How to start varnasrama

[Guest guest]

On 10 Aug 1999, Samba das wrote:

 

 

> Can we look at this a little deeper. What does bramachari mean? Celibate

student. So yep they should all be celibate. The bonafide guru knows the mind

of his disciple, and engages him accordingly. In the olden days these

gurukulas were situated in the country, and I am sure that all sorts of

activites used to take place there. Looking after the cows, collecting

firewood, growing some subjis etc. Its only natural, They are doing it in

Mayapur right now. So in that way the guru guides each individual child

according to his particular nature, and assigns him duties he can handle, as

well as presenting challenges to some of the students that he can see are

ready to go a little further....

>

 

 

Yes, that is natural. My point in raising the issue is that the foundation of

all our service are our basic devotional principles. Yes, details are

prescribed according to time, place, and the individuals involved..

 

 

 

 

>I wonder if all of those kids were actualy

> even disciples per se of the guru, being at a tender age, maybe too early to

make such a lifelong decision.

>

 

In a sense, ISKCON is utlimately the ashrama of our founder/acarya, Srila

Prabhupada. Further, the students enter into a siksa relationship with the

teachers and headmaster -- that is also natural.

 

 

 

>

> The whole thing was to provide a place where spritual discipline was learned

side by side with the practical aspects of feeding oneself, and managing the

asram, and in that environment the characters of the children came out, so

that they could be guided in the right occupation later, while having a very

deep and simultanously practical initiation into the kind of disiplines that

will hold them in good stead, in whatever direction they choose to go in.

>

 

 

Yes, our gurukulas should be prepared to teach our students how to be Krsna

consciousness over the course of a lifetime, and not simply while they are

students in the gurukula.

 

> Regarding older students, brought up in karmi society, for them to be

> integrated into the kind of Krsna conscious society Prabhupada envisioned

would require that we actualy had places, like our farm communities where they

can continue their whole life in Krsna consciousness with ease.

>

 

Depends on the individuals. Advanced devotees do not necessarily need to be

born and trained in devotee families. Krsna consciousness is independent of

all external arrangements.

 

 

>

> So new people adults, require a different kind of training to the young

> kids, but they still need to be given service according to their natures.

>

 

 

Here's another complaint of mine. This is all common sense, but sometimes I

think we unnecessarily make it way too complicated by painting it with an

official VAD brush. In such cases it can begin to sound like those $1500

officially issued army lavatory seats, when in reality anyone can get a seat

at the hardware store for $19.95.

 

 

ys,

 

Sthita