UJJAIN, INDIA, September 5, 2005: Rising at 4 a.m. each day and following a rigorous schedule, young boys eight to twelve years of age at the Navi Mandal Veda Vidya Mandir in the heart of Ujjain are preparing to become the priests of tomorrow. Hailing mostly from traditional priest families, the gurukul students are from both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Navi Mandal Veda Vidya Ma is one of four such Vedic schools in Ujjain and the school has around eighty boys in attendance at this time. The news release explains, “The boys stay in the hostel where food is strictly vegetarian and are permitted to go home for a 15-day summer vacation and five days for Diwali. The syllabi consist of Yajurveda and Sanskrit along with a spattering of modern education-English, history, geography and the sciences. Yajurveda is compulsory as it is the complete scripture for pujas, yajnas and all arts and mantras meant to invoke the Hindu gods. If a student is extraordinarily bright, he is given an additional Veda to study. After six years, a student is given a certificate equivalent to higher secondary education. Then he can take admission in a college for a BA in Sanskrit.”
Mahaveer Prasad Sharma, principal of the Vedic school, adds, “A student passing out of this vidya mandir is ready to enter college when he is 14 years old. Our school is not an eyewash. Our degrees are recognized by the Union government.”