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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The Birth of the Clinic by Michel Foucault

The Birth of the Clinic

Developing the themes explored in his previous work, Madness and Civilization, Foucault traces the development of the medical profession, and specifically the institution of the clinique (translated as “clinic”, but here largely referring to teaching hospitals). Its central points are the concept of the medical regard (“medical gaze”) and the sudden re-organisation of knowledge at the end of the 18th century, which would be expanded in his next major work, The Order of Things.

Book Details

Author: Michel Foucault
Print Length: 238
Publisher: Routledge
Original source: https://monoskop.org/images/9/92/Foucault_Michel_The_Birth_of_the_Clinic_1976.pdf
Submitted by: Robert
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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Shri Krishnarvind (Gujarati)

 

Shri Krishnarvind

The book relates to experiences of Sri Aurobindo right from Ailpore Jail till the Mother’s Darshan on 29th Feb-1960, the first anniversary of Supramental Manifestation. The workings of Sri Krishna’s consciousness in Sri Aurobindo which was clearly described by Sri Aurobindo in His Works. The Mother too was in contact with Sri Krishna and was having an intimate & special relation with him. Descent of Sri Krishna’s consciousness into physical on 24th Nov 1926 is a proof of Sri Krishna’s active and dynamic participation in Earth evolution through Integral-Yoga. The book covers only important experiences/realisations of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and more so subtle things happening during their sadhana with the help of Sri Krishna. Adoration/Bhakti towards Sri Krishna by the people at large will surely be attracted to Integral yoga if teachings of Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo can be synthesized. This is an attempt in that direction.

Book Details

Author: Kamlesh Mandavia ‘Shyam’
Print Length: 42
Book format: Pdf
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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Awareness by Anthony de Mello

Awareness

a de Mello spirituality conference in his own words

In a captivating, worldwide ministry, Anthony de Mello touched thousands through his workshops, conferences and retreats on achieving peace and happiness through increased spiritual awareness. De Mello’s comprehensive course on the spiritual life is collected here for the first time as he presented it.

Book Details

Author: Anthony de Mello
Print Length: 85
Publisher: AN IMAGE BOOK
Original source: http://www.arvindguptatoys.com
Submitted by: Website Visitor
Book format: Pdf
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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Phenomenology of Perception by Merleau-Ponty

Phenomenology of Perception

Phenomenology of Perception (French: Phénoménologie de la perception) is a 1945 book by the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, in which the author expounds his thesis of “the primacy of perception”. The work established Merleau-Ponty as the pre-eminent philosopher of the body, and is considered a major statement of French existentialism. The relationship between Phenomenology of Perception and Merleau-Ponty’s late, unfinished work has received much scholarly discussion. An English translation by Colin Smith was published in 1962; another English translation, by Donald Landes, was published in 2013.

Book Details

Author: Merleau-Ponty
Print Length: 569
Publisher: Routledge
Original source: http://alfa-omnia.com/resources/Phenomenology+of+Perception.pdf
Submitted by: Website Visitor
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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