. ... \ . i . . i J . , >.,. i , I i , , . . . . ,! ! I I i - .. " I j[ql$~N i o . : 2231-0045 , - , : . BI-LINGUAL QUARTERLY Val.-1 * Issue-Ill * February, 201 3 Y Multi-disciplinary International Research Journal Periodic Research I Geeta Mathur, Kanpur & Kanchan Vema Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan) 16. ~ ~ d ? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 1 63-66 - *m,m 19. 1 Innovation in Marketing: Green Marketing 1 79-82 20. 21. 22. 23. Sandeep Saxena, ~ a n ~ u r r ( ~ . ~ . ) Narrative Voice and Tone in the Novels of Anita Desai Teena Gautam, Agra Defying the Marginalizing Forces: Reading the 'Dalit' hero in Sea of Poppies and The White Tiger Shivani Jha, New Delhi Re-interrogating the Concept of Female Hysteria in Eliza Haywood's Amatory Fiction Idalia : o r , The Unfortunate Mistress 24. 25. 83 85 86 88 89 93 Amrita Ghosh, Burdwan Role of Mahatma Gandhi in Raja Rao's Kanthapura 94 96 Devesh Chand, Varanasi Quest for Identity: A Journey through Mahesh Dattani's Plays Hrudaya Ranjan Satapathy Synthesis, Characterizations and Biological Screening of Barium containing Polymers Films, U. Bhatnagar Agra 97 100 101 104 Periodic ResearcR; \ \ wn% vffafm~ciu(t,m;rm yw Ti0 26. Evaluation of novel chemicals (Novaluron & Buprofezin) on deformity of larvae of 105 109 \ Euproctis icilia Stoll under IPM programme \ Ashish Kumar Gupta & Ganga Sagar Shukla, Kanpur 27. Schiff's Bases as Sensing Materials in the Construction of Potentiometric 110 11 1 Membrane Sensors Sanjay Verma 28' On Some Fixed Point Theorems for Contractive Mappings In IR" 112114 Bhimrao R. Ahirrao, Dhule & Shyam B. Dhage, Ahmedpur (Maharashtra) 29. Upper Bounds of The Number of Level Crossings of the Random Algebraic 115120 Equation S. Rout & P.K.Mishra, Berhampur (Odisha) 30. Pesticidal Effect of Leaf Extract of Euphorbia, Nerium and Calotropis on Some 121 127 Larvae of Crop Damagining Pests Devendra N. Pandey, Mauganj, Rewa (M.P.) 31. Avian Fauna of Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary (Rajasthan, India) 128 132 Anu Kumar Sharma, Bikaner (Raj.) 32. Description of Entodinium Rectangulatum F Caudatum (Lubinsky, 1975) from 133 137 the Stomach of Indian Cattle (Bos Inducus) 33. Variation in Nutrient Composition of Halophytic Species (Salsola Baryosma) in 138 140 Semi Arid Region of Bikaner, Rajasthan Suman Lata Tripathi, Bikaner (Raj.) 34. Impact and management of Coastal Hazards in Tamil Nadu State 141 151 ~ d h d . Ekhalaq ~ h a n , Aligarh 35. Population Aging in India: A future Policy Challenges and Opportunities 152 159 Kuntal Kanti Chattoraj, Bankura (W. Bengal) 36. Use of Engineering and Bioengineering Measures for Landslide Mitigation 160 173 Manmohan Singh Rawat, Dehradun (Uttarakhand) 37. Higher Education and Sustainable Human Development in Globalised Era 174 175 ~ $ n Prabha Agrawal, Kanpur 38. Factors affecting Work-Life Balance An empirical study of working women in 176 181 Ajmer City ~ a r o j ~akhawat & Shailendra Singh Charan, Ajmer (Raj.) 39. "An Evaluation of NCTE Programmes For Teacher Education in Terms of its 182 186 Objectives, Expectations and ~Gc t ions Based Perception of Teacher Educators" (Comparative Appraisal of NCTE by Teacher Educators of Government Aided and Self Financing Institutions Renu Gu~ta . Meerut (U.P.1 1 40. / Quality Education: Some Responsible Factors 1 187189 1 Subhash. S. Sharma, Bhavnagar 42. Opposition Parties in Indian Legislature: Their Role and Accountability Anasuya Mitra Sinha, Ranchi 43. , Current Challenges in FDI D.C. Kumrawat, Barwani (M.P.) 44. Impact of Direct Tax Code on Indian Economy 205 208 ~ajkumar Ray, Burdwan (W.B.) 45. Clinical and Nutritional Status of Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian Senior Citizens 209 213 Neeta Chopra & Deepa Singh, Agra 46. Sensory Evaluation of chapatti made by various combinations of wheat flour and 214 215 'ragi' flour Shruti M. Joshi, Rajkot (Raj.) 47. Gandhi and his Views on Women 216 219 Shikha Pandey, Kanpur 48. The Theory of Educa(ti~p: In tbe Light of Aurobiodo & Tagore 220 225 Debasbri Bansrjee Periodic Research The Theory of Education: In the Light of Aur Debasbri Banerjee Assistant Professor Dept of Philosophy Chatra Ramai Pandit Mahavidyalaya, P.O. Darapur, Bankura 7221 4 1 bane jeedebashri1982@redifiail corn banlopa@grnail corn no agreement has yet been established. ~enerallykducation seems to stand for 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 gathered as a means of getting high scores and degrees by the ongoing educational institutions. Education certainly does not mean that. In its true sense, education should be that training, both mental and physical, of the children, I which will enable them to reveal their internal capabilities as well as introduce them with the knowledge of all things belonging in this vast world. It will encourage the pupils not only to learn from books, but also fiom nature. Because a person, who does not have enough faith in the fact that Mother-nature, is the best teacher of a child, is actually rejecting one of the most significant principles of education. A child, deprived from the gentle and soothing touch of the Mothernature , is unable to utilize his bookish informations due to lack of appropriate practical training. From books, he will learn the process of acquiring and memorizing bookish informations, but not be able to know about their realistic I utility; however in the laps of Mother-nature he will both learn the fact as well as its usage. Thus, the prospective of education over our whole life seems quiet vast; I I as it does not remain limited only within the small boundary of books, but expanded throughout our whole life-experiences. I The theory of education is very complex in nature. However in this present paper I would like to coñpare between Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore's educational thoughts. In this present paper, I will try to compare between the educational theories of Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore, whose writings will help us to understand properly the true picture of even our present educational conditions after 1945 and also to inquire about the ways of reforming it whenever found necessary. Both of their ed,ucational concepts are outstandingly modem and they have tremendous similarit~es with each other. In this respect I also try to figure out the reason behind the popularity of Tagore's educational thesis as compared with Sri Aurobindo. Introductton The definition of true education is a very debatable concept about which no agreement has yet been established. Generally education seems to stand for 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 gathered as a means of getting high scores and degrees by the ongoing educational institutions. Education certainly does not mean 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 knowledge of all things belonging in this vast world. According to swami Vivekananda, by which education we learn to control and dominate our moral wills and to limit their speed absolutely, that education should be considered as the proper kind of education. It will encourage the pupils not only to learn from books, but also from nature. Because a person, who does not have enough faith in the fact that nature is the best teacher of a child, is actually rejecting one of the most significant principles of education. A child, deprived from the gentle and soothing touch of the Mother-nature, is unable to utilize his bookish informations due to lack of appropriate practical training. From books, he will leam the process of acquiring and memorizing bookish informations, but not be able to know about their realistic utility; however in the laps of Mother-nature he will both learn the fact as well as its usage. Thus, tlie prospective of education over our whole life seems quiet vast; as it does not remain limited only within the small boundary of books, but expanded throughout our whole life-experiences. In this present paper, I will try to compare between the educational theories of Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore, whose writings will help us to understand properly the true picture of even our present educational conditions after 1945 and also to inquire about the ways of reforming it whenever found necessary. However, for doing so, let us at first try to understand the political background of lndia which leads them to think so seriously about generating their theories of education. In. 1905, the most debatable issue of Indian politics took place i.e. the notorious Bengal Partition held in the order of Lord Culzon. Then a very highly spirited Anti-Partition Movement begun in which both Sri Aurobindo and Tagore took active parts. People of Bengal also protested against this nasty conspiracy of the British government to divide Bengal, the cultural and intellectual capital of India. Many students participated in showing demonstration against the British circular. As a result, they were expelled from the educational institutions run by the government. The notorious Carlyle Circular helped the British constituency in this. Then the requirement of a supplementary educational system was greatly realized. Therefore on 1 lth March, 1906 the National Council of ' Education was founded so that under its guidance the establishment of national schools and colleges for meeting with the demands of Indian students would be as soon as possible. On august, 1906 the Bengal National College was founded in which Sri Aurobindo was appointed as the first Principal. Later Sri Aurobindo Ashram was established in Pondicherry around 1910 in the light of his educational views. However quite before Aurobindo, in 1901, Tagore set up Bramhacharyashram in Shantiniketan where the pupils would be introduced with the ideal of the Tapobans of ancient India. This ashram took the form of ViswaBharati in 1918. As the active members of National Council of Education, both of them developed certain ideals regarding teaching procedure, by which they wanted to reform traditional system of education of preindependent India. However none of them were interested in being known as educationalists, even though their educational theories have been able to achieve contemporary .relevance even in this twenty-first century. Let us have a brief look upon their concepts. Sri Aurobindo criticized our traditional system of education as it can not be identified as proper education at all. The ongoing educational system of the Pre-Independent lndia was totally influenced by British culture; hence, he opposed this system by simply callil~g it mechanical in nature. In that system 'A subject is taught a little at a time, in conjunction with a host of others, with the result that what might be well learnt in a single year is badly learned in seven and the boy goes out ill-equipped, sewed with imperfect percels of knowledge, master of none of the great departments of human knowledge'. Thus, in his theory, we find that, information acquiring is not the central aim; rather in bringing out the best powers of human mind and spirit, developing the mental structure, increasing the growth rate of the hidden potentialities and connecting that person with all men belonging to the entire universe, so that 1 his growth as a complete man or the integral man can reach to its absolute end. This Real Man, according to him, not only thinks about the procedure of improving the lives of his family, society, clan, nation; but also tries to discover the ultimate way of how to advance the entire humanity. By this above process, the Real Man has to grow not only as a National Man, rather as a truly Universal Man. In this way, education will help a man to build up his character not only as an individual, but also as a national as well as a universal Periodic Research man. Thus, even though it was criticized that his national system of education limits a man within the boundary of nation, but, infact, his national educqtion ultimately aims at the evolution of humanity from the limited boundary of nationalism to unlimited arena of internationalism. Tagore also realized that the traditional system of education under the British rule was nothing but a kind of silly joke made intentionally to ruin the hture of Indian students. In his opinion, in the name of education we make children bound to gather or even swallow several types of bookish informations. So, the pupils are really very unfortunate as no one other than them suffers fiom such a tremendous pressure of learning in this procedure. Such signs of terror and mechanism are existent in every where of this traditional system of education before 1900. Perhaps this the urgent need due to whose existence Tagore took the responsibility of building up Bramhacharyashram at Shantiniketan in 1901. Hence education in this way is making ma1 mechanical, but fails to awake the Real man within him. But if education can be obtained by the pupil with happiness and enough freedom, then their power of thinking and reasoning will naturally be developed. In this way the inner human being of every child will come out with hllest potentialities. Thus the arousal of hidden potentialities within every child will be helphl to make him the Real Man. And this Real Man has to be not only national but also universal in nature [Real Man = National Man + Universal Man]. Thus, we can discover that character building side, which will help to bring out the national as well as universal fellow-feelings in children, was accepted by both of them as the integral part of education. Now let us discuss of their concepts regarding the role of the teacher in the educational system. Sri Aurobindo mentioned that the tutor should produce t,,slself as a helper and guide of the child. He must not impose something which seems external to the student or even dare to teach him; for to force the child to learn something against his wish will naturally destroy his natural process of growth. A child has to grow up in his own way. Any attempt to develop him according to the tutor's wish can demolish his natural growth structure. Every child has enormous potentialities hidden behind, the teacher should explore them. He has to encourage his pupil to grow according to his own nature. To compare a child with lifeless clay that can be molded in any way as the teacher's wish is mostly prohibited ~ n d barbarous in nature. So, anything brought from outside should be offered to the mind of the student, but not imposed. In Sri Aurobindo's opinion, the basic goal of education should be in helping the growing soul of a child to be perfect in every respect. And in this noble endeavor the tutor should take an essential part. We can have a similar response fiom Tagore when he claimed that in the traditional system of education, the teacher served mostly as businessman to whom giving education is just like selling goods and his basic intention is mainly nested on how to earn more and more money by selling his bookish knowledges. For this give and take relationship of the teachers with the prevalent educational system, the taught become completely unable to respect them from the bottom of their hearts and lots of fear and hatred remain stored in their mind. Education is not a thing to be sold, rather a thing that has to be worshipped. Thus, for giving education we need that type of teachers who will take this huge responsibility of education as their only Periodic Research means ot living. In this way, the teacher will be able to understand the pupil's mind and can try to solve his problems without thinking him inferior in importance. Education of this kind will be proved as blessings towards the students. Hence, both Sti Aurobindo and Tagore admitted the fact that knowledge cannot be sold, rather given by the masters. Thus, in both Sri Aurobindo and Tagore, the intrinsic value of education is dependent upon the relationship of mutual love and respect between teacher and student. Both of them also agreed about the role of Mother-nature played over the student mind. Acwl;ding to Sri Aurobindo, education grasped from Nature is the proper education as it is the best medium of learning. Our traditional education can only make the children frighten and hamper their natural process of growth. The relation formed between child and books is the relation of terror and distance. But only under the supervision of Nature, students will become properly well-trained, not only in mind but also in body and this education is however much more practical, sound, interesting and higher in qualities than our , traditional one. Surprisingly, even today's educational structure lacks this. We always give too much importance on classroom teaching, but the natural growth of mind can never happened if we snatch away students from the laps of the Mother-nature. Nature has arranged everything necessary for a true education, but we remain totally unaware of it. The colors, smell, touch of a flower or leave can give practical knowledge of Botany; watching stars and space carefully will help a student to give knowledge of Astronotny. Hence, in his opinion, 'It is by allowing Nature to work that we get the benefit of the gifts she has bestowed on us', we can prepare a child to gain a fiee and natural growth which \\,as rather impossible through our on-going education proccss dependent completely upon books. In this context, Tagore also mentioned that the persons, detached from Mother-nature, can only be glad of receiving several Degrees and Diplomas, but infact they are not needed for the formation of our nation in a newer way. Because they are completely ignorant of the real fact that nature plays a vital role in a child's learning. In our traditional system, we detach a child from nature's lap, and confine him within the clumsy atmosphere of institutions. The life of little student's, according to him, becomes fully conlparable with that of prisoners imprisoned within the small and clumsy boundary of the jail. For this above reason, he felt the urgent necessity of establishing ViswaBharati . Education grasped from Mother-nature gives a child enough chance to learn freely, and do not forcefully impose anything upon his weak shoulders as a burden. For the inner growth of a child, education acquired from Mother-nature plays a very essential role. May be that is the reason for which both Tagore and Sri Aurobindo preferred the education of children given within the natural atmosphere of ashram. Howvewer, behind their establishment of ashrams in Pondicheny and Shantiniketan, another important factor acted silently. Both of them were tremendously fascinated with the ancient lndian educational culture where education was given by gums and received by students living within the natural background of Tapoban. But they both admitted that for the welfare of lndia we also have to accept the truths demonstrated by modem Europe. According to Sri Aurobindo, it was falsely thought that we want to fetch back the old To1 systems of lndia in the name of national education as living in this advanced age it is definitely impossible to revive the ancient system in its oldest form. It is true that ancient lndia had attained success in many respects, but only for that reason, it will be quite unjust to refute all the scientific truths of enlightened Europe. The union of East and West in arena of education seems completely mandatory. Thus, in his view, education, being universal in nature, must be fiee fiom any national limitations. Hence the education should have not only national, but also universal character. As a advocator of national system of education he clarified his position, 'It is not a return to the fifth century but an initiation of the centuries to come, not a reversion but a break forward away h m a present artificial falsity to her own greater innate potentialities that is demanded by the soul, by the Shakti of India'. And to revive the true spirit of India we have to collaborate the modem scientific truth of Europe with the past glory of India. In this way, as he hoped, a greater future can emerge out of its foundation of lndian past along with the modern Eumpean present. In Sri Aurobindo Ashram he tried to lay the foundation of this dream. Like Sri Aurobindo, Tagore also visualized the same truth. According to him, the goodness of Western culture lies in its cultivation of scientific knowledge by the help of which man can achieve a way to win over diseases, pain, death etc; whereas ancient Asia always concentrates on gaining spiritual knowledge by which we can ultimately reach our dcstination of mokro or liberation. In his opinion, by reconciling these two cultures together we can hope of achieving something new in form but old in spirit in the upcoming future, extremely necessary for the welfare of human race. He clarified that with Europe, India has to establish the give and take relationship. Europe's excessiveness of scientific thought and India's life-long devotion towards spirituality have to be exchanged, because in Europe spiritual truth and in India scientific truth never touched their extreme limit. Hence, a greater India can emerge out of its unification with Europe. And in this noble endeavor of union, education also has to play a significant role. For that reason, within the national system of education, we have to unite the ancient glory of lndian system along with the inner goodness of modern European culture. In his Viswa-Bharati he actually started constructing a new India by preparing its students as the future citizens of our beloved country. Sri Aurobindo mentioned that the medium of instruction must be such that it can touch our lndian soil, soul, reflecting also our temperament, culture and basic needs. We always devote ourselves in learning English, Latin, French, German etc foreign languages, representing Western culture, thought ,and behavioral pattern. But the true fact is that they are utterly foreign in nature to us. For that reason they seem quite difficult to be grasped by lndian children. Thus, the pattern of education which seems relevant in West will not be sc applicable in India. And we completely ignore the necessary factor that a child's mother tongue is mostly required to gain his mastery over other foreign languages. Only in it, their mental and logical faculties concerning judgment, comparison, reasoning, observation etc will be flourished, which seems quite tough to develop on the basis of foreign languages. so,according to him, our mother tongue is the suitable medium of instruction for education, because only it can have the powver to etokc a child's innermost potentialities. And for that reason, the fundamental responsibility of the child, in his view, is to be the master in his own mother tongue, through which the mastery over other languages will be easily achieved. In the opinion of Tagore, the medium of instruction of education must be our own mother tongue, because we have lost most of our energies in learning such an unknown language like English in ow early youth. But if this obstacle is removed then our language learning will be much easier. Being ironical to the lovers of English language, he mentioned thiit, many Bengali Babus do not even imagine that shihha i.e. education can be given via the medium of Bengali, and anyhow if this impossible will become possible, then she should loss her own status. His warning against this narrow mentality of the enlightened people was predonlinant in everywhere of his theory of education. P. C. Sen quoted Saddler Commission's report where the fullest description of Tagore's educational theory was given in brief - 'the chief medium of instruction in schools (and even in colleges' upto the stage of the university degree) should be the mother tongue. He has four reasons for this belief; first, because it is through his mother tongue that every nlan learns the deepest lessons of life; second, because some of those pupils who have a just claim to higher education cannot master the English language; third, because many of those who do acquire English fail to achieve true proficiency in it and yet, in the attempt to learn a language so difficult to a Bengali, spend too large a part of the energy which is indispensable to the growth of the power of independent thought and observation; fourth, because a training conducted chiefly through the mother tongue would lighten the load of education for girls.. .'. In Sri Aurobindo's theory of education we find the mention of harmony between men and everything else. In his opinion, man gains harmony by the constant process of evolution of his several aspects, such as physical, vital, mental, psychic, spiritual and supramental. According to him, a ;rue and living education has to deal with three conditions 'the man, the individual in his commonness and in his 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 hiiself is a unit and his people or nation a living, a separate and yet inseparable ~nember'. Thus, in his opinion, harmonization of man with his comñunity as well as with universe will be possible through tlie true education. This harmonization procedure occupies a very crucial place in his theory as through it he later developed his notion about Divinization of mcn. 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, and also with whole human race. So, in his writing, we discover the deep urge to explore man's relation with anything else surrounding him as in Sri Aurobindo. For the development of the individual, the necessity of identifying the individual soul along with the universal soul is extremely necessary. Hence education helps a man to overcome all the limitations of his Periodic Research 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 nature and environment. Thus R. N. Sharma truly evaluated that 'He (Tagore) believes in an inner harmony between man and Nature and God. In man, again, the physical, the mental and the spiritual aspects are equally important and internally related. Therefore, like Sri Aurobindo. Rabindranath believes in a multisided education with physical, intellectual, moral and religious aims'. This belief helped him vastly in his construction of ViswaBharati . Physical education, according to them both, plays a vital role in the child's learning procedure. Sri Awobindo claimed that, for the total perfection of the being, the physical part of it cannot be ignoredas it is the basis upon which this perfection can be attained. In Sri Aurobindo's own opinion we can have the clear explanation of it - 'If our seeking is for a total perfection of the being, the physical part of it cannot be left aside; for the body is the material basis, the body is the instrument which we have to use. $arkam khalu dharrnasiidhanam, says the old Sanskrit adage, the body is the means of hlfillment of dharma, and dharma means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law of its working out and its action .... Games and sports are not mere tools of amusements and fun, but the fields helpful enough to develop good habits and better qualities. Thus, we should accept the importance of sports, because by their help, our consciousness about the body awakes along with the arousal of the sporting spirit necessary to meet the challenges of both life and game. Therefore, in his view, for making the life divine we have to give necessary emphasis on developing the body divine. For this above reason, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother both gave so much stress upon the physical training of the children living at Pondicherry Ashram. Tagore was very critical to our prevalent system of educatiotl as not giving proper importance on physical training. He put tremendous importance on games and sports in a student's life, as according to him, this help to enhance the physical fitness along with his mental power. , One of the important aims of education, in his view, is physical development of children. In R. N. Sharma, we find out Tagore's point of view about the value of physical activities 'Even if they (the children) learnt nothing, they would have had ample time for play, climbing trees, diving 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'. So, physical fitness, according to him, has to be achieved for the complete progress of the child; because only then, he gets enough opportunity to be properly developed in every aspects of human life. Both Sri Aurobindo and Tagore provided some reasonable grounds for their acceptance of the intimate value of the mental education. According to Sri Aurobindo, every child can imagine, create mental images, use analogy about the characters depicted in his school-books, hence, through proper mental education we have to encourage his hidden powers and inborn qualities to flourish which will otherwise lie dormant in him. He should not be confmed within the boundary of bookish knowledge, rather should be encouraged to grow in his own way. He straightPeriodic ' Research forwardly claimed 'Every child is an enquirer, an investigator, analyset, a merciless anatomist. Appeal to those qualities in him and let him acquire without knowing it the right temper and the necessary fundamental knowledge of the scientist. Evety child has an insatiable intellectual curiosity and turn for metaphysical enquiry. Use it to draw him on slowly to an understanding of the world and himself. Every child has the gift of imitation and a touch of imaginative power. Use it to give him the groundwork of the faculty, of the artist'. Education of the mind given in such a way will help a child to be perfectly grown up in future. Tagore equally laid emphasis upon the mental aspect of education. In his view, for proper livelihood we have to flourish two powers, i.e. the power of thinking and the power of imagination. However the prevalent educational system put too much stress upon the memory power and too little on thinking and imagination. But indeed both of them, along with the faculty of memory, are really indispensable for the growth of child life. For their lack of presence in our traditional system of education, we . have to bear the burden of rliemorized knowledges, but do not learn to apply then1 in reality. We have to encourage the use of imaginative and thinking qualities within the child. We can imagine many things that cannot be seen in eyes, e.g. soullatrnan, God/Brahman, sky-flower, little mermaid etc. If the child from the very beginning learns how to apply his knowledges with the ,help of his thinking and imagination, then his niental capacity will be naturally flourished and the mind will, in fact, receive the appropriate opportunity to show its inherent abilities. In his system of education, Sri Aurobindo did not differentiate between male and female. The education for men and women must be similar in every respect. He proposed that we should treat women as equal as men. Neglecting females will be very harmful for our society because, in his opinion, they are also very essential part of our social structure. Therefore, no distinctions were made by him on the basis of sex in his ashram. Even here the same kind of physical exercises were encouraged to both male and female. The absurdity of the idea of sex division was reflected in The Mother's voice 'For God's sake, can't you forget that you are a girl or a boy and try to become a human being?'. The main aim of Sri Aurobindo's educational theory was to synchronize between both sexes by giving them same education, same training, same chance to grow naturally; so that the proper advancement of the human race will become ultimately possible. Tagore's theory was partially similar with that of Sri Aurobindo in the context of co-education. In his theory, every human being has natural right of education, so women should not be deprived from it. Educated female will be completely reluctant to their basic household works, this absurd theory was not at all accepted by him. Their mental propensities like kindness, respect, love, devotion, tolerance, shyness etc. will also not be affected by their learning. However, unlike Sri Aurobindo, he made distinction between the educations given to both men and women. In his view, knowledge has two aspects pure knowledge and practical knowledge. In the case of pure knowledge both sexes will get equal right to gain it. But the practical knowledge received by both of them should be different according to the diffeknce of their nature. Females are distinct from their male counterparts not only in their bodily formation, but also in their mental structure. So, he never admitted that the practical ,field of work for both male and female should be equal with each other. Thus, here we discover a basic difference withili the theories of co-education advocated by Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. However another vital difference between both of their theories is worthy to mention. In Sri Aurobindo's theory, the main stress was given upon the underlying aim of realizing the supramental being within us and to be united with him. In the witings of The Mother we notice the explanafion of Sri Aurobindo's hidden goal 'As your surrender becomes more and more perfect and integral, it will wry with it the aspiration for identification, a total fusion with That to which you have given yourself, and little by little this aspiration will overcome all differences and all resistances, especially if the aspiration has, added to it, an intense and spontaneous love for then nothing can stand in the way of its victorious onset'. Sri Aurobindo always remembered this unique goal of unification of human race with the Divine and this was predominant behind his theory of education. He never thought of a single person. It's true that he thought about salvation, but not about individual salvation, rather Collective Salvation. Pavitra very clearly clarified this notion in his own book 'Men and nations will be regarded as souls and groupsouls , the Divinity concealed and to be self-discovered in its human individuals and collectivities, group-souls meant like the individuals to grow according to their own nature and by that growth to help each other, to help the whole race in the common work of humanity. And that work is to find the divine Self in the individual and the collectivity and to realize spiritually, mentally, vitally, materially its greatest, largest, richest and deepest possibilities in the inner life of all and their outer action and nature'. However, this thesis seems quite complex in nature, because here too much emphasis is given on this concept of Divinization. It indeed has practical significance, but for this complexity in understanding, somewhere it remains quite unappealing to the thought of common people. But in Tagore's theory we find out a kind of simplicity inherent, for which it seems so appealing to common masses. In his theory, he stressed upon wageearning for the poor villagers. He did not admit that education is a means of earning bread alone, but admitted wage-earning as an intimate part of any sound educational system. In 1922, the Palli Sangathan Bibhag was made by him, which was renamed as Sriniketan in 1923. T. N. Gangopadhyaya discovered from The Bulletin of ViswaBharati (no. 11, 1928) that 'The objective of Sriniketan is to bring back life in its completeness into the villages making their (the villager's) self-reliant and self-respectful, acquainted with the cultural standard of their own country and competent to make an eficient use of modem resources for the improvement of their physical, intellectual and economic condition'. For giving education among villagers, Sriniketan was divided into various departments, e.g. agricultural department, industrial department, educational department, rural reconstruction department and samavaya. The foundation of Shiksha-Satra sewed as a means of not only their earning livelihood, but also to equip them the necessary training for the improvement of the rural Bengal. Moreover, its programs were also helpful in this endeavor as it concentrated on I . Industry (weaving, Carpentry, Book binding and leather work). Periodic Research 2. Gardening. 3. Health and Sanitation. 4. House craft and General management. 5. Sports, Games and Brati balak activities. 6. Educational trips to places of interest. 7. Literary Society. 8. A monthly manuscript magazine - 'Chesta'." Thus, Tagore thought for the advancement of human life-structure in India, instead of concentrating on the attainment of collective salvation of people by uniting with the Divine just as Sri Aurobindo believed. And by his simple type of thinking, he was able to appeal to common people far from the reach of Sri Aurobindo. From the above discussion, it can be easily concluded that Sri Aurobindo's theory of education was unappealing to masses, while in the case of Tagore only the opposite of it happens. But actually, this derivation is not totally sound, rather a partial one taken hurriedly without exploring every possibility that can remain behind of it. In my opinion, Sri Aurobindo's thesis seems unappealing to common masses, because mainly of its language and linguistic use. He encouraged the use of mother-tongue as a medium of learning, but we unfortunately do not get any such chance to be acquainted with his theory of education in Bengali. For that reason, perhaps, common people remain totally unaware about his educational doctrine. Thus his thesis remains familiar only to the few enlightened people. However even in their case his concept appeals only to the intellect or reasoning faculty; but never to their heart, their soul. The reason behind this may be his extreme command over foreign languages whose tiequent usage made his theory much complicated to comprehend only in first reading even for the highly-educated persons. On the contrary, Tagore used Bengali as a medium of his educational theory. Therefore, even though the rhythmic flow, the poetic touch, the idealistic thoughtwave were also common in his theory like Sri Aurobindo, but he could easily win over the heart of the educated as well as the uneducated masses for this simple w n . Thus, his theory has the enormous potentiality m appeal our heart, our soul. Perhaps this is the reason which makes the name of Tagore familiar to all Bengali family, whereas Sri Aurobindo remained well-knawn within the circle of enlightened classes. But indeed both of their views are equally important in intrinsic values. By the way, it is our task to explore both of their educational theories so that we could evaluate the present condition of educational svstem in India. Their dream was to construct a new lndia by reconciling its past glory along with the modem European advancement, which unfortunately remained unexplored even today. For the betterment of lndia, through the enhancement of its educational condition, we have to take their suggestions seriously. Unless the extreme burden of learning over the Indian student's shoulders will never be abandoned. References 3. On Women: Compiled jhm the writings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondichemy, 2004. 4. Pavitra (P. B. Saint-Hilaire), Education and The Aim of Human Life, Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondichemy, 2002. 5. Sen, Probodh Chandra, Rabindranather Shikshacinta (Rabindranath Tagore 's Thoughts on Uucation), Paschim Banga Rajya Pustak Parshad, KO1982. 6. Sharma, Ram Nath, ~ e x i Book of U~cational Philosophy, Kanishka Publishers Distributors, New Delhi, 2000. 7. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother Oh Education, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondichemy, 2004. 8. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother On Physical Education, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicheny, 2002. 9. Swami Vivekanander Bani Sanchayan, Udbodhan Karyalaya, Kolkata, 2006. 10. Tagore, Rabindranath, Shiksha, Viswa-Bharati, Kolkata, 1965. 1. Basu, Bishnu and Binay Bandopadhyaya (ed.), Rabindranather Shikshavabana, Pratibhas, Kolkata, 1989. 2. Gangopadhyaya, Tapendranath, Rabindranather Shikshacinta Parikalpana o Proyog, Sahitya Prakash, Kolkata, 1995.