Integral Education Library
A living library on integral education
Passages from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, gathered by subject and set beside their sources. Read a short summary, then go as deep as you wish.
It is only in perfect quietness and silence, free from all prejudices and preferences, that the consciousness can perceive the truth.
Integral Education Library
What Are You Seeking?
Find clarity on a question you are living with. Start with a short summary, then read the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s own words on it, each with its source.
90 topics Find your topicHave a question from daily life? Browse 147 real questions answered by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in Light on Life
Integral Education Library
Practices
Understanding is one thing, living it is another. Each series takes a quality from why it matters, to what it is, to how to practise it, with exercises to try. Take one step today.
12 topics 112 posts 63 videos Begin practisingEvery topic, A to Z
A
- Aesthetic SenseVital
- AngerVital
- ArtVital
- AspirationPsychic
- AttentionMental
B
C
- CalmSpiritual
- ColoursPsychic
- CompassionPsychic
- ConcentrationMental
- ConsciousnessSpiritual
- CouragePsychic
- Creation and the CreatorSpiritual
- CuriosityMental
D
- DeathSpiritual
- DetachmentSpiritual
- Devotion/BhaktiPsychic
- DisciplinePsychic
- Divine LovePsychic
E
- Education
- EffortVital
- EgoVital
- Emotional BeingVital
- EquanimitySpiritual
- Expansion and WideningMental
F
- FaithPsychic
- Fate, Free Will and KarmaSpiritual
- FearVital
- FoodPhysical
- FreedomPsychic
G
- Gods and the DivineSpiritual
- GraceSpiritual
- GratitudePsychic
H
- HabitsPhysical
- HappinessVital
- HathayogaPhysical
- HealingPhysical
- Health and HealingPhysical
- HonestyPsychic
- Human Relationships
- HumilityPsychic
I
- IllnessPhysical
- ImaginationMental
- IndividualisationPsychic
- Inner AttitudeSpiritual
- IntuitionMental
L
- LazinessPhysical
- LovePsychic
- Lower VitalVital
M
- MantraSpiritual
- MeditationSpiritual
- Mental SilenceMental
- MoneyVital
- Music
O
- OnenessSpiritual
P
- Parenting and Prenatal EducationPhysical
- Parenting/RebirthPsychic
- PeaceSpiritual
- PerfectionPsychic
- PerseverancePsychic
- PersonalityVital
- Planes and Parts of the Being
- PrayerPsychic
- Psychic BeingPsychic
- Purity and PurificationPsychic
- PurposePsychic
R
- RebirthPsychic
- ReceptivitySpiritual
- Refining of SensesVital
- RejectionSpiritual
- ReligionSpiritual
S
- Self ObservationMental
- SexPhysical
- SilenceMental
- SincerityPsychic
- Sleep and DreamsPhysical
- SpeechMental
- StillnessSpiritual
- SufferingVital
- SurrenderSpiritual
- Symbols/Forms Spiritual SignificanceSpiritual
T
- The Spiritual PathSpiritual
- TransformationSpiritual
- TruthSpiritual
- Types of KnowledgeMental
U
- Unifying One’s BeingPsychic
W
- Will to ProgressPsychic
- Work
Fivefold education
The five parts of the being
The Mother describes education in five aspects, one for each principal activity of the human being. They grow together and complete one another, for life.
The colours follow Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: red for the physical, purple for the vital, yellow for the mind, pink for the psychic, blue for the spiritual. Read about colours
Practices
Put it into practice
Choose a quality to work with. Each has a short series you can begin today.
A drop of practice is better than an ocean of theories, advices and good resolutions. The Mother
Begin practising
Practice topicsAspirationBeautyConcentrationCourageDisciplineEmotionsGratitudeHatha YogaIntegral HealthLovePsychic BeingSincerity
Reading Sri Aurobindo
It is not by books that Sri Aurobindo ought to be studied but by subjects: what he has said on the Divine, on Unity, on religion, on evolution, on education, on self-perfection, on supermind, etc., etc.
That is how this library is arranged: each topic gathers what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have said on one subject, so you get a complete, many-sided perspective.
If one reads Sri Aurobindo carefully one finds the answers to all that one wants to know.
The Mother CWM 12, Curriculum, 25 October 1972 By studying carefully what Sri Aurobindo has said on all subjects one can easily reach a complete knowledge of the things of this world.
The Mother CWM 12, Curriculum Take one of Sri Aurobindo’s books. Read a sentence or two. Then remain silent and concentrated to understand the deeper meaning.
The Mother CWM 12, Study of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
The Masters
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
Their lives, their work and the dream of Auroville, told in issues of the All India Magazine.
His life and visionHer journey and workThe Ashram and AurovilleThe new consciousnessIndia’s spiritual heritage
Reading room
Longer readings
Introduction to Integral Education10
- Books on Integral EducationCore readings and further books on integral education, with where to find them.
- Introduction to Integral EducationThe vision of integral education embraces three simultaneous movements:
- SAIIER School GuidelinesThe principles Auroville’s SAIIER schools endeavour to follow, from learning and assessment to the school community.
- The mind must be consulted in its own growthLifelong learning is a term used commonly in the field of education today, and refers to the ongoing learning and adaptability that is needed…
- Three Principles of Integral EducationHow Integral Education takes form/shapes itself will have endless variations, based on the cultural setting, the creativity of teachers, and the needs and interests…
- Three Principles of Integral Education: IntroductionHow Integral Education takes form/shapes itself will have endless variations, based on the cultural setting, the creativity of teachers, and the needs and interests…
- Three Principles of True TeachingThese three principles are from an essay titled ' The Human Mind ' by Sri Aurobindo , first published in the Karmayogin in the…
- What is Integral Education?Education to be complete must have five principal aspects corresponding to the five principal activities of the human being the physical, the vital the…
- Why Integral Education?Imagine an education where we are able to grow and develop integrally without losing contact with their souls; an education not for passing examinations…
- Working From the Near to the FarWorking From the Near to the Far, From That Which Is to That Which Shall Be
Sri Aurobindo on National Education13
- A Preface on National Education – IThe necessity and unmixed good of universal education has become a fixed dogma to the modern intelligence, a thing held to be beyond dispute…
- A Preface on National Education – IIThese preliminary objections made to the very idea of national education and, incidentally, the misconceptions they oppose once out of the way, we have…
- A System of National EducationThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
- Message for National Education Week (1918)National Education is, next to Self-Government and along with it, the deepest and most immediate need of the country, and it is a matter…
- National EducationThe whole movement of the national life of India at the present moment may be described in one phrase,—a pressure from within towards self-liberation…
- Sense-Improvement by PracticeThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
- Simultaneous and Successive TeachingThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
- The Human MindThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
- The Moral NatureThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
- The Powers of the MindThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
- The Training of the Logical FacultyThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
- The Training of the Mental FacultiesThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
- The Training of the SensesThese essays were first published in the Karmayogin in the year 1910. They are, however, incomplete, and the subject of national education proper has…
The Mother on Education3
- An International University CentreThe conditions in which men live on earth are the result of their state of consciousness. To seek to change these conditions without changing…
- EducationThe education of a human being should begin at birth and continue throughout his life.
- The Science of LivingAn aimless life is always a miserable life.
Body, Mind and Consciousness12
- Energy inexhaustibleOne of the most powerful aids that yogic discipline can provide to the sportsman is to teach him how to renew his energies by…
- Knowledge by identityKnowledge can only come by conscious identity, for that is the only true knowledge,―existence aware of itself.
- Localising and moving one’s consciousnessIt’s one of the most indispensable things to do if one wants to succeed in having self-control and even a limited self-knowledge: to be…
- OfferingIt is not by running away from the world that you will change it. It is by working there, modestly, humbly but with a…
- Perfection of the BodyThe perfection of the body, as great a perfection as we can bring about by the means at our disposal, must be the ultimate…
- Psychic education: some insightsAlthough the term ‘psychic’ in ordinary English usage often refers to a person who seems to have supernatural, even magical, abilities, it derives from…
- Silent MindThe method of gathering of the mind is not an easy one. It is better to watch and separate oneself from the thoughts till…
- The difference between concentration and meditationConcentration means fixing the consciousness in one place or on one object and in a single condition.
- The Divine BodyA divine life in a divine body is the formula of the ideal that we envisage. But what will be the divine body? What…
- Thinking with experiencesWhen you think with words, you can express what you think with those words only. To think with ideas is to be able to…
- Thinking with ideasHow the mind can move from words to ideas, and from ideas to direct knowledge.
- Yogic ConcentrationOrdinarily the consciousness is spread out everywhere, dispersed, running in this or that direction, after this subject and that object in multitude. When anything…
Work and Yoga3
- 5 Stages of WorkEach stage consists the greatest essence of the previous stage.
- The Four Austerities and the Four LiberationsTo pursue an integral education that leads to the supramental realisation, four austerities are necessary, and with them four liberations.
- Twelve Indicators of Work as WorshipAsk yourself who are you working for? Is it serving a degenerating old world, or helping birth a new world?
About the Practices2
- Mantric Reading FormatBasic Guidelines15-30 mins/day, morning preferably.Read on one theme from https://iewiki.purnamcommunity.inEveryone gets a chance to read, goes in a circle.Cameras are ON for all.Everyone but…
- What is Auroville?The Cradle of the Superhuman, a place to delight in non-possessing creative abundance,
How the Practices Began3
- Inspiration behind the Integral Education Portal and the Way ForwardWe are deeply delighted to have completed One Year of the Integral Education Portal. Integral Education Portal has been a dream come true.
- Launching Integral Education PortalOn the occasion of Sri Aurobindo’s 148th birth anniversary, we are happy to launch The Integral Education Portal .
- Towards Integral Education Portal’s First BirthdayIntegral Education was developed by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo to prepare humanity for an evolutionary transformation to embody a divine consciousness and divine…
Curated by volunteers of the Purnam community from the Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. How to use the library How the library is made Glossary
