Srila Prabhupada’s Vision for Education

Devotee: Bhaktivedanta Gurukula and International school and your concern for education. Maharaja, I would like to ask you what was Prabhupada’s vision for education for the children?

Giriraj Swami: Srila Prabhupada had different programs that he was willing to try for education. In Juhu, the idea that he discussed the most was of the gurukula, in which we basically taught good character. He was saying that, “What is the use of being educated if you don’t have good character?” And he was saying that, the affluent class, their children don’t need to learn how to make money, because they will take over the family business, but they should develop good character. And, there are many recorded instructions, but he also had other ideas. In one early letter, he wrote that we could have an institution like Saint Xavier’s College in Bombay. So, it is not that he had only one idea and it is not that only one idea is right and other ideas are wrong, there is room for different paradigms, all within Srila Prabhupada’s broad guidelines.

At Gopal’s Garden School, to be admitted, not only is the child evaluated, but his whole family is evaluated because they want the child’s family to support what the child learns in school. So, say the child is learning certain values in the school and then at home his parents are drinking or eating flesh or whatever, then there will be a conflict within the child. And furthermore, the child will bring certain ideas into the school from home, which are not congenial to the school. So, in the first example that Srila Prabhupada gave, the parents would be I think traditional and they would support whatever the child learns in the school. With the Saint Xavier’s paradigm, it is different. Many Hindus are going to Saint Xavier’s, they don’t really take up the christian values, but they go because it is a good education. So, in that paradigm we would get a broader range of people who would, to some degree, be influenced by our values and cultures, but it wouldn’t be as highly intensive as in the traditional concept of the gurukula. But the idea is to help people, to spread Krishna consciousness.

It is quite often like that. You can have a more exclusive group whose training is more intensive, and you could have a more inclusive group, whose training is more mixed and both have advantages involved and disadvantages. But the main thing is the purity of the teachers and staff and in either case that is important. Of course, with the Saint Xavier’s model, there is more scope for hiring people. But certainly, the more the teachers and administration are pure and Krishna conscious, the better effect they will have on the children.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja. And the last question would be, there is a lot of need, which everybody feels, because right now the school is primarily only for boys, that a girl’s gurukula should also be included. And the other thing is, for higher education, what would be your comments for having a co-educational university where girls and boys, young men and young women would study together?

Giriraj Swami: Generally, separation is better. There was a very interesting experiment done in Chicago, where, I don’t know if it was one school or a number of schools, but they tried separating the boys and girls. I think it was somewhere, up to high school level. And everyone improved in their studies, they all, both the boys and girls, they did better on the standardized tests, vandalism decreased, their eating habits improved, the selections at the vending machines, all the carbonated drinks and junk food, that went down, everything improved just by that one adjustment, keeping the boys and girls separated. That was in Chicago, where there is no real background of that culture. But, it seems like a better. . . and it was demonstrated in that situation.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja. We hope to see a lot of your involvement in the upcoming university and the school. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!