Guru Cool: Gujarati parents send their children back to gurukul

With the rise of spiritualism in the state, the number of ashrams and gurukuls has also multiplied. The students are admitted to the gurukul and they stay in the ashram till their training is over. There are about 95 gurukuls of various spiritual leaders in Gujarat. In Ahmedabad alone, there are about 10 residential gurukuls.

Jridip Surud, an educationist said: “The rise of Hindutva coincided with the emergence of the new middle-class in the state. With this, the need for a non-convent, non-Jesuit culture also gained ground. Parents wanted educational institutions that could inculcate Indian cultural ethos and values in their children. The new gurukuls have now become modern institutes that impart these values.”

The Swaminarayan Sampradaya and the Asaram Ashram have the maximum number of gurukuls in Gujarat, followed by the Jain gurukuls. The students in these gurukuls are imparted Vedic, spiritual and modern education. Students not only learn the scriptures and Vedic philosophy, but also horse riding, sports, music and arts.

The curriculum is approved by the Gujarat State Board and only teachers with good qualification are taken in the gurukul pathshaalas. In order to have a better student-teacher relation, the teachers are also given training in child behaviour.

Ravjirai Akbari, the manager at the Swaminarayan Gurukul in Rajkot said: “Every year, the number of students taking admission here doubles. At present, we have 800 students. We have students from Class I to X. For their Class XII education, the students move to Ahmedabad. Students are charged Rs 6,000 per annum as fees.”

At the Swaminarayan Gurukul, the students start their day with daily prayers. The classes are held in the campus. Prayers are held three times a day and the students are taught meditation and yoga for inner growth. Suitable infrastructure is also provided for the students on the campus so that they do not need feel the need of going out.

But it is not only Vedic education that is provided to the students. According to Ravinder Kaur, a teacher at the Mahatma Gandhi International School, the students are also given technical training to be on par with their counterparts from regular schools.

Few gurukuls have also become a refuge for the poor kids from the villages, where they are provided with all the amenities at a nominal fee. At the Asaram Ashram in Ahmedabad, there are about 250 students studying in the gurukul. The Ashram charges about Rs 29,000 per annum for boarding, tuition and other facilities. The paathshala charges about 200 per month.

Uday Sangani, spokesperson of Asaram Ashram in Ahmedabad, said: “We believe in this system of education, as it not only educates the students, but also instils true Indian cultural values in them. They are taught the Vedas, shlokas and yogic exercises to help in their mental and physical growth.”

The system has also found favour with a large number of Non-Resident Indians (NRI) from the state.

Jatin Shukla, an NRI, said his son studied in the gurukul method, as he wanted him to remain close to Indian culture. “There are many parents who believe that the gurukul system can discipline their children,” he said.

There are also some gurukuls like Sandipani Gurukul of Porbandar where children are admitted at the kindergarten stage. The school admits 30-40 students every year from the kindergarten stage to Class X. The school charges Rs 20,000 per annum for boarding and anything between Rs 3,000 and 5,000 as tuition fees.

Hitendra Vyas, the principal of Bhagwad Vidyapeeth, which is the only gurukul having a sanskritised education system, further said that his students fare well in the outside world.

“There are many students who go to the IITs and the IIMs, but they do not know that no book can teach better management skills than the Bhagvad Gita. Our scriptures have a solution to everything, and our students, who are MA in Sanskrit, can easily get any job they want like their English medium counterparts,” Vyas said.