~ Sri Aurobindo and Educating the Mind 
The instrument of the educationist is the mind or antaḥkaraṇa, which consists of 4 layers. The reservoir of past mental impressions, the citta or storehouse of memory, which must be distinguished from the specific act of memory, is the foundation on which other layers stand.
The passive memory or citta needs no training, it is automatic and naturally sufficient to its task; there is not the slightest object of knowledge coming within its field which is not secured, placed, and faultlessly preserved in that admirable receptacle.
The second layer is the mind proper or manas, in which all the others are gathered up. The function of this layer is to receive the images of things translated into sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch by the five senses and translate these again into thought-sensations.
The third layer is the intellect or buddhi, which is the real instrument of thought & that which orders and disposes of the knowledge acquired by the other parts of the mind. For the purposes of the educationist, this is infinitely the most important of the three I have named.
The intellect is an organ composed of several groups of functions, divisible into two classes, the faculties of the right hand & the faculties of the left hand. The faculties of the right hand are creative and synthetic; the faculties of the left hand critical & analytic.
For Aurobindo, there is also a fourth layer of faculty that is not as yet entirely developed in man. It is only through the practice of Yoga, one progresses gradually to wider development and more perfect evolution. and Aurobindo called it the 'super mind'.
Interestingly, Buddha also examined the mind and found that it consisted of four processes; consciousness (vinnana), perception (sanna), sensation (vedana), and reaction (sankhara). And only by perfecting these four processes, one can become a Buddha (an enlightened being).
And for Aurobindo, it is only by perfecting these faculties, one gains the astonishing feats of memory, various comprehension and versatility of creative work of which only a few extraordinary intellects are capable of, but which in ancient India were common and usual.
The Indian mind is still in potentiality what it was, says Aurobindo; but it is being damaged, stunted, and defaced.
Our current education system is built on a foundation too weak to bear even the paltry and meager edifice of our imparted knowledge and needs immediate reform.
Our current education system is built on a foundation too weak to bear even the paltry and meager edifice of our imparted knowledge and needs immediate reform.
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