Author: Beloo Mehra
Release Date: August 10, 2026
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Integral Life Center, Auro University, Surat
In the month of August 2026, Auro University launched its bi-annual publication, Auro Journal of Integral Education, which is devoted to the study and practice of Integral Education as envisioned by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The journal aims to provide an academic and reflective platform for scholars, educators, and practitioners engaged in exploring holistic approaches to education that foster the integral development of the human personality—physical, vital, mental, psychic, and spiritual.
The inaugural issue on the theme “Integral Education in the Light of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother” was launched on August 10, 2026. For this issue, Dr. Beloo Mehra was invited to submit an article. She is also serving as an esteemed member of the AJIE’s Editorial Board.
Dr. Mehra’s article was titled – Dharma and Education for a New India: Insights from Sri Aurobindo.
Abstract
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 opens new possibilities for Indianising education and aligning it more closely with India’s civilizational vision, but it also carries significant conceptual and practical gaps when examined from the standpoint of Sri Aurobindo’s thought on national education. A truly Indian education must be rooted in the evolving soul of India and in the Indian understanding of the human being as a soul in evolution whose life-aim is self-knowledge and self-realisation.
Drawing on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, this article highlights three key themes for a dharma-centric education: (a) grounding national education in a deeper Indian conception of the individual, the nation, and humanity; (b) recognising the learner as a soul-in-evolution and organising w-holistic education around the psychic being; and (c) rethinking policy and practice in light of the Indian idea of dharma as the inner law of being that harmonises the individual and collective. It is argued that psychic education, understood as an education for inner discovery and self-knowledge that transcends narrow notions of secularism and religion, is indispensable if Indian education is to become truly dharmic and integral in spirit.
Keywords: Dharma, Sri Aurobindo, Indian education, NEP 2020, psychic education, integral
education
For full copy of the article, email <[email protected]>