The Winds of Wonder

Actually, the very first principle of education is: Nothing can be taught to anybody. One has to learn for oneself. A student is not taught anything; he is simply helped to study things for himself. There are no examinations conducted, there are no tests, no degrees awarded, the pace of progress is entirely determined by the inherent capacity and commitment of a student.

The Library is an imposing architectural marvel, lotus-shaped, with a thousand petals, burning like a flame of orange-gold intensity. It rises from basement to the sky-touching ceiling of purest knowledge brought from blazing reserves of the sun. There are leather-bound books on every subject, esoteric and secular, books belonging to the most ancient civilisations, the origin of languages, sound carrying the sense when grammar comes naturally with it. It looks as though the origin of the language lies somewhere in the past cycles of the highly evolved creation. The very concept of logic and philosophy and mind management is but only a small part of the total system. The integrality is in the prospects of post-human developments.

Physical education is an central aspect of studentship in the Academy. In the evening each member of the Academy is committed to one or the other type of physical activity, — gymnastics, body-building, games, swimming, athletics, when the events are not to win prizes in competitive measures, but to foster body responses in the development of its culture. It is a

state of perfection, an elegance, a beauty of body’s expression, of its joy, its realisation that brings realisations. Not by doing a 6.21m Pole Vault that the laurels are won; every measure of the vault is perfection, every second of a 100-m race is perfection. The only Derby that is fixed is tranquil floating lightness the being experiences after the event, a flooding in of glad energy.

And what is perfection in its ultimate sense? It is the fourfold realisation in every effort and activity. It has the awareness of the totality of the working; it has the strength and power to overcome every difficulty and every obstacle; it has the harmony of relationship with every limb and member of the organ; it has skill that wins every gauge and measure. Such an ideal of perfection in turn embraces in it every component that comes from the very constituents that build it up.

There is the sweetest and the most beautiful æsthetic delight in doing flower arrangement, in gardening, in watering the plants, in bird-watching and understanding their calls, and listening to the music that flows from the petals and the stems and the sage-grass, a sense of participation, and that is what has to be cultivated, not for commercial gains, but to invite the goddess of exquisiteness to come and dwell in the room, even as would float rosewood incense all around. That would mean, the truth of knowledge is in the smile of beauty.

There is the distinguished generosity. It is to feel happy when a comrade is successful in doing something which was considered impossible; there is an act of chivalry in which one is willing to sacrifice everything in unselfishness. That beauty is full of joy. What is to be assured of is, there has to be sympathy and sense of commitment for the cause in serving which no pain in a small way is taken. The driving force is, carry out the work, carry out the mission, for which this Academy of Tomorrow was created. Discover yourself, grow in flourishing life.

There are times when a great Power places before it one work, one aim to which everything else however high and noble in itself has to be set aside. Such time is here in the Topland Park. Whatever has to be, has to be by the strong luminous will as a result of constant expansion and self-perfecting. Constant expansion and self-perfecting — that is the magic, that is the preparation. In it are present the seeds of crimson glowing success, the glad triumph-seeds.

That cannot be done in a few days, perhaps needed is the long commitment running into a couple of committed stays, if one goes by the occult reckoning. The preparation is, not to get the sunlight from the sun in the unreachable sky, but to let that sun burn and blaze in the domestic hearth itself, to be able to bear its splendour and its intensity. It is the possibility for which the material-physical has to be kept ready.

Then the apples in the orchard smile in their reddening tinge. The rich ocean of milk and honey heaves to the unobserved moon. Breeze plays with luxurious chanting breeze and carries its song everywhere. A new sun then rises in the sky.

Oh the word has taken a body in the silence where appears new life.

From some far invisible place have come silent tunes of the song of silence. Silence has started gathering silence as peal multi-toned bells. There are gem-true smiles of silence enhancing the calm all around, and flower-fresh and stream-happy and mountain-tall. From the dewdrop of hush leap a rainbow of sound, sounds of silence, creative silence.

There are silences so deep that one could hear the journeys of the stars, one could hear the journeys of souls, silences which give meaning and substance to the urging spirit, give in the world of truth and joy to beauty the flame of topaz-bright love. Luminous creative silence hugs luminous creative silence, and all is changed.

The Book of Love: The Story of Françesca and Leon