It is important to understand the foundations on which the Gurukula system is built.
Date : 18/05/2024
This article is the first in the series on National Youth Day. Read the Next part)
It is perhaps good to peep into our history and learn lessons from it. There are so many nuggets of wisdom that one can imbibe into our contemporary institutions for the benefit of humankind – more specifically, young and sincere students. The moot point is what should be imbibed? Oftentimes it becomes a nasty habit and results in a sheer waste of energy for the one reason, as stated by Sri Ramakrishna, “coins current in the time of the Nawabs are not legal tender in that of the Badshas”. Every satellite has its period of active functioning after which it becomes an unwanted junk in the outer space. If that were not the situation, Incarnations of God would have not taken birth from Age to Age. As Sri Krishna said, “whenever virtue subsides and vice takes the upper hand, I incarnate Myself in every Age — for the destruction of the evil doers and the protection of the virtuous, for the establishment of righteousness.” So is the case of that which is appropriate from the world of the wisdom of Gurukula System of Education that can be leveraged into our contemporary society. Specifically, what will work? The profound values of the Gurukula system of education demand that the foundations of the contemporary institution be dharmic. Additionally, the students must be wholehearted in wanting to imbibe. And their parents should be truly seeking to put their wards into such. What does this mean? Fossilized institutions built on alien political ideologies or totally commercial conveniences do not lend themselves into this. What has succeeded has been privately run student homes that allow them to be day scholars in their respective educational institutions.
It will be clear why it is so, if we understand that while there is an overall evolutionary process in place, it is also moving in cycles — satya yuga, treta yuga, dvapara yuga, and now the kali yuga. In the satya yuga, whatever one wished for would come to fruition; in the treta yuga things could be achieved by the performance of fire sacrifices; in the dvapara yuga one worshipped gods and goddesses in images to get to the desired goals; and in kali yuga there is nothing so grand and elevating as the mere repetition of the holy names of gods and goddesses. There was perhaps no evil in the satya yuga; in the treta yuga evil-doers disrupted the performance of sacrifices in vogue then believing that thereby the gods were getting their nourishment and power over the evil-minded; in the dvapara yuga the evil-minded resorted to demolishing the images of god and usurping the right to worship for themselves claiming that they were indeed the gods. In the kali yuga, evil-mindedness enters the human psyche itself in the form of the doubt about the existence and need for a god. Materialistic outlook is at its epitome.
Let us look at it deeper. More so from the cultural heritage that most Indians seek to leverage and build their values and character.
Hindu thought is a well-analysed system. It has the varna-ashrama dharma and the four purusharthas. Regarding the varnas, Sri Krishna asserts that He indeed created the four-fold varnas based on the qualities (guna), and duties (karma) of persons. These are the brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas and the shudras. While these days, this terminology is questioned basically because it is believed that the brahmanas grabbed all the importance and privilege in society, and shunted the shudras to a life of servitude. However, it is very important to observe that these divisions have come to stay with newer and modern terminology, for the fact remains that the division was based on the qualities and duties of persons. Today, we do not say brahmana but we say teacher, lecturer, professor, or scientist. Similarly, we say administrator instead of kshatriya, we say merchant instead of vaishya, and we say menials instead of shudra. However, their duties vary because of variation in their behavioral qualities, although each section has an essential and irreplaceable role to play in the maintenance of harmony and order in the society; hence no one gets a work of lesser importance than another. What really matters is the attitude with which one performs the works that has fallen to his or her lot, self-esteem intact.
If the varnas form the horizontal axis, the ashramas form the vertical axis and relate to the progression of a human being in his or her life’s journey. At the foundational level is the student life. A grounding in righteousness is given at this stage. This is followed by the householder stage where one earns wealth (artha) and enjoyments (kama) in a righteous manner based on the principles learnt by him/her while yet a student. Thus the need and imperativeness of a grounding in righteousness during the student life can never be over emphasized. This is where the modern age and society is found to be wanting. The earlier a society at every level understands the need for imparting values in young minds, the sooner better days for it can be expected. The stage of the householder is followed by the stage of the recluse in preparation for the subsequent stage of a renouncer. Very seldom does one find these days an inclination to graduate from the householder stage. To be tied up to worldly pursuits and life until life departs has become the fashion of modern minds. Wisely put there is a retirement age and it is suggestive of the need for our isolation from worldly concerns and preparing ourselves for the exit from this world of mortals. Of course, the latter thinking is foolishly considered so very uncontemporary. But then we should learn to face the reality.
Incidentally, this ashrama classification opens up another classification called the purusharthas. The four purusharthas are dharma, wealth (artha) & enjoyment (kama), higher dharma, and liberation (mukti). The dharma in the student stage is the basic ideology for the protection of society. Without this basic grounding, there will be chaos in the stage of the householder as we find these days: total unrighteousness in the opportunistic and perhaps unethical pursuits of acquisition of wealth and enjoyment. The higher dharma is a transcendental stage of dharma, which means acquiring and internalising a philosophical and / or devotional outlook of life. Liberation consists in getting free from the cycle of birth and death. This is the way of Hindu life.
Image Credits: Udit Sharma via Wikimedia Commons
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