Dr. Savaysachi dasa:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s sad, but also common knowledge, that slaughterhouses kill thousands of helpless
\ncows daily. But are you aware that there is another kind of slaughterhouse, many
\ntimes more numerous, that kills children even more brutally than cows?
\nGenerally it is understood that slaughterhouses are places where innocent animals
\nare mercilessly killed for satisfying the taste buds of men with a demoniac
\nmentality. Today we also have similar places to systematically slaughter innocent
\nchildren in a sophisticated manner. These \u201cchild slaughterhouses\u201d are the schools
\nand colleges of the modern educational system.
\n\u201cWhat?\u201d you may ask. \u201cThis sounds very harsh and unreasonable.\u201d Please read on and
\nsee for yourself the sad reality.
\nFrom the perspective of modern man, Hira\u00ebyaka\u00e7ipu (\u201cone who accumulates gold and
\nenjoys material comforts\u201d) was a thoroughly successful personage. His life was
\nconducted solely by unrestricted lust and greed, the primary qualities required for
\nbecoming a success today. He wanted his son Prahl\u00e4da to follow in his footsteps, to
\nbecome lusty and greedy and achieve material success. So he sent Prahl\u00e4da to the
\nrenowned teachers of that time, \u00d1a\u00eb\u00f2a and Amarka, the sons of \u00c7ukr\u00e4c\u00e4rya (one
\nmeaning of this name is \u201cexpert in imparting sex education\u201d).
\nPrahl\u00e4da\u2019s teachers tried their best to kill all the devotion for the Supreme Lord,
\nVi\u00f1\u00ebu, that Prahl\u00e4da had imbibed (while in the womb of his mother) from his
\nspiritual master, N\u00e4rada Muni.
\nEach child born has received a precious gift\u2014after having passed perhaps through
\nmillions of other species\u2014in the form of the rare human birth, whereby one can
\nperfect his existence by reviving his forgotten relationship with the Supreme
\nPersonality of Godhead, and thus end once and for all the cycle of repeated birth
\nand death. The Vedic literature enjoins:
\ngurur na sa sy\u00e4t sva-jano na sa sy\u00e4t
\npit\u00e4 na sa sy\u00e4j janan\u00e9 na s\u00e4 sy\u00e4t
\ndaiva\u00e0 na tat sy\u00e4n na pati\u00e7 ca sa sy\u00e4n
\nna mocayed ya\u00f9 samupeta-m\u00e5tyum
\n\u201cOne who cannot deliver his dependents from the path of repeated birth and death
\nshould never become a spiritual master, a father, a husband, a mother or a
\nworshipable demigod.\u201d (SB 5.5.18: \u201cLord \u00c5\u00f1abhadeva’s Teachings to His Sons\u201d)
\nParents and teachers have an immense responsibility to ensure that the soul sent to
\nthem is properly trained, that is, to be able to overcome sa\u00e0skara by reviving his
\nspiritual identity. But is this taught in the modern educational system? Not at all.
\nRather, students simply learn to unlimitedly increase their desires and to work like
\nasses to fulfill them, and to indulge in sensual enjoyment till the last moments of
\nlife\u2014at which time one is ruthlessly robbed of all that he has earned by his hard
\nwork, and possibly transferred to the body of an ass (more suitable for hard labor).
\nIn this way, all hopes that an innocent child will perfect his life are mercilessly
\ndestroyed in the present-day schools and colleges; therefore they are no better than
\nslaughterhouses.
\nThe characteristics of a true educational system were nicely described by \u00c7r\u00e9
\nPrahl\u00e4da Mah\u00e4r\u00e4ja in \u00c7r\u00e9mad-Bh\u00e4gavatam:
\nkaum\u00e4ra \u00e4caret pr\u00e4j\u00efo
\ndharm\u00e4n bh\u00e4gavat\u00e4n iha
\ndurlabha\u00e0 m\u00e4nu\u00f1a\u00e0 janma
\ntad apy adhruvam arthadam
\n\u201cPrahl\u00e4da Mah\u00e4r\u00e4ja said: One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human
\nform of body from the very beginning of life\u2014in other words, from the tender age of
\nchildhood\u2014practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other
\nengagements. The human body is most rarely achieved, and although temporary like
\nother bodies, it is meaningful because in human life one can perform devotional
\nservice. Even a slight amount of sincere devotional service can give one complete
\nperfection.\u201d (SB 7.6.1: \u201cPrahl\u00e4da Instructs His Demoniac Schoolmates\u201d)
\nFrom the primary level, a child should be instructed exclusively in the teachings of
\n\u00c7r\u00e9mad-Bhagavad-g\u00e9t\u00e4 and \u00c7r\u00e9mad-Bh\u00e4gavatam, which include all knowledge necessary
\nfor living happily in this life and beyond. One may question, \u201cWill studying
\nBhagavad-g\u00e9t\u00e4 teach one how to earn his bread?\u201d But if one thinks that schools and
\ncolleges are necessary for learning how to earn bread, he is less intelligent than
\neven the animals, who earn their bread without undergoing any such official
\nschooling.
\nBy nature\u2019s arrangement, all creatures born in this material world know how to eat,
\nsleep, mate, and defend. Only the most evolved modern man needs a rigorous training
\nof twenty-five to thirty years (forty to fifty percent of one\u2019s life) to be able to
\nbegin earning his bread!
\nFor hundreds and thousands of years prior to the modern educational system, even the
\nso-called primitive human beings have been growing their food, constructing their
\nhouses, and defending themselves. So to claim that the modern educational system is
\ndesigned to teach human beings how to earn their bread is actually an insult to that
\nsystem.
\nA more apt laudation of the modern educational system would be how it trains human
\nbeings to snatch bread from the mouth of its fellow being, man and animal alike, in
\neffort to satisfy the insatiable lust and greed fuelled by the system itself.
\nThus hard struggle and cutthroat competition ensue in human society, with the result
\nthat a few powerful men exploit the weaker masses, who earn their bread only by
\ngreat struggle. Yet we think that without the modern educational system we would
\nstarve. This mentality is the product a society wherein people\u2019s means of earning
\ntheir livelihood are directly or indirectly dependent on the modern educational
\nsystem; in other words, \u201cthe degree earns your bread.\u201d
\nAlthough for eternity it has been only the land that provides bread, on the plea of
\n\u201cadvancement\u201d a very complicated economic system has been designed, wherein degrees
\nearned after years of hard labor are needed to transport this bread (grown from the
\nland) to our mouth. Thus the notion \u201cno schooling, no bread\u201d has been instilled in
\nthe mind of modern man.
\nThe sole purpose for which the modern educational system exists is for increasing
\none\u2019s desires to enjoy this world through his senses, which in turn makes him more
\nand more lusty to do so. They who are able to fulfill their lust become greedy and
\nthus remain unsatisfied forever, while those who are unable to fulfill their lust
\nbecome frustrated. Thus immersed in lust, greed, and frustration, one\u2019s chances to
\ncontemplate a higher aim in life become null, what to speak of actually
\nsystematically pursuing the path for overcoming birth and death. Hence the child is
\nspiritually \u201cslaughtered\u201d in modern schools and colleges.
\nIn the Vedic tradition, formal education was never necessary for earning one\u2019s
\nlivelihood. Education was meant for building character and imparting higher moral
\nvalues, leading ultimately to the student\u2019s becoming fully self-realized. The
\nresponsibility of growing food for society was undertaken by a section thereof, and
\nthe necessary skills for farming, cow protection, construction, and crafts were
\nlearned through apprenticeship\u2014from one\u2019s father, uncle, or neighbor.
\nFrom the age of five, the child would be sent to a guru\u2019s ashram, the gurukula,
\nwhere under strict discipline he would learn about the ultimate aim of human life
\nand the means to attain it. After a few years of primary education, only those with
\nbrahminical and k\u00f1atriya inclinations would continue formal education\u2014to thoroughly
\nstudy Vedic texts\u2014while the others, who would be returning into society, would learn
\nthe skills necessary for their livelihood through apprenticeship, and would start
\nearning their livelihood by the age of twelve or so.
\nIn a nutshell, the traditional Vedic education trained one to overcome the base
\nanimalistic instincts within us\u2014lust, anger, greed, envy\u2014whereas the modern
\neducational system aims at develop;ing these instincts.
\nAlthough one might appreciate the innate weakness of modern education, he finds
\nhimself so much entrenched in the current socio-economic system that to escape it
\nseems practically impossible. Therefore His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
\nPrabhuap\u00e4da, the founder-\u00e4c\u00e4rya of ISKCON, directed and guided his disciples to
\nestablish farm communities based upon Vedic socio-economic guidelines, to enable all
\nhumans to live according to the fundamental elements of ideal Vedic society.
\n(Savyasachi Das holds a degree in medicine from Madurai Medical College, Dr. M. G.
\nR. Medical University. Presently he oversees ISKCON\u2019s 100-acre farm community
\nlocated at Kathwada village, near Ahmedabad, Gujarat)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Savaysachi dasa: It\u2019s sad, but also common knowledge, that slaughterhouses kill thousands of helpless cows daily. But are you aware that there is another kind of slaughterhouse, many times more numerous, that kills children even more brutally than cows?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}