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International Sahaja Public School

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The International Sahaja Public School in Dharamsala, India is a school run by the Sahaja Yoga movement. The school was founded in 1990, its stated mission to "develop self-respect which leads to respect for others, a love of Nature, care for the environment, gentleness, nobility, honesty and wisdom"[1]. The school teaches around 250 international students annually and demand for places has outstripped availability.[2]

Overview

File:ISPS2.jpeg
A view of the middle building

The school is located in the Himalayas, above Dharamsala in the Kangra district, near McLeod Ganj, at an altitude of more than 1700m. Children coming to the school must have previously been brought up in Sahaja Yoga culture and understand the importance of meditation.[3] Their education is based "on the teachings of Her Supreme Holiness Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi"[1][4] and one journalist reported seeing many photos of her at the school.[5] A newspaper article from the Indian Express reported that students "learn the basic principles of Sahaja Yoga ... the tenets of Hinduism and worship the school’s patron - Mata Nirmala Devi."[5] The article quoted a director of the school as saying that the students, upon coming to the school, "transcend all religions... [and] become more Hindu than Hindus themselves."[5] The school website reports that there is a full-time doctor in residence. In case of illness, Sahaja treatments and Ayurvedic medicine are given in preference to antibiotics. [3]

The medium of instruction is English. Subjects (as followed by the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education curriculum) include standard courses as well as English, German, Indian Classical Music (including instruments), and Indian Classical dance.[6] The school has a science lab, library, art and craft halls, music and dance rooms, and sport facilities including a gym, skating ramp, basketball field, cricket pitch and soccer fields. There is also a computer lab with broadband access to the Internet.[7] The school website states that: "Internet access is available for one hour per week per class in the senior section, as an afternoon activity."[4] One video per week is normally screened for juniors and one for seniors at weekends.[8] There is a restriction of video watching to Sahaja Yoga material and suitable classics.[5]

Mixed views

Judith Coney reports that the school has accepted children from the age of 4 and notes that "often very young children are separated from their natural parents for prolonged periods, as they usually stay in India for nine months"[9]. An Indian newspaper article published in 2000 reported that students at the time were aged 6 and above.[5]

An official school statement said that the villagers bring presents to the students and enjoy looking after them. A 1995 report on the school by the Austrian Ministry of Justice has said that uninvited visitors 'dropping in' have been refused entry[10], and that because of the unfriendly reception, foreign and domestic neighbours do "not know anything about the teachers, pupils and the daily routine at the school, which is-regarding the rustic surrounding-an astonishing fact."[11]

A 2000 article in the Indian Express noted that "an aura of secrecy envelops the school and entry is strictly forbidden."[5] The article quoted a director of the school as saying "...we don’t like the vibrations to be polluted by outsiders. Sometimes we even tell parents not to come here." Students are schooled in 'vibratory awareness'[5] which practitioners say enables them to detect and treat subtle imbalances in themselves and others.[12] This is part of the school's vision of fulfilling the students' physical, emotional, intellectual and, above all, spiritual potential. [13]

According to the school website, Sahaja Yoga education "envisages the development of the child in an atmosphere where the innate qualities, such as innocence and wisdom, are protected and enhanced; where the students imbibe the timeless and unchanging values which come from inner awareness, and are not subject to the vagaries of fashion, religion or national culture."[1] The Indian Express article noted that the "dormitories are austere, even monastic in appearance".[5]

They are realised souls, there is God who is looking after them, why are you so much worried about them? Leave them alone! Send them to the Indian school. Then the mothers are sitting there, teachers don't like it, no one likes it. They are just gone there. The mothers. No school allows such nonsense! But in Sahaja Yoga they think they have the right. What right have they got? Have they paid for the school? Have they done anything for the school? What right have they got to go and sit in the school? So the discretion should be, we have to bring up our children according to Sahaj culture. The first of the principles of Sahaja Yoga is fortitude. Sahaja Yoga is not meant for such .... dainty darlings. You have to be soldiers of Sahaja Yoga. - Nirmala Srivastava[14]

The Austrian Ministry of Justice's 1995 Report on the Sahaja Yoga school comments that "Despite the altitude, eight months of sunshine a year and outdoor activities and sports in the open, the European children appeared pale which was unexplainable to the visitor"[15]. Coney reports that another child arrived home having lost a stone in weight, and so changed in appearance that his mother could not recognise him, although the school had consistently reported that he was 'doing fine'[16].

Coney reports that, "whilst there is evidence that some children have enjoyed their time at the Sahaja Yoga school in India, a number of children have expressed unhappiness at being returned to the India school."[17] The school advises parents not to enroll their children until they are ready.

Regarding discipline, Sukhmani writes that corporal punishment is taboo at the school.[5] Nirmala Srivastava once said, "If they answer back give them two slaps, that's allowed" and that "other people ... have every right to smack if a child misbehaves."[18] On another occasion she encouraged parents and teachers to respect children and wrote that parents are allowed to occasionally slap 'extremely difficult' children, but forbade teachers from slapping children or punishing "in such a way that the child gets hurt."[19] Coney reports that there have been 'instances of children having been beaten' leading to the temporary dismissal of the Headmaster[20]. The Supreme Court of India banned corporal punishment in schools in 2000.[21]

In Austria, a mother's guardianship was partly substituted, after legal intervention of the grandmother, as she was not willing to take her boy out of the Sahaja Yoga boarding-school in India.[22] A French Court of Appeal allowed another mother custody of her children on condition that she did not send any of them to the school, again a result of grandparental intervention.[23] The enrolment form used in the admission procedure now asks for details of any resistance from family members to the child studying at the school.[24]

References

  1. ^ a b c ISPS, Dharamshala
  2. ^ [1], ISPS website, viewed 25 November 2007.
  3. ^ ISPS, Dharamshala
  4. ^ Prospectus
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i "A School for tradition", The Indian Express, December 24, 2000, by Sukhmani Singh
  6. ^ ICSE syllabus
  7. ^ Isps Prospectus
  8. ^ ISPS, Dharamshala
  9. ^ Coney, Judith (1999) Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement, (London: Curzon Press) ISBN 0-7007-1061-2 p159
  10. ^ Report on the Sahaja Yoga School, May 1995, Ministry of Justice, Republic of Austria, cited in "Growing Up As Mother's Children: Socializing a Second Generation in Sahaja Yoga" by Judith Coney in Children in New Religions Susan J. Palmer, Charlotte Hardman, Rutgers University Press (July 1999) p.117 "It is clear, too, that in contrast to the British children of Sahaja Yogis living in the United Kingdom, those attending the India school have little access to outside influences. A statement made by Sahaja Yogis about the school in India says that 'many women from the village come to see the children, bring presents for them and look after them. The whole village enjoys looking after these children' (Sahaja Yoga 1992b:3). But the Austrian report on the school in 1995 stated: 'People dropping in at the door are—[in a] more or less unfriendly [manner]—refused. Because of that refusal of contact, the domestic and foreign population nearby does not know anything about the teachers, pupils and the daily routine at the school, which is-regarding the rustic surrounding-an astonishing fact.'13 The school takes no children other than those belonging to Sahaja Yoga. Access to television and radio is not allowed, and 'the children seem to lack further information of or about their home countries.'14 Contact between the children and their parents has been limited. The children have been allowed to write home once a week and receive packages from home twice a year; parents may telephone from time to time."
  11. ^ Report on the Sahaja Yoga School, May 1995, Ministry of Justice, Republic of Austria, cited in Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement by Judith Coney (1999) p161
  12. ^ [2] Sahaja Yoga Australia - benefits of Sahaja Yoga.
  13. ^ Vision and Mission, ISPS website, viewed 22 November 2007.
  14. ^ Srivastava, Nirmala (1991-04-28). Hamsa Puja (Speech). New York City, USA. {{cite speech}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
  15. ^ cited in Judith Coney (1999), Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement p243
  16. ^ Judith Coney, Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement (1999) p164 "One child arrived home from the school having lost over a stone in weight and was so changed in appearance that his mother failed to recognise him at the airport. The school, however, had consistently reported throughout the year that he was 'doing fine'."
  17. ^ Judith Coney, Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement (1999) p166
  18. ^ Sahaja Yoga Internal Circular 3, 7, cited in Judith Coney, Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement (1999) p152 "Sahaja Yoga children have to be extremely well-disciplined... If they answer back give them two slaps, that's allowed... If you do not teach them they will be disrespectful to other people and other people will smack them, then you won't like it. But they have every right to smack if a child misbehaves, because children must know how to behave themselves."
  19. ^ Her Holiness Mataji Shree Nirmala Devi, Sahaja Yoga (1989) p44 "The Sahaja Yogis must respect their children. The teachers must also respect the children. If the children are extremely difficult then the parents can sometimes slap them, but not the teachers. No teacher is allowed to in any way punish the child in such a way that the child gets hurt."
  20. ^ Judith Coney, Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement (1999) p164
  21. ^ "Spare rod or be punished, teachers told", The Times of India, 10 August 2007
  22. ^ Brigitte Schinkele, Rechtsprechung in Österreichisches Archiv für Kirchenrecht 45 [1998], ibid., pp. 306-317, cited in Eva M Synek, "The Limits of Religious Tolerance - a European Perspective"
  23. ^ Judith Coney, Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement (1999) p162-3
  24. ^ ENROLMENT FORM
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