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→Physical Education
==What is Physical Education?==
Physical education means chiefly the combination of all exercises for the sake of the growth and upkeep of the body.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/general-messages-and-letters#p60</ref><center>~</center>
...the qualities that one can acquire through physical education.
The first condition for acquiring power is to be obedient.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/messages-for-competitions#p54</ref><center>~</center>There can be no physical education without discipline. The body itself could not function without a strict discipline. Actually, the failure to recognise this fact is the principal cause of illness.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p359</ref><center>~</center>Physical education has three principal aspects: (1) control and discipline of the functioning of the body, (2) an integral, methodical and harmonious development of all the parts and movements of the body and (3) correction of any defects and deformities.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/physical-education#p3</ref><center>~</center>...It's physical education that teaches the cells to be conscious. But to develop the brain, it's study, observation, intelligent education—especially observation and reasoning. And naturally, for the whole education of the consciousness from the standpoint of character, it's yoga.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/09/september-28-1968#p40</ref><center>~</center>
Physical Education is meant to bring into the body, consciousness and control, discipline and mastery, all things necessary for a higher and better life.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/messages-for-competitions#p15</ref>
<center>~</center>
...It is by an enlightened physical culture and by using physical activities―the activities of the body―not for little personal needs and satisfactions, but to make the body more capable of expressing a higher beauty and consciousness. And for that, physical education has an important place, which should be given to it.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/aspiration-talks#p281</ref>
<center>~</center>
...It is a power of attracting certain very material vibrations, which has a capacity for utilisation that increases its strength—which is like the action of physical exercise, you see—it increases its strength through utilisation.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/28-july-1954#p4</ref>
<center>~</center>
... I must tell you once more that for us spiritual life does not mean contempt for Matter but its divinization. We do not want to reject the body but to transform it. For this, physical education is one of the means most directly effective . <ref>
http://incarnateword.in/agenda/08/april-3-1967#p3
</ref>
<center>~</center>...but for expressing the Spirit no other animal can be compared with him...physical education, a systematic development of the muscles...Man is certainly, in an organised way, the first progressive animal who can augment his capacities, his possibilities, increase his faculties and acquire things that he did not have spontaneously. There is not one animal which can do that.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/13-november-1957#p7</ref>
===Advantages of Physical Education===
So it gives physical education a deep ''raison d'être'': people capable of stopping fires, saving drowning people and so on. There needn't be many: if there were five hundred of them, it would be enough for the entire town, in little groups going about like that.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/august-30-1969#p19
</ref><center>~</center>Sports help the body to prepare for the Transformation.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/general-messages-and-letters#p60</ref><center>~</center>
As the child develops, he must gradually be taught to observe the functioning of his internal organs so that he may control them more and more, and see that this functioning remains normal and harmonious. As for positions, postures and movements, bad habits are formed very early and very rapidly, and these may have disastrous consequences for his whole life.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/physical-education#p5</ref>
<center>~</center>
Sports are all the games, competitions, tournaments, etc., all the things based on contests and ending in placings and prizes.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/general-messages-and-letters#p60</ref>
<center>~</center>...If one keeps the habit of leading one's normal life always, very soon one does not even notice the presence of the menses.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/to-women-about-their-body#p31</ref><center>~</center>The best thing for your headache is to take plenty of physical exercise (such as gardening for example).<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/25-february-1935#p2</ref><center>~</center>
Physical education aims at developing all the possibilities of the human body―possibilities of harmony, strength, suppleness, skill, endurance―and increasing the mastery of the functions of its members and organs, making the body a perfect instrument at the disposal of the conscious will. This programme is excellent for all human beings equally; there is no reason for wanting to have another one for girls.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/25-july-1956#p43</ref>
<center>~</center>There are people who obtain an almost total suppleness, those, for example, who do Asanas. Yes, one can obtain almost complete suppleness ...With the mind, it is the same thing. It is through gymnastic exercises that you make yourself supple. It is a question of discipline, of development.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/16-september-1953#p19</ref><center>~</center>...a fundamental passive condition of the consciousness gathered into itself is the proper poise for concentration and a seated gathered immobility in the body is the best for that ...this is the reason why Yogis always sit in an asana. One can accustom oneself to meditate walking, standing, lying, but sitting is the first natural position.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p66
</ref><center>~</center>… the outer change is necessary but as a part of the inner change. If there is impurity and insincerity within, the outer change will not be effective; but if there is a sincere inner working, the outer change will help it and accelerate the process. <ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-purification#p45</ref>
=Hathayoga=