Teachers: Varadharajan
The Ideal : Aspiration for the Divine
In the Charter of Auroville it is stated that, among other things, Auroville will be a place of unending education, “...a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.” Education in the context of Auroville is integral education, which consists of spiritual, psychic, mental, vital and physical education, through the international community of Auroville. This education has to be formed upon (i) a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, (ii) practical analysis, and (iii) constant result.[1]
“Spirituality is in its essence… an inner aspiration to know, feel… to be that, to enter into contact with the greater Reality beyond and pervading the universe”[2]. In answer to a question about the qualification for a teacher in the Ashram Centre of Education, the Mother replied: “Whatever imperfections the teachers and instructors here may have, they will always be better than those from outside. For all who work here do so without remuneration and in the service of a higher cause. It is clearly understood that each one, whatsoever his worth or capacity, can and must progress constantly to realize an ideal which is still much higher than the present realization of humanity”[3]. This applies to the volunteer teachers of SAIIER also and we start from this basis.
In “To Be a True Aurovilian”, the Mother says: “The first necessity is the inner discovery in order to know what one truly is behind social, moral, cultural, racial and hereditary appearances. At the centre there is a being free, vast and knowing, who awaits our discovery and who ought to become the active centre of our being and our life in Auroville.”[4]. The spiritual and psychic aspects of education being subjective, one has to work for inner progress, and this spreads through contagion and example rather than through preaching.
Initiation by the Divine Mother
My initiation in education by the Mother came when I asked the Mother during one of the Aspiration talks for her guidance in my work, specifically how I should relate to the local people in my liaison work with them. I was sitting at her feet. She said “Ah! Your question, the best way, you see, it is EDUCATION.” She kept quiet for a few seconds, then she added, “Not by words and speeches but by example. If you can make them mix with your life and your work and they get the influence of your being, your way of understanding, then, (she stooped very near my ear and whispered slowly...) Little….by…little… they will change. And when they become curious and ask questions, then it will be time to answer and to tell them what you know.” I felt that if I am not myself educated I cannot educate others; my education to others must proceed from my deeper being. Another thing I noticed was that in all Aspiration talks, the Mother began or ended the talk with “Shall we have a bath of silence?” In all the activities, one should invoke her with a quiet if not a silent mind. In one of her messages, she said “It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that makes it karma yoga.”[5].
Outreach education and India
“It is only India’s soul who can unify the country. Externally the provinces of India are very different in character, tendencies, culture, as well as in language and any attempt to unify them artificially could only have disastrous results. But her soul is one, intense in her aspiration towards the spiritual truth, the essential unity of the creation and the divine origin of life, and by uniting this aspiration the whole country can recover a unity that has never ceased to exist for the superior mentality.”[6]
I would like to recount my experience of my first balcony darshan of the Mother. On seeing her, apart from other things, I suddenly felt that I was free, free, free. After a few days, I remembered that I had the same experience when I was eleven years old. It was on 15th August, 1947, when India became independent. I felt free, free, free. I went about telling my other young friends. When one feels intensely for India, it is reflected spontaneously in all one’s activities and it is a more effective education than mere words.
I am working with village children ages 3 to 18 years at Arulvazhi Education Centre, where an atmosphere of simplicity, beauty and harmony is created. In such an atmosphere the children have the freedom to grow naturally. For example, there have been a few occasions when the mothers came to inform us that their children, who had not been speaking for 2 or 3 years, started speaking very well after coming to the centre, and they are very happy throughout the day.
Broadly, there are five groups at the school, like the five petals of the Auroville symbol: (i) the kindergarten group, (ii) the sports group for primary school children and middle school children, (iii) the yoga asana group, (iv) the adolescent girls’ group for their well being, and (v) the adults’ group interested in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s teaching.
Except for the kindergarten children, the students go to regular schools outside of Auroville where they get only academic education. At Arulvazhi that education is supplemented with cultural programs and physical education. We take the children on educational tours to places of historical, cultural, environmental and yogic interest. They visit cultural events in Auroville, wherein the international community participates, and thereby get a feel of actual human unity in diversity. Visits to Matrimandir are arranged. On Darshan days, they go to Mother’s/Sri Aurobindo’s room. They give demonstrations of dance, drama and asanas during some Auroville events, in the Tamilnadu-Auroville workshops and seminars, and in some Sri Aurobindo Centres in Tamilnadu.
Long back the Mother said: “I would like them (the Government) to recognise Yoga as education, not so much for ourselves, but it will be good for the country.” (Here she meant integral yoga.) “Matter will be transformed, that will be a solid base. Life will be divinised. Let India take the lead.”[7] The Arulvazhi Education Centre introduced yoga asanas decades back. This year there was a celebration for the International Yoga Day in all the schools in India. The Government has made a new beginning and the inner effort made in Auroville, a universal town (not just an international city – what is the difference? – a symbol, perhaps) has contributed in an outer manifestation for India and the world.
Mother said that a simple and ignorant peasant here in India is, in his heart, closer to the Divine than the intellectuals of Europe.[8] So it is better if the approach to the village children be more through the heart. There are plenty of methods, through flowers, aura-demonstrations, interpretation of local religious symbols in the light of Sri Aurobindo’s teachings, etc.
Forty years back there were not enough primary school facilities in this area. Now, with the advent of the “Education for All” scheme of the Government, there is almost no child above 6 years who does not go to a government or private school. We have to hold firmly to our ideals and adapt the means and activities according to circumstances, and provide the children extra-curricular education. We have learnt that by giving psychological and physical space to the outreach area children they can become better human beings.
There is hope, help and certainty, for
- “All can be done if the God-touch is there.”[9]
Conclusion
To view from the summit of our ideal the following lines from Savitri may be apt:
- “A few shall see what none yet understands;
- God shall grow up while wise men talk and sleep;
- For man shall not know the coming till its hour
- And belief shall be not till the work is done.”[10]
Varadharajan has been a resident of Auroville since 1969. In the early years of Auroville he was the contact person for the local people. Now he is a faculty member of SAIIER conducting the Auroville Outreach Educational Programme.
He can be contacted at arulvazhi (at) auroville.org.in.