This is going to be a long one. Leafing through the October issue of GRAZIA (famed to be Europe's number one style magazine), I came across features as 'varied' (guffaw!) as 'The Grazia Best Dressed List 2008', 'The Big Bag Blowout', '10 Ways to Long Locks','Which Desperate Housewife Are you',etc.,etc.,and could not help wondering how far, far removed from all this is the cocooned world I just visited in Mayapur, Nadia, supposed birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the once living reincarnation of Lord Krishna (as legend has it).
I returned yesterday after a three day trip to ISKCON, Mayapur, not exactly reformed but definitely questioning a lot of the 'reality' that I am fed with everyday.
Krishna conscious Vaishnavs lead an almost sur'real' existence there, beginning and ending conversations with a soft, lilting 'Hare Krishna', surviving on vegan appetites, worshipping Lord Krishna at least twice daily and chanting the 'mahamantra' countless times a day. It is a fairly convenient lifestyle (I will not get into the economic and socio-political dynamics of the place)-as in there are no rulings against sex (although not illicit), conjugal life, love or dancing in spiritual ecstasy (the only rigorous form of physical exercise).
Boys live in the 'Gurukul' and study in a co-ed school within the premises. Being a high school teacher, I could not resist the temptation of visiting the gurukul. What I found there reminded me of my history text at school with chapters devoted to the Vedic way of life in the Aryan Age. The gurukul here is built against an Arcadian backdrop, the only 'modern' touches in the place being a small football field, a basketball court, tubewells and electricity.Premananda Das, the man in charge of the gurukul is a soft-spoken South indian who came all the way from South Africa in 2004 and decided to settle in this sylvan heaven-on-earth to teach boys from far-flung places in the world what he knew best - woodwork. He showed me a mud hut where four boys have been chosen to live because they have shown a greater inclination towards leading a simple,pray...austere, Vedic life.Their weekends are spent cleaning the mud hut and reading the scriptures. Well, how far is that from the life of the boys I teach who will not bother to keep their almost futuristic rooms in order just because paid domestic helps have been for long the order of the day! Of course, I am not exactly in favour of advocating regular reading of the scriptures,but I did realize the value of performing certain rituals daily. If not for anything, it taught me that rituals, religious or otherwise, offer man a centre to hold on to, a sense of belonging and kinship to a community of like-minded people and hence a sense of security.
While returning I could not help but recall a scene from Aparna Sen's 'Yuganta' where the male protagonist, a bohemian creative head in an ad agency (played by Anjan Dutta) realizes that his wife, a disciplined classical dancer (played by Roopa Ganguly) is the stronger, sounder and more rooted of the two because her days are bound by simple rituals, worship and faith.
I returned yesterday after a three day trip to ISKCON, Mayapur, not exactly reformed but definitely questioning a lot of the 'reality' that I am fed with everyday.
Krishna conscious Vaishnavs lead an almost sur'real' existence there, beginning and ending conversations with a soft, lilting 'Hare Krishna', surviving on vegan appetites, worshipping Lord Krishna at least twice daily and chanting the 'mahamantra' countless times a day. It is a fairly convenient lifestyle (I will not get into the economic and socio-political dynamics of the place)-as in there are no rulings against sex (although not illicit), conjugal life, love or dancing in spiritual ecstasy (the only rigorous form of physical exercise).
Boys live in the 'Gurukul' and study in a co-ed school within the premises. Being a high school teacher, I could not resist the temptation of visiting the gurukul. What I found there reminded me of my history text at school with chapters devoted to the Vedic way of life in the Aryan Age. The gurukul here is built against an Arcadian backdrop, the only 'modern' touches in the place being a small football field, a basketball court, tubewells and electricity.Premananda Das, the man in charge of the gurukul is a soft-spoken South indian who came all the way from South Africa in 2004 and decided to settle in this sylvan heaven-on-earth to teach boys from far-flung places in the world what he knew best - woodwork. He showed me a mud hut where four boys have been chosen to live because they have shown a greater inclination towards leading a simple,pray...austere, Vedic life.Their weekends are spent cleaning the mud hut and reading the scriptures. Well, how far is that from the life of the boys I teach who will not bother to keep their almost futuristic rooms in order just because paid domestic helps have been for long the order of the day! Of course, I am not exactly in favour of advocating regular reading of the scriptures,but I did realize the value of performing certain rituals daily. If not for anything, it taught me that rituals, religious or otherwise, offer man a centre to hold on to, a sense of belonging and kinship to a community of like-minded people and hence a sense of security.
While returning I could not help but recall a scene from Aparna Sen's 'Yuganta' where the male protagonist, a bohemian creative head in an ad agency (played by Anjan Dutta) realizes that his wife, a disciplined classical dancer (played by Roopa Ganguly) is the stronger, sounder and more rooted of the two because her days are bound by simple rituals, worship and faith.
3 comments:
i almost agreed to your views! with a few reservations though! the vedic way of life, the purity, peace and tranquillity are all true and conspicuous. life in and around the Gurukul indeed makes you probe the metropolitan mesh our lives are entwined in. But how about the fact that 22 out of 23 students in the Gurukul are foreigners!! Is that b'coz the Vedas have gone international, or that the foreigners are in dire need of salvation, or...more likely...that the implicit intention of the Gurukul is to promote the international face of Iskcon? Neo-imperialism!!! Pardon my sceptics view but I am a theory person.
you didn't notice perhaps, mr. thoughtfox, but i made it a point to write that i would not get into the socio-political or economic dynamics at ISKCON. irrespective of whoever the gurukul is meant forand for whatever reason it might exist, it nevertheless advocates a certain lifestyle. that way of life is wat interested me. btw, kids and adolescents there would not really have salvation on their minds.don't you think?
peace
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