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The Abundant Life
A Review Essay
By
MARGARET
WILEY
MARSHALL
EDUCATION
FOR FULNESS:
A STUDY OF THE EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT
EXPERIMENT
OF RABINDRANATH
TAGORE,
by H. B. Mukherjee. New
York: Asia Publishing House, I962.
xvi+495
PP. $i6.oo.
AND
This carefully documented study of
the educational philosophy and practice of the Bengali poet Rabindranath
Tagore is at once a challenging manifesto of educational theory and an
admirable introduction to the fundamental balance of the Indian mind.
Tagore wrote and lectured about
education for approximately fifty
years, from I892 until his death
in I94I.
During the last forty of
those years he experimented with
education on all levels-elementary,
secondary, university, and adult-at
Santiniketan (near Calcutta), the site
of the present Visva-Bharati University.
In violent reaction against the
joylessness, confinement, and woodenness of his own early education and in
fulfillment of his groping desire to
expand his poetic vision of the world
to include all men, Tagore began in
to expose a few "difficult" boys
i9oi
to very informal education in a forest
setting reminiscent of the aframs of
ancient India, where they could live
in sympathetic harmony with nature,
with their teacher, and with each
other, and where learning could grow
out of their shared life.
This realization of kindredship[sic] with
the vast Cosmicworld throughthe senses,
through the intellect, and through the
spirit is, according to Tagore, India's
unique-contribution to the world and is
the highest attainment according to
Indian thought.
This is the kind of fulness referred to
in the book's title. " 'The aim of
education is to realize fully through
knowledge and action the entire purpose of human life.' "
The implementation of this broad
aim fanned out from the co-ordination
of the varied cultures of India with
the cultures of all Asia, and thence to
ultimate intercultural sympathy and
understanding between East and West
-and all this in terms not of the
production of an intellectual elite (as
encouraged by British educators) but
of a pervasive and broad-based education which should reach the lowliest
peasant in the village in proportion to
his ability to take advantage of it.
Because these were the educational
aims of a poet, they do not sound like
a mere reiteration of the general aims
of all educationists (and indeed they
contrast markedly in tone with the
quoted statements of Western educators). For Tagore, his teaching was
a kind of expanded lyrical poem, and
thus an extension of his own ever
growing personality.
The function of the tapovan or forest
colony in education was to provide an
atmosphere of purity, simplicity, and
sublimity in which what was elsewhere
intellectualized into science, art, and
other disciplines could be seen in
proper perspective and in relation to
the oneness of the life of the universe
-human and non-human. Truly creative activity, Tagore thought, pre-
462
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463
REVIEW ESSAY
supposes a unity with all human
beings as well as with the world of
nature. For this reason he believed
the atmosphere in which education
was conducted to be of fundamental
importance. He was realistic enough
as both poet and educator to recognize
the essential unteachability of the
human mind, and therefore he relied
upon the subtler influences which, as
Emerson said, teach over our heads.
Set against this high standard, much
of contemporary teaching seems a
gloomy affair.
There are significant implications
for the secularism which America
shares, in principle, with India in
what Tagore has to say about religious education, which he believes demands that we "'open the mind toMukherjee
wards the universe.'"
says,
"I believe," he observed, "that children
have their subconsciousmind more active
than their consciousintelligence. A vast
quantity of the most important of our
lessons has been taught to us throughthis.
Experiencesof countless generationshave
beeninstilledinto our natureby its agency,
not only without causing us any fatigue,
but giving us joy. This subconscious
faculty of knowledge is completely one
with our life."
it is through the principle of joy that true
religious education is possible; for true
religious education, according to Tagore,
consists in the realization of the principle
of joy that subsists in the heart of the
Universe. As God is the culmination and
consummation of all joy, it is through joy
that God can be realized. Therein lies
true salvation according to the teachings
of Indian philosophy. It is because of all
these inestimable values that the central
problem of education, according to Tagore,
was how to wed joy to knowledge.
Hence he leaned heavily upon "'the
sub-conscious remembrance of some
primeval dwelling-place' " (what Jung
would call the temenos) and attributed
to its calm beauty the unrest experienced in cities and amidst "'the
complexity and costliness' " of modern
life.
Central to this atmosphere of freeflowing life is the guru (teacher, preceptor), who is " 'an ever-alert human
mind, . . . always giving itself away,
because it is always realizing itself.
The proof of his joy of receiving lies in
his joy of giving.'" The reader has
the feeling that even if faced by a
teacher shortage, Tagore would maintain that unjoyous teachers should
look for other jobs:
"When one mind can establish true concord with other minds, spontaneousjoy
results. Such joy is creative. The education imparted in an asram is a gift of
this joy. Those who are actuated only
by a sense of duty without this joy should
find other vocations. The reciprocaleasy
relationshipbetween the teacher and the
pupil has been regardedby me as the most
important medium of education."
It is thus obvious that for him the
highest and truest education is essentially religious, and needs for its implements little that is artificial or
contrived.
"What is really necessary is neither temples nor external rites and rituals. We
want the asram, where the clear beauty
of Nature combined with the pure pursuits
of the human mind has created a sacred
site for worthy endeavours. Nature and
the human spirit wedded together shall
constitute our temple, and selfless good
deeds our worship. . . . Such a spot, if
found, shall provide the true atmosphere
for religious education. For, as I have
said before, according to the mysteries of
human nature, religious education is
possible only in the natural atmosphere of
piety; all artificial means only pervert or
obstruct it."
What, then, did Tagore think of
books and their function in education?
Like other great educational writers
Carlyle, Emerbefore him-Milton,
son-he condemns the use of books,
like clothes, when they come between
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464
JOURNAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION
us and nature or between our minds
and life, when " 'we touch the world
not with our mind but with our
books,'" and hence live out a joyless
existence in a realm of shadows.
Finally, Tagore recommends that the
superstition about the importance and
infallibility of books has got to be eradicated from the minds of children by
leadingthem to learndirectlyfromNature
and life or from lively teachers and to
record their observations independently
so as to write their own books.
The single most revolutionary, and
yet the wisest, piece of educational advice contained in this book (and one
which turns up in several places)
grows out of Tagore's recognition that
' 'life never travels in a straight line' "
and that the human being is educated
by both sorrow and happiness, discipline and freedom. "'Under such
that the mad pursuit of success in power
and wealthin modernlife has dehumanized
man by starving his spirit-has evoked
favorableresponsein thoughtfulcirclesall
over the world.
Thus throughout the book one can
see Tagore, in true Indian fashion,
balancing an emphasis upon method
against a repudiation of methods, national against international education,
instruction in the mother tongue
against retention of English, use of
Hindu symbols against a campaign to
uproot superstitions, the creative arts
against scientific experimentation. In
the case of each pair of opposites, it
was the goal of fulness which guided
him and the determination never to
discard what could contribute to the
enrichment of the human spirit. Hence
it is understandable that Tagore
should have differed with Gandhi
concerning the practice of non-violence, which sometimes resulted in
great violence, and the practice of
non-co-operation in a world which was
perishing for the lack of co-operation.
Instead, Tagore turned to the Upanishads for the reinforcement of his conception of "education for fulness":
. . . He never remains obscure who
regardsall creatureslike himself and finds
conditions,'
" he says, "'true
educa-
tion consists in giving man a violent
pull towards the opposite direction
when he is found to incline too much
towards any particular side.'" This
is not only the fundamental principle
of Tagore's educational method but
also the basis of his vision of EastWest co-operation.
. . . It is preciselyin this synthesis of the
claims of the flesh and the spirit, of the
earth and heaven, of the so-called materialism of the West and the so-called
spiritualismof the East, that the value of
Tagore's philosophy lies. His forceful
acclamation that practical efficiency is
never synonymouswith true culture, and
himself reflected in all creation.
. .
. He
lies lost who confines himself to his own
self; he attains self-expressionwho realizes
himselfin all.
MARGARET
WILEY
MARSHALL
is a
professor of English at Brooklyn College.
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