Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala

Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala is residential junior college for boys located in the southern Indian city of Mysuru (formerly Mysore). It offers a comprehensive education from grades eight to twelve.

Vidyashala operates as one of the Ramakrishna Mission's [http://www.belurmath.org/home.htm BELUR MATH : The Headquarters of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, India ] ] nine centers in the state of Karnataka. [cite news |title= Ramakrishna Mutt cautions against namesake ashrams |url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/26/stories/2005072610710300.htm |work=The Hindu |date=July 26, 2005 |accessdate=2007-04-27 ] In addition to Vidyashala two other centers are located in Mysuru: Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama [http://www.srkmys.org/homepage.html Welcome to Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysuru ] ] and the Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education. [ [http://www.rimse.org/ Welcome to RIMSE ] ]

Founder and inspiration

Vidyashala was founded in 1953 by Swami Shambhavananda, a Ramakrishna Math monk born in Kodagu.

Shambhavananda, an early president of Mysuru's Ashrama, was an educational pioneer who sought to offer younger students in their formative years a "man making education" which Swami Vivekananda had described as a "total development of man which includes the physical, mental and spiritual." [http://www.sriramakrishnamath.org/magazine/vk/2001/9-3-3.asp] Vidyashala would operationalize Vivekananda's calls for a higher intellect through sound health. [ [http://ncert.nic.in/sites/publication/vechap5.htm Educational Thoughts of Vivekananda]

Vidyashala was preceded for at least three decades by the Ramakrishna Students Home, a boarding facility for economically constrained students of whom some, such as the writer K.V. Puttappa, went on to gain eminence in pre-Independence Mysuru. Vidyashala began in a small house in the Vontikoppal ward but shifted to its present campus in Yadavagiri after Shambhavananda purchased for the institution some barren wasteland which he transformed into a verdant green.

In the early 1950s Shambhavananda physically led the building construction despite his advancing age. Legend is he walked around Mysuru's Yadavagiri ward seeking "bhiksha" on behalf of the new school. Seeking "bhiksha" is a Hindu tradition of begging for alms with the purpose of self-effacement or ego-conquering.

Leadership

Vidyashala is managed by a Ramakrishna Math monk designated as correspondent, currently Swami Muktidananda ("Yogesh Maharaj"). Its academic sections are in the charge of principal S. Balaji.

Muktidananda took charge as correspondent in 1997. A botanist and landscape designer, he established in 1998 "Nisarga Niketana," a thatched classroom resembling a traditional "gurukul". He initiated a restoration of Vidyashala's aging main building, re-tiled the swimming pool, made several aesthetic additions to the campus, commissioned a new audiovisual theater, and led enhancements for Vidyashala's golden jubilee in 2003. In 2007 Muktidananda's compilations of Swami Achalananda's expositions on puja were published by the Mysuru Ashrama as the 213-page book "The Meaning and Significance of Worship". [ [http://suribooks.blogspot.com/2008/02/book-review-meaning-and-significance-of.html Book Review from Vedanta Kesari] ]

Much of Vidyashala's reputation as a model educational institution is attributed to the charismatic leadership of Swami Sureshananda ("Hari Maharaj"), correspondent for nearly two decades until 1990 when he succeeded Swami Somanathananda as Mysuru Ashrama president. In that position Sureshananda built a public auditorium, renovated the Ashrama building, and construct two floors of quarters for monks. In the late 1990s Sureshananda moved into spiritual practice in B.R. Hills.

Sureshananda helped Vidyashala's campus optimize productivity, increase its biodiversity and move toward self-sustainability. He planted and tended to vast numbers of coconut, arabica coffee, sapota, silver oak and elephant grass ("Saccharum ravennae"). A popular legend is that Sureshananda never traveled out of Mysuru without bringing back a variety of flora for Vidyashala. Sureshananda established a biogas facility attached to the dairy, an electric laundry, and well-equipped biological, physical and chemical student-laboratories. [ [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1072340493630934292 Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala: An Overview, 11-minute video] ] Sureshananda took a special interest in Vidyashala's band troop, which is recognized as one of Karnataka's finest. He was involved in Vidyashala's management even while his successor, the popular Swami Paratmananda ("Gangadhar Maharaj"), served as correspondent from 1990 until 1997.

On April 15, 2008, a 79-year-old Sureshananda had surgery for lower back pain at Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai. Scores of Vidyashala alumni, who had persuaded him to have the procedure, converged on the hospital before and after the successful operation conducted by Dr. Shekhar Bhojraj.

Biodiversity, playgrounds, pool

The verdant 69-acre campus is flanked on the west by a T-shaped four-storey building whose terrace offers a panoramic view. That main building was declared open in 1953 by the statesman C. Rajagopalachari. The 33.3-meter open-air swimming pool, one of Mysuru's oldest and finest, was inaugurated in 1957 by India's first Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, who is said to have, in a moment of epiphany, immediately expressed a desire to swim. [cite news |title=Nostalgic moments |url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/15/stories/2006111506100200.htm |work=The Hindu |date=November 15, 2006 |accessdate=2007-04-27 ]

There are 22 playgrounds for soccer, hockey, basketball, volleyball, and kho-kho, as well as a relatively new cricket pitch. A couple of small cottages, called "kutiras", by a scenic pond in the campus, are used for meditation by visiting Ramakrishna Math monks. In addition there is an automated laundry and a mechanized dairy housing 50 cows.

The campus hosts about a thousand species of flora including rarities such as a relatively young North American Giant Redwood and a Thai tree that blossoms every 12th year, as well as plantations of sapota, arabica coffee, elephant grass ("Saccharum ravennae"), coconut, and silver oak. The campus is a sanctuary for nearly four hundred species of birds, including migrants such as the cormorant. An index of the campus fauna is available on signs to the left as one enters the gates. [ [http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/05/stories/2006090507720400.htm The Hindu : Karnataka / Mysore News : A `forest' in the heart of Mysore city ] ]

On the southeastern corner of Vidyashala's campus is located the Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education, [ [http://www.rimse.org/ Welcome to RIMSE] ] popularly called "Vedanta College," which offers a Bachelor of Education program and whose prayer hall is topped by a distinctive Pallava-style gopuram visible from about five kilometers around.

Vidyashala hosts an award-winning company of the Thirteen Karnataka Battalion of the National Cadet Corps (Army wing).

Swami Vivekananda's statue

The statue of Swami Vivekananda in meditative pose at the entrance of Vidyashala was sculpted by the Burmese artist U. Han Tin. It is made of Caen stone from England. The statue is 6.5' tall, 5' wide from front and 3.5' wide from side. The statue was earlier located at the Ramakrishna Mission Hospital in Rangoon (Yangon) in Burma (Myanmar). During the 1962 military coup in Burma, the large hosptial run by the Mission was taken over by the military junta but the authorities allowed the Mission to relocate the statue.

In 1965, the statue was shipped from Burma to Mysuru. It was unveiled at its current location in 1978 by L. K. Advani, the then Indian Union minister of information and broadcasting, at Vidyashala's silver jubilee celebration.

The statue is housed in a granite mantapam designed in the style of the Geetopadesham chariot by Vidyashala's architect E. Ashirvadam. It combines Bengali and Dravidian styles of architecture. A small garden and lawn in front of the statue add beauty to its setting.

Swami Vivekananda's aphorism, "Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man," is inscribed on a plaque at the statue's base.

Dorms, labs, observatory

The students live in dormitory-style facilities each supervised by a warden, often a resident monk. The students have access to a library with nearly 15000 volumes, a 400-seat auditorium with motion picture projectors, a separate digital audiovisual theater, a computer laboratory.

Vidyashala's astronomical observatory is accessible to students of other Mysuru schools as well. [ [http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Apr172008/dheducation2008041663019.asp Star Gazing in Style at Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala] ] The observatory houses two reflecting telescopes, including a convert|14|in|mm|sing=on Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain.

The chemical and physical laboratories are reputed to be among the best-equipped student labs in Mysuru. There is also a biological and fine arts section, a sports stadium used as parade ground, an open-air theater, teachers' quarters, an electric bakery, ophthalmic and dental clinics, a dispensary (offering, at various times, homeopathic or modern medical treatments), a two-floor gymnasium with weights and a wooden badminton court, and several table tennis courts.

In 2003 a Golden Jubilee block, comprising classrooms, dormitories, a prayer hall, and a small amphitheater, was constructed about convert|200|yd south of the main building. The golden jubilee year also saw numerous other infrastructure improvements, including a pagoda-style waiting area for parents, an entry facade, the digital audiovisual theater, and new bathroom tiles in the main building.

tudent activities

Vidyashala's students number about 400 and fall in the age group of 13-18 years. Many of those who hail from outside Karnataka are from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Maharashtra. For several years, Vidyashala actively recruited students from India's northeastern states, particularly from Manipur. The student body's diversity was singular among Mysuru's schools.

The students follow a demanding regimen from the rising hour of 5.15 a.m. until they go to bed at about 10 p.m. A typical day is packed with physical exercise, literary activities, hobby pursuits including art and music, participation in a chosen outdoor sport, Vedic (often Upanishadic) chants and meditation, in addition to classroom work. The medium of instruction is English, with syllabi adopted from the state boards of secondary and pre-university education.

Two days a week the students go swimming, a few times a year they perform manual or social work, and two or three times a year they participate in educational excursions to towns of historical or scientific interest. They return home for about three weeks during Dasara [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasara] and for about eight weeks during the summer. On one Sunday every month a guardian may visit Vidyashala to take their ward on an "outing."

The students eat four times a day. Meals are lacto-vegetarian, prepared by resident cooks, and had while sitting cross-legged (yoga style) in a vast dining area. Lunch and dinner are preceded by chanting selected verses from the Bhagavad Gita. Many Indian festivals, including Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Upanayanam or Munji, and Christmas, are celebrated with special activities. The students clean their own toilets and participate in extensive voluntary activities coordinated by an elected Students Council comprising a president, a general secretary, a vice president and a joint secretary, in addition to about 20 other secretaries. Students Council officers are typically elected in July via electronic voting.

Vidyashala's students have achieved consistently excellent examination results over two decades. In that time there is no record of failures in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations or in the Pre-university (PUC) examinations. Class averages hover around 85 per cent. The school performed well even in 2004 and 2005 when Mysore district otherwise recorded a relatively poor performance. [ [http://www.hindu.com/2004/05/09/stories/2004050906720300.htm The Hindu : Karnataka / Mysore News : Poor pass percentage in Mysore, a cause for concern ] ]

Annual celebration

Vidyashala's annual day, typically celebrated in early January, tends to be a spectacular showcase of its students' talents, physical, artistic and intellectual. Actually a two-day event, it attracts parents and others from around Mysore district and outside. Vidyashala's twelve-instrument English band, whose members play English and Indian tunes, is usually a highlight, as is a torchlight parade.

The annual day typically includes an attractive gymnatics show as well as a stage-drama on a classical theme, and is also an occasion when the Old Boys Association conducts an alumni meeting followed by a five-course lunch whose highlight is typically the "Prabhakar rasam" (named after a popular cook) and the "fruit salad" (said to be prepared from campus-grown fruits), all served on leaf plates called patrawallis woven from dry areca leaves.

Every third annual day, Vidyashala announces a recipient of the prestigious Dr. R.K. Narayanan and P. Kousalya Narayanan Memorial Gold Medal for Outstanding Character instituted by K. Sarojini of Chennai. In January 2008 the medal was presented to G. Suhas of the 2000-05 batch, an academic topper and Sahara India scholar. [ [http://www.starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=news&item=15461 Star Of Mysore Online ] ] Suhas, a student of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, was handed the medal by chief guest Dr. B. Soma Raju, chairman of CARE Hospitals, Hyderabad. [ [http://www.carehospitals.com/ Care Hospital ] ]

Praise and criticism

Educational institutions run by the Ramakrishna Mission tend toward being non-profit. They use the Mission's motto of "Atmano mokshartham jagat hitaya cha" (आत्मनॊ मोक्षार्थम् जगद्धिताय च in the Devanāgarī script of the original Sanskrit), which translates as, "For self-realization and for the universal good."

Vidyashala has received praise for its emphasis on personality development, for never demanding donations (dubbed "capitation fees" in Karnataka), for its fee-per-cost model, for the high quality of its teachers, and for offering scholarships to poor and otherwise disadvantaged students. The institution is regarded highly for not encouraging political interference in the admission process. Vidyashala is admired for the guiding presence of Vedantic monks on the campus, including well known scholars and musicians such as the Swamis Shambhavananda, Somanathananda, Sureshananda, Jagadatmananda, Harshananda, Purushottamananda, Venkateshananda, Paratmananda, Atmavidananda, Nityasthananda, and Muktidananda.

Some critics, on the other hand, have accused Vidyashala of elitism because only about a tenth of applicants to the eighth grade receive admission offers. Some eyebrows were raised at Vidyashala's preference to renounce state support rather than accept government intervention in teacher recruitments. Another concern has been that almost all of Vidyashala's students go on to join engineering or medical programs; few take up the arts, the pure sciences, law, journalism, or management.

Recent visitors to comment on Vidyashala include George Fernandes, the former defense minister, who noted that the institution emphasized character and personality, [ [http://www.hindu.com/2004/01/11/stories/2004011103520400.htm The Hindu : Fernandes urges youth to fight corruption ] ] and A. Jayagovinda, director of the National Law School of India University, who praised its "value-based education." [cite news |title=A colourful annual day at Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala |url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/10/stories/2006011004460200.htm |work=The Hindu |date=January 10, 2006 |accessdate=2007-04-27 ]

On December 9, 2007, Vidyashala made news for a tragic reason. H.P. Nagenda, a visiting parent and formerly a municipal councillor in the nearby town of Mandya, was stabbed near Vidyashala's gates by a suspected associate of his late political rival Jadeja Ravi. [ [http://www.starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=news&item=15095 Star Of Mysore Online ] ] Nagendra died of the wounds in Basappa Memorial Hospital, Mysore, on December 11. [ [http://www.starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=news&item=15120 Star Of Mysore Online ] ]

Famous teachers

Many of Vidyashala's teachers have earned state award nominations and other accolades. Some are particularly highly regarded in the Mysore region, among them K. Jagannath (now deceased), who served as headmaster, B.S. Srikantiah, who served as social studies teacher, headmaster and later as principal for well more than two decades, G.S. Subramaniam, who taught English for also some two decades, and Keerthi Kumar, who taught mathematics for nearly 15 years and then served as principal for about ten.

Other well known Vidyashala teachers (some now retired) include T.N. Venkateshaiah (mathematics), H.G. Anantharamaiah (science), M. Rama Rao (English), S.V. Ramaswamy (science and astronomy), S.K. Rama Rao (physical science; now deceased), H.S. Srinivasa Murthy (English), M.N. Joshi (Kannada), K. Laxminarayan (mathematics), K.P. Ananthapadmanabha (science), N.N. Chandrashekhara Bhat (Sanskrit), B.S. Venkateshaiah (social studies and drama; now deceased), Ram Prasad (physical science; now deceased), N. Bhima Rao (Hindi), K. Narayana Shastry (Sanskrit), S.P. Suresh (science and English), B.A.P. Bhat (fine art), A. Peter (laboratory assistant), Diwan Singh (bandmaster), K. Narayana Rao (chemistry; now deceased), K.V. Arkanath (physics), M. Rama Moorthy (mathematics), and B.R. Suresh (biology).

In 1990 and in the years following, the institution acquired a new crop of teachers including Rahul S. Kini (English; served as principal for about five years), S. Balaji (chemistry; current principal), Mattur Kumaraswamy (Sanskrit and gamaka), S.S. Ramesh (Kannada), K.S. Murugesh (physics), A. Sudheendra Hebbar (biology), T.K. Chandrashekhar (mathematics), Arun Kutnikar (English), K. Shiva Kumar (Hindi), R.R. Mohan (computers), S.R. Ramesh (English), and Chandra Srinivas Babu (chemistry).

References

External links

* [http://www.srkvs.org/ Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala]