SAHYADRI VARNASRAMA COLLEGE (SVC) – YEAR 2014
SAHYADRI VARNASRAMA COLLEGE (SVC) – YEAR 2014
The Sahyadri Varnasrama College (SVC) was successfully completed at Sahyadri Sri Krishna Balarama Ksetra (SSKBK) in South India on January 31, 2014. This year, by the mercy of Sri Sri Krishna Balarama, we were fortunate to attract a good number of students as well as new Faculty members who joined for the first time.
With the harvesting of our sugar cane field during the month of January, students and teachers alike got the rare opportunity to learn the art of cutting and transporting sugar cane sticks, the art of manually squeezing the sugar cane juice by utilizing the traditional cold press method and finally, the most attractive part of the whole process, the art of making pure organic jaggery (gur) by boiling the sugar cane on a low heat for at least 6 hours.
Students learned the science of manually operating the Persian Wheel whereby with the help of our two Halikar bullocks Bala and Krsna water extracted from the open well is pulled and pipe fed to the nearby gardens.
On the graduation day, January 31, 2014, students who were still present received their Certificate of Attendance with both teachers and teachers sharing a few words of appreciation.
FACULTY MEMBERS
SVC has both full time Faculty members who reside on campus at SSKBK as well as visiting Faculty members who come for specific courses. We were fortunate to have the following devotees giving their valuable time for the various courses covered this year:
RESIDENT FACULTY MEMBERS
1. HH RP Bhakti Raghava Swami
Maharaja arrived at SSKBK a few days before the beginning of the new semester, December 29, 2013. He is the resident Sannyasi at SSKBK and has attended all the Varnasrama College sessions since the inception of the Sahyadri Varnasrama College in 2009. He has been giving daily discourses on the 7th Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam sharing Srila Narada Muni’s teachings on the concepts and principles of Daiva Varnasrama Dharma.
2. Sriman Raya Ramananda das
Sriman Raya Ramananda prabhu has been serving at SSKBK since the beginning of the project in the mid-2000. He took a two-week intensive training course on mud-block building in Pondicherry last year along with courses in Kalari Payattu. He has been teaching courses on Kalari and also taking Gita classes. He presently serves as one of the Co-Directors for SSKBK.
3. Sriman Krishna Chandra das
Sriman Krishna Chandra prabhu has been serving as one of the Co-Directors of SSKBK since over one year while also overlooking a preaching center in Bellary. He took up one of the theory courses during the Varnasrama College.
4. Sriman Sundar Ananda das
Also one of the Co-Directors at SSKBK, Sriman Sundar Ananda prabhu has been specializing in making Pancha Gavya products (made from pure cow milk, yogurt, ghee, urine and cow dung) teaching students how to make incense, tooth powder, Go-Ark and other cow products.
5. Sriman Giriraja das
Sriman Giriraja prabhu has been the pillar for the Agriculture and Cow Protection Departments at SSKBK serving since the beginning of the project. Daily he would direct the students to clean the Goshala, how to make cow cakes and how to mix the cow dung at the gobar gas plant. Daily he would also teach Yoga in the early mornings before milking the cows.
6. Sriman Sri Jiva das
Sri Jiva prabhu serves as our Head Pujaree since the last couple of years. He took time out of his busy schedule to teach basics about pujaree services.
VISITING FACULTY MEMBERS
1. Sriman Madhava das
Sriman Madhava prabhu is one of the Pioneers for the project GOKUL DHAM near Belgaum in North Karnataka where he oversees close to 500 acres of land. Their project has spearheaded innovations on local and traditional technologies. He gave his valuable time to present classes on management of goshala and traditional education.
2. Sriman Prananath das and Sriman Gururaj
Sriman Prananath prabhu came with Sriman Gururaj, both of them being Masters in Yoga Therapy and both continuing to take specialized Yoga courses in Mysore. Sriman Pranatha prabhu was recently awarded his Doctorate degree in Yoga therapy and spent a few days teaching Yoga to the students.
3. Dr. Sri Kumar (Cow Care)
Dr. Sri Kumar and his wife both came for a few days giving seminars on cow care and traditional grazing methods. Their presence and valuable instructions gave all those who attended their classes new inspiration about cow care and cow protection.
4. Sriman Manjunath (Kalari)
Sriman Manjunath came as both a student and a teacher. In his youth Sriman Manjunath attended Kalari Gurukula in Kerala and has been teaching the ancient Martial Arts of Kalari Payattu along with Marma Cikitsa (ancient science of healing) for a good number of years.
5. Sriman Akruranath das
If anyone has learnt about cow products in the last two decades, it is likely directly from this devotee Akruranath prabhu who learned the science and art of cow products decades ago. He gave wonderful discourses and applied demonstrations on how to make a kiln for burning dry cow cakes as well as formulas using natural herbs for tooth powder.
STUDENTS at SVC
The students this year included two devotees from Nepal, Vakreshwar Gaura prabhu and Dulal Adhikary who joined the program 10 days after its beginning.
Two young devotees from Hyderabad, Bhakti Raghava and Bhakta Madhava (brothers) participated in the Varnasrama College again this year for about 10 days. Also joining the program from Andhra Pradesh were Bhakta Raoul and Bhakta Srinivas. Bhakta Srinivas also took some classes and shared some of his skills in Ayurvedic medicine by preparing antidotes from the root of certain trees for treating snakebites and scorpion bites.
We also had the presence of three devotees from Shimoga, Naveen Krishna prabhu, Ramesvara prabhu and Bhakta Surya.
Half way through the course Madhava prabhu from Ayodhya also joined our program and Srinath prabhu from Puna.
We also had Bhakta Jagadish from Bellary also joining the program along with Manjunath who participated both as a student and teacher. One student from Canada, Bhakta Keith, also joined at the very end of the courses with plans to continue his stay at SSKBK thus making in total 14 devotees taking advantage of the courses offered at SVC this year.
CURRICULUM/COURSES
Our courses were divided in Primary Courses that included basic sadhana practices such as daily Mangala Aratika, Guru Puja and daily chanting on Japa Mala. Every day the students also performed go-seva as well as Astanga Yoga practice in the early hours of the morning.
After their morning prasadam students would then join various activities in connection with agriculture and cow protection. Later in the day, the students would join the daily Srimad-Bhagavatam class and the evening Kalari courses just before attending the evening Gaura Aratika.
The auxiliary courses covered many specialized courses, some given in the morning and others in the afternoon. These included courses in making tooth powder, natural soaps, jaggery/gur, operating oil ghani and Persian Wheel, making cow cakes, learning about protection from poisonous insects. etc. There were also courses on Astrology and Marma Cikitsa.
