By Bharat Chandra Dasa
“This varnasrama college has to be established immediately. Everywhere, wherever we have got our center, a varnasrama college should be established…”
[His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, March 12, 1974]
Varnasrama College – 2009 concluded on Sunday, March 29 with a graduation day ceremony and the passing out of students beaming with confidence and charged up to live the varnasrama lifestyle.
The course was entitled “Land, Cows, and Krishna – Part I”. The uniqueness of the course, as one student explained, was that it kept a good balance between the material and spiritual realms: “The activities of bhakti-yoga were not compromised, although studying more “material” topics, as we had a full morning program and Srimad Bhagavatam every day.”
The course was offered at Sahyadri Sri Krishna Balarama Ksetra near the town of Hebri, at the foothills of the famed Sahyadri mountain range which is recognized as one of the few “bio-diversity hotspots” in the world. The asrama is located in the district of Udupi, a most auspicious area known by the Vaisnavas as “Dakshin Vrindavan” because of presence of “Udupi Krishna” Who performs His Vrndavan lila of holding a rope and rod for churning yogurt and making butter.
His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami, the resident sannyasi during the three month course, mentioned that it was Srila Prabhupada’s standing order since more than 30 years that varnasrama colleges be established in all our centers to train our devotees in following the principles of simple living and high thinking, based primarily on agriculture and cow protection. Co-directors for the Varnasrama College, Hrdaya Caitanya prabhu and Bharat Chandra prabhu, both shared their realizations and experiences followed by those of the graduating students.
Various faculties were pulled in for this pioneering three month course from fields like – agriculture, cow protection, traditional constructions, traditional village technologies water lifting devices, pottery, making of ropes, traditional de-husking of rice, making of natural tooth powder, dhoop sticks, sun dried mud blocks, etc. An array of auxiliary courses kept the students busy throughout the day and on special festival days students took part in traditional feasts and go-pujas. All these activities combined gave a fresh meaning to Krishna consciousness.
The youngest student, Laksmi Pati prabhu from England, aged 18, was all set to be part of the proposed Mayapur Varnasrama College (MVC) to be developed in Sri Dham Mayapur. The eldest student, Sahasranama prabhu from Russia, age 45, was all enthusiastic to introduce the varnasrama concepts to the growing youth congregation in Nepal where he has been preaching with another student who only came for part of the course, Patri prabhu, also from Russia. The other two graduate students, Pundarikaksha prabhu from India and Bhakta Carlos from Central America, were similarly enthused to preach and implement the knowledge they had gained in their respective locations – Assam and Puerto Rico.
Hrdaya Caitanya prabhu, one of the Co-directors for the course, announced that this varnasrama college course will be offered every year with more features to be added in the course curriculum: “Not only have the students learned many things but we, as organizers, have also gained much insight through this whole experience. We will work hard to avoid the various mistakes and shortcomings which were there in this first attempt to present the varnasrama college. We will strive to make it even more attractive in our second year.”
As part of the graduation ceremony, the devotees conducted a fire-yajna where two samskaras were performed, one being the namakarana samskara for the newly born baby at Krishna Balarama Ksetra, bhaktin Shyamala, and secondly the harinam initiation ceremony for Bhakta Laxman, our cowherd boy, who received the name Laksminatha dasa. After the fire-yajna, the students received their graduation certificates and, along with faculty members, posed for photos.
For audio and video materials of the varnasrama college, kindly contact –
Bharat.Chandra.BRS@pamho.net
“…This is a most important item. Because people have been spoiled all over the world by being misguided by the so-called leaders. Therefore varnasrama college is required.”
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, March 14, 1974
“…Therefore the varnasrama college is required to train people…”
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, Feb 14, 1977