A Comparative Study of the Educational Philosophies of Sri Aurobindo and Maria Montessori

A Comparative Study of the Educational Philosophies
of Sri Aurobindo and Maria Montessori

In 1975, Aleta You Mastny wrote this dissertation, “A Comparative Study of the Educational Philosophies of Sri Aurobindo and Maria Montessori”, as a part of the requirements for her Doctor of Philosophy degree. In this paper, Mastny presents a detailed examination of the educational philosophies of two important pioneers in the field of childhood education.

Maria Montessori was a truly remarkable woman who was born in August 31, 1870, and was educated in Italy. Beginning her higher education in the field of engineering, she later switched to medicine. After earning her medical degree, she becoming an expert in pediatric medicine and went on to conceptualize her own methods of applying the educational theories first put forth by French physicians Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Édouard Séguin. Her success in education came form her application of a religious, if not wholly spiritual, perspective, to the practical knowledge she developed in close observation of childhood development.

Sri Aurobindo was a most remarkable man born in India on August 15, 1872 and classically educated in England. When he returned to India, he fought for the independence of India as a political leader and went on to become a well respected spiritual leader, establishing an ashram with his collaborator, Mira Alfassa (The Mother). While overseeing a growing community in the ashram, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother developed and implemented their own ideas about childhood education.

In this insightful paper, Mastny finds many important parallels between Montessori’s theories and those of Sri Aurobindo. Despite the scholarly form of this dissertation, fans and followers of Sri Aurobindo are sure to find this work interesting. It also has a five-page bibliography.

Book Details

Author: Aleta You Mastny
Print Length: 145
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
Submitted by: Blindshiva
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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Death Dying and Beyond: The Science and Spirituality of Death

Death Dying and Beyond:
The Science and Spirituality of Death

Man’s paradoxical relation to death is that he sees the fact of death all around him, yet lives as if he were immortal. He may struggle to understand, wandering from the material scientist to the mystic in search of the secret meaning of death. In this book the author examines the complex questions on the nature of death, and follows Sri Aurobindo’s deeper vision behind the veil of death to find the answers to some of the most perplexing ethical and existential problems related to death, dying and the beyond.

Book Details

Author: Alok Pandey
Print Length: 293
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Society
Contributors: Alexey Zheleznyak
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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The Future Evolution of Man

The Future Evolution of Man

Man today is becoming poignantly aware of his power to influence for good or evil his own destiny. At this critical moment when he questions his future, we believe it important to present to the public the most significant passages from those books of Sri Aurobindo which deal with this problem, the future evolution of humanity.

Book Details

Compiler: Pavitra (P.B. Saint-Hilaire)
Author: Sri Aurobindo
Print Length: 160
Publisher: Auro e-Books
Submitted by: Krishna
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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Talks with Sri Aurobindo by Nirodbaran (Volume 1 and 2)

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

On the eve of the November Darshan Day in 1938, the hostile forces finally managed to strike a heavy blow against Sri Aurobindo. In the wee, dark, hours of the morning, Sri Aurobindo “stumbled” over a tiger skin rug in his apartment and struck his right knee upon the skull of the tiger, causing a fracture of his right femur. However, as these two volumes of Talks with Sri Aurobindo recorded by Nirodbaran will attest, the attempt by the forces of Darkness to silence Sri Aurobindo actually had the opposite effect, creating an opportunity for a handful of disciples and others to engage in a free flowing, wide-ranging, informal and open inquiry into the Master’s thinking and teaching which would never have happened otherwise. Collected here, we have the reminisces, musings and discussions of that band of men who were fortunate enough to be there at the right time and place to make this intimate atmosphere among seekers of Truth possible. These conversations stretched over a period of nearly twelve years, bringing these men ever closer to each other and closer to the light.

Book Details

Author: Nirodbaran
Print Length: Volume 1 – 514p., Volume 2 – 517p.
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Submitted by: Blindshiva
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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The Mother’s Vision

The Mother’s Vision

This book contains a selection of the Mother’s conversations during the periods 1929-31 and 1950-58. Speaking to members of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and students of its school, she drew upon her unique occult, spiritual and practical experience to answer their questions. The topics range from the spiritually elevated and philosophically complex to the practical and mundane. Taken as a whole, the conversations offer an uplifting vision of human existence. In the Mother’s view, we are destined to outgrow our limited ego-centric personalities, discover our true selves, and ultimately create a divine life on earth.

The compilation covers a broad range of subjects in considerable depth, taking up many issues that are rarely treated elsewhere. Yet the general tone of the conversations is informal and intimate. There are many long passages in which the Mother brings in personal anecdotes, side stories and touches of humour. As she speaks, her personality comes out and the reader becomes, as it were, a member of the class, listening as she instructs and guides those gathered before her.

Book Details

Author: The Mother (Mirra Alfassa)
Print Length: 629
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Original source: https://agendamother.wordpress.com/
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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Light to Superlight

Light to Superlight

There are twenty-six letters in this series, written between 1912 and 1921, all addressed to Sri Motilal Roy except the second one, which was to Anandrao. Sri Aurobindo’s letters of this period are not only of gripping national interest to his countrymen, but are of vaster importance to a greater humanity that could read in them the extraordinary evolution of a meteoric patriot-politician emerging out of his ten years’ veil to become the renowned architect of The Life Divine. It may be helpful to unknowing readers better to understand the situation in which he wrote those letters, with a little contextual preliminary background, which we shall try to supply here, briefly.

Book Details

Author: Arun Chandra Dutt
Print Length: 245
Publisher: Sri Krishna Prosad Ghosh from Prabartak Publishers
Original source: http://motherandsriaurobindo.in/
Submitted by: Blindshiva
Contributors: Blindshiva
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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The Yoga of the Bhagavat Gita by Sri Krishna Prem

The Yoga of Bhagavat Gita

The Yoga of the Bhagavat Gita

This book is a complete commentary on the Bhagavat Gita written by Sri Krishna Prem in 1937. Originally published as a series of articles in The Aryan Path, this material was revised and published in book form in 1938 and subsequently revised again in 1948. This is a masterful presentation of the Gita, clearly written by one who knows whereof he speaks. The author has also managed to demonstrate the parallels and commonalities this material has with Buddhism without overwhelming the primary strains of the Gita with extraneous material. This book also contains a glossary of Sanskrit terms used within and several appendices which help provide a broader understanding of the Gita and its context.

Book Details

Author: Sri Krishna Prem
Print Length:
Publisher: Penguin Books Inc.
Submitted by: Blindshiva
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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Wings of the Sea

Wings of the Sea

MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM YEAR 72-73 (2016-2017) OF A LIFE
(INCLUDING 14 SHORT ESSAYS ON ‘SAVITRI’ PUBLISHED IN THE CRESTONE EAGLE)

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In 1968 the Mother gave me a hard-bound ream of hand-made paper, bound in the Ashram Press, where I was working. I was too naive at the time to fully appreciate the gesture. But I have continued to write. A first collection of poems, written from 1968 to 1977, many of which she read, was published in 1998 and dedicated to Matrimandir. One of those poems was produced as a play in Auroville, in the early years, to which she actually sent a busload of ashramites.

I have lived in Auroville for half of the past 50 years, and written hundreds of pages of philosophy. But I have also traveled to many other wonderful places, both physically and spiritually. And it is in that simple moment of clarity when poems are written that such experiences can sometimes be captured and, hopefully, conveyed to anyone who can listen and see. This small collection, mostly written in the 50th year,is dedicated to Auroville, which continues to inspire.

Book Details

Author: Rod Hemsell
Print Length: 50
Publisher: Auro e-Books
Contributor: Krishna
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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50 Poems from Auroville

50 Poems from Auroville

This is an anthology of 50 poems written in the last 50 years, as a gift and tribute to Auroville on the 50th anniversary of its founding on 28th February 1968.

The poems are by Aurovilians, former Aurovilians and those involved with or who have been in some way touched by Auroville or The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. The selection includes poems previously published in various Auroville and private collections together with poems recently submitted in response to a request in Auroville News and Notes.

Not all the poems in this anthology are the product of openness to higher planes of consciousness, or are even necessarily ‘spiritual’. Some express a deep yearning for a life to be lived in oneness with the consciousness of the truth of things and the spirit. Some have been included because they convey vividly a sense of truth or honesty or strongly evoke a sense of connection with the place or scene we may have experienced, or tell us something about the Auroville experience. Or they simply have an appealing poetic quality.

Book Details

Author: Compilation of aurovilian poets done by Vikas (Alan Vickers)
Print Length: 43
Publisher: Vikas (Alan Vickers)
Contributor: Krishna
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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Integral Yoga – Evolution Fast Forward III (video)

Integral Yoga – Evolution Fast Forward III

Parts of the Being & Planes of Consciousness

The video is a detailed exploration of our psychological parts of being as mapped by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. All those who are interested in integral yoga psychology will find this video very useful in daily life.

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