Education

Lifelong Learning

“Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.” — The Mother

Towards Unending Education

Rooted in the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and supported through the work of SAIIER since 1984, Auroville’s educational landscape is diverse, dynamic, and deeply human. At its heart lies Integral Education, an approach that seeks to develop all parts of the being: physical, vital, mental — and organise these around the psychic centre, with the spiritual quest for meaning and purpose.

SAIIER nurtures this vision through a constellation of schools, learning environments, and long-term experiments that span from early childhood to lifelong learning.Each initiative under the umbrella of SAIIER grows from the soil of sincerity, freedom, and self-discovery.

“The aim of education is not to prepare a man to suceed in life and society, but to increase his perfectibility to its utmost."

Sri Aurobindo, Savitri — A Legend and a Symbol

Integral Education

Unfolding one’s possibilities

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother called for an education that develops the full human being:

“Education to be complete must have five principal aspects corresponding to the five principal activities of the human being: the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual. Usually, these phases of education follow chronologically the growth of the individual; this, however, does not mean that one of them should replace another, but that all must continue, completing one another until the end of his life.”
“Every human being carries hidden within him the possibility of a greater consciousness which goes beyond the bounds of his present life and enables him to share in a higher and a vaster life. What the human mental consciousness does not know and cannot do, this consciousness knows and does. It is like a light that shines at the centre of the being, radiating through the thick coverings of the external consciousness.”

Last School to No School

A progression from structure to self-mastery

The Mother’s handwritten messages for Auroville suggest a natural progression, naming the schools that would be built in Auroville “Last School”, “After School”, “Super School” and “No School”. This outline describes an evolution in learning that moves from structured guidance to self-discovery. While Last School has existed as an Auroville school since 1985, the others are yet ideas, descriptions of ways of engaging with the world, open to anyone anywhere. SAIIER’s educational units use these different approaches – from the more structured to the more free – as appropriate to their specific aims and context.

Towards Lifelong Learning

A city where all life is learning

In Auroville, the aspiration to grow does not end at youth; all work and activities can be taken as means for personal and spiritual growth. As The Mother wrote:

“Auroville is created to realise the ideal of Sri Aurobindo who taught us the Karma Yoga. Auroville is for those who want to do the Yoga of work.”

From teacher education and cultural centres to adult choirs, language circles, and community learning hubs, continuing education for developing one’s faculties and learning with others is woven into the rhythm of daily life.

“We are not here to repeat what others have done, but to prepare ourselves for the blossoming of a new consciousness and a new life. That is why I address myself to you, the students, that is, to all who wish to learn, to learn always more and always better, so that one day you may be capable of opening yourselves to the new force and of giving it the possibility of manifesting on the physical plane. For that is our programme and we must not forget it. To understand the true reason why you are here, you must remember that we want to become instruments that are as perfect as possible, instruments that express the divine will in the world. And if the instruments are to be perfect, they must be cultivated, educated, trained.”