The Priesthood of Teaching: Education as Integral Work

The subject of The Priesthood of Teaching: Education as Integral Work encompasses a profound spiritual perspective on the role of the educator and the nature of holistic learning aimed at human transformation. Drawing upon the collective insights of the sources, particularly regarding the goals of integral yoga and education, this compilation explores the teacher’s divine mandate, the foundational principles of integral pedagogy, and the necessary critique of conventional educational paradigms.

I. The Sacred Nature and Aim of Education: The Priesthood of Teaching

The task of the educator is fundamentally a spiritual calling, viewed not merely as a profession but as a consecrated act of self-giving and guidance.¹

A Divine Mandate and Sacerdocy

Teaching is regarded as a sacerdocy², along with the responsibilities of being a father, head of a state, or physician.³ If the person fulfilling this role aspires to do so in the highest and most truthful way, the world’s general condition can significantly improve.⁴ The spiritual ideal in the physical world is expressed through Beauty and Harmony⁵, and beauty’s true role is likened to a priestess, or a priesthood of interpretation of the Eternal, manifesting the Divine through the perfection of form and harmony, thereby raising consciousness toward a higher ideal.⁶

Integral Aims and Goals

The aim of education is explicitly positioned against mundane goals:

1. Rejection of Falsehood and Manifestation of Truth: The foremost purpose is to prepare children for the rejection of falsehood and the manifestation of Truth.⁷
2. Perfection, not Success: The ultimate aim is not to prepare a man to succeed in life or society, but to increase his perfectibility to its utmost.⁸ The goal is perfection, not success.⁹
3. Growth of the Soul: True education insists on the growth of the soul¹⁰ and aims to awaken the inner Divinity, which is one in all.¹¹
4. Preparation for a New Race: The education provided here is intended to open the way of the Future to children who belong to the Future.¹² The Sri Aurobindo International University Centre was conceived as a means of preparing future humanity to receive the supramental light that will transform the elite into a new race manifesting new light, force, and life.¹³
5. Integral Development: Complete education must address five principal aspects corresponding to the five principal activities of the human being: physical, vital, mental, psychic, and spiritual.¹⁴ All these aspects must continue throughout life, completing one another.¹⁵

II. The Essential Qualities and Role of the Teacher

The Teacher as an Exemplary Consciousness

The teacher must embody the consciousness they seek to awaken in others, making their own spiritual development the central condition for educational success. To be a good teacher, one must be a saint and a hero.¹⁶ It requires the insight and knowledge of a Guru with unfailing patience.¹⁷ Teachers must possess sufficient documentation of known subjects to answer questions¹⁸ and must transcend the usual intellectual level.¹⁹ The indispensable foundation is absolute sincerity.²⁰

The quality of the student’s interest is proportionate to the teacher’s true capacity.²¹ It is the consciousness with which one teaches that must be enlightened, not the subject itself.²²

Role as Guide and Psychological Discerner

The fundamental principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught.²³

• Helper and Guide: The teacher is primarily a helper and guide, not an instructor or taskmaster.²⁴ Their role is to suggest, not impose.²⁵

• Psychological Insight: Teachers must be discerning psychologists²⁶ capable of recognizing the student’s character and possibilities.²⁷ They must understand human psychology: infant, adolescent, and adult.²⁸

• Evocation of Inner Truth: The core function is helping the growing soul to draw out what is best in itself and make it perfect for noble use.²⁹ The teacher points out where knowledge lies within the student and helps it rise to the surface.³⁰

Education as Teacher’s Sadhana

Working in the educational field is considered the best and quickest way of doing one’s Yoga.³¹ This task demands an exceptionally severe discipline.³² If one undergoes this discipline and succeeds, one acquires self-control, impersonalization, and an understanding of the subject and of others.³³ The true way to teach is to live according to the new consciousness oneself, offering the lesson of an example.³⁴Every difficulty and difficult student should be seen as an opportunity for the teacher to find a divine solution to the problem.³⁵

III. The Principles and Practice of Integral Education

The Cornerstone: Freedom and Individuality

Integral education, aiming at total perfection and spiritual transformation, must be fundamentally different from conventional methods. The principle of education here is one of freedom.³⁶ The paramount belief is that each child is a unique, self-developing soul³⁷, and education must be highly individualized.³⁸

• Free Progress: This is defined as a progress guided by the soul and not subjected to habits, conventions, or preconceived ideas.³⁹ This method should be maintained to allow outstanding individuals to show themselves and develop freely.⁴⁰

• Age and Freedom: Children up to the age of seven should enjoy themselves, with school being a game that instills a taste for learning.⁴¹ Above seven, the new system can be applied to those ready.⁴²

The Discipline of the Instruments

Integral perfection requires a heightened, enlarged, and rectified power in the instruments of our normal nature: mind, life, and body.⁴³

1. Mental Education:

• The intellect is the instrument of thought that “orders and disposes of the knowledge acquired”.⁴⁴

• Mental training involves cultivating precise logical thought, developing the power of comparison, differentiation, and accurate expression.⁴⁵

• It is vital to organize one’s ideas around a central, luminous idea or higher ideal to avoid chaos in thought.⁴⁶

• The highest way of knowing is through mental silence, being receptive to inspirations coming from higher regions.⁴⁷ This dispels the darkness in the cells.⁴⁸

2. Physical Education:

• This is fundamental for transformation, as it infuses consciousness into the cells of the body.⁴⁹

• It aims for the perfection of the body as an instrument for divine action.⁵⁰

• Key components include acquiring discipline, endurance⁵¹, strength, harmony, plasticity, agility, and control.⁵²

3. Vital Education:

• This is often the most important and indispensable aspect.⁵³ The vital is the seat of impulse, desire, enthusiasm, and energy, but it is often a “despotic and exacting tyrant“.⁵⁴

• The aim is awareness and control, leading to transformation.⁵⁵ The vital must be made reasonable, like a child, by education.⁵⁶

• The cultivation of refinement and aesthetic sense is crucial for overcoming the vital’s violence and crudity.⁵⁷

4. Psychic and Spiritual Education:

• This education focuses on discovering the true motive of existence.⁵⁸ The psychic is the psychological centre, the seat of the highest truth of our existence.⁵⁹

• Spiritual teaching, unlike religions tied to the past, is the teaching of the future; it strives towards a global Truth and teaches direct contact with the Divine.⁶⁰

IV. Education as Spiritual Work (Karma Yoga)

The Work Attitude and Consciousness

Work, embracing all aspects of daily life and physical activity, is central to the spiritual process, providing the necessary field for consciousness to manifest and integrate. The essence of the integral yoga lies in the consciousness behind the action: it is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that is important.⁶¹

• Work as Offering: Work is seen as a continuous offering to the Divine Mother.⁶²

• Development through Action: Work is an indispensable factor for integral development.⁶³ It acts as a school of experience, forcing the sadhak to project inner progress into external life and test the advance made in meditation.⁶⁴

• Transmutation of Action: Work must evolve from ordinary human action driven by desire into a pure and effective will, acting as an instrument of the Divine.⁶⁵ The goal is to feel the Divine Force doing the work and to rise to a consciousness that is not diminished or obscured by external activity.⁶⁶

Integrating Physical and Spiritual Labour

Physical work and intellectual work are placed on an equal footing when consecrated:

• Manual vs. Mental Labour: Manual labour done for the Divine is considered more divine than mental culture done for personal ambition.⁶⁷ In the integral yoga, there are no “high things and some low things”; it is the consciousness of the doer which is true or false.⁶⁸

• Necessity of Physical Work: Manual work, like cleaning the floor or planting flowers, can lead to deep consciousness if done with aspiration for perfection.⁶⁹ Work (even manual work) is indispensable to the inner discovery, because if consciousness is not put into matter through the body, it will never develop.⁷⁰

V. Critique of Conventional Education

The Failings of the Mechanical System

The sources provide a clear indictment of the prevailing educational models, demanding a radical shift in principles. Sri Aurobindo heavily criticized the existing university system, noting its radically false principles and vicious, mechanical methods.⁷¹

• Repression and Sterility: The existing system represses and kills the best things in students, ignoring their individuality.⁷² It focuses on forcing information into the brain⁷³ and training memory, leading to intellectual sterility and impotence.⁷⁴

• Utilitarianism: Modern education is infected by “utilitarianism,” viewing value exclusively in terms of usefulness for careers and making money.⁷⁵ This motive is considered “the grossest utilitarian motives unmixed with any disinterested desire for knowledge”.⁷⁶

• Lack of Life and Creation: The traditional Indian education suffered from a lack of “life,” hindering true creation.⁷⁷

The Need for a New Educational Body

A future system must introduce the best methods of teaching humanity has developed, whether modern or ancient.⁷⁸

• Atmosphere of Learning: What is truly needed is a general atmosphere of learning; the student should imbibe that and develop their own aptitude.⁷⁹

• Self-Education: Students should be encouraged to teach themselves.⁸⁰

• Purpose of Study: Study is acceptable when used to prepare oneself to become an instrument for divine work⁸¹, not for personal development or fame.⁸² Students should learn why things are done and correct wrong movements.⁸³

The Role of India and the International Ideal

The goal is explicitly an education for the world at large, not an exclusive national system for India.⁸⁴

• Integral Synthesis: India possessed the knowledge of the Spirit but neglected Matter, while the West knew Matter but rejected the Spirit. An integral education must bring back the legitimate authority of the Spirit over a fully developed and utilised Matter.⁸⁵

• Human Unity: The foundation of the International Centre of Education and Auroville aims at working for the progressive unification of mankind.⁸⁶ Auroville is conceived as a center of material and spiritual research for a living embodiment of human unity.⁸⁷

• International Culture: The university center should represent the cultures of various parts of the world, serving as a permanent world-exhibition.⁸⁸ International education should be practical, incorporating world cultures in daily life details.⁸⁹

The priesthood of teaching is thus defined as the essential, difficult, and transformative labor required to raise human nature out of its ignorance and limitations, fulfilling the dual mandate of perfecting oneself through spiritual works and consciously guiding the next generation toward integral divine living and manifestation. The ultimate success of this mission rests entirely on the sincerity and comprehensive development of the teacher’s consciousness, rather than on external methods or systems.⁹⁰

- Narendra Gehlaut (India)

1. The role of the educator is a sacred calling, described as a "ministry," a "priesthood," and a "sacerdocy." The teacher's role is not one of an authoritarian master but that of a patient, understanding companion who helps students progress on their path. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 10 February 1951

2. Education is a sacerdocy, teaching is a sacerdocy, and to be at the head of a State is a sacerdocy. Then, if the person who fulfils this role aspires to fulfil it in the highest and the most true way, the general condition of the world can become much better. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 10 February 1951

3. The responsibility of a teacher is likened to other sacred roles, each a symbolic representation of a higher truth. These include the authority of a father, the head of a state, or a physician, whose career should be treated as a priesthood. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 10 February 1951

4. If the person who fulfils this role aspires to fulfil it in the highest and the most true way, the general condition of the world can become much better. Unfortunately, most people never think about this at all, they fill their role somehow—not to speak of the innumerable people who work only to earn money, but in this case their activity is altogether rotten, naturally. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 10 February 1951

5. In the higher parts He manifests as Power, Love, etc., but in the physical He manifests as Harmony and Beauty. Hence, the problem of the expression of physical beauty is a spiritual problem. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 25 January 1951

6. Beauty’s role is a "priesthood of interpretation of the Eternal," manifesting the Divine through the perfection of form and harmony to elevate consciousness. As The Mother explains, "in the physical world, of all things it is beauty which best expresses the Divine. The physical world is the world of form, and the perfection of form is beauty... Its true role is to put the whole of manifested nature into contact with the Eternal through the perfection of form, harmony, and through a sense of the ideal which raises you towards something higher." The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 11 July 1956

7. The primary aim of education should be to: "Prepare her children for the rejection of falsehood and the manifestation of Truth." The Mother, On Education: Basic Issues of Indian Education

8. The aim of education is not to prepare a man to succeed in life and society, but to increase his perfectibility to its utmost. A divine perfection of the human being is our aim. The Mother, On Education: Aims

9. Do not aim at success. Our aim is perfection. Remember you are on the threshold of a new world, participating in its birth and instrumental in its creation. The Mother, On Education: Aims

10. Get out of conventions and insist on the growth of the soul. The Mother, On Education: Basic Issues of Indian Education

11. The general aim to be attained is the advent of a progressive universal harmony. The means for attaining this aim, in regard to the Earth, is the realization of human unity through the awakening in all and the manifestation by all of the inner Divinity, which is One. In other words: to create unity by founding the Kingdom of God which is within us all. The Mother, Words of Long Ago: 7 May 1912

12. We are not here to do only a little better what the others do, we are here to do what the others CANNOT do, because they do not have even the idea that it can be done. We are here to open the way of the Future to children who belong to the Future. The Mother, Mother's Agenda: September 16, 1961

13. Sri Aurobindo conceived of the university center as a means "of preparing the future humanity to receive the supramental light that will transform the elite of today into a new race manifesting upon earth the new light and force and life." Its purpose was to "prepare the human elite who will be able to work for the progressive unification of mankind and be ready at the same time to embody the new force which is descending to transform the earth." The Mother, On Education: An International University Centre

14. Education to be complete must have five principal aspects corresponding to the five principal activities of the human being: the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual. The Mother, On Education: Education

15. Usually, these phases of education follow chronologically the growth of the individual; this, however, does not mean that one of them should replace another, but that all must continue, completing one another until the end of his life. The Mother, On Education: Education

16. One has to be a saint and a hero to be a good teacher. One must be a yogi to be a good teacher. One must be oneself in the perfect attitude to demand that the students be in a perfect attitude. You cannot demand from anybody what you yourselves are not doing. The Mother, On Education: To the Students, Young and Old

17. To be a good teacher one must have the insight and knowledge of a Guru with an unfailing patience. The Mother, On Education: Correspondence

18. We would need remarkable teachers who have, first of all, sufficient documentation on what is known to be able to answer any question; and at the same time, at least the knowledge, if not the experience (the experience would be better) of the true intuitive intellectual attitude. The Mother, Mother's Agenda: April 5, 1967

19. It seems that unless the teachers themselves get above the usual intellectual level, it will be difficult for them to fulfil their duty and accomplish their task. The Mother, On Education: To the Teachers

20. The fundamental virtue to be cultivated in order to prepare for the spiritual life is sincerity. A sincerity which must become total and absolute, for sincerity alone is your protection on the spiritual path. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 1 August 1956

21. The interest of the students is proportionate to the true capacity of the teacher. The Mother, Some Answers from the Mother: 12 July 1961

22. If you unite your consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness and manifest it, all you think, feel or do becomes luminous and true. It is not the subject of the teaching which is to be changed, it is the consciousness with which you teach that must be enlightened. The Mother, More Answers from the Mother: 31 July 1967

23. 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. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: A System of National Education

24. The teacher is not an instructor or taskmaster, he is a helper and a guide. His business is to suggest and not to impose. He does not impart knowledge to him, he shows him how to acquire knowledge for himself. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: A System of National Education

25. His business is to suggest and not to impose. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: A System of National Education

26. To be able to adopt this method, the teacher must be a discerning psychologist and that requires time and experience. The Mother, On Education: Correspondence

27. He must be capable of recognising the character and possibilities of the student, so that he can adapt his teaching to the needs of each individual. The Mother, On Education: Correspondence

28. The true basis of education is the study of the human mind, infant, adolescent and adult. Any system of education founded on theories of academical perfection, which ignores the instrument of study, is more likely to hamper and impair intellectual growth than to produce a perfect and perfectly equipped mind. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: The Brain of India

29. 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. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: A System of National Education

30. He does not call forth the knowledge that is within; he only shows him where it lies and how it can be habituated to rise to the surface. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: A System of National Education

31. So I ask each teacher to consider his work in the school as the best and quickest way of doing his Yoga. The Mother, On Education: Teaching

32. I have never asked anyone educated here to give lessons without seeing that this would be for him the best way of disciplining himself, of learning better what he is to teach and of reaching an inner perfection he would never have if he were not a teacher and had not this opportunity of disciplining himself, which is exceptionally severe. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 14 November 1956

33. If you go through that discipline and succeed, well, you have not wasted your time here... It is a Grace given to you so that you can achieve self-control, an understanding of the subject and of others which you could never have acquired but for this opportunity. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 14 November 1956

34. The only true way to teach others is to live according to this new consciousness oneself and to allow oneself to be transformed by it. There is no better lesson than that of an example. The Mother, On Education: Correspondence

35. Moreover, every difficulty and every difficult student should be an opportunity for him to find a divine solution to the problem. The Mother, On Education: Teaching

36. The great thing here is that the principle of education is a principle of freedom, and to put it briefly, the whole life is organised on the maximum possible freedom in movement; that is, the rules, regulations, restrictions are reduced absolutely to the minimum. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1954): 15 December 1954

37. The core belief is that each human being is a unique, self-developing soul with their own divine nature. Education must enable and help the child to educate himself, to develop his own intellectual, moral, aesthetic and practical capacities and to grow freely as an organic being, not to be kneaded and pressured into form like an inert plastic material. Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle: The Coming of the Subjective Age

38. Education must be highly individualized, with teachers adapting their methods to the specific needs, character, and possibilities of each student. The Mother, On Education: Correspondence

39. A progress guided by the soul and not subjected to habits, conventions or preconceived ideas. The Mother, On Education: Teaching

40. It is essential that the present system of education in the new classes should be maintained, in order to allow outstanding individuals to show themselves and develop freely. That is our true aim. The Mother, On Education: Teaching

41. Up to the age of seven, children should enjoy themselves. School should all be a game, and they learn as they play. As they play they develop a taste for learning, knowing and understanding life. The Mother, On Education: Teaching

42. Above the age of seven, the new system can be applied to those who are ready, as it seems that after this age, "those who have a living soul are so awake that they are ready to find it, if they are helped." The Mother, On Education: Teaching

43. The second member of the Yoga of self-perfection is the heightened, enlarged and rectified power of the instruments of our normal Nature... The object of this cultivation is to make the nature a fit instrument for divine works. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - II: The Power of the Instruments

44. The intellect, or buddhi, is the instrument of thought which "orders and disposes of the knowledge acquired" by the other parts of the mind. In its true nature, it is an instrument of expression and action. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: A System of National Education

45. Mental training involves cultivating a range of faculties, including "the power of reasoning, the power of comparison and differentiation and the power of expression." It requires developing both the critical, analytic functions of the mind and the comprehensive, creative, and synthetic ones. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: Education

46. To avoid chaos, one must organize their ideas "around a central idea, a higher ideal or a supremely luminous idea that will serve as a guide in life." This ordering is necessary so that all contradictions can be transformed into complements. The Mother, On Education: Mental Education

47. The highest way of knowing is through "mental silence, perfect calm and a more and more total receptivity to inspirations coming from the higher regions of the being." This is considered the true way to know, superior to clumsy mental approximation. The Mother, On Education: Mental Education

48. This keen, awakened state of consciousness achieved through mental silence "drives away all darkness" in the cells of the body. Darkness is described as the sign or cause of disorder. The Mother, Mother's Agenda: December 6, 1967

49. "Physical culture is the process of infusing consciousness into the cells of the body." It serves as a challenge to the tamas and unconsciousness that inhibit progress. The Mother, On Thoughts and Aphorisms: Aphorism - 11

50. The goal of physical education is to perfect the body so it may become "a more suitable instrument for receiving the divine forces and manifesting them," and ultimately a "fit instrument for the truth-force which wills to manifest through us." The Mother, Questions and Answers (1954): 4 August 1954

51. Discipline and endurance are indispensable qualities acquired through physical education, alongside courage, patience, and concentration. Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle: The Spiritual Aim and Life

52. The aim is to make the body stronger, more receptive, and more plastic, establishing harmony among its different parts and movements. The Mother, On Education: The Fear of Death and the Four Methods of Conquering It

53. Of all education, vital education is perhaps the most important, the most indispensable. The Mother, On Education: Vital Education

54. The vital being is "the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depressions, of passions and revolts." In its uneducated state, it is described as a "despotic and exacting tyrant" that asks for control. The Mother, On Education: Vital Education

55. The primary aim of vital education is to gain a "progressing awareness and control of the character, culminating in its transformation." This involves acquiring control over one's movements to achieve perfect mastery. The Mother, On Education: Vital Education

56. The vital can be made reasonable "in the same way as a child, by education." The Mother, Breath of Grace: 2 October 1936

57. "It is by educating the vital, by making it more refined, more sensitive, more subtle... that one can overcome its violence and brutality, which are in fact a form of crudity and ignorance." The refinement of the senses is one of the best ways of curing instincts, desires, and passions. The Mother, On Education: The Four Austerities and the Four Liberations

58. With psychic education we come to the problem of the true motive of existence, the purpose of life on earth, the discovery to which this life must lead and the result of that discovery: the consecration of the individual to his eternal principle. The Mother, On Education: Psychic Education and Spiritual Education

59. We give the name 'psychic' to the psychological centre of our being, the seat within of the highest truth of our existence, that which can know and manifest this truth. The Mother, On Education: The Science of Living

60. Religious teaching belongs to the past and stops all progress, spiritual teaching is the teaching of the future. It enlightens the consciousness and prepares it for the future realization. A spiritual teaching is above religions and strives towards a total truth. It teaches us to enter into direct contact with the Divine. The Mother, Words of the Mother - III: Religion

61. It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that is important for the integral Yoga. Self-dedication does not depend on the particular work you do, but on the spirit in which all work, of whatever kind it may be, is done. The Mother, Words of the Mother - II: The Integral Yoga

62. Work must be done not as work only but as an offering to the Mother, without insisting on the ego... That is the spirit of work offered as a sacrifice; done like that, work becomes a sadhana and a Yoga. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Work and Yoga 

63. Work is an indispensable factor for integral development and inner discovery. The Mother states, "If one does not work, if one does not put one's consciousness into matter, it will never develop." It is the "anvil on which all the elements must pass and repass in order to be purified, refined, made supple and ripe for the illumination." The Mother, Mother's Agenda: June 6, 1970 

64. Work serves as a "school of experience" that provides a field to apply and become aware of inner progress. Without externalizing action, one might "live in a completely subjective illusion" of spiritual attainment. The Mother, Questions and Answers (1955): 7 September 1955 

65. The vital being is, really speaking, an instrument, and must be used as an instrument of the Jiva, the Central Being... In the Ignorance it takes the form of desire to effectuate itself; but in the Higher Knowledge it becomes sheer will, the power of effectuation without straining of desire, etc. Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo: 6 August 1926 

66. The goal is to achieve a state where one can feel the Divine Force doing the work. This may be done by establishing a conscious contact with the Mother's Force or by developing a double consciousness, where "the inner concentrated, the outer doing the work." Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother: Finding the Mother's Force in Work and Action 

67. All work done for the Divine is equally divine; manual labour done for the Divine is more divine than mental culture done for one's own development, fame or mental satisfaction. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Work and Yoga 

68. Your difficulty comes from the fact that you have still the old belief that in life some things are high and others low. It is not exact. It is not the things or the activities that are high or low, it is the consciousness of the doer which is true or false. The Mother, On Education: Teaching 

69. Even simple manual work like "cleaning the floor or dusting a room... can lead to a very deep consciousness if it is done with a certain feeling for perfection and progress." In such work, "it is as if you called the Divine down into things." The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 30 May 1956 

70. Work, even manual work, is indispensable to the inner discovery. If one does not work, if one does not put one's consciousness into matter, it will never develop. The Mother, Mother's Agenda: June 6, 1970 

71. The existing university system is described as having "radically false principles, its vicious and mechanical methods, its dead-alive routine tradition and its narrow and sightless spirit." It is considered a "rotten" system. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: Message for National Education Week (1918) 

72. This system represses and kills the best things in the students. It takes no account of the individuality of the students but thrusts upon them the routine work mechanically prepared by the authorities. Sri Aurobindo, Conversations with Sri Aurobindo: July 1926 

73. The current system focuses on forcing information into a child's brain rather than bringing out the real man within. The principle should be that "the child learns, the teacher does not teach in the old sense." Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo: May 1923 

74. The excessive cultivation of mere knowledge at the expense of developing active mental faculties leads to intellectual degeneration. The result is "intellectual sterility & impotence." Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: Education 

75. Modern education is critiqued for its "utilitarianism," where there is an "almost exclusive importance given to success, career and money." People require education only for a living and nothing else. The Mother, Growing Up with the Mother 

76. We in India have become so barbarous that we send our children to school with the grossest utilitarian motives unmixed with any disinterested desire for knowledge; but the education we receive is itself responsible for this. Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: Education 

77. In Western countries they are carrying on all sorts of experiments to achieve these things. There is life there. In our country there is no life, hence no creation is possible. Sri Aurobindo, Conversations with Sri Aurobindo: 1 July 1926 

78. We must introduce the best methods of teaching humanity has developed, whether modern or ancient. And all these we must harmonise into a system which will be impregnated with the spirit of self-reliance so as to build up men and not machines. Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II: A National University 

79. What is needed is an atmosphere – a general atmosphere of learning; the student should imbibe that, find out his own aptitude and develop in that line. Sri Aurobindo, Conversations with Sri Aurobindo: 1 July 1926 

80. A key principle is that students should be encouraged to teach themselves, rather than being passively taught by teachers. They should be "left to themselves to teach themselves." Sri Aurobindo, Conversations with Sri Aurobindo: 1 July 1926 

81. One can study for the Divine "if you study with the feeling that you must develop yourselves to become instruments. But truly, it is done in a very different spirit... One enters a state in which one takes whatever happen as an opportunity to learn to prepare oneself for the divine work, and everything becomes interesting." The Mother, Questions and Answers (1954): 2 June 1954 

82. Manual labour done for the Divine is more divine than mental culture done for one's own development, fame or mental satisfaction. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Work and Yoga 

83. When one studies with the will to progress, "everything, no matter what, the least little circumstance in life, becomes a teacher who can teach you something, teach you how to think and act." The Mother, Questions and Answers (1954): 2 June 1954 

84. Our aim is not a national system of education for India, but an education for the world at large. The Mother, Words of the Mother - I: India 

85. India has or rather had the knowledge of the Spirit, but she neglected matter and suffered for it. The West has the knowledge of matter but rejected the Spirit and suffers badly for it. An integral education which could, with some variations, be adapted to all the nations of the world, must bring back the legitimate authority of the Spirit over a matter fully developed and utilised. The Mother, On Education: Basic Issues of Indian Education 

86. The Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education and Auroville were founded to work toward "the progressive unification of mankind" and to attempt a "real integration in social and cultural living." The Mother, On Education: An International University Centre 

87. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity. The Mother, Mother's Agenda: February 7, 1968 

88. The ideal would be for every nation with a well-defined culture to have a pavilion representing that culture... A kind of permanent world-exhibition should be organised in which all countries will be represented in a concrete and living way. The Mother, On Education: An International University Centre 

89. In this way, international education will not be merely theoretical, in the classroom, but practical in all the details of life. The Mother, On Education: An International University Centre 

90. The success of teaching depends almost entirely on the teacher's attitude and consciousness and the "all-surrounding atmosphere charged with spiritual force." If the teacher does not possess the vision and inner knowledge, it cannot be transmitted to students through any external method. The Mother, On Education: Teaching