BVPM and mayapur

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Text PAMHO:7396664 (101 lines)

Pancaratna (das) ACBSP

BVPM and mayapur

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Dandavad. Prabhupada kijaya!

 

> In sum, I would suggest that the International Office of Child Protection

> and the adjudicators of Maharajas judgment be contacted. The intent and

> finer meaning of the involvement and parameters of Maharajas judgment

> should be made clear.

 

I, too would very much like to see elaboration on the decision regarding

Bhaktividya Purna Maharaj. It seems to me that the core of the controversy

is the interpretation of the condition of that decision that "he may serve

in a non-managerial and non-administrative capacity connected with

children."

 

Sri Prahlad prabhu has asserted that Maharaj is not in a decision-making

position in regards practical management of the school.

 

At the same time, due to his seniority, he certainly has influence in the

school to the extent that the school continues to be identified as "his"

school.

 

Does this degree of influence constitute a violation of the spirit of the

CPO decision? Naturally, that would depend on how he exercises his

influence.

 

My own limited observation is that Maharaj has been very careful to comply

with the spirit of the decision and not involve himself in any sort of

managerial decisionmaking. That would include deciding who will be the

teachers, budgeting for the students needs, enforcing discipline, decisions

on who will be accepted as a student, implementing child protection

systems,etc. Many of these were sources of problems during his earlier

administration (though not in his later administration I must add).

 

However, it would be good to be assured by an independent review of the

school's management that this is the case.

 

If so, then I believe that Maharaj is complying both in letter and in spirit

with the CPO decision.

 

And, what is more, his presence in the school even if it is very prominent

as a senior personality, should not be considered a danger to the students.

 

The problem remains that the image of the school is still very much tied to

his personality and thus there should be a concerted effort to change this

image, starting with the parents and the Mayapur community.

 

On another note, I think it is important for devotees in general to have a

better understanding of the nature of Maharaj's responsibility for the abuse

that took place in the Mayapur gurukula in the eighties.

 

I was somewhat involved in the investigation that led to the decision of the

office and, to my recollection, the incidents of direct excessive punishment

on his part were relatively few and there were also mitigating circumstances

surrounding these situations. I believe that he has since demonstrated

sincere remorse and has understood the errors in his judgment.

 

As noted above, the main problems were the result of poor administration and

errors in judgment in dealing with difficult situations. In Maharaj's

defense, I must say that he was thrown into the position with absolutely no

training and very little support. On top of this, his authorities were even

more unqualified to guide him and in fact made things much worse.

 

Still, he must and has taken responsibility for the damage that was done

under his watch. Further, he has gone on to undertake serious study of

Vedic educational systems in light of his own experience of what was

undoubtedly an aberration of the gurukula system.

 

Now, from my discussions with him I can see that he believes that he

understands what went wrong and how it can be done right.

 

For at least several years before the CPO decision he administered a school

(Sri Rupanuga Paramarthik Vidyapith) according to his understanding. To my

knowledge there have been no complaints of any irregularity in that school.

Rather, there have been some outstanding results in the graduates.

 

When the decision of the CPO took effect, that school was suspended and a

group of his ex-students combined with him to devise a new plan. They spent

at least one year simply discussing Vedic educational systems and devising

curriculum and other structures for a new school.

 

Now, through the Bhaktivedanta Academy, they are undertaking a unique and

bold experiment to demonstrate a fresh approach to applying the Vedic

educational system.

 

They have decided not to take the common path of simply adapting Western

educational systems with Krishna consciousness which is the norm in every

other Hare Krishna connected school that I'm aware of.

 

They have been honest with their students and the parents about the

aspirations of their school and openly admit that it is not for everyone.

 

In the field of education, there have always been competing pedagogies, and

so there are bound to be varieties of schools with their different methods.

 

Time will tell whether the Bhaktivedanta Academy can produce the superlative

results that they aspire for. In the meantime,I suggest that the school

accept an ongoing independent monitoring group, to ensure that there are no

more disasters as there have been in previous "experiments" with the

gurukula system.

 

Your servant,

Pancaratna das

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