How Gurukulam Learning Differs from Regular Education, Part 7

Educational institutions mostly pander to the child these days, helicopter parents who are constantly hovering do not help their children grow emotionally either. If a teacher is not allowed to reprimand or punish, instead only praise, there will be no growth on the part of the ward. If the young are not exposed to different mentalities and do not learn to be sensitive to others, they will turn into adults who will always want their way, refusing to budge an inch for the sake of the larger good or society. They will only deal in terms of me and mine. It would be good for educational institutions and parents to expose their children to such thoughtful experiences so that they grow up without the sense of entitlement that is prevalent all around.

One of my favourite memories of gurukulavāsa has to be that of Śivarātri. Shankar jī was taking sannyāsa in the Feb of 2013, Pūjya Svāmī jī would give sannyāsa every Śivarātri in Rishikesh where he would also teach Chāndogya to students of his Vedānta course. I was excited as this would be my first time witnessing such a ceremony. Most of us do not know what being a sannyāsī means, what it entails, what rituals take place, what vows are required. Shankar jī transformed into Svāmī Shankarananda jī and through witnessing this whole process my respect and awe for the institution of sannyāsa rose manifold. Giving abhayadāna a blessing of fearlessness to all is not easy, to give up friends, family, one’s identity from a previous life which is full of security is harder still. Not knowing where the finances will come from, where the next meal will come from, to be under the sky open and secure, what courage this type of lifestyle needs! What trust in śāstra one must have that one will be given one’s due, and state that I am willing to accept all that comes my way without a fight. To accept sannyāsa is to have the willingness to embody ahimsa in all its glory.

The rest of us watched in awe and ran to offer bhikṣā to the fresh sannyāsīs once the initiation ceremony was completed. I have never felt as fulfilled as in that moment. Of course Pūjya Svāmī jī made sure that we the rest of the course students too understood  what it meant to ask for and accept bhikṣā, so he made us all queue up in front of the Baba Kali Kamli Wale’s dharmaśālā for our daily diet of dāl and roṭi for a day or two. We were all given bhikṣā pātras and had to ‘beg’ for our meals. I started valuing what I ate and what was offered from the kitchen from then on without a quibble! Pūjya Svāmī jī had subsisted on this for months at a time while studying Brahma Sūtras at the Kailash Ashram from Svāmī Tarananda jī. Two days of the same meals and most of us were already making plans on which restaurant to hang out at after. Indu and Krishnan took me around Rishikesh, and ended up treating me to some fabulous global cuisine at some of the most hipster joints there. This stay also clearly revealed to us our own mettle. Who among us could withstand what, what could we do without, what could we not do without, this was our testing ground.

My stay at the gurukulam was made sweeter due to my guru bhais and behens. Without their support, recommendations, discussions and sometimes dismissals I would not have been able to grow in the way I did. Just as being a householder or a parent rounds off one’s unwarranted preferences and prejudices and makes a person whole, so too a stay at the gurukulam. And not only that it also rids us of our false and fancy ideas of life and death. When I was just about to give up in the Winter of 2013, exasperated that I was lagging behind all the seniors who were exemplary and showed no signs of relenting either in their studies or in their sevā, a very young Svāmī Prakashananda jī who was also student in the course, told me to take it easy, to take ample rest, to concentrate on the Bhagavad Gīta for now, that the rest would follow. An advice which served me well. I had entered the gurukulam all too eager to study what I considered then the major texts, the ten Upaniṣads on which bhagavān bhāṣyakāra wrote his commentary on, I was not willing to spend time on a ‘minor’ work like the Bhagavad Gīta! How foolish I was. I had brought my vyavahāra, my A type personality to the gurukulam with me and was being unnecessarily unhappy at my ‘lack of progress’, which was the very antithesis of what gurukulavāsa was trying to teach me.

While I thought that I had it tough, having to struggle to explain at home what I was doing here far away from my husband and family; Sarala Kumari, a Tamizh nurse from Malaysia, talked to me of the terrible state of Hindus and how marginalized the Hindus were in that country. How growing up she had to dodge stones being pelted at her often, for simply being a Hindu. She spoke of the inhuman treatment she and her family had faced and how they were second class citizens in the land of their birth, and with what fond hopes she had come to India, the land of her ancestors, to study from the best. Her first person account made me take the Hindumisia discourse seriously. Before meeting her I would be dismissive of all such reports assuming them to be mere rants or a one off incident gone rogue. But talking to Sarala exhibited the deep chasm that exists due to the flawed theology of the Abrahamic religions  which dismiss and vilify anyone who does not tow their path. Compared to what she had gone through to just get here, my own issues seemed very juvenile.

Then of course there were many young and pretty foreign girls who just showed up at the doorsteps of the first Indian gurukulam they had Googled, which happened to be ours! I was aghast at their courage, at 20-21 years to just board an aeroplane across the seas to land in a strange country not knowing the language or the culture, especially if the girls were Brazilian or Japanese, since most of them do not speak English. But most of them ended up taking in all the sights, sounds with ease and acceptance as also the relentless daily routine at the gurukulam in their stride. All this helped reinforce and reinvigorate my own śraddha and bhakti in the śāstra.

It was not all study and meditation of course. It was not just our weekly bus trips to the city either. We were ensconced in a prime natural locale, as the Sterling Resorts aptly describes it:

Nestled in the foothills of the Nilgiris, Anaikatti is a picturesque dream come true. Blessed with verdant hills, gushing streams, roaring waterfalls and forests teeming with wildlife, this place is a natural habitat of wild elephants. Hence the name Anaikatti, which means a ‘group of elephants’. Located just 30 km from Coimbatore, the road trip to Anaikatti is an experience in itself, driving through winding roads along the breathtaking western ghats, as you enter Kerala from Tamil Nadu.

Anaikatti has another claim to fame - it is home to the River Siruvani, India’s sweetest river. A short trek through the forest has its reward - the magical Siruvani waterfalls. If you love the call of the wild and wish to get off the beaten path, Anaikatti has plenty to offer. Nature walks, wildlife sightings and yes, an audience with the gentle giants. Anaikatti is the ideal destination to experience the natural glory of the Western Ghats, around the year.

Given such a backdrop, who would want to sit in a classroom studying śāstra all day? So I followed the lead of Neema and Surya jī (Achāryās Neema Majmudar and Surya Tahora) who had completed their three year study already but were there at the gurukulam because, why not! So they would regale us with tales of how in their batch many moons ago they would go hiking, trekking, encounter wild elephants and what not…so despite being warned at satsanga time that we ought not to venture into the jungles behind the gurukulam without a forest guard, we got the courage to do so from our ‘seniors’! Neema ji would show us all the various nature trails in and around the gurukulam and we would follow suit excitedly, a stick in hand, as though that could ward off a family of Wild Elephants native to Anaikatti. It was simply lovely being in the outdoors and outside the physical constraints of the gurukulam space, walking on well trodden dusty paths flanked by the local flora fauna, occasionally encountering a villager or a village dog, jumping at the slightest sound not sure at what was lurking behind the bushes, all the while discussing Vedanta texts and clarifying doubts. Neema jī also taught me how to give back, how to be a contributor at the gurukulam. She told me that I could sponsor a lunch or dinner for the whole gurukulam in a loved one’s name or for a special occasion. She also informed me that I could choose the menu as a sponsor of that day’s meal. Many meals were sponsored by Neema and Surya jī on a regular basis with delicious dishes, which we the ever hungry students at the gurukulam were very glad to dig into. I discovered that Vedānta and Sanskrit study makes the stomach growl easily.

There is so much to learn from people around us, we are after all the sum total of the people we meet, but what was probably unique at the gurukulam was that we were not simply exchanging life stories over a meal, that too, but we were also thrown together in a way which is a mix and more of a sainik school and an elite boarding school. People of all ages, in all stages of life, from all over the world, men and women, coming together to be at the feet of the greatest Vedanta teacher of our times, to learn from him about who we are; of the self, the world and god, of the relationships and connections thereof. It was more than exhilarating to sit on the floor in the lecture hall, in single rows, waiting for the class to start.  To say our prayers in unison and then be together in silence, in understanding and in appreciation of the greatest truth that is hidden from us, although in plain sight. Of knowing that each person who is with me here is pursuing the same truth, the same goal, and that we are all in it together, how wonderful is that feeling!

Nowhere else have I felt such camaraderie nor have I experienced such pleasure.

Authored by Kavita Krishna Meegama. Published by Brhat.