P u b l i s h e d b y : T R A N S A s i a n R e s e a r c h J o u r n a l s AJMR: A s i a n J o u r n a l o f M u l t i d i m e n s i o n a l R e s e a r c h (A Do u b le B lind Re fe r r e d & Re v ie we d I nterna t io na l J o ur na l) PHYSICAL EDUCATION: IN THE LIGHT OF AUROBINDO & INDIAN CONTEMPORARIES ABSTRACT Prof. Debashri Banerjee* *Assistant Professor & H.O.D., Chatra Ramai Pandit Mahavidyalaya, Burdwan University, West Bengal. Physical education does not mean education attained by the means of games and sports. It concentrates on the development of bodily organs; enhance their inherent potentialities; to remove bad bodily habits. Actually physical training is useful for the formation of good habits, discipline, obedience, team-work and fellow-feeling and leadership etc good qualities in children. Hence physical training of our Indian counter-parts seems mandatory, as it by all means helps us in the attainment of our future glory of upcoming India. Because for the development of India, the development of its common masses is highly essential, and by making them physically fit and mentally strong our beloved country could be uplifted towards glorifying itself. Sri Aurobindo in his thesis of education never spoke about the notion of physical education directly. But physical education is always remaining as the root cause behind his Integral Education. Hence in his National Educational Program started from 1905 he did not remain shy to preach for the necessity of physical education. KEYWORDS: Sri Aurobindo, Physical Education, National Educational System, Games and Sports. INTRODUCTION Physical Education generally denotes the common physical trainings we receive from our educational institutions. But in the point of view of Indian educational philosophers, its arena appears quite vast in nature. It seems, according to them, not only a means of attaining physical 32
fitness, but also to develop the feeling of brotherhood and humanity among Indian masses. Here we can quote Sri Aurobindo In their more superficial aspect they appear merely as games and amusements which people take up for the entertainment or as a field for the outlet of the body s energy and natural instinct of activity or for a means of the development and maintenance of the health and strength of the body; but they are or can be much more than that : they are also fields for the development of habits, capacities and qualities which are greatly needed and of the utmost service to a people in war or in peace, and in its political and social activities, in most indeed of the provinces of a combined human endeavour i. Actually physical training is useful for the formation of good habits, discipline, obedience, team-work and fellow-feeling and leadership etc good qualities in children. Hence physical training of our Indian counter-parts seems mandatory, as it by all means helps us in the attainment of our future glory of upcoming India. Because for the development of India, the development of its common masses is highly essential, and by making them physically fit and mentally strong our beloved country could be uplifted towards glorifying itself. MEANING OF EDUCATION Now before entering to the question of physical education let us start from the notion of education. Because without understanding the meaning of education, the true sense of the concept regarding physical education remains far from our touch. The definition of true education is indeed a very debatable concept. Generally we denote by the word education the system of education received by us during our school and college days. But is this denotation appropriate? If yes, then education will stand just for bookish knowledges encouraged by our traditional educational institutes. Education certainly not means that. In its true sense, education should be that training, both mental and physical, of the children, which will enable them to reveal their internal capabilities as well as introduce them with the world of knowledge. Thus, the prospective of education over our whole life seems quiet vast; as it does not remain limited only within the small boundary of books, but is expanded throughout our whole life-experiences. DEFINITION OF TRUE EDUCATION Let us start our discussion with the notion of true education. Actually if we go through the writings of Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda, Tagore and Gandhiji among few other educational philosophers, then we will certainly discover that the true sense of education stands for man-making. AUROBINDO ON EDUCATION According to Sri Aurobindo, a true and living education has to deal with three conditions the man, the individual in his commonness and uniqueness, the nation or people and universal humanity - - that alone will be a true and living education which helps to bring out to full advantage, makes ready for the full purpose and scope of human life all that is in the individual man, and which at the same time helps him to enter into his right relation with the life, mind and soul of the people to which he belongs and with that great total life, mind and soul of humanity of which he himself is a unit and his people or nation a living, a separate and yet inseparable member ii. In his metaphysics, he seeks the spiritual salvation of everybody. Not only a person, 33
but the entire community along with the whole world would be free from the bondage of life, only when the Divine realization of Universal Harmony will take place in reality. The evoking of a man s True Being is absolutely necessary for his ultimate realization of the Universal Harmony with all. And this evoking of man s True Being hidden inside, is an essential part of man-making. This man-making aspect of education leads Sri Aurobindo to an honorable place among other educationalists. However Sri Aurobindo s theory of education has enormous similarities with that of Tagore. Tagore in his theory of education said that education must be meant for self-realization of man by the help of which he could find out his harmony with nature, with universe, with whole human race. So, also in his writing we discover the deep urge to explore man s relation with anything affecting himself as in Sri Aurobindo. Tagore truly claimed that for the development of the individual, the necessity of identifying the universal soul along with his pre-existent individual soul is extremely necessary. Hence education helps a man to overcome all the limitations of his individual personality as well as to search for his universal personality. And this universal personality of a man can be discovered not only within himself, but also in every single moment deploring his relationship with the nature and also with the universe. Thus R. N. Sharma truly evaluated that He (Tagore) believes in an inner harmony between man and Nature and God iii. This divine realization of harmony encouraged Tagore in discovering the true sense of education as nothing else than man-making. VIVEKANANDA ON EDUCATION Swami Vivekananda s thesis of education is quite similar with that of Sri Aurobindo as Swamiji declared education is the manifestation of the perfection already existent in man. Knowledge, according to him, is inherent in man, no knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. What we say a man knows, should be what he actually discovers or unveils. Thus a child does not learn something new, but he unravels the thoughts covered within his own inner self. All knowledge, therefore, is in the human mind. Often when it remains covered and when the covering is slowly taken off, we say we are learning. Swamiji truly noticed that man manifests knowledge, discovers it within himself, which is pre-existent through eternity. So no child could be taught anything. For the same reason, Sri Aurobindo hated the idea of hammering the child into a desired shape. The desired knowledge, in both of their view, is always within the pupil s mind and education is a mere means of revealing this under-covered knowledge out of its coverage. Thus the necessity of education, in Swami Vivekananda s view, is to make a man grow in his own way by revealing his inner potentialities. Therefore the ideal of every education should be man-making to Swamiji. GANDHI ON EDUCATION However Gandhi s theory of education is renowned as Value Education as his educational concept depends on several values. Gandhi also accepted the notion of Universal Unity of mankind with the society as well as with the entire world. In order to attain this so-called unity, Gandhi identified eleven values, which he called vows, to be practised individually, socially and universally. These values are: ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (honesty or nonstealing), brahmacharya (celibacy), asangraha (non-possession), shaeera sharma (manual labor), 34
asvada (control of palate), sarvadharma samanatva (equal respect for all religions), swadeshi (respect for own culture), sparsha bhavna (equality) and sarvatra bhaya varjana (fearlessness). All these values, combined together and practised by individuals, serve both social and spiritual purposes. They bring harmony and social peace. In the point of view of J.B. Kripalani The aim that a particular society keeps before itself necessarily follows closely the ideal that its representative members keep before themselves for individual growth and fulfillment. iv So we see that Gandhi s education strongly depends on the basis of these eleven values of society. And by the help of these vows, according to him, the on-going educational institutes will be able to succeed in their mission of man-making. DEFINITION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION Depending upon the man-making aspect of education, we now have to concentrate on the notion of physical education. If the aim of education is simply man-making, then physical education certainly helps a lot it in this desired endeavor. Because in the character-building procedure, physical training occupies a crucial role to play; as without a properly built body, a sound mind cannot reside at all. So let us start with Sri Aurobindo s thesis on physical education and its similarities with that of other Indian contemporaries. SRI AUROBINDO ON PHYSICAL EDUCATION In Sri Aurobindo s theory of evolution we see the ascent of the Matter to Life, life to Mind, Mind through various levels to Supermind (unmanifested Brahman) and Supermind at end to the highest level i.e. Sachchidananda (manifested Brahman). FIGURE 1: EVOLUTION & INVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS Sachchidananda (Consciousness-Force) / Supermind (Super-conscient) / Mind (Conscient) / Life (Sub-conscient) / Matter/Body (Inconscient) [ = symbol of Involutionary Process of Consciousness from Conscious-Spirit or Sachchidananda to Matter/Body; = symbol of Evolutionary Process of Consciousness from Matter/Body to Conscious-Spirit or Sachchidananda ] 35
Sri Aurobindo is highly in favor of making the Body Divine. But how could we transform our gross body into a divine creature? Human body is material in nature, as it is made up by matter; thus it seems inconscient in nature. However it is actually not at all inconscient, here consciousness actually lies dormant (Supta Chaitnya). So the possibility of its arousal from its deep sleep is quite prominent. Sri Aurobindo s actual dream was to make the Life Divine of entire human race so that in its call the Supermind becomes bound to descent onto the earth. Thus spiritual perfection becomes his deep urge as for fulfilling his dream of the descent of the Supermind upon the earthen level, the notion of Life Divine seems mandatory. And because body serves as an instrument within which soul resides, so for the attainment of the desired spiritual perfection bodily perfection also becomes urgent. If our seeking is for a total perfection of the being, the physical part of it can not be left aside; for the body is the material basis, the body is the instrument which we have to use. Šarīram khalu dharmasādhanam, says the old Sanskrit adage, - the body is the means of fulfillment of dharma, and dharma means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law of its working out and its action. A total perfection is the ultimate aim which we set before us, for our ideal is the Divine Life which we wish to crate here, the life of the Spirit fulfilled on earth That cannot be unless the body too undergoes a transformation.. v Thus for the attainment of Life Divine, we can feel the prevalent need of making the Body Divine. But what are the essential steps to make the Body Divine? The probable solution is to evoke the hidden consciousness of the body. Sri Aurobindo gave immense importance upon body in the process of evolution. The awakening of consciousness and its climbing to a higher level leads us towards the supreme and total perfection which is the aim of our existence. As the consciousness grows in perfection, its control of the spirit over consciousness also grows. The growth of spirit towards perfection is impossible if imperfectly conscious body does not remain at its bottom. But then bodily perfection does not happen at all, even though spiritual perfection becomes possible. Let us try to formulate it through another figure as follows. FIGURE 2: STEPS OF MAKING BODY-DIVINE Sachchidananda (Consciousness-Force) Supermind (Super-conscient) Mind (Conscient) Life (Sub-conscient) Matter/Body (Inconscient) [Discovering Existence of bodily consciousness = Gaining Bodily Perfection] 36
Only when body becomes aware of the existence of consciousness within itself, then via its selfdiscovery it can be a participator and agent in its own transformation towards consciousness. Body is the participator, because without body this total perfection of spirit could not be attained at all. And at the same time it is known as the agent, because like a true representative it has to realize the inner consciousness of itself; because without the help of bodily consciousness, the summit of spiritual consciousness could never been reached by us. Then the total perfection of body can be made possible. Now, in short, these are the steps towards the attainment of Sri Aurobindo s most desired bodily perfection. And this attainment of bodily perfection could be conceived as the chief aim of his theory concerning physical education. Now while describing the relevance of physical education Sri Aurobindo clearly depicted that At any rate, in school like ours and in universities sports have now a recognized and indispensable place; for even a highest and completest education of the mind is not enough without the education of the body. Where the qualities I (Sri Aurobindo) have enumerated are absent or insufficiently present, a strong individual will or a national will may build up, but the aid given by sports to their development is direct and in no way negligible. This would be a sufficient reason for the attainment given to them in our Ashram The notion which possesses them in the highest degree is likely to be the strongest for victory, success and greatness, but also for the contribution it can make towards the bringing about of unity and a more harmonious world order towards which we look as our hope for humanity s future. vi In this way, the future development of India is being related with the physical strength of its country-men by Sri Aurobindo. VIVEKANANDA ON PHYSICAL EDUCATION Actually the relevance of physical education was also admitted by Swami Vivekananda. In one of his most famous quotations he strongly advocated for playing football instead sitting idle and of reading Gita. According to him, what our country wants are muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist; which can bring end to the miseries of the universe along with its country-men and can prepare oneself even not to dare death. Without the help of physical education, this dream can not be fulfilled at all. For this reason he gave so much stress upon providing physical training to children in schools. TAGORE ON PHYSICAL EDUCATION Like Vivekananda, Tagore also condemned the prevalent British system of as it entirely neglects the importance of body. According to him, Education of the body in the real sense, does not exist in play and exercise but in applying the body systematically to some useful work vii. Thus, one of the aims of education, according to him, must be to ensure child s physical development. It is hence he so much emphasized the usefulness of games and sports in school education. Pointing out the value of physical activities in the child s learning he says, Even if they learnt nothing, they would have had ample time for play, climbing trees, driving into ponds, plucking and tearing flowers, perpetrating thousand and one mischiefs on Mother Nature, they would have obtained the nourishment of the body, happiness of mind and the satisfaction of the natural impulses of childhood viii. Therefore physical fitness is first cardinal principle in the child s development. As an educationalist (even though he hated this term) Tagore very well realized the 37
influence of Nature over man. About a child s contact with Nature he mentioned - I speak in very moderate terms: Seven years till then let the child has nothing to do with clothes and shame. Till then let Nature alone conduct the indispensable education of the savage. ix Here we can find out his amazing similarity with that of Sri Aurobindo as he also admitted that seven or eight should be the earliest permissible age for the child s introduction with any study. Almost all contemporary Indian educational philosophers, including Gandhi, Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, besides Tagore, laid emphasis upon the importance of setting educational institutes in natural environment (Gurukul) so that the educand may learn every deep mysteries of life by the touch of the Nature. Sri Aurobindo s response, in this context, is quite similar with these two educationists as he also was in favor of giving Mother-Nature enough time so that she can train a child s mind in her own way and perhaps in the most proper way. According to Sri Aurobindo, the relation formed between child and books is the relation of terror and distance; but only under the careful supervision of Nature, he will be properly well-trained and this education is however much more practical, sound, interesting and higher in qualities than the traditional one. Hence, it is proved that, all of them gave profound importance on the role of Nature in education. And physical training is the most proper way to allow Nature to work in her own way. Hence physical education is so important to all of them. GANDHI ON PHYSICAL EDUCATION Gandhi gave immense importance on the mind-body union in his educational theory. In this context, we can discover his similarity with that of other educationalists, especially with that of Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo highlighted on the influence of mind over body and also vice versa. Indeed in reality when mind rests or feeling unwell, body is not prepared to perform any action and if it is bound to do so, it does the job most reluctantly. And when body is unfit or meet any accident, our mind always think of that incidence over and over again and thus not comfortable to do anything peacefully. In the proper physical training, as he said, learn not only to train our bodies, but also to control our mental faculties. In Gandhi s theory the importance of advancement of mental faculties in physical training is also clearly stated in this following way I (Gandhi) hold that true education of the intellect can only come through a proper exercise and training of the bodily organs, e.g. hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose etc. In other words an intelligent use of bodily organs in a child provides the best and quickest way of developing his intellect. But unless the development of the mind and body goes hand in hand with a corresponding awakening of the soul, the former alone would prove to be poor lop-sided affair.a proper and all-round development of the mind, therefore, can take place only when it proceeds pari passu with the education of the physical and spiritual faculties of the child. They constitute the whole. x Hence it is proved that Gandhi admitted the necessity of physical education in our schools and colleges and perhaps this is the reason behind which helped him a lot to build up his notions of breadlabor and use of handicraft as means of living. However we can discover that here Gandhi actually clarified the inner meaning of Sri Aurobindo s notion of physical education. MANDATORY STEPS OF ACHIVEING PHYSICAL EDUCATION: Now let us try to clarify several steps necessary for the attainment of physical education. As found in the writings of The Mother, the education of the body has three principal aspects 38
1. Control and discipline the undisciplined bodily functions ; 2. A methodical and harmonious development of all bodily parts and movements ; 3. Rectification of all existing bodily defects and deformities. All of them can be attained via the means of Hathyoga, Rajyoga and Tantra sadhana; and Sri Aurobindo accepted their importance whole-heartedly in his book named The Synthesis of Yoga. Now the question is how could this be done? In its answer, The Mother, as following Sri Aurobindo, mentioned the usefulness of food, control of desires, ban of punishment, formation of hygienic habits, exercises of muscles, and most of all need of sleep etc in the physical training procedure separately. In brief, Sleep = to terminate fatigues of body via the process of rest and relaxation; and to revive dull veins of Brain ; Food = to revitalize the body and help also in its growth to be balanced in nature ; Control of desires = control of palates stands for control over our desire of taking food; while control over desire stands for every kind of restriction over bodily pleasures, whether taken in a broad or brief sense ; Ban of punishment = it merely stands for restricting physical punishment, helpful enough to grow fear in him ; Formation of hygiene = it seems essential for the child s proper physical development ; Muscular exercises = necessary to make the body grow properly and to remove any type of bodily pain ; etc. Hence Physical education = sleep + food + hygienic habits + physical exercises + ban of punishment + control over desires AUROBINDO S PHYSICAL EDUCATION AS COROLLARY OF INTEGRAL EDUCATION Sri Aurobindo s education is well-known as Integral (Purna) Education, so physical part of it can not left apart from it; rather this physical training stands as one of the important corollaries of Integral Education. His Integral Education have five aspects concerned with five principal activities in human being the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual. All of them are equally important in nature and can not be replaced by one another. So the physical part of education can not be made apart from his educational theory. 39
FIGURE 3: INTEGRAL EDUCATION Spiritual education (of Spiritual Life) Psychic education (of Psychic Life) Mental education (of Mind) Vital education (of Life) Physical education (of Body) SPECIALITY OF AUROBINDO S PHYSICAL EDUCATION To identify the specialty of Sri Aurobindo s theory of physical education, let us point out these two following points 1. In the views of other contemporary educationists, e.g. Gandhi, Vivekananda, Tagore, mention of desire-control and ban of punishment from the child life is strongly advocated. But no one else than Sri Aurobindo even dare to admit the usefulness of sleep, food, formation of good habits etc. In the writings of The Mother, we find out their elaborate details. Actually most of them rejected the need of food or sleep taking them granted as obstacles in the way of Sadhana. 2. Sri Aurobindo gave immense importance upon bodily perfection. None other than him so minutely described the possibility of Body Divine and necessary steps of its attainment. This touch of Metaphysics behind his educational theory makes his thesis so special than others. However, in this context, we can notice the influence of Vedas and Upanishads over him. While concluding Sri Aurobindo s thesis we have to admit that the physical side is not the end, rather the starting-point of his Yoga and Education. Just as Buddhist philosophers for showing us the desired path of liberation or dukha-mukti, accepted the dukha or suffering as the basis of their discussion; so also Sri Aurobindo s theory of Physical education stands as the background of his Yogic philosophy and Integral Education. 40
CONCLUSION At last, we can conclude with such a high note that, at some days India will give importance on the values of physical education as following the renowned Indian educationists, namely Aurobindo, Tagore, Gandhi, and Vivekananda etc. Today s India and its country-men lost the value of Physical Education. But for making a healthy and strong India, we need to make Indians physically strong and mentally sound. Today all strength is given upon gaining pure bookish knowledges, but not upon the body of the children. But without the help of proper physical development no kind mental development can also be obtained. Our on-going educational system, on one side, introduces Higher degrees in it, e.g. Maters, M.Phil, Ph.D.; whereas on the other side, deletes physical education from school syllabus. In this dichotomy we are unable to understand the necessity of physical education in proper way. But, we can hope that, at the upcoming future India will make free its future citizens, who are none else than our children, from the burdens of swallowing pure bookish knowledges and vomiting it in the examinations. Then the true sense of education can be realized by our recent educationalists and so its necessary reformation can also be done by them. And when Indian children will get enough opportunity to be grown up with a properly well-built body along with a sound mind, then our beloved motherland will surely advance towards the glory of future India as dreamt by Sri Aurobindo. i Sri Aurobindo and The Mother On Physical Education, Messages, p. 3 ii Sri Aurobindo and The Mother On Education, p. 13-14 iii Sharma, R. N., Textbook of Educational Philosophy, p. 320 iv J.B. Kripalani, The Latest Fad, p. 80 v Sri Aurobindo and The Mother On Education, Perfection of the Body, p. 68 vi Sri Aurobindo and The Mother On Physical Education, Messages, p. 4-5 vii Tagore, Alochana, July, 1925. viii Tagore, Shiksha, p. 2 ix Ibid, p. 84 x The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, [Vol. 6, The Voice of Truth ], p. 506 REFERENCES 1. Basu, Bishnu and Binay Bandopadhyaya (ed.), Rabindranather Shikshabhavana, Pratibhas, Kolkata, 1989. 41
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