SRI AUROBINDO DARSHAN:

THE UNIVERSITY OF TOMORROW

Sri Aurobindo Darshan: The University of Tomorrow (TUT) is the educational wing of Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research. TUT provides effective in-depth instruction and guidance of student-directed research into the teachings and spiritual ideals of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in such areas as spiritual philosophy, integral yoga, social and political evolution, futurology, poetry and literature, Indian culture and spiritual scriptures.

The University of Tomorrow has drawn together numerous scholars pursuing their research and creative work related to these ideals. It offers programmes of study in two modalities, through distance education (i.e. correspondence) and through “online instruction” provided over the internet. As an “online university,” it seeks to utilize the best possibilities of the internet to provide a combination of academic excellence and spiritual depth to students in an effective, affordable, and convenient manner. It aims to be a true university of the future seeking solutions to the difficulties of human existence through the integration of man’s instrumental nature of mind, life and body with his higher spiritual possibilities.

Learners from all over the world devote themselves to the knowledge of the spiritual foundations for the future, following Certificate, Master's and Doctoral level programmes of study. Several of the programmes developed by TUT are presently being offered in collaboration with other universities which grant degrees and certificates to the successful students after completion of these programmes. TUT seeks to consecrate itself to the discovery and practice of the fundamental principles of a new society that embodies and expresses a new consciousness.

The University of Tomorrow has assembled a talented faculty from India and abroad that are the facilitators of the courses. Our programmes and courses provide learners with a structured program of study, and the support and guidance of doctoral-level facilitators who have expertise in the material. Generally, courses are taught in a group email-like format, and are structured with specific weekly reading assignments, discussions stimulated with the facilitator’s questions, writing assignments, and tests. We have learned that properly designed online courses are effective, because unlike oral lectures, students have the opportunity to spend the time needed with material and return to it as often as necessary to understand and digest it. At the same time, learners can more readily identify those particular aspects of the course material that they do not understand and seek clarification from the facilitator in a relaxed and private atmosphere.

THE GENESIS

Professor Reddy was an inspired scholar who wrote prolifically on Indian philosophy and culture, specialising in Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's spiritual work for India and the world. He was also the founder of several educational institutions such as the Institute of Human Study, and Matridarshan.

(V. M. Reddy, The Alchemy of Her Grace, p.108).

The Mother was living at the time that the vision of the University came to Professor V. Madhusudhan Reddy and so it was to her that he wrote to ask whether the vision could indeed be realised. The relevant parts of the letter he wrote to the Mother are reproduced below:

“Ma, I am submitting at your Lotus Feet the programme of studies that the Institute of Human Study proposes to undertake during 1972-1973 …

Gracious Mother, since November 1971 I have been trying for the setting up of a Central University by the Government of India at Hyderabad named after Sri Aurobindo – truly a new University and a true University – a University without Walls. … there is a growing feeling in me that without waiting for or asking the government to set up such a University, the Institute itself should undertake this project and start it during the Centenary Year, especially in August. … It … shall try to evolve a system of education which will not be a system, but a dynamic movement, an endless expansion of knowledge. This world University centre, to start with, will have three departments:
I) Human Unity
II) Theatre of the Future
III) Philosophy or the Quest for Truth. These will be more like movements rather than departments.
… The students will have a flexible curriculum and a free and creative environment of study and learning. … If it meets with the Mother's Approval I have the following names at Her Lotus Feet for this project.
I) Sri Aurobindo Darshan: A World University Centre
II) Sri Aurobindo Darshan: The University of Tomorrow.”

(V. M. Reddy, The Alchemy of Her Grace, p.110)

The reply sent through the Managing Trustee of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram read as follows:

“Dear Dr Madhusudhan Reddy,

Your letter … has been placed before the Mother. The Mother has approved the following items …… The Mother has also approved the University project of the Institute. The name approved by the Mother is your second proposal: Sri Aurobindo Darshan: The University of Tomorrow. She has underlined [this name] and put Her blessing [upon it].”

(V. M. Reddy, The Alchemy of Her Grace, p.110)

The dream-vision of the University came to Professor V. Madhusudhan Reddy in 1971. By this time he had already started two educational centres: the Sri Aurobindo International School and the Institute of Human Study (I.H.S.), the latter being the main administrative hub of the various educational projects started by Professor Reddy. The Institute for Human Study is located in Hyderabad and was opened in December 1964 with the blessings of the Mother, who also accepted to be its permanent Honorary President.

Subsequently, on April 24th, 1998, the Institute of Human Study sponsored the establishment of the Sri Aurobindo Centre of Advanced Research (S.A.C.A.R.), a Charitable Trust, in Pondicherry, India. Sri Aurobindo Darshan: The University of Tomorrow is a project of S.A.C.A.R. and physically came into being in February 2004.

OUR OBJECTIVES

In the present condition of the world, the centre and foundation of people's lives and the chief concerns tend to be material. Although in India it is generally understood that the Divine Spirit is in fact the true nature, centre, and foundation of all life, due to changing fortunes and trends, the influence of a living and transforming spirituality in developing and organizing the material life has been hindered. Spiritual ideals tend to be sought outside the social life, and the latter is yet to find its true direction and method of progress. Each nation has its own problems and we therefore wish to provide a forum where the hiatus and reconciliation between spiritual and material existence, in all its many forms, can be studied and addressed. In this endeavour, the power of the idea, whether it is experientially based, intuitively conceived, or developed by an enlightened academic approach, will play an important and leading role. It is for this purpose that this University has been created.

The founder of the University, Professor V. Madhusudhan Reddy, had written out five objectives for this visionary project:

ACADEMIC VISION STATEMENT

"We… stand at the head of a new age of development which must lead to… a new and larger synthesis. We are not called upon to… create our spiritual life out of the being, knowledge and nature of others, of the men of the past, instead of building it out of our own being and potentialities. We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future. A mass of new material is flowing into us; we have not only to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and of the world… but to take full account of the potent though limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking….”

(Sri Aurobindo (SABCL , Vol.13, Essays on the Gita , p.8)

"An integral education which could, with some variations, be adapted to all the nations of the world, must bring back the legitimate authority of the Spirit over a matter fully developed and utilised.”

The Mother, 1965
 (in reference to the Education Commission, quoted in India and Her Destiny, p. 18)

OUR IDEAL

As an institution of integral higher education we pursue an aim and ideal of helping learners develop the psychological and intellectual faculties and skills required for them to know clearly, and to manifest, their highest ideals. We focus on the thought and vision of Sri Aurobindo, which comprise the best of Eastern and Western intellectual and spiritual traditions and philosophy. This grand synthesis, we believe, is extremely relevant to the modern world as it struggles to find its future and its new form and spirit.

With this central focus and starting point we aim to provide learners with what we consider to be a clear and comprehensive exposition of the spiritual bases of the new creation that is emerging, and of the role, destiny, and proper function of the human being in this process.

Our courses help learners acquire and develop abilities, potentials, ideas and ideals that help them envision a new future for themselves and the world. We encourage our learners to study widely, and to know other schools of thought and to compare these with the thought, work, and ideals of Sri Aurobindo.

We do not insist that our learners accept any particular teaching, practice, or point of view, and encourage a thoughtful and critical examination of all ideas.