpetually
\nconserved, used up and replenished. The same force which
\nmoves in the star and the planet, moves in us, and all our thought
\nand action are merely its play and born of the complexity of its
\nfunctionings. There are processes by which man can increase his
\ncapacity as an ādhāra<\/i>. There are other processes by which he can
\nclear of obstructions the channel of communication between
\nhimself and the universal energy and bring greater and greater
\nstores of it pouring into his soul and brain and body. This continual improvement of the
\nādhāra<\/i> and increase in quantity and
\ncomplexity of action of the informing energy, is the whole aim
\nof evolution. When that energy is the highest in kind and the
\nfullest in amount of which the human ādhāra<\/i> is capable, and the ādhāra<\/i> itself is trained utterly to bear the inrush and play of the
\nenergy, then is a man siddha,<\/i> the fulfilled or perfect man, his evolution is over and he has completed in the individual that utmost
\ndevelopment which the mass of humanity is labouring towards
\nthrough the ages.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIf this theory be correct, the energy at the basis of the operation of intelligence must be in ourselves and it must be capable
\nof greater expansion and richer use to an extent practically unlimited. And this also must be a sound principle, that the more<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 332<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwe can increase and enrich the energy, the greater will be potentially the range, power and activity of the functions of our mind
\nand the consequent vigour of our intellectuality and the greatness of our achievement. This was the first principle on which the
\nancient Aryans based their education and one of the chief processes which they used for the increased storage of energy, was
\nthe practice of Brahmacharya.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 333<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n3<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>practice of Brahmacharya is the first
\nand most necessary condition of increasing the force within
\nand turning it to such uses as may benefit the possessor or
\nmankind. All human energy has a physical basis. The mistake
\nmade by European materialism is to suppose the basis to be
\neverything and confuse it with the source. The source of life
\nand energy is not material but spiritual, but the basis, the
\nfoundation on which the life and energy stand and work, is
\nphysical. The ancient Hindus clearly recognised this distinction
\nbetween kārana<\/i> and pratisthā<\/i>, the north pole and the south
\npole of being. Earth or gross matter is the pratisthā<\/i>, Brahman
\nor spirit is the kārana<\/i>. To raise up the physical to the spiritual
\nis Brahmacharya, for by the meeting of the two the energy
\nwhich starts from one and produces the other is enhanced and
\nfulfils itself.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThis is the metaphysical theory. The application depends
\non a right understanding of the physical and psychological
\nconformation of the human receptacle of energy. The fundamental physical unit is the retas<\/i>, in which the tejas<\/i>, the heat and
\nlight and electricity in a man, is involved and hidden. All energy
\nis latent in the retas<\/i>. This energy may be either expended physically or conserved. All passion, lust, desire wastes the energy
\nby pouring it, either in the gross form or a sublimated subtler
\nform, out of the body. Immorality in act throws it out in the
\ngross form; immorality of thought in the subtle form. In either
\ncase there is waste, and unchastity is of the mind and speech as
\nwell as of the body. On the other hand, all self-control conserves
\nthe energy in the retas<\/i>, and conservation always brings with it
\nincrease. But the needs of the physical body are limited and the
\nexcess of energy must create a surplus which has to turn itself to
\nsome use other than the physical. According to the ancient
\ntheory retas <\/i> is jala<\/i> or water, full of light and heat and electricity, in one word, of tejas<\/i>. The excess of the retas<\/i> turns first
\ninto heat or tapas<\/i> which stimulates the whole system, and it is for<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 334<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthis reason that all forms of self-control and austerity are called
\ntapas<\/i> or tapasyā<\/i> because they generate the heat, or stimulus which is a source of powerful action and success; secondly,
\nit turns to tejas<\/i> proper, light, the energy which is at the source
\nof all knowledge; thirdly, it turns to vidyut<\/i> or electricity, which is
\nat the basis of all forceful action whether intellectual or physical.
\nIn the vidyut<\/i> again is involved the ojas<\/i>, or prānaśakti<\/i>, the primal
\nenergy which proceeds from ether. The retas<\/i> refining from jala
\n<\/i>to tapas<\/i>, tejas<\/i> and vidyut<\/i> and from vidyut<\/i> to ojas<\/i>, fills the
\nsystem with physical strength, energy and brain-power and in its
\nlast form of ojas<\/i> rises to the brain and informs it with that primal
\nenergy which is the most refined form of matter and nearest to
\nspirit. It is ojas<\/i> that creates a spiritual force or vīrya<\/i>, by which a
\nman attains to spiritual knowledge, spiritual love and faith,
\nspiritual strength. It follows that the more we can by Brahmacharya increase the store of tapas<\/i>, tejas<\/i>, vidyut<\/i> and ojas<\/i>, the
\nmore we shall fill ourselves with utter energy for the works of
\nthe body, heart, mind and spirit.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThis view of the human soul was not the whole of the knowledge on which ancient Hinduism based its educational discipline.
\nIn addition it had the view that all knowledge is within and has
\nto be evoked by education rather than instilled from outside.
\nThe constitution of man consists of three principles of nature
\nsattva<\/i>, rajas<\/i> and tamas<\/i>, the comprehensive, active and passive
\nelements of universal action, which, in one of their thousandfold
\naspects, manifest as knowledge, passion and ignorance. Tamas
\n<\/i>is a constitutional dullness or passivity which obscures the knowledge within and creates ignorance, mental inertia, slowness,
\nforgetfulness, disinclination to study, inability to grasp and distinguish. Rajas<\/i> is an undisciplined activity which obscures knowledge by passion, attachment, prejudgment, predilection and
\nwrong ideas. Sattva<\/i> is an illumination which reveals the hidden
\nknowledge and brings it to the surface where the observation can
\ngrasp and the memory record it. This conception of the constitution of the knowing faculty made the removal of tamas<\/i>, the
\ndisciplining of rajas<\/i> and the awakening of sattva<\/i> the main problem of the teacher. He had to train the student to be receptive
\nof illumination from within. The disciplining of rajas<\/i> was effec-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 335<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nted by a strict moral discipline which induced a calm, clear, receptive state of mind, free from intellectual self-will and pride
\nand the obscuration of passion, \u2014 the famous discipline of the
\nbrahmacārin<\/i> which was the foundation of Aryan culture and
\nAryan morale; and the interference of wrong ideas was sought to
\nbe removed by strict mental submission to the teacher during the
\nreceptive period, when the body of ascertained knowledge or
\nright ideas already in man’s possession was explained to him and
\ncommitted to memory. The removal of tamas<\/i> was effected by
\nthe discipline of moral purity, which awakened the energy of tejas
\n<\/i>and electricity in the system and by the power of tapasyā<\/i> trained
\nit to be a reservoir of mental force and clarity. The awakening
\nof illumination was actively effected by the triple method
\nof repetition, meditation and discussion. Āvrtti<\/i> or repetition was
\nmeant to fill the recording part of the mind with the śabda<\/i> or
\nwords, so that the artha<\/i> or meaning might of itself rise from
\nwithin: needless to say, a mechanical repetition was not likely
\nto produce this effect. There must be that clear still receptivity
\nand that waiting upon the word or thing with the contemplative
\npart of the mind which is what the ancient Indians meant by
\ndhyāna<\/i> or meditation. All of us have felt, when studying a language, difficulties which seemed insoluble while grappling with a
\ntext suddenly melt away and a clear understanding arise without
\nassistance from book or teacher after putting away the book
\nfrom our mind for a brief period. Many of us have experienced
\nalso the strangeness of taking up a language or subject, after a
\nbrief discontinuance, to find that we understand it much better
\nthan when we took it up, know the meanings of words we had
\nnever met with before and can explain sentences which, before
\nwe discontinued the study, would have baffled our understanding.
\nThis is because the j\u00f1ātā<\/i> or knower within has had his attention
\ncalled to the subject and has been busy in the interval drawing
\nupon the source of knowledge within in connection with it. This
\nexperience is only possible to those whose sattwic or illuminative element has been powerfully aroused or consciously or unconsciously trained to action by the habit of intellectual clarity
\nand deep study. The highest reach of the sattwic development is
\nwhen one can dispense often or habitually with outside aids, the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 336<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nteacher or the text book, grammar and dictionary and learn a
\nsubject largely or wholly from within. But this is only possible
\nto the Yogin by a successful prosecution of the discipline of
\nYoga.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 337<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n4<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\nW<\/font>E <\/font>
\n<\/b>
\nhave stated, as succinctly as is consistent with clearness, the main psychological principles on which the
\nancient Indians based their scheme of education. By the training
\nof Brahmacharya they placed all the energy of which the system
\nwas capable and which could be spared from bodily functions,
\nat the service of the brain. In this way they not only strengthened
\nthe medhā<\/i> or grasping power, the dhī<\/i> or subtlety and swiftness of
\nthought conception, the memory and the creative intellectual
\nforce, making the triple force of memory, invention, judgment
\ncomprehensive and analytic, but they greatly enlarged the range,
\nno less than the intensity, of the absorbing, storing and generative mental activities. Hence those astonishing feats of memory,
\nvarious comprehension and versatility of creative work of which
\nonly a few extraordinary intellects have been capable in Occidental history, but which in ancient India were common and
\nusual. Mr. Gladstone was considered to be the possessor of
\nan astonishing memory because he could repeat the whole of
\nHomer’s Iliad, beginning from any passage suggested to him and
\nflowing on as long as required; but to a Brahmin of the old times
\nthis would have been a proof of a capacity neither unusual nor
\nastonishing, but rather, petty and limited. The many-sidedness
\nof an Eratosthenes or the range of a Herbert Spencer have created
\nin Europe admiring or astonished comment; but the universality of the ordinary curriculum in ancient India was for every
\nstudent and not for the exceptional few, and it implied, not a
\ntasting of many subjects after the modern plan, but the thorough
\nmastery of all. The original achievement of a Kalidasa accomplishing the highest in every line of poetic creation is so incredible
\nto the European mind that it has been sought to cleave that
\nmighty master of harmonies into a committee of three. Yet it is
\nparalleled by the accomplishment in philosophy of Shankara
\nin a short life of thirty-two years and dwarfed by the universal
\nmastery of all possible spiritual knowledge and experience of
\nSri Ramakrishna in our own era. These instances are not so<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 338<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ncommon as the others, because pure creative genius is not
\ncommon; but in Europe they are, with a single modern exception, non-existent. The highest creative intellects in Europe
\nhave achieved sovereignty by limitation, by striving to excel
\nonly in one field of a single intellectual province or at most in
\ntwo; when they have been versatile it has been by sacrificing
\nheight to breadth. But in India it is the greatest who have been
\nthe most versatile and passed from one field of achievement to
\nanother without sacrificing an inch of their height or an iota of
\ntheir creative intensity, easily, unfalteringly, with an assured
\nmastery. This easy and unfailing illumination crowning the unfailing energy created by Brahmacharya was due to the discipline
\nwhich developed sattva<\/i> or inner illumination. This illumination
\nmakes the acquisition of knowledge and all other intellectual
\noperations easy, spontaneous, swift, decisive and comparatively
\nunfatiguing to body or brain. In these two things lies the secret
\nof Aryan intellectual achievement, Brahmacharya and sattwic
\ndevelopment created the brain of India: it was perfected by
\nYoga.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt is a common complaint that our students are too heavily
\nburdened with many subjects and the studying of many books.
\nThe complaint is utterly true and yet it is equally true that the
\nrange of studies is pitifully narrow and the books read miserably
\nfew. What is the reason of this paradox, the justification of
\nthese two apparently contradictory truths? It is this, that we
\nneglect the basis and proceed at once to a superstructure small
\nin bulk, disproportionately heavy in comparison with that bulk,
\nand built on a foundation too weak to bear even the paltry and
\nmeagre edifice of our imparted knowledge. The Indian brain is
\nstill in potentiality what it was; but it is being damaged, stunted
\nand defaced. The greatness of its innate possibilities is hidden
\nby the greatness of its surface deterioration. The old system
\nhampered it with study in a foreign language which was not even
\nimperfectly mastered at a time when the student was called upon
\nto learn in that impossible medium a variety of alien and unfamiliar subjects. In this unnatural process it was crippled by the
\ndisuse of judgment, observation, comprehension and creation,
\nand the exclusive reliance on the deteriorating relics of the ancient<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 339<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nIndian memory. Finally, it was beggared and degraded by having
\nto deal with snippets and insufficient packets of information instead of being richly stored and powerfully equipped.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe new system of National Education sought to undo the
\nevil by employing the mother-tongue, restoring the use of the disused intellectual functions and providing for a richer and more
\nreal equipment of information, of the substance of knowledge
\nand the materials for creation. If it could not triumphantly
\nsucceed, that was partly because it had to deal with minds already
\nvitiated by the old system and not often with the best even of
\nthese, because its teachers had themselves seldom a perfect grasp
\nof the requirements of the new system, and because its controllers
\nand directors were men of the old school who clung to familiar
\nshibboleths and disastrous delusions. But in the system itself
\nthere was a defect, which, though it would matter less in other
\nepochs or other countries, is of primary importance in such
\nperiods of transition when bricks have to be made out of straw
\nand the work now done will determine the future achievement of
\nour nation. While calling itself national, it neglected the very
\nfoundation of the great achievement of our forefathers and
\nespecially the perfection of the instrument of knowledge.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt is not our contention that the actual system of ancient
\ninstruction should be restored in its outward features, \u2014 a demand often made by fervid lovers of the past. Many of them are
\nnot suited to modern requirements. But its fundamental principles are for all time and its discipline can only be replaced by the
\ndiscovery of a still more effective discipline, such as European
\neducation does not offer us. The object of these articles has been
\nto indicate the nature and psychological ideas of the old system
\nand point out its essential relation of cause and effect to the
\nsplendid achievement of our ancestors. How its principles can
\nbe reapplied or be completed and to some extent replaced by a
\nstill deeper psychology and a still more effective discipline is a
\nsubject fit for separate treatment.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 340<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SECTION SIX THE BRAIN OF INDIA   THE time has perhaps come for the Indian mind, long preoccupied with political and economic issues, for a…<\/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-89","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\/89","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=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}