In Regard to Children's Education
The education of children is of great interest even for those of demoniac nature, as demons believe that we live only one lifetime and that we are definitively formed by our education.
This is not true. We are formed, in the material sense, by our past activities, by our involvement with the three modes of material nature, and by the stock of reactions that we bring into this lifetime, which are created by our past actions. The size of the body, the small child, is temporary, and even in a small body a great demon can reside. We are not this body, regardless of its size. The bodily sentimental idea of “small innocent children” could be compared to a walk through a shop selling seeds of plants we have not yet seen in grown-up form. If one plants a cactus, there will be a cactus growing from such a seed, and if one plants a rose, there will be a rose.
Therefore, samskaras, purificatory processes for receiving and welcoming a child, are necessary, as the consciousness of the parents prepares a field that the reborn soul can enter. This is, at the base, the beginning of education, as the person appearing as our child cannot be changed but can be influenced. Srila Prabhupada gave the example of butter, which can be formed, but whose nature cannot be changed.
Here one may argue, why educate a child at all when things are predestined?
Srila Prabhupada said that a person without any education is actually an animal. Animals learn, at best, from their parents the art of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending themselves. No schools are required for that. Education is therefore given to humans only. An animal can eventually be trained as well—but only to obey. Despite all the sophisticated ways of education that “humans” of today receive, they are educated for the same purpose only: to obey and serve the needs of the enterprise, the profit-seeking class of men. They are educated in the sophisticated art of the same activities that animals perform.
Aware of this, a person striving for Krsna Consciousness, motivated by the higher spiritual values of life, will naturally try to protect his children from such “slaughterhouses of intelligence,” as Srila Prabhupada called the educational institutions of today. Teaching what is not needed to be known, or teaching plain lies in the form of all kinds of speculations, wastes the valuable time when a child is receptive.
Such is the nature of the “education” of today. The knowledge that the chemical formula for water is H₂O is of very little value for most people, especially when only polluted water is available. :-( The knowledge of how to operate a machine can often be learned even by a monkey, and the knowledge of how to operate a gizmo that relies on another gizmo, which in turn needs another gizmo to function, all purchased for hard-earned money, is a dead-end road that society is madly driving into.
Demons believe that by education they can control the life of a person. I am a living example that this is not so. Being born in a communist country, learning that Russians were a sort of superhumans flying around the globe in the first space shuttle, I chanted the glories of Mr. Gagarin and saw, every day, banners hanging in the streets telling us that we would live with the Soviet Union forever. My parents did not care, and so I did not really care either. Due to my parents immigrating to the West, by the age of thirteen I entered a capitalist school in the heart of Germany, where I had to learn that life consists of hard work, producing cars and other machinery, and making lots of money. One has to work so one can eat, and one has to eat so one can work: that is the German policy until today. And so, by the age of sixteen, I was a full-grown cynic who did not believe anybody or anything, sharing my life with those few who did not believe anything either.
Saved by the hour by Srila Prabhupada and his servants, who taught me the art of education by living example and not by mere words, my life changed entirely from that of a total pessimist to that of an absolutely spiritually motivated optimist. Only by becoming a convinced material pessimist can one become a convinced spiritual optimist.
Receiving real education, after wasting years in schools being taught by teachers of mostly very peculiar psychic character, I came alive, as the Krsna Conscious process of education is characterized by joy and vigor, learning the art of self-sufficiency in absolute dependence on God. Knowledge of God is the aim of education, not the blind dogma of belief in a promised dreamland where everybody will unite and enjoy in this material world.
To learn what has to be learned and to learn what is truly useful is the motivation of a Krsna Conscious person who abstains from parrot-like ways of learning in the material sense. Entering a material educational system, one learns simply to accept. Entering a Krsna Conscious educational system, one learns to ask questions, as only from perfect questions come perfect answers.
Srila Prabhupada himself exemplified this way of learning by first rejecting material education by not even accepting the diploma after completing his studies. Acting more upon his MOTIVATION and not INDOCTRINATION, he turned toward spiritual values, being entirely inspired by his spiritual master to do so.
One can say that, in terms of learning and erudition, he was a very sophisticated person, but that did not come from his academic education. Rather, it was taught to him by his devotee parents and, finally, by his guru. Reading and counting, one can learn at home, as demonstrated by those devout children who already do that. History education consists of a constant flow of lies, as any totalitarian regime teaches history according to its needs. Chemistry is of no use for most of us, besides eating “food” made from chemicals, as is the case today. :-( Physics is of not much use, as physical laws can be observed in a simple empirical way, and constructing bridges and sophisticated gizmos for the purpose of heightened ways of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending only complicates our lives instead of simplifying them. Most scientific research is done for military purposes; the common man on the street gets only the remnants to buy of what was developed in the laboratories of demonic scientists.
Medical assistance mostly only complicates the matter, not being able to stop karma and the consequent death of the body of a person anyway. But in cases of physical injury, medical help is useful; otherwise, the medical staff of today is only turned into a group of salesmen advertising the latest products of the pharmaceutical industry to desperate patients who hope to avoid disease and death.
At its highest point, science boasts of the development of weapons of mass destruction in the form of the atomic bomb or chemical warfare. The revolutionary achievements of medical science are characterized by the development of contraceptives and the art of abortion, killing a newborn child. Insemination and abortion seem to the scientists to be interesting in the same way as they try desperately to recreate life, which was already created and facilitated by God Himself. To become God is the rule of the game for demons, and the educational system is supposed to teach us how to do it. Such are the ideals of demoniac society.
Krsna Consciousness means the ultimate opposition to such demoniac dogmas. The search for the true meaning of human life can never be initiated too early. As children are far more receptive than grown-ups, especially before the sexual impulse becomes prominent, it is childhood that plays an important role in our lives. Even though I became neither a communist nor a capitalist, the wasted years of my “education” left a mark on me for sure.
It is for this reason that Srila Prabhupada pressed the urgent need to disconnect our children from the demoniac system imposed upon us. He introduced the Vedic educational system, where teaching is applied according to the NATURE of the individual child and not according to social or economic need.
What follows is a collection of letters from Srila Prabhupada, instructing parents and teachers how to educate a child. His letters may be the platform for discussing how to implement the ideals set by him in the most practical fashion and may raise further questions to clarify the matter.
…We are not going to abide by the government schedule. They should be taught our books as soon as they can read and write. The idea is that those who will later on accept service, they cannot be accepted by us for schooling, we cannot help them. They must be the sons of rich and important men who will not be taking education simply to use it for eating and sleeping. They should be taught just to do like the elders, that is, rise early, cleanse, attend mangal arati, read our literatures, chant, go for sankirtana, like that, and besides that, a little ABC, mathematics, geography, history, that's all. And teach the small children to play Krishna games: one child is a cow, another is cowherd boy, they go to the forest, there are demons there, Krishna kills the demons, like that; in this way, let the children play Krishna games, then attend arati, then learn some ABC, then play some more, have kirtana, little ABC, and by keeping them always diversified they shall not lose interest and will keep their attention always focused around Krishna.
Letter to Giriraja, July 30th 1972, Amsterdam
…Complete separation from the boys is not necessary for girls at such young age, so I don't require that they must be educated separately, only that they should live separately. What do they know of boy or girl at such young age? There was one question by a little girl like Sarasvati to her father: "Father, when you were young were you a boy or a girl?" So when they are grown up, at about 10 to 12 years old, then you can make separate departments for teaching also. But while they are so young, although they must live in separate boys and girls quarters, they may be educated sometimes together, there is no such restriction that little girls should not have association with little boys, not until they are grown up.
All the children should learn to read and write very nicely, and a little mathematics, so that they will be able to read our books. Cooking, sewing, things like that do not require schooling, they are learned simply by association. There is no question of academic education for either boys or girls—simply a little mathematics and being able to read and write well, that's all, no universities. Their higher education they will get from our books, and other things they will get from experience, like preaching, SKP, etc. Alongside the regular classes in reading and writing, the other routine programs they should also participate in, like arati, kirtana, preaching, Sankirtana, like that.
Letter to Chaya dasi, February 16th 1972, Calcutta
…The children should be trained in early rising, attending mangal arati, some elementary education: arithmetic, alphabet, some of our books, like that. They should go to bed by 8 p.m. and rise by 4 a.m. for mangal arati, getting 8 hours sleep. If they take 8 hours sleep, they will not fall asleep during arati. When they get up they should wash with a little warm water, at least three times wash face. They may sleep one hour in the afternoon and there is no harm. Encourage them to chant as much japa as possible, but there is no question of force or punishment. If there is need you may shake your finger at them but never physical punishment is allowed. Try as far as possible to discipline them with love and affection, so that they develop a taste for austerity of life and think it great fun to serve Krishna in many ways. Rising early and mangal arati, this is enough austerity. Besides that, let them learn something, chant, dance, eat as much prasadam as they like, and do not mind if they have playful nature—let them also play and run, that is natural. It is nice if they eat often—if children overeat it doesn't matter, that is no mistake. Boys and girls should be educated separately.
Letter to Aniruddha, January 10th 1972, Bombay
…I am very glad to learn that you are training the 2 boys in Krishna Consciousness. I do not think you require an academic degree for training such boys. We are training Krishna Consciousness, which has nothing to do with academic education; I therefore wish that instead of wasting your time for 2 or 3 years for taking a degree, you may increase your scope of activities for recruiting such boys and training them in Krishna Consciousness. But if your state laws do not allow it to hold any class without such degree then you must get such degree. On the whole you have got a very nice engagement for training children in Krishna Consciousness. And I think you are very fit for it. I am sure if you endeavor in this line of service, Krishna will be very much pleased and will shower His blessing more and more.…
Letter to Yamuna, May 23rd 1968, Allston, Mass
…So I am very glad and proud that you have so much appreciated the character, discipline and devotional service to the Lord of my six young disciples who are working there with faith and confidence. You will be pleased to know that all of my disciples are trained from the beginning to build up character, and such character is built up by following the restrictions of no illicit sexual connections, no meat-eating, no intoxication, and no gambling. So this Krishna Consciousness movement is meant for a complete overhauling of the whole social, political, religious, moral, educational, and hygienic principles. Human society without following these principles cannot rise to the spiritual platform.…
Letter to Sri Balmukundji, January 18th 1969, Los Angeles
…I am very much sad to learn that you have left the company of the devotees over this incident at Gurukula school. Now you are living by yourself because you have been hurt by seeing that the children are sometimes mistreated, and because no one has taken your good advice in this connection. But you may be assured that I am always anxious about the welfare of my disciples, so that I am taking steps to rectify this unfortunate situation. Now my advice to you is to give up these feelings and return to your life of Krishna Consciousness devotional service, and if you go back to Dallas school and demonstrate to the other teachers there just the proper way to instruct and discipline the students nicely, that will be a great service. I am forwarding the copy of this letter, with your letter, to Satsvarupa for his immediately attention.
Now the thing is, children should not be beaten at all, that I have told. They should simply be shown the stick strongly. So if one cannot manage in that way then he is not fit as teacher. If a child is trained properly in Krishna Consciousness, he will never go away. That means he must have two things, love and education. So if there is beating of child, that will be difficult for him to accept in loving spirit, and when he is old enough he may want to go away—that is the danger. So why these things are going on _ marching and chanting japa, insufficient milk, too strict enforcement of time schedules, hitting the small children? Why these things are being imposed? Why they are inventing these such new things like marching and japa like army? What can I do from such a distant place? They should run and play when they are small children, not forced to chant japa, that is not the way. So I have given you the guiding principles, it is not that I must be consulted with every small detail, that is the business of the in-charge, but if no one is there who can manage in the right way, what can I do? Now if you have got the right idea how to do it, you may go there again and take some responsible post for correcting the situation, that will be your real duty, not that there is some disagreement and I go away disgusted, no. That is not Vaisnava standard. Standard should be that, never mind there is some difficulty, my spiritual master has ordered me to do like this, now let me do it, that's all.