How Gurukulam Learning Differs from Regular Education - What I Learnt at AVG Part 1

Sri gurubhyo namaha!

न हि ज्ञानेन सदृशं पवित्रमिह विद्यते

na hi jñānena sadṛiśaṁ pavitramiha vidyate
there is nothing as purifying as knowledge in this world

The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) bus pulls itself up the winding roads of the verdant Western ghats, at the foothills of Nilgiris, and comes to a sudden halt after the Salim Ali Center for Ornithology, in the midst of a lush jungle teeming with wildlife and birds. There before me is a simple space which matches my own ideal of how a gurukulam ought to be. Basic, rustic, functional, and carefree. I am here to learn about myself. Who am I? What is my connection to the world around me? And what is God? What is my relationship with that ‘entity’? Nature in all its bounty; elephants, peacocks, boars, snakes, migratory and local birds included, promise to assist me in my daily sādhanā here. I am elated, I have found a parallel universe!

We were given an individual room each and though these were small, what we were learning was about the infinite, so the lack of plush resources did not limit our minds from soaring. In fact having less helped us pay more attention to ourselves and our questions. The disciplined daily routine notwithstanding, which is true for most ashrams and gurukulams, along with the vegetarian fare from the dining hall, what moulded us was the presence of great masters on the premises and the teaching they gave us, removing our self ignorance via knowledge through classes, satsangs, storytelling and music sessions.

What I learnt in my stay at the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam (AVG) (Anaikatti, TN) and for free, is more than what I learnt by paying thousands of rupees and dollars in fees to colleges both in India and in the U.S. Yes, in terms of technical skills and for a job market, the latter may be essential, but in terms of life skills, for living well and to be in charge of myself irrespective of what life throws at me, this can only be acquired by an extended stay and study in a gurukulam under an able teacher who is trained in the śāstra. Education here fulfills the purpose of learning which is to integrate the spiritual with the material.

When I first returned home a decade ago from Anaikatti, I was often asked, ‘When were the Upaniṣads written? Who wrote them?’ It was difficult at first to answer such questions without getting annoyed. Did it matter who ‘wrote’ these texts and when? What really matters is what is IN them, what they convey, and want us to imbibe, isn’t it ? It was very clear to me why they were written which did away with the need to know when they were written and by whom, but most people might need to know how studying at a gurukulam can be transformative and how it differs from regular secular education.

For the impatient, gurukulam education is different because of what it teaches, its content, its pedagogy, and the process of teaching which is dialogical and dialectical. It is different because of the presence of gurus who are well versed in the content, the methodology and mostly embody the teachings. It is different because it is residential and also working towards a common goal of all the ‘inmates’, unlike a boarding school, and unlike a military establishment where all work in service of their nation. Here all are invested in the parā, the Self. And most importantly education at a gurukulam is different in today’s world because it provides ample opportunities and space to allow the learnings on one’s Self to internalize.

My experience of studying in a gurukulam showcased this difference very clearly. Although anecdotal and a personal lived experience, most of what I learnt in the gurukulam can easily be replicated in academic institutions of India, if we have the will and are concerned about the education of our future generations. Vaidika education prevents psychological dependence. Trained from an early age onwards it makes people self reliant and confident. It makes them into individuals who blossom to their fullest potential. Is this not what we want our youth to embody? So what does a gurukulam education based on the guru-śiṣya paramparā offer?

A gurukulam is not a utopian place where everything and everyone functions perfectly and people somehow transform overnight into wonderful humans who are always smiling and helping one another. If this is so, then they have not really worked on themselves and this facade will drop one day. In a gurukulam which has classes and teachings of the Self, the subconscious (apasmāra, the young dwarf wriggling under Lord Dakśiṇāmūrti’s right foot) rises to the fore and causes more issues and conflicts with oneself and others than expected or normal. The inner child has no place to hide and all the complexes one harboured since childhood, all the hurts and guilts that were buried come floating to the surface.

I was reprimanded often by my peers; about where I put away the previous days’ used pūjā flowers, where I kept chappals before class, where I sat with respect to the ācārya, when I kept the fan on, or off. These are trivial issues but take on a huge significance since in a gurukulam we are in a closed setting with the few people we run into daily, regularly. If someone takes a dislike to me, and is in charge, I have had it. Our own mettle is tested, how patient are we, how much can we let go, how far will we go to adjust and accommodate for the sake of the knowledge. It is all a part and parcel of learning. Sometimes someone who we thought of as a loyal friend may suddenly stop talking or befriend someone who is inimical towards us. If this sounds like everyday life, this is exactly what it is. Except that there is an attempt at knowing who we are, what our relation is with the world and to the ultimate reality.

I remember how grumpy we got after a few weeks since we were all dealing with our unresolved emotions which we now had to confront face to face, there was no more room to hide. Such a deep psychological process can cause sudden outbursts, or fights, or an intense need for being alone, away from people. Each person reacts differently. And there will always be those who are attracted to someone romantically. This creates more unnecessary tensions. A gurukulam is like any other normal community, except that it is a society that is focussed on recognizing one’s true potential and raising one’s consciousness to that level through sādhanā.

As for the adults, once we are undertake such a rigorous training, we will not allow our instinctual personality with uncontrollable urges to govern our life (causing so much crime and strife in society), instead a discerning viveki, a personality who can distinguish between what is ethical and not, what is valuable and not, what is infinite and not, will emerge, resulting in universal benefits says Svāmī Sadatmananda ji. We will lift ourselves from the jīvātmā status to the paramātmā level, and we will keep appreciating this fact, I am not a jīvā, whether completely internalized or not, this thought process will provide a safe space within, to keep that distance from whatever is happening in my life that is unbearable, that I am unable to face, and also from the highs of life which I wish to encounter all the time.

तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिर्मौनी सन्तुष्टो येन केनचित्
अनिकेत: स्थिरमतिर्भक्तिमान्मे प्रियो नर:

tulya-nindā-stutir maunī santuṣṭo yena kenacit
aniketaḥ sthira-matir bhaktimān me priyo naraḥ

Esmé Partridge says here that;

One of the reasons young people struggle so much with mental health nowadays is because there is a crisis of authority in society ….they have nothing to guide them except deceptive inner monologues … telling them “you do you”, “it’s okay to be lazy”, “it’s okay to be selfish” on their instagram feeds ..so people end up making mistakes and suffering consequence that could have been prevented had they been given actual advice acquired over centuries of culture and tradition (Scruton’s “answers that have been discovered to enduring questions”) But tradition alone is not enough – it needs to be embodied. We need teachers, counsellors, priests, and parents, who are personally invested in our self-betterment and can tell us when we are doing things wrong from a place of love.

Our vaidika tradition assures us that we humans learn equally from our sacred texts, from our gurus, from our peers, and finally from time, which is our own learning; how we internalize it through our personal sādhanā. Here let me categorize what I learnt at the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam from these four sources in a four part series:

What I Learnt from Our Sacred Texts

The mahāvākya aham brahmāsmi and this spectacular knowledge released me from all ideas of smallness and complexes regarding myself. The means to acquire this clarity is first to acquire adhikāritvam, the eligibility to comprehend this subtle truth and by listening to śāstra, gurumukhāt, i.e. hearing the words of śāstra from a qualified guru. No, not by reading and theorizing, that will put us back in the same path of doubt and habitual error as before and not really help us move past our mental shenanigans.

Here, in this study, there is no separate theory and practical – this is it, I am the whole, that is all there is to know, but it is reiterated repeatedly, ad nauseum, because we are constantly doubting that this statement can actually be true and end up behaving more or less as our small self dictates.

Our śāstra tells us that there is no separate philosophy or path to know oneself, advaita vedānta is a complete vision, everything else is its subset, it includes everything that we know and do not know. But for all this to be clear, we must first lead a life of dharma, a life full of fulfilling our duties and responsibilities like Rāma, we must develop love for him who is vigrahavān dharmah, he who embodies dharma. The famous mantra from the Kali Santaraṇa Upaniṣad, which can be chanted anywhere and does not need strict adherence to stipulations otherwise associated with other mantras, tells us how leading a life of dharma (embodied by Rāma) leads us to joy and fulfilment, ānanda (embodied by Kṛṣṇa) :

हरे राम हरे राम , राम राम हरे हरे
हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण , कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे

hare Rāma, hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, hare hare
hare Kṛṣṇa, hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, hare hare

This is easier said than done, to emulate Rāma is well nigh impossible but we can try. We can reach him through bhakti. In our relationships, in our dealings and transactions we can incorporate his righteousness. Only then will we find Kṛṣṇa who is all joy forever, one leads to another, how can there be ānanda without dharma? Any life devoid of dharma is sure to lead to disenchantment and misery. This was taught to us very clearly by our gurus. My clarity on this issue and my love for Rāma grew in the gurukulam. Previously given the education I received and the milieu I was in, I was not too fond of Rāma, assuming the worst of him without actually understanding what he stood for and how he lived his life, but after appreciating the role of dharma in my journey, I realized that I could not get through life without Rāma. This here is a wonderful bhajan by Maharajapuram Santhanam composed by my guru Pūjya Svāmīji Dayananda Saraswati (founder Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, AVG) which helped elevate my love for Rāma.

Once we know that we must live our lives in accordance with dharma and we do, the next step is to know ourselves, as we are now ready for the great reveal! Vedas themselves say that they are pramāṇa i.e. means of knowing oneself, we might think this is fanaticism, but who else says I will tell you about yourself! There is no talk of ātmā in any other extant body of literature or religion with a pedagogy to match.

परीक्ष्य लोकान्कर्मचितान्ब्राह्मणो निर्वेदमायान्नास्त्यकृतः कृतेन
तद्विज्ञानार्थं स गुरुमेवाभिगच्छेत्समित्पाणिः श्रोत्रियं ब्रह्मनिष्ठम्

parīkṣya lokānkarmacitānbrāhmaṇo
nirvedamāyānnāstyakṛtaḥ kṛtena
tadvijñānārthaṃ sa gurumevābhigacchet
samitpāṇiḥ śrotriyaṃ brahmaniṣṭham

Now the Vedas (Munḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12) tell us that one must study what the śāstras say via a qualified Guru – and ‘qualified’ is described as ‘śrotriyam brahmaniṣṭham’ – one who is trained in śāstra and who is involved only in teaching about śāstra vākya while revelling in the Self. Who is a guru, how to select a guru, who to learn from, all this is described in great detail, so we do not have to worry about how to look for an appropriate guru. What they convey is that it is the teaching that is important, not so much the personality of the teacher. Most of the time we are taken in by a teacher’s accent, knowledge in secular or current affairs, impressed by the teacher’s vocabulary or the attention they shower on us, there is a danger of being attached to the teacher or of transference of our issues onto the guru. I learnt that none of this counts when it comes to knowing oneself. In fact I was told off many a time when my curiosity got the better of me; one does not ask personal questions of the teacher. This is considered taboo so as to avoid unhealthy dependencies and transferences onto one’s guru which happens a lot in a gurukulam setting.

We are asked to accept the guru as is, not probing into their antecedents, because, how does that matter in the long run? Finally, in this study when the student is ready the student gets up and leaves the guru, there is no personality cult here. It is alright to adore one’s guru but then there is always a chance of being emotionally dependent and not realizing one’s own Self which is no different from one’s guru’s. The guru of śāstras emphasizes the value of teaching over the teacher.

How does this guru, the teacher, teach this? Through teaching the nature of sat: abādhitam sat, that Truth is non-negatable. It is anadhigatam, Truth is that which cannot be known by any other means. It is trikālaepī tiṣṭhati, Truth is available at all times and in spaces, there is nowhere and no time where it is not. Hence I too am the Truth right here and now. This knowledge releases us from all fear of missing out or we only live once syndrome as we are never negated, we always will exist, as sat cit ānanda. Thus this body/ being doesn’t need validation anymore. If we give this knowledge to children it creates a tremendous amount of self confidence in them, and whatever their outer realities, their inner core remains undisturbed and free.

Our culture is concerned only about the absolute Truth and that Truth expresses itself in various beautiful ways in an auspicious manner; satyam śivam sundaram. From the way we dress, to how we speak, to how we interact with one another there is a gentility, a nobility that is hard to miss. Such a sātvika simple living high thinking state is aspirational in a gurukulam setting. All the foreigners at AVG would switch to wearing cotton dhotīs, sporting a śikhā or wearing handloom sāris, and better still set munḍus during their stay. We were right next door to Kerala and the hot and humid weather encouraged us to be dressed in whites and cottons. This is seen in many other āśramas too, where dressing as per local customs is the norm. Flowers in their well oiled plaited hair, and tilaka on their foreheads, was a natural outcome at Anaikatti. So much so that wearing anklets and toe rings to glass bangles and all the finery associated with solah śṛngār would be on full display within days of joining a course.

When this is so easily achievable and is in tune with our local customs and conducive to developing a sātvika personality, why is it that we are weaning away from such a look so easily? We do not oil our hair anymore, nor do we sport tilakas or bindis, we cut our hair short, men and women alike, for ease and comfort, and leave it open, ‘bobbed’ for a ‘modern’ look. But then how can we adorn ourselves with flowers? No one seems to ask this all important question! The exchange between nature and humans is never as aesthetic as when we put flowers in our hair.

We tend to wear only western clothes in the name of convenience – as though sāri clad construction workers let sāris get in their way while working – and we seem to increasingly prefer to eat mostly non-Indian food, ordering the same in English all the while, and conversing in it even in a group setting which speaks our mother tongue. If culture may be reduced simplistically to boṭṭu, kaṭṭu, māṭa – i.e. Telugu for; how we look, what we wear, and what we speak, then we can safely assume that most of urban India is culturally no longer Hindu. Although Truth is absolute and does not really care about such matters, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are not revelling in the absolute Truth……yet.

If and when we do end up there then none of this will matter, until then we ought to do everything in our power to align ourselves with habits and customs that encourage stability and assuredness. This will help us in appreciating subtle ideas and not focus too much on the physical body or the material world. A constantly changing fashion scene which is concerned only with the ephemeral is not the best space to indulge in if one is engaged in self discovery. Studying our texts will give us the necessary self confidence to shrug off our colonial burdens and resort to a more indigenous lifestyle. Instead what is happening currently due to lack of self esteem and needing constant validation – which is due to lack of adequate knowledge of Self and the unanswered existential questions – is that society has turned overtly sexual and crass.

How I look and what I wear ought to be mangalam auspicious, when I apply a boṭṭu, wear ornaments, wrap a locally woven handloom on me, I evoke śrī, the goddess of prosperity. My bindi represents the īśvara within, the antaryāmī, the angusṭhamātrah puruṣa in its pūrṇatvam. I decorate this body, which is a temple, housing that divine with jewellery and well ironed clothes, not wearing torn clothes which are now the rage, as that would incur the wrath of alakṣmī plus showcase my own tāmasika laziness, and tie my hair neatly so that my energies are contained not scattered, and my open hair does not cause hygiene issues either. And of course I adorn myself with seasonal flowers, for their fragrance, for what it does to calm my nerves, and for the sheer beauty and joy of it.

At the gurukulam it was a relief not to conform to certain ‘modern’ expectations regarding one’s appearance, which meant it did not matter if we dyed and set our hair a certain way, nor did it matter if we did not do our manicures or pedicures, urban style and fashion took a backseat to ease, comfort, local customs, and our own growing clarity regarding our true nature. The body was given a holiday for the most part, which is how it should be, to give us ample time and mind space to concern ourselves with more pressing aspects of life.

How is none of this taught either at home (of course no grandparents, no stay at home parents) or in school (of course ‘secular’ education)? What we are taught in the name of education is accumulated knowledge in academic institutions, which is essential too, but where is the actual learning? Where is the transformation of the individual? Where is the making of an adult from a child?

To make life easier and to live a meaningful and sane life one needs to learn the Truth about oneSelf as Svāmī Tattvavidananda ji says (and he paraphrases Svāmī Ramatirtha here); when there is accumulation of knowledge and no learning then it is like food eaten and not digested, and he (Svāmī Ramatirtha) called this mental dyspepsia.

We must be taught to differentiate between parā and aparā vidyā early on, to prevent such mishaps. Our sacred texts clearly delineate them. There is the knowledge of the Self and then there is the rest…..only with the parā well internalized can the aparā be handled with ease. In days of yore all men irrespective of jāti attended a gurukulam or the village school (The Beautiful Tree, Dharampal, 1995) and learnt of such life changing truths before branching off to their respective area of study within their communities. Knowing who I am helps us look at the world very differently; without neediness, without competitiveness, without anxiety and without uncalled for fear. We relax in our beings and are happy people, a pleasure to interact with. How can I learn to be the same you ask?

At the dining hall, we had weekly duties to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. If there is one thing that we can emulate from a gurukulam and teach our young citizens in regular schools, it would be this. Now serving others is not easy. One has to serve with love and attention even when one is hungry (oh yes, you are not allowed to serve on a full stomach). One has to be neat and tidy about it, not messing up. Some want to eat less or more, of this or that, others dictate how much. Sometimes they ask for the last roṭī or laḍḍū you were eyeing hungrily but you must serve anyway! Serving teaches us patience, postponement of gratification, it teaches us to give-in to others’ demands, to accept their wants and to cater to their whims. Serving makes us adjust, makes us generous, and leaves us less self centered. By feeding others, we end up feeling satiated ourselves. It is a strange feeling! Serving our ācāryas was even tougher. We had to stand guard, not talk, observe who wanted what and accordingly serve, as most sanyāsīs will not speak while eating and will not ask for more. It is a guessing game and quite stressful too. When two or three sanyāsīs are eating together, who do you serve first, as per seniority or on a first come first served basis? It is nevertheless a privilege to serve meals to one’s guru.

It is not that being served is any less of a teaching moment. Accepting what is given, not wasting what is on the plate (annam na paricakśīta from the Taittirīya Upaniṣad), enjoying what is offered, finding taste and nutrition in it, not being critical or dissatisfied (annam na nindyāt tat vratam from the Taittirīya Upaniṣad), not seeking something else constantly; the dining hall thus was the centre of a praxis of īśvarārpaṇa and prasāda buddhi. What is most inspiring is the fact that the dining hall is also always open to anyone who walks in, students, teachers, workers and villagers alike, as food is always cooked in abundance (annam bahu kurvīta from the Taittirīya Upaniṣad).

How does such a transformation happen; from being self centered to knowing that Self as the centre of everything; not overnight, definitely not easily. It takes paying attention to every moment of our waking life, to everything we think, do, and speak, to be able to reach a stage of spontaneous action wherein we are in line with śāstra and dharma. In line with how our gurus live. In line with the Vaidika civilization which turned vyavahāra into an art of living through inner engineering. Where we hug closely the fact that I am brahman, learning by questioning constantly ‘who am I”? And studying from the masters.

To do all this my body-mind complex needs to be well oiled and functioning at best capacity and efficiency. Even in an instrument, say a Veena etc., if the strings are not tuned properly soulful music does not emanate, when wound too loose there is no sound at all, or when wound too tight the strings may break. So also, a well disciplined instrument that is our body is like a friend, if let loose it can easily turn into an enemy. Our body mind sense complex is a prime example of a tool that can be used for our benefit by disciplining it, else it can be detrimental in the long run.

उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत्
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मन:

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hyātmano bandhur ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ

We are our own friend and our own enemy, it is all about how we train our minds to think. When our guru puts us in a higher orbit our job is to remain there and not to come crashing down! Spirituality is not blaming the world for my problems but instead seeing that my problems are due to my own attitude, my outlook and my lack of understanding of who I am. Spirituality i.e. adhyātma aka adhi kṛt ātma aka the Self put forward or in the lead, is starting to own up to the problem, by owning up to myself. We give permission to the world to disturb us. I, who am nitya śuddha buddha mukta svarūpa, can never be troubled by anyone, so if someone ends up troubling me then I am missing the fact that I am brahman. What can be done to sat cit ānanda? Nothing!

Physically there may be pain, there may be a problem such as a headache (which is usually temporary and most of the times can be cured), but the sorrow that it generates is psychological, stemming from ‘why me, why always me’, this feeling can be put to rest in peace when we understand who we are. Pūjya Svāmīji would exhort: Do Not Judge Yourself Based On The Feelings You Have. We are not our feelings. Feelings are fleeting, what is permanent is our svarūpa. Not remembering this is the root cause of all our troubles.

Being spiritual or being on this path to ‘find’ oneself also means that we know when (and how) to evoke the oneness and when (and how) to deal with the manyness. A great sage is one for whom a clod of clay, a stone, and a piece of gold are all equal, says the Bhagavad Gītā, but we must keep in mind that this attitude is purely mental and cognitive, not transactional. Such a person is called samaloṣṭāśmakāncanah. This equality is not in terms of perception or transaction. Only in terms of cognition. This person knows that he cannot build his house with gold! He knows very well the qualities of clay, stone and gold. He simply does not value one over the other in his mind. In his mind they are of equal value since he knows that they stem from the same oneness, that they are manifest forms of the same brahman.

This is where we often make a mistake – we mix up the orders of reality; the empirical and the absolute are often confused. We assume we must not fight back against adharma or that we must remain passive because it is our lot, we believe in fatalism or that it is our prārabdha, that we cannot resort to force or strength when faced with injustice. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Our knowledge of oneness remains all through our transactions; only our responses are at a different level while our appreciation of unity is at another level.

We are often fooled into assuming that a great spiritual leader ought to look and talk in a certain manner, especially in a low soft voice, with a smile plastered on the face always, showing no other emotion. But what is actually important and talked of in the śāstra are the internal traits, of how the sage is internally – sthitaprajña – not how he is externally. So, a great sādhu or a yogī may don kāśāya yet not fit our idea of how they are supposed to behave or look. The onus is on us to prove ourselves right.

Finally what I learnt from śāstra is something that I could not find anywhere else despite a lot of spiritual shopping in my early years. I learnt that I am siddha vastu. That I do not have to travel to far flung places or even to the Himalayas, hide in a cave or climb a mountain top to realize who I am. I do not have to participate in certain religious ceremonies or immerse myself in Kumbh Melās to know myself better. I do not have to frequent Rishikesh or Kashi for ‘n’ number of days to polish my being. That which I am seeking is already available in the here and now, nothing needs to be done.

I simply need to know. Only knowledge is needed? Indeed. Why? Because I am merely ignorant of who I am due to adhyāsa, the superimposition of the false on my real Self, once I know this via adequate knowledge I will be in the presence of my real Self, I will see it instantly. Like my glasses, which I forget are on my head and I look everywhere else for them until someone points this fact out.

In other subjects we study theory first and then there are practicals to apply that theory into practice, and of course what we study is something different from who we are. Here there is no separate theory followed by practicals, it is all in one. The śravaṇam of learning who I am is in itself the practicals, transforming me the ignorant person into a knowing self. The act of listening (the study of śāstra) to who I am is embodied knowledge that removes my doubts, fears, insecurities, and leaves me a fulfilled person. And here, I am the subject of what I seek, here the seeker and sought are one and the same, so I cannot objectify this study, what I study and what I get after study are the same – when I study chemistry I do not become hydrochloric acid, but when I study Vedānta theoretically which is about the self, in practice I ‘become’ that Self i.e. I am now aware of mySelf and am able to revel in it.

Yes, Vedānta would tire us out, our neural networks would be on an overdrive and we would be extremely exhausted at the end of the day. Bhajans at satsang or a classical dance performance would cheer us up. Or a brisk walk around the campus at night, while trying to steer clear of the wild boars who ran amok as a family and into anything on their path, all this would serve as a pick me up for an early start the next morning.

Let us see What I Learnt from My Gurus in Part 2.

Om Tat Sat!