A Good Report

A letter i wrote to the awesome gurukula in Mayapur. Quoted from my diary Monday entry on December 10, 2007:

"Radhe Syama is doing well in school. Here is a good report I had sent to his teacher Dec. 3:

"I am happy to report to you and all those concerned that yesterday when Radhe Syama came home early from gurukula he immediately offered to assist me in cooking the lunch offering, helping with the rice, dahl and karela preparations. Also when he learned that I did not have the karela he immediately went off to purchase it for me. 

"I am so glad to see this good change in his behavior whereas before going to gurukula he was becoming more reluctant to help!

"Also he wanted to bathe in Ganga rather than play computer games with his brothers. Finally he fell asleep at an early hour. When he awoke the next morning he said to me, 'Mata, I can't wait to get back to gurukula(!)'

"Then this morning, before going to school he hugged me and said he loved me and then he touched my feet, which is a first for him, but customary in Indian culture, so I knew he was learning it from his school- to respect mother.

"I was deeply touched and gave him a big hug and kiss and profuse blessings."

ADDENDUM:

This school cannot be praised enough. Another important feature was the first hand exposure to Indian culture during field trips. Later on was a written narration after he was asked in his school’s writing class to describe an experience:

"When I was in gurukula, my class mates and I visited a home in an Indian village. Our naked feet trotted across red, dusty earth as we approached the home made of cement with marble floors and artistically shaped bars decorating the window.

"The family inside received us by washing our feet. Our teacher went first. One after the other, we each stood on a stone with impressed footprints on it while a lady poured water from a metal jug over our feet.

"Our teacher talked to our hosts a little while in Bengali, thanking them. Then we left. That was the first time someone washed my feet as a reception."

Of course, every school has it's challenges. One day he came home with a big stick. I asked what it was for. He said for killing snakes. "That's not something you tell your mother!" I said in alarm.

But for him, and the other boys I'm sure, gurukula was like a perpetual boy scout camp to learn both skills and good character and above all, Krishna consciousness.

Psuedo Scorpion

Excerpt from an old diary while living in India:

I was sifting through coriander seeds, looking for foreign matter when I spotted a very tiny creature, about 2 mm in size crawling between the seeds. At first i thought it was a spider, but when I helped it over the edge of my sorting dish, it landed on the counter below, into a puddle of water without any web darting out for its safety.

After helping it out of the water, I looked closer. It appeared to be a baby scorpion. Then I took a photo to zoom in on. I didn't get the best shot, but it helped me identify my first ...pseudoscorpion!

Curiosity pushed me to Google for more info: Its harmless pinchers may cause one to mistake it for a scorpion, but it has no stinger.  Furthermore it aids humans by eating pests like dust mites and book lice.

This little creature reminded me how some sectarian religionists think the Krishna consciousness movement is something irreligious, without bothering to investigate the real facts. Actually, there is a Gita verse to back this thought up: "That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Pārtha, is in the mode of ignorance." -Bg 18.32

And here's something from 11th Canto Srimad Bhagavatam we can learn from the honeybee:

"Just as the honeybee takes nectar from all flowers, big and small, an intelligent human being should take the essence from all religious scriptures."

And Prabhupada commented on this verse:
"At the present time people generally have a sectarian concept of religion, and yet there is no scientific understanding of the Absolute Truth. Such complacent, dogmatic, sectarian religionists can certainly learn something from the example of the honeybee given in this verse."