A gurukul (Sanskrit guru "teacher" or "master"; kul domain, from kula, "extended family") is a type of school in India, residential in nature, with shishyas living in proximity to the guru, often within the same house.[1] In a gurukul, shishyas reside together as equals, irrespective of their social standing, learn from the guru and help the guru in his day-to-day life, including the carrying out of mundane chores such as washing clothes, cooking, etc. The guru-shishya tradition (parampara) is a hallowed one in Hinduism and appears in other religious groups in India, such as Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
Typically, a guru does not receive fees from the shishyas studying with him. At the end of his studies, a shishya offers the guru dakshina before leaving the ashram. The gurudakshina is a traditional gesture of acknowledgment, respect and thanks, which may be monetary, but may also be a special task the teacher wants the student to accomplish. While living in a gurukul the students had to be away from his house and family. The gurus didn't take any fees and so they had to serve the guru.
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Gurukulas have existed since the Vedic age. Upanishads mention many gurukulas, including that of Yajnavalkya, Varuni. Brigu Valli, the famous discourse on Brahman, is mentioned to have taken place in Guru Varuni's gurukul. Vedic school of thought prescribes an initiation (Upanayanam) to all individuals, including women, before the age of 8 or latest by 12. From initiation until the age of 25 all individuals are prescribed to be students and to remain unmarried.
The gurukuls were supported by public donation. This was followed by the many following Vedic thoughts making gurukul one of the earliest forms of public school offices.
By the colonial era the gurukul system was declining in India except in a few regions, such as Kerala, where the warrior Nair clan and their own military gurukulas, called Kalaris, still maintained the tradition. The Shastriji Maharaj Dharamjivan dasji Swami is the pioneer of Modern Vedic Gurukul system. He initiated first Swaminarayan Gurukul, Rajkot, Gujarat State, India in 1948. The present chief of the gurukul is the Mahant Swami Devakrishna dasji Swami; vice chief is PP Devaprasad dasji Swami.
Recently several gurukulas have begun, driven both by a desire to uphold the traditions and monetary gain. Examples of these new schools are the Ananda Marga Gurukula.[2] It is not a religious school in the Hindu tradition but rather a secular academic institution based on universal spiritual principles. Vivekananda College near Madurai is an NAAC accredited `A' grade autonomous college that is run under a Gurukula system.[3]
In India and elsewhere, the Swaminarayan Gurukul of the Swaminarayan Sampraday has been established. In Andhra Pradesh, an attempt to expand the Gurukul tradition was made at Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul Hyderabad by Sadguru Shri Devprasaddasji Swami in 1995. Gurukul Hyderabad has now grown wide in South India in metros and other cities like Bangalore, Gulbarga, Raipur and Bidar. These gurukuls are surprisingly a complex of high standards world-class schooling, providing curricula like CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE - Cambridge through its international schools; merged with the best blend of spirituality, morals and values which is an effort towards safeguarding our traditions in the coming generations. Any parent wishing to save his child from being affected and spoiled by the rushing western culture and modern temptations are surely recommended to seek admissions at any of these centers; one can find alumni reviews from all over the world. For more information, visit Official Website of Gurukul.
For a number of years, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness established gurukulas for children, providing academic as well as Gaudiya Vaishnava spiritual instruction in a boarding-school environment. The movement for the building and supporting of gurukulas was started by the organization's founder and leader of the Hare Krishna movement, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. A number of these gurukulas, in India and other parts of the world, still exist today.
The Bhaktivedanta Gurukula and International School, founded in 1977, is a gurukul in Vrindavan, India. The school cultivates a cultural and vedic lifestyle while providing a high school degree from the ICSE board. In Mayapur (West Bengal, India) an ISKCON gurukul project, which has been in operation since the 1970s, is rejuvenating the ancient gurukul system and providing students with a system of traditional education and values.