Gurus and gurukulams
From childhood itself I have been hearing about people setting out in the search for truth. In the process they go to one guru after another and from one ashram or gurukulam to another. Now India is the land of such truth-seekers where people from all over the world come looking for truth, knowledge, enlightenment, peace of mind etc. This has also opened up immense business opportunities for gurus, godmen, astrologers, practitioners of Ayurveda and holistic medicines with asrams, gurukulams and medical facilities springing up all over to cater to the burgeoning market of blind faith and make-believe. It might be interesting to look into these phenomena of gurus and gurukulams.
In the past there were no schools, colleges, books and media to disseminate knowledge and wisdom. People wallowed in ignorance and illiteracy. However every once in a while someone rose above this morass of ignorance and illiteracy and they were called teachers or gurus. Confucius, Zoroaster, The Buddha, Mahavir, Socrates, Sankaracharya, Jesus, Mohammad et al were such beacons of knowledge in the vast and dark wilderness of ignorance and superstitions. These men of knowledge were called gurus or teachers. People flocked to them to consult them regarding the various problems they faced in life or regarding questions of philosophy. The teachers or gurus gave them the best and most viable answers they had which was not much considering the fact that these gurus themselves had no access to libraries or the media or the internet. Because of their own limited knowledge they had to set a stipulation that the disciples or followers do not ask too many questions which might embarrass the gurus and expose their limitations of knowledge. This slowly evolved into the concept that the guru was infallible and whatever he uttered was the infallible and unquestionable truth. In those days there was not much specialization of knowledge and these gurus and teachers talked on a variety of subjects. As more and more people flocked to these gurus and teachers their resident locations developed into gurukulams and schools.
Now with the explosion of knowledge, specialization is the order of the day. Consequently no one person is in a position to hold even a fraction of the knowledge we have today. Accordingly gurus and gurukulams have no place in our brightly lit skies of the Internet and other knowledge sources. We can now find answers to most of our questions right from our keyboard. However some people do not change and they still think nostalgically and romantically over the old ways of the gurus and gurukulams and they set on their journey for the search of truth when all the knowledge they need is already at home on their internet. What is more the old model of the infallibility and unquestionability of the gurus still continue as a result of which the gurus are the last word on everything. But power corrupts and absolute power as in the gurukulams corrupts absolutely. Consequently most if not all of these gurukulams and asrams are quagmires of corruption and unaccountability. The result is that unlike in the old days, these gurus and gurukulams do more harm than good But that has not restrained the glow of the seekers of truth, spirituality and peace and such romantic and elusive concepts and ideas.
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