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Integral Education: A Foundation for the Future, one of the new books introduced below, talks about the future of the human race in terms of today’s children and their imperative need for a “yogic education”. The author, a teacher himself, writes from his personal experience on how such an education will look and feel for the child, the teacher, the parent, the school, and the community. In a later chapter “Integrating Life and School”, he raises the three thorny questions of discipline, responsibility, and freedom as part of a discussion on the need for an integral education whose principles can be readily applied in the dynamism of life beyond the classroom. In the section on the question of freedom, which he defines as evolving out of awareness, choice, and responsibility, the author describes what constitutes a “free” individual with an example of what is undoubtedly his own way of teaching: To illustrate this a bit more graphically, imagine a puppet moved by numerous invisible strings of conditionings, fears, biases, and compulsions over which it has no control; it must move the way the strings are pulled. Now imagine that this puppet can think, and imagine further that the puppet thinks itself free because it interprets the fact that it is moving as an act of free movement just because it cannot see the strings. Would its sense of freedom, or its apprehensions of freedom, amount to much in real terms? For this puppet to come to real freedom, it will have to be released from its strings. That is the first condition. Only then will it be able to move its limbs the way it wants to move. Till then, neither freedom nor responsibility would make much sense. Integral education must begin with this premise that humans are conditioned, they are not free.… The children must be made aware of how their actions and reactions are controlled by all their ‘strings’ and they must be shown how it is possible to develop individuality and the capacity for independent reasoning and action. [page 287]
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ENGLISH | |
 | Integral Education
A Foundation for the Future |
The premise of this book is that if the goal of man is to evolve into a higher being capable of manifesting a divine consciousness, then this ideal must move beyond the realm of individual yogic practices and be seriously and purposefully taken up by societies through the propagation of a new kind of education. Based on his own practice as a teacher and teacher educator, the author describes the characteristics of an integral teacher and an integral learning environment and how these differ, in essence and in detail, from the current mode of education generally followed in the modern world. Set within the framework of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s thoughts on integral education, the book is an experimental manual for changing the way most teachers view both the process of learning and the child who is at the centre of that process. | |
 | White Roses (Enlarged Edition) Part II
— The Mother's Messages and Correspondence with Huta |
This enlarged edition of White Roses, a collection of the Mother’s correspondence with Huta, differs from the previous version in that it contains many more of the Mother’s letters as well as both facsimiles of her handwritten notes and their transcriptions. Published in two volumes, Part I covers the years 1955 to 1962 and Part II the years 1963 to 1973. In addition to the correspondence there are quotations from Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s works sent to Huta by the Mother as well as many of the Darshan and New Year messages. | |
 | Nama-Japa in the Yoga of Transformation
— Ramkrishna Das |
Translated and revised from the original Oriya text, this book is a passionate argument for the effectiveness of nama-japa in Sri Aurobindo’s yoga. The author’s premise is that through all the difficulties and arduous trials of the yoga of transformation, the safest and least difficult path is that of complete surrender to the Mother, and that the most direct way to achieve such a surrender is by the constant repetition of the Mother’s name. In concise and affirming language, he describes how to use nama-japa in work, in worldly life, to overcome obstacles from within and attacks from adverse forces, and how to make its practice natural, spontaneous, and effective. | |
BENGALI | |
 | Deshbidesher Galpo
— Subir Kanta Gupta |
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ORIYA | |
 | Aloka O Anandochhwasa
— Amal Kiran and
Nirodbaran |
Oriya translation of Light and Laughter These talks are replete with reminiscences told with abundant splashes of wit and humour of the highest order. From the introduction, "some most abstruse aspects of the Integral Yoga have been explained in an
astonishingly simple manner" and "the essence of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has been brought out in a homely and charming way." | |
GUJARATI | |
 | Sri Aravind ane Sri Matajine Lagati Vishesh Prasangikao
— Shyam Kumari |
Gujarati translation of More Vignettes of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Anecdotes and incidents recounted by disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother concerning their relations and their experiences with them, as told to the author and narrated from memory. | |
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