Page 17 - All India Magazine Jan-2025

Respect good health
I have said that from a young age children should be taught
to respect good health, physical strength and balance. The great
importance of beauty must also be emphasised. A young child
should aspire for beauty, not for the sake of pleasing others or
winning their admiration, but for the love of beauty itself; for
beauty is the ideal which all physical life must realise. Every human
being has the possibility of establishing harmony among the dif-
ferent parts of his body and in the various movements of the body
in action. Every human body that undergoes a rational method of
culture from the very beginning of its existence can realise its own
harmony and thus become fit to manifest beauty. When we speak
of the other aspects of an integral education, we shall see what
inner conditions are to be fulfilled so that this beauty can one day
be manifested.
So far I have referred only to the education to be given to
children; for a good many bodily defects can be rectified and many
malformations avoided by an enlightened physical education giv-
en at the proper time. But if for any reason this physical educa-
tion has not been given during childhood or even in youth, it can
begin at any age and be pursued throughout life. But the later
one begins, the more one must be prepared to meet bad habits
that have to be corrected, rigidities to be made supple, malforma-
tions to be rectified. And this preparatory work will require much
patience and perseverance before one can start on a constructive
programme for the harmonisation of the form and its movements.
But if you keep alive within you the ideal of beauty that is to be
realised, sooner or later you are sure to reach the goal you have
set yourself.
CWM 12: 14-17 The Mother

All India Magazine, January 2025 17