GURUKULA EXPERIMENT

[Guest guest]

Bhadra Govinda das wrote:

 

> Just because a devotee fails to attain perfection does not mean the

> process of devotional service is not correct. Similarly just because the

> Gurukula may have failed earlier does not mean the Gurukula system is not

> good.

 

Correct but unless you have all the necessary ingredients in place it is

better to not run a so-called gurukula if there is no money, no text books

and no qualified staff. Half baked knowledge is dangerous and half baked

gurukulas are also dangerous. I just finished reading a report on a socalled

gurukula in Bangladesh where several kids have been abused and probably are

still being abused. HH Bhakti Caru Maharaj instructed the regional secretary

there to close down the school but apparently due to pressure from some

local committee he is unable to do it. So now the sick pedophiles there can

continue to prey upon innocent kids in the ashrama.

 

Having seen more than one such socalled gurukula the term is beginning to

leave a somewhat bad taste in my mouth as well. Of course this is not Srila

Prabhupada´s fault. He gave us a wonderful ideal to aspire for:a boarding

school run by exemplary guru-like teachers who affectionately train young

men of ideal character and pure devotion to the Lord.

 

But how many gurukulas did have such spiritually advanced teachers? How many

did have an adequate school building, proper dormitories, a child protection

team, teacher training, a curriculum, and enough money to provide salaries

for teachers and textbooks? Just a few. Many - way too many - did not.

 

Some gurukulas did create beautiful devotees. All glories to them. But many

others failed miserably.Instead of radiant,intelligent and happy pure

devotees they brought forth a generation of deeply hurt, traumatized

youngsters who were neither able to make it in the material world nor

willing to live in a temple as full time devotees. Many of them simply hang

around now and take dope. Was that Prabhupada´s vision of gurukula?

Certainly not. So something went wrong. If you want to know what, you have

to lend an ear to some of the many kids who went through hell in gurukula.

 

If you read the letter of outrage Ragunath Stocker wrote to the GBC, you

will get a bit of an idea of what I mean. This young man was sent to

Vrindavana by his devotee parents at the age of 5 even though he did not

want to and to this day this painful experience has left a deep mark in his

psyche which continues to make him both depressed and angry.

 

And, to a large extent, I can empathize with him and all other ex gurukulis

who are upset and angry. Do we want to allow criminal abuse and neglicence

to happen in the future as well? And if not, then why are these things still

going on in Bangla desh?

 

If gurukula is a synonym for lack of academic knowledge,vocational training

and sexual abuse I say "to hell with the concept of gurukula!" Rejecting a

method which simply yields unfavourable results is bona fide. Accorsing to

Prabhupada, "we have to accept everything favourable to the circumstances.

Rejection of some methods in a particular circumstance does not mean that

the rejected ones are not bona fide. But for the time being, taking into

consideration the age, time and object, methods are sometimes rejected even

though bonafide. We have to test everything by its practical result."

 

One who does not learn from the failures of the past is bound to repeat

them.

 

It was a mistake to force kids to go to gurukula even if they did not want

to. It was a mistake to separate kids under the age of ten from their

parents and send them to another continent. It was a mistake to put them

under the care of so called guardians who did not love them spiritually

rather exploited them for their own perverse sexual gratification.It was a

mistake to belenient with perpetrators and hope that devotional service will

automatically reform them. It was a mistake to not give kids adequate

academic training "because material knowledge is demoniac". It was a mistake

to have no vocational training in place for kids who did not want to become

celibate monks, pujaris or preachers. It was a mistake to send kids who are

not brahmanas by nature to boarding schools at all. It was a mistake to

allow devotees with no teacher training whatsoever to teach kids. It was a

mistake to allow temples to open schools without having them prove that they

have enough funds to maintain the school and the teachers. It was a mistake

to run schools without having a curriculum. It was a mistake to allow

headmasters to run schools in an absolutely autocratic way without allowing

teachers and parents to give their input. It was mistake to not issue

binding international guidelines for all ISKCON schools and create a system

of supervision to enforce them.

 

Where are these guidelines, where and who is the ISKCON ministry of

education, where is the curriculum and above all where is the money to do

all these things? So, under the circumstances and for the time being, it may

be better to forget about the gurukula experiment.

 

ys

 

Anantarupa