I hold that true education of the intellect can
only come through a proper exercise and training of the bodily organs, e.g.
hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, etc. In other words an intelligent use of the
bodily organs in a child provides the best and quickest way of developing his
intellect. But unless the development of the mind and body goes hand in hand
with a corresponding awakening of the soul, the former alone would prove to be a
poor lop-sided affair. By spiritual training I mean education of the heart. A
proper and all-round development of the mind, therefore, can take place only
when it proceeds pari passu with the education of the physical and spiritual
faculties of the child. They constitute an indivisible whole. According to this
theory, therefore, it would be a gross fallacy to suppose that they can be
developed piecemeal or independently of one another.
The baneful effects of absence of proper co-ordination and harmony among the various faculties of body, mind and soul respectively are obvious. They are all around us; only we have lost perception
of them owing to our present perverse associations. Take the case of our village
folk. From their childhood upward they toil and labour in their fields from
morning till night like their cattle in the midst of whom they live. Their
existence is a weary, endless round of mechanical drudgery unrelieved by a spark
of intelligence or higher grace of life. Deprived of all scope for developing
their mind and soul, they have sunk to the level of the beast. Life to them is a
sorry bungle which they muddle through anyhow. On the other hand, what goes by
the name of education in our schools and colleges in the cities today is in
reality only intellectual dissipation. Intellectual training is there looked
upon as something altogether unrelated to manual or physical work. But since the
body must have some sort of physical exercise to keep it in health, they vainly
try to attain that end by means of an artificial and otherwise barren system of
physical culture which would be ridiculous beyond words if the result was not so
tragic. The young man who emerges from this system can in no way compete in
physical endurance with an ordinary labourer. The slightest physical exertion
gives him headache ; a mild exposure to the sun is enough to cause him
giddiness. And what is more, all this is looked upon as quite 'natural'. As for
the faculties of the heart, they are simply allowed to run to seed or to grow
anyhow in a wild undisciplined manner. The result is moral and spiritual
anarchy. And it is regarded as something laudable.
As against this, take the case of a child in whom the education of the heart is attended to from the very beginning. Supposing he is set to some useful occupation like spinning, carpentry, agriculture etc. for this education, and in that connection is given a thorough comprehensive
knowledge relating to the theory of the various operations that he is to
perform, and the use and construction of the tools that he would be wielding. He
would not only develop a fine, healthy body but also a sound, vigorous intellect
that is not merely academic but is firmly rooted in and is tested from day to
day by experience. His intellectual education would include a knowledge of
mathematics and the various sciences that are useful for an intelligent and
efficient exercise of his avocation. If to this is added literature by way of
recreation, it would give him a perfect well-balanced, all-round education in
which the intellect, the body and the spirit have all full play and develop
together into a natural, harmonious whole. Man is neither mere intellect, nor
the gross animal body, nor the heart or soul alone. A proper and harmonious
combination of all the three is required for the making of the whole man and
constitutes the true economics of education.
Harijan, 8-5-1937