Sri Aurobindo's 3 Principles On True Teaching & Education

... Kehte hain kastoori hiran ke pet mein kastoori hoti hai jiski khushboo hiran ko pagal kar deti hai... woh saari umr uss khushboo ki talaash mein baukhlaya, badhawaas, deewana sa daudta hai par kabhi samajh nahi pata ki ye khushboo toh usske andar hi hai... Aur ek din zindagi khatam ho jaati hai par talaash nahi... Hamaari education ki kahaani bhi shayad kuchh aisi hi na ho! 

I think Sri Aurobindo's 3 principles are the best thing ever said on the subject of education and teaching.  The principles are very fundamental in context, very universal in relevance and very Indian in origin. Hardly surprising as Indians are known to be teachers to the world since ancient times, though we might  have lost  our touch a bit in last couple of centuries...

Interestingly, much of the latest research on education and learning the world over resonates very well with these principles, which were proposed some 90 years back in 1920s... 

1st Principle... Nothing can be taught – But everything can be learnt! This principle immediately shifts the focus from the teacher to the student and from 'how to teach' to 'how best can the people learn'

2nd Principle... Mind must be consulted in its own growth - Shifts focus from ‘we-know-what’s-good-for-you syllabus’ (to be drilled into the student) to making the student participate in a flexible delivery and learning process. The teacher is more of a facilitator or a guide here. 

3rd Principle... Take the mind from (work from) what is near to what is far, from that which is to that which shall be – Suggests that the first step in learning is to establish a context which is familiar / relatable / non-threatening / relevant to the student from his own view point. This ensures that the resistance is low and motivation is high. The mind is enthused to take the journey now!

If you think about these, you will realize that these are not merely three principles. They are a complete philosophy, structure, framework and design template for any effective education program at any level anywhere in the world. Most education and training initiatives fail when they fail on one or more of the above principles. 

India has a huge 'demographic dividend' they say. Which means that while the average age in most of the societies is increasing, we have 50% polulation < 25 years and 65% population <35 years of age. That being so, we will be the largest global workforce providers in future (not to mention leveraging this advantage to drive sustained economic growth within India) 

However, for that, these people need to be educated, trained and adequately skilled for the jobs and vocations of the future. If not, there is a serious danger of increasing social inequality and unrest resulting in the 'demographic dividend' turning into a 'demographic disaster' of gargantuan proportions.

Obviously, this is being realized and some initiatives have already been taken. Targets are set and budgets - lakhs of crores of rupees - committed under the 12th five year plan... Millions of kids between 6 to 14 years to be provided free and quality education under Right to Education Act (Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan), about a lakh of crore committed to higher education reforms and increasing its penetration, about 50 crore people are targeted to be trained in various technical, professional and vocational skills by 2022...

And this is where it starts becoming scary. If you sit in any of these high profile seminars, meetings, national round tables and sub-committees organized by the many empowered government, semi-government and quasi-government bodies on various aspects of education and training (as sometimes I do) and listen to the deliberations (or the lack of them) among some of the brightest minds in the country, you are bound to have that sinking feeling that something is amiss... bigtime.

And yet you only have to apply the framework of the three principles and you will see very clearly what is wrong and why most of these and similar initiatives have never delivered on their promise and probably never will.

The way I see it is that nowhere in the world was there ever a need for teaching / training so many people in so many areas with so much of diversity in so many languages with so much urgency... Hence, the solutions that will work for us are just not available anywhere else in the world. We have to create them on our own and in all probability, they will be unprecedented in the world.

And yet we are looking outside for workable models - to US, Europe, Singapore, China, etc. - whereas, in Sri Aurobindo's 3 Principle framework, we already have all the wisdom to find all our answers and solve all our problems. 

But of course, for that we have to open our eyes, apply our hearts and minds, and take responsibility for our own destiny...

Dance of Creation... Learning and Growth

Trans Conscient Learning... TCL

Trans Conscient Learning (TCL) is a unique approach to teaching, training, coaching and facilitation which causes a dramatic and sustainable shift in people. “Conscient” is a term combining the spirit of “Conscious” and “Sentient”. The TCL method, therefore, goes beyond conscious thought and subconscious programming, and is one of the most powerful and effective ways to create a lasting shift in people and groups.

  

The Dance of Creation : Getting to Know The TCL Facilitator

We are all knowledgeable people. Because that is what, somewhere deep within ourselves we believe in. And, may be, rightly so. We have worked hard and have acquired all that knowledge through experience, application, experimentation and study. 

But with knowledge comes pride. Pride in our own definition of who we are.  Our knowledge is a good ego massage. Indeed, often it is the knowledge we possess, the “known” that we have – which is the source of our ego and identity in the first place.

Knowledge is also security. A nice cocoon within which we can be comfortable in being who we are and be protected from the unsuspected dangers of the unfamiliar.

Nothing wrong or right about it. It’s just the way we are all made as human beings. However, as a TCL facilitator, you are someone who chooses not to operate out of knowledge while, at the same time, constantly building the reservoir of knowledge.

A TCL facilitator operates from the space of love, commitment and care rather than a space of knowledge and pride. He chooses to be driven by people he is working with – their mental and emotional states. He is not occupied by what he has to give. His only commitment is how people get what they need to get at that point in time.

He is not there to prove a point. His only purpose is to truly serve. He taps his own reservoirs of knowledge only if it is needed and always for the purpose of serving – nothing else. For him, knowledge is an invaluable slave but a hopeless master. And so you will often find him transcending his own knowledge barriers and dancing freely in the space of unknown and unfamiliar – the dance of creation which is the source of his work.

At this stage he has transcended the trappings of his own ego and identity.  He soars freely and is somehow connected to bigger sources of knowledge and inspiration which are otherwise unavailable to him. It is in this space that the magic happens.

I am sure you all have experienced this to varying degrees in the course of your work. I have myself had many wonderful experiences and each of those experiences have, some way or the other, contributed to my own growth. I have experienced a few things whenever I am in this state –

v  Assumptions and judgments are automatically kept aside. All conscious thought is kept aside and I allow my deep subconscious to manifest.

v  I say and do whatever emerges spontaneously from deep within me.

v  There is no stiffness, no fear, no ‘performance anxiety’. I can truly play to the hilt and have lot of fun.

v  Everything is allowed to flow in the trust that whatever comes up is OK. Intuition can truly function now.

v  I am very comfortable with my body. Physically I can do much more than I thought myself capable of.

v  I am very comfortable with my feelings and emotions. I can express myself 100% effortlessly.

v  My breathing is deep and regular and sometimes I find myself in an almost meditative state.

v  My attention is 100% focused.

At times, I feel like a master conduit through which the group is getting connected through a bigger source somewhere. A source that is neither understood by me nor do I feel any need to understand it. I feel the source as grace.

When you express from your subconscious, it is often not possible for others to hold on to their own conscious makeup for too long and soon they also start operating from their deeper being … without fear and inhibitions… there is an instant connection between all the subconscious in that space which resonates together to increase the overall energy of the group…

This phenomenon (perhaps what Jung calls counter transference) is the very source which creates the context or space for any meaningful work to happen. And once that space is established and you are able to hold that context, the content, whatever it may be, automatically becomes immensely powerful.

It is in this space that the growth and development of the participants as well as the facilitator is inevitable.

Therefore, to my mind, the only objective and obligation of a teacher or a trainer should be to create this space – sourcing it out of himself; and learning to be a TCL facilitator is nothing but to diligently work out the ability to do so…anytime, at will.

I wonder how many teachers, trainers and facilitators even see this as a possibility. If not, where will you stand when the business of information and knowledge transfer is usurped by Google Dev, and better for that!

As a good facilitator, you are like a mid-wife. Which is to say that you are 

neither the father nor the mother and the birth might well happen without you. 

However, without you the whole process would be far more agonizing for everyone!

To facilitate is to catalyze a creative process...

A Tribute To All My Teachers...

"We are all like match sticks. We carry our fire within us but only as a possibility. We have to come to the match box surface, to grind ourselves in and bang our heads for the fire to come out. And a true teacher is like that – a match box surface..."

I believe everyone has at least one blessing in his or her life. Mine has been that God brought great teachers into my life. Many of them were formal teachers, yet many were those who presented themselves at various times in my life and taught great, invaluable lessons.

So, I was luckier than most in that aspect. However, I am sure that we can all look back at our lives and will be able to locate that one teacher who had that great impression on us and somewhere shaped who we are. These were the people who gave more and more without expecting anything in return. At least in their relationship with us, they gave out of love and they often gave of themselves. No gratitude expressed is enough for these great men and women, who, neither rich nor famous, will always hold the highest pedestal of reverence in my heart.

They say that human mind cannot distinguish between memory and imagination. To it, an actual experience and an imagined experience are quite the same (which really explains why positive thinking, visualization techniques and many other therapies work!)

As I look back at many of these teachers now after a gap of years and decades, the mind gets muddled in the detail of things. The line between what actually happened and the interpretation of what happened blurs. However, the impressions of what happened, to whatever degree they are accurate (and I should like to believe that they mostly are), are very real and sharp in my mind. And since it’s these impressions, and not necessarily the truth, which has remained with me and shaped my life, I would like to share some of them.

Year 1977-78, Jaipur, me about 11 years and in class 7…

Ms Anuradha Pandit is assigned our class as a young English teacher. Now, we were from that generation of ‘Hindi medium’ middle class people where English was actually a foreign language, a chore and something which had to be endured and scraped through. But that changed soon with Ms Pandit. Her classes used to be one fun filled riot. She would play pranks with us and occasionally even whistle!... We had a game where all of us had to speak in English and anybody using a Hindi word was fined 10p (the penalty always accrued but never collected). Hers was one class in the whole day everyone looked forward to.

And of course she taught. Taught better than many. But more importantly, she made me interested in a subject for the first time in my life. Before that you studied something because you were told to do so, you wanted to impress your parents and teachers, or whatever. For the first time I studied because I enjoyed doing so.

Personally, what I learnt from her, looking back, is the importance of engagement and fun in teaching. She was the first of the great teachers in my life and a smile comes on my face whenever I think of her and those years.

Year 1981-82, Delhi, me about 14 years and in class 9…

The session had just started. We were sitting in the class waiting for the new History teacher, someone who had come on transfer and had just joined the school.

By class 9th, it was clear that we were the ‘science’ types. There was neither any interest nor motivation to study History and the past experience with the subject was nothing to talk about. I think many kids, even if they were sure shot ‘arts’ cases felt the same and it was one bunch of 45 disinterested, lackadaisical and sleepy children awaiting the new teacher in a sultry July afternoon.

And the teacher walks in. He was one extremely fair, short and rotund guy in mid-thirties whose aspect ratio might have been rather uncommonly exaggerated for a human male. He had a kind face and mischievous eyes.

Plonk! He raised himself and sat on the table, facing us. He looked like someone who loved teaching and belonged, every inch of his girth, in that class at that moment.

And thus spake M Tahir Nayyar…

History is His (Mankind’s) Story and I will tell you the story.

Kitaaben band, copiyaan band… Mein kahaani sunaoonga aur tum sunna… Par kitaab padhte rahna kyonki main test mein sawaal kitaab mein se poochhoonga… Kitaab mein kuchh na samajh mein aaye toh bejhijak poochhna… Lekin ek shart hai… Mujhse ye na poochhna ki Hindustan kab aazad hua… Kyonki ye har kitaab mein likha hai aur ye poochhne ka matlab hai ki tumne kitab nahi padhi… Mujhse ye poochhna ki Hindustan 15 August 1947 ko hi kyon aazad hua, 14 ko kyon nahi aur 16 ko kyo nahi?

Only Tahir sir could have said that. What command over his subject, what love for the kids and what a story-teller!

I can still visualize people standing on the deck throwing cartons and boxes of tea into the sea! That’s how vivid ‘Boston Tea Party’ of 1773 and the whole of American Revolution is in my mind even today.

It was some coincidence that in 1989 when I joined Hindustan Zinc Ltd. at Zawar Mines after my B.Tech. he was the principal of the Central School there. He stayed there for one more year before he was transferred to Dehradoon but during that one year, I had a free access to his house. If I did not go for 2 days, he will call the third. Though his own children were much too small at that time, he loved me as his own…

I recently learnt that he passed away few years back and the world is much the poorer because they hardly make such teachers any more.

June 1991, me 23 years, in first class compartment of Chetak Express coming from Udaipur to Delhi on LTC…

The cabin had four berths. I occupied one of the lower berths and was waiting for the train to depart. It was still half an hour before the train left. The evening breeze was building up and felt good on my tired, sweaty face. Leaning on the window, I lit a cigarette and closed my eyes…

Images. Last few months had been bad. I was feeling suffocated at Zawar Mines. The lead-zinc mining township of Hindustan Zinc Ltd. had a population of about 25000. It was located 8 km off Udaipur Ahmedabad highway, about 45 km from Udaipur. Practically, it was a hilly adivasi area essentially in the middle of nowhere.

The plant was old, the technology nowhere close to what I studied in Engineering, the politics was as petty as it was stifling and the salary? Class I officer grade used to be ‘baees sau se chaar hazaar’. With Rs. 1064/- basic, I used to get less than Rs. 2000/- (after deductions, etc) every month for my life locked into the endless A-B-C shift misery.

The economic crisis was yet to hit India, Dr. Manmohan Singh was hardly a known name and liberalization was a word very few were acquainted with. For someone brought up in Delhi, I just could not see myself spending the next 35 years of my life in this back of beyond.

I had been telling my seniors for some months that I will leave before completing 2 years here. They used to laugh at me telling they felt the same when they initially joined. Now those guys were around for 15 year, married, kids… settled. I had joined HZL on 1st July 1989. This was June 1991. Time was running out…

Yet, what could I do? I had taken some MBA entrance exams but could not get through. The shift duties never really agreed with me and it was physically beyond me to put any decent study hours for the preparation.

Chucking the job that too a government (PSU) job was too much a risk back then for our middle-class (actually lower middle-class if you consider the salary that a government officer – my dad – used to get in those days!) situation and sensibilities.

So, here I was pensive and smoking, leaning on a train window. You could actually put a Dev Anand Hum Dono song as a voice over to that visual – main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, har fikr ko dhuen mein udata chala gaya… Only the fikr was more adamant in my case!

Two guys entered the coupe. Both in their mid-thirtees.

One was this heavy set giant of a man of about 6 ft 3 or 4 inches. The other was a more normal packaging. The train started. The two gents chatted for some time and then the ‘normal’ guy retired to the upper berth.

I could make out from their conversation (clarified further later by my giant friend) that they were both architects working for Udaipur town planning department and were going to Jaipur for some official work.

As soon as it was night, my friend took out a bottle of rum, some cola and namkeen and invited me to join him. The invitation was as earnest as it was tempting. I could not refuse. There was also no reason to…

Intimacy comes fast when the spirits are high! I do not remember what we talked or how we got down discussing my particular predicament but that’s the topic which consumed most of the evening. Considering my state of mind at the time and the magical effects of rum, it might have been an outpouring!

What I do remember very clearly is my senior friend telling me….. if you think you are not doing justice to the job and the job is not doing justice to you, it is criminal to continue. Leave NOW!... A worthy life may be tough but it is still better than a life of unceasing compromise… Do not imagine it will be easy. Your family and friends may call you a fool, numerable hardships may come but no compromise… For there is nothing nobler or more spectacular than a man living his life on his own terms with courage and conviction… and willing to pay the price…

With these impressions I dozed off. When I got up in the morning he was gone. I don’t even know his name nor I ever went back to enquire about him at Udaipur. But almost as a tribute to him, I reached Delhi and never quite went back to my job. It was 30th June 1991, precisely 2 years from the date of my joining HZL!

The least I can say is that conversation and the subsequent action changed my life forever and continue to shape it today. Though some people close to me would rather have it otherwise!

Thank you sir. Hope to meet you some day…

I hope that some day I will be able to touch a life like that! That would be a fitting tribute to all my teachers... Till then, let's remember them all. 

(This post is previously published in one of my other blogs)