Annual Day at Gopal’s Garden School

Giriraj Swami: I want to go back to the beginning of children’s education in ISKCON in Bombay. Srila Prabhupada had just taken possession of the Hare Krishna Land in Juhu. The front part of the property was vacant, and the back part was occupied by nine buildings with families in them. And the devotees were living, well, on the terraces of the apartment buildings. And Srila Prabhupada was staying as a guest in one of the apartments of one of the tenants.

As time went on, the devotees noticed that a lot of the little children were running around the property and making noise. So, they went to Srila Prabhupada and said, “These children are running around and making noise and causing a disturbance. How can we keep them quiet?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You will not be able to keep them quiet, but you have to engage their propensity to make noise by teaching them to perform kirtan.”

And that was the beginning of what we call gurukula, a school. It was not really a gurukula, but some of Prabhupada’s disciples had gathered the children together to teach them to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, to worship the tulasi plant, and parts of the philosophy and practices of Krishna consciousness. And the children loved it. It was their favorite part of the day.

But there was a problem, and the problem was that when the children went home, their parents would cook onions, garlic, worse, fish, and other things not fit to be mentioned in this august assembly. And the children would say to the parents, “Why are you cooking this? We shouldn’t be eating this. We should be eating food that we can offer to Krishna.” So, there was a little tension between the children and their parents. And in turn between the parents and the school.

Many years later, when His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaja was speaking to me about the concept of the school, Gopal’s Garden, he said that they were not going to admit children in isolation, but they were going to consider the children’s families. If the parents were not supportive of Krishna consciousness, then there would be conflict between the children and the parents, and the parents and the school. And he said that the cost of running the school would be financed by Krishna Chandra Prabhu, so that the economics of the school was not dependent on the number of students, and so that the school would not have to compromise its standards to get more students in order to get more fees, in order to cover the expenses.

And this struck me as a very visionary approach. And as we heard earlier, the school began with just nine students. So, this service of Krishna Chandra Prabhu is really very important. Of course, the school has really grown since the inception of it, but the initial vision coming from His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaja and the initial support coming from Krishna Chandra Prabhu is really the seed of this beautiful tree in Gopal’s Garden.

And one other instruction that Srila Prabhupada gave us in Juhu. He mentioned how he and his sister would fly kites. And while flying kites, his sister would call out to “Govinda” to make her kite fly higher than Prabhupada’s. And it seemed that her kite did fly higher. Srila Prabhupada told the story to make a point. And the point is that we cannot expect most people to live in temples. Although at that time in ISKCON, most of the devotees lived in the temple. Srila Prabhupada said we cannot expect most devotees to live in the temple, but they should be trained in such a nice way that whatever happens later in life, they will never forget Krishna. And he gave the example of flying kites. In and of itself, flying kites is not spiritual per say, but even while flying kites, Srila Prabhupada was thinking of Krishna.

And I’m confident that the students here are being trained in such a way that no matter what they do later in life, they will never forget Krishna, but rather, they will dedicate themselves fully to Krishna’s service. I’m very pleased to see how the garden has increased inside and flourished, and see so many beautiful flowers sprouting up in the garden, so many beautiful children, and how many wonderful gardeners, the teachers and administrators who are taking such good care of these flowers.

Of course, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used the metaphor of planting seeds in His instructions to Srila Rupa Gosvami, that we plant the seed of devotional service, and like gardeners, we water this seed by chanting and hearing about Krishna, and we are always alert for weeds, upaśākhā, that can grow up alongside of the devotional creeper, the bhakti-latā.

And so, that’s also part of the responsibility of the teachers and other staff, to be wary of weeds which are material desires, impersonal conceptions of liberation, and also to protect the creepers from the hātī mātā, the mad elephant that can enter the garden and in no time, uproot all the growth. And that hātī mātā or mad elephant is vaiṣṇava-aparādha, offense against Vaishnavas.

So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu advised us that we should fence in the garden to make sure that the wild maddened elephant cannot enter. And how do we fence in the garden? The fencing is the circle of pure devotees. So, I’m glad, of course, the whole basis of our process and growth is the association of pure devotees, and so it’s the presence of pure devotees and instructions of pure devotees that will ensure that this garden, these beautiful flowers, will continue to grow and flourish and make a great contribution to India and the world. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.