The Mother opens the Ashram doors to refugees

Until 1939, the ashram remains a well-knit community, sadhana-oriented. Children are not admitted and there are no families as such. After the outbreak of the War, however, a gradual change occurred. Due to insecure conditions created by the threat of Japanese invasion, a few bombings and the general sense of fear in the north-eastern regions of the country, a large number of devotees seek refuge in the ashram. Mother opens the doors to men, women and children – all come and find their place of refuge in the ashram.

In now becomes necessary for the Mother to start a school for children with a small number of students. The school develops in due course into the present Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, where Sri Aurobindo’s seminal ideas of right education and the Mother’s philosophy of Fivefold education with special emphasis on the perfection of the body are being worked out.

When doubts are voiced as to the advisability of sports and physical training in an ashram, Sri Aurobindo puts things in the proper perspective and underlines the necessity of this discipline in any scheme of education and character-building.