30 years of Gurukula Network
Spreading Neohumanism in Action throughout the World
This is the 30th year and 60th issue of Gurukula Network. Since 1995 Gurukula Network has been documenting our collective journey as a global educational movement that had its beginnings in 1965 when Shrii P. R. Sarkar started the first school in India. That first school was soon followed by many others and a degree college. In 1982, he introduced the new philosophy of Neohumanism that was made foundational to all educational initiatives, henceforth referred to as Neohumanist Education. With the founding of Ananda Marga Gurukula in 1990, as the Board of Education of all educational projects as well as a university in the making, all institutions from preschool up to post graduate were gathered together into one global educational movement.Today Ananda Marga Gurukula connects educators and more than 1,000 institutions in 50 countries worldwide through GANE, the Global Association of Neohumanist Educators, which includes K-12 schools and higher educational institutions around the world. In addition, AMGK has established two campuses, one at its Ananda Marga Gurukula Headquarters at Anandanagar, India, and the Neohumanist College of Asheville Campus (NHCA) in North Carolina, USA, which provides hybrid learning, making it accessible to every country in the world. Also, AMGK’s P.R. Sarkar Institute is developing as a research and library hub for all AMGK faculties, and AMAYE, Association for Yoga Educators, is connecting yoga educators around the world. Finally, Neohumanist College – University Without Walls is working on connecting and coordinating the offerings of higher educational institutions in various parts of the world, including the USA, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Italy, Singapore and India.
The Journey Begins
AMGK Headquarters and Kulapati
The journey began on September 7th, 1990, when Shrii P.R. Sarkar established Ananda Marga Gurukula with its Headquarters at Anandanagar and appointed Dada Shambhushivananda as Kulapati / Chancellor. Work began apace from that date. Forty-four faculties were initiated for the university and guidelines were given for affiliating all educational institutions to Ananda Marga Gurukula as the newly formed Board of Education. Work also began on establishing new higher education institutions on its Anandanagar Campus (see below for details). Soon after, a .edu domain was registered for AMGK and an online presence was established at gurukul.edu. Since 1990 until the present time, Kulapati Dada Shambhushivananda has travelled the globe many times over, bringing all existing educational institutions together as well as seeding, encouraging, overseeing and supporting initiatives that further the development of AMGK, described here below.
Conferences
The first Global Conference was held in 1991 at Anandanagar and a bulletin, Gurukula Bulletin, the precursor to Gurukula Network, was published, reporting on all activities of the early years. Many global conferences took place after that with some noteworthy ones in 2001 on Long Island, New York, USA, and in 2006 one in Ydrefors, Sweden, the first of many at that location. Over the years others were held in Australia, India, the United States, Taiwan, Brazil, Sweden, Lebanon, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia and Italy. http://neohumanisteducation.org/teachers/events.
Gurukula Network
In 1995, Gurukula Network, the newsletter and journal of the growing Global Neohumanist Education Network of schools and institutes, published its first issue with Arete Brim as the editor. The electronic edition has been produced consistently by Michele Montenegro and the cover designs by Iris Heddes. Two yearly issues, January and July, continue to serve as a means of communication for neohumanist initiatives around the world. Over 30 years Gurukula Network has printed articles by neohumanist scholars such as Dr. Marcus Bussey, Dr. Kathleen Kesson, Didi Ananda Rama, Dada Shambhushivananda, Eric Jacobson, Dr. Aditya Mohanty, Linda Baker, Dr. Sid Jordan, Dr. Carlos Torre, Didi Ananda Devapriya, and Dr. Sohail Inayatullah. Many practitioners of neohumanist education have shared their wisdom and thoughts in the pages of Gurukula Network. Neohumanist initiatives have been reported in the section “Schools in Focus”, and deliberations of conferences held around the world have been detailed, as well as other AMGK initiatives like AMAYE (Ananda Marga Association of Yoga Educators), PRSI (P.R. Sarkar Institute), our global campuses, and other higher education institutions that are now forming a university without walls. You can access the archive of Gurukula Network’s past issues: https://gurukul.edu/newsletter/about-amgk-newsletter/
Camp Office and Global Liaison Office
To aid the global work of Ananda Marga Gurukula, and assist its headquarters at Anandanagar, India, the Ananda Marga Gurukula Global Liaison Office was established in Ithaca, NY in 1995 under the care of Arete Brim and a Global Camp Office in 1998 in Denver, Colorado under the care of Mahajyoti Glassman. AMGK Inc. was incorporated in 2001 in Denver as a tax-exempt non- profit corporation. In 2004, Dr. Sid Jordan joined the Board as its President, assisted by Mahajyoti Glassman as Vice President, Arete Brim as its Secretary and Didi Anandarama as Coordinator of the NHE Movement. Kalyanii Chew, (Malaysia) Dada Premamayananda (Singapore), Dr. Howard Nemon (USA), Mrs. Radha Gusain (India), and Ellen Landau (USA) have also actively assisted the board with global strategic planning efforts over the years. Other key associates include Yolande Koning (Netherlands) and Silvano Rossato (Sweden). Alan Evans, Naren Goenka, Anup Anand, Arun Maheshwari, Ghanendra Prabhakar, Ward Ashman among many others have been consistent supporters.
GANE – Global Association of Neohumanist Educators
As our global network grew, there was a need to provide more means for communication and collaboration, and GANE was born. GANE brings together all NHE Educators and administrators on a common platform, whether they are working in schools, institutes, yoga academies, Prout institutes, colleges/universities, master units, wellness centers, neohumanist centers, or as independent scholars and researchers. GANE has taken the lead in coordinating global conferences, offering fora for communication and networking (such as NHE-forum), opportunities for professional development and continuing education through seminars and training programs (such as the NHE-TP Program), providing access to resources (NHE Resources nheresources.gurukul.edu/), publications (NHE Publications nhepublications.gurukul.edu/) and more.
NHE K-12 and Teacher Training
Soon after the establishment of AMGK in the USA, Didi Anandarama joined the team and she and Arete Brim took on the role of global coordination for NHE K-12. At the 2001 conference in the USA, Eric Jacobson provided the framework for NHE Standards, and then with input from schools around the world and the help of many others such as Linda Baker, they compiled and published the AMGK Standards for NHE Schools (2004). At that time, they also designed the logos for NHE and AMGK, and soon published the NHE Documentary book (2004) and Foundations of NHE (2010) http://neohumanisteducation.org/. The request from all corners was for training for NHE teachers, and so in 2001 they together coordinated the NHE Diploma Program, a four-year program which was offered over email and graduated a few students. Didi Ananda Gaorii who runs the school in Laos was one of the first graduates. Dr. Kathleen Kesson created the blueprint for this program and experts in their fields were brought together to help flesh out the modules including Dr. Marcus Bussey, Mahajyoti Glassman, Ruai Gregory and Linda Baker. A second program called the NHE Certificate program was simultaneously created by MJ Glassman. Most of the same individuals have continued as Director, Coordinator and Faculty of the current NHE Teacher Preparation Program. As of this printing, the NHE Teacher Preparation 2-year program will have graduated its second cohort.
Higher Education
Centers for Neohumanist Studies (CNSs) And Other Institutes
Centers for Neohumanist Studies (CNSs) were started in 2004 in Croatia and Ydrefors, Sweden. CNS Sweden hosted several conferences over the years. The website https://se.gurukul.edu/ provides a history of activities held under the auspices of CNS Sweden. The Prama Institute in Marshall, North Carolina, USA was also opened and held events on a regular basis, including hosting the 2015 conference. In the Netherlands, the Neohumanist Education Research Institute (NERI) was formed in 2000 in Den Bosch to develop a teacher training program, and a Lotus Center was founded in 2024 (https://lotus-training.nl) under the leadership of Yolande Koning. AMIA in Singapore (amiaglobal.sg), founded in 2010, is approved by the Ministry of Private Education in Singapore and offers an eleven-module Prama Analysis course in Singapore under the directorship of Dada Premamayananda. In 2015, Yogis Academy, directed by Christian Franceschini was founded in Italy. Juei Ai Center was founded in Taiwan by Rutger Tamminga, in the Gurukul Building in 2020.
AMGK Teachers’ Training College
The AMGK Teachers’ Training College at Anandanagar (http://amgttc.anandanagar.in/) was founded in 2014 jointly by Dada Shambhushivananda and Dada Svarupananda, and registration was granted by the National Council of Technical Education. It offers a two-year B. Ed degree course recognized by the Government of India. It is currently being administered by Dada Kalyanmitrananda.
AMGK Women’s College
In 2022 a Women’s College was founded at Umanivas with the efforts of Didi Ananda Rama, Didi Ananda Vratiisha, Didi Ananda Tapahshiila.
Neohumanist College Online
As technology advanced, in 2014 the Neohumanist College was formed and registered as a distance learning venue utilizing Pearson Open Class software. A website was created as well as a logo. https://nhcollege.gurukul.edu. Didi Ananda Devapriya was the first instructor. The plan was to offer courses online in many faculties of Ananda Marga Gurukula through this venue. Soon after, we were able to acquire access to Google Apps for Education and were then situated to refine our approach. We began work on improving the earlier NHE Diploma Program, creating the NHE Teacher Preparation program, which we were able to offer through the Neohumanist College of Asheville starting in 2021. This NHE-TP Program was 20 years in the making Other planned programs were also offered once the infrastructure was in place with the development of the Neohumanist College of Asheville Campus (see below).
Global Campuses
AMGK Campus at Anandanagar, India
The Ananda Marga Gurukula Campus at Anandanagar is comprised of 30 acres. Since its founding in 1990, some of the initiatives there include: Acupuncture Clinic (1994), and College, Community Medical Service (CMS) (1994) courses, NATAC (Naturopathy, Acupuncture and Chandsi) activities, Veterinary College (1994), Tantra Vidyapiitha, Village-level learning centres, Saora Sakan (Solar Energy Research Center) Gaveshna Kendra, Fine Arts and Music College (1994), Ayurvedic Pharmacopia Centre and Women’s College (2022). Thousands of plants have been planted in four main campuses of Gurukula at Anandanagar viz., Cakradhuri Campus in Gopal Anandanagar, Guridih Campus in Mohan Anandanagar, Mahasamiti Compound in Central Anandanagar and Electro-homeopathic campus in Gopal Anandanagar near Chitmu Pump House.
Land for the Cakradhuri campus was purchased from Tarapada of Chitmu in 1997 and construction / plantations began in 1999. The initial design of the buildings was done by architects from Thailand and later modified with assistance from Netragaonkar. Cakradhuri Campus includes a Reception Hall, Kulapati’s Residence, and the Cakradhuri main building which is still under construction and will hold administrative offices, an auditorium and classrooms. Dada Premamayananda, the office secretary of AMGK, is now actively engaged in building an international hostel within the Gurukula Cakradhuri Campus, expected to be completed in 2026. Dada Omkareshvarananda, Mahesh Kumar and Mrs Radha Gusain are currently actively assisting in the operational aspects of the University Project at Anandanagar.
NHCA Campus, North Carolina, USA
In 2014 Dr. Sid Jordan generously offered a donation of 33 acres of land for an Ananda Marga Gurukula Campus in the USA to complement the campus at Anandanagar. In 2015, in keeping with the precursors of Centers for Neohumanist Studies (CNS’s) and Neohumanist College Online, which paved the way, AMGK decided to register the land in the name of the Neohumanist College of Asheville (NHCA). In 2017 Ellen and Steve Landau generously constructed and donated three buildings on the land, and thus Ananda Marga Gurukula’s Campus in the USA was founded. With the infrastructure of AMGK Google Apps for Education and .edu status in place, and the addition of Ricky Peterson, with his expertise, to the team, NHCA was able to start offering online courses and programs in 2021, the first being the 20 years in the making NHE Teacher Preparation Program. (nhca.gurukul.edu).
Soon after, under the directorship of Dr. Sid Jordan, many more faculties began offering courses through NHCA. Currently the day-to-day operations of NHCA are directed by Ricky Peterson as President, with Dr. Sid Jordan as the Provost, and Dr. Alberta Pedroja as the Board Chairperson. In 2024, the Prout Research Institute fundraised to construct another building on the NHCA campus under the direction of Dada Maheshvarananda.
More Programs of AMGK
PRSI (P. R. Sarkar Institute)
The P.R. Sarkar Institute was founded in 2015 as a global resource library, primarily digital, available to those working in various fields of research, development and outreach, and to act as a medium for the research, investigation, interpretation, understanding and presentation of Shrii P.R. Sarkar’s works and seminal concepts. For further details, please refer to: https://prsinstitute.org. Dada Gunamuktananda is the current Director and has so far successfully produced two films and two photo books on Shrii Shrii Anandamurti and on Anandanagar. Dr Sid Jordan took the initiative to fund and guide a film, Neohumanism: Path of Awakening and Benevolence, with filmmaker Kevin Peer. The film is under production.
Neohumanist Review
Prabhakar Trond Overland and Dada Shambhushivananda teamed together with other neohumanist scholars and floated a biannual academic journal titled “Neohumanist Review” in September, 2023. So far four issues of Neohumanist Review have already been published and are available digitally at: https://theneohumanist.com
AMAYE
Ananda Marga Association of Yoga Educators (AMAYE) was founded in 2006 by Dada Shambhushivananda. Under the auspices of AMAYE, several yoga educators’ conferences were held in Ydrefors (Sweden), Bali, Taiwan and Chandigarh. Several online conferences and webinars were also held and organized by Mary Jane Glassman, the current President of AMAYE. A yoga instructors manual has been published by AMAYE. For more information: https://amaye.org/.
Neohumanist University Without Walls
After its initial offerings in 2014, Neohumanist College has since expanded its focus to a University Without Walls. On the 20th anniversary of AMGK in September 2020, an online gathering with 100 scholars took place followed by the first totally online conference in December 2020, Neohumanist Solutions for a World in Crisis, which ran for 3 consecutive days with over 70 presenters. It attracted 1000 participants from around the globe. Presentations available here:
https://nhcollege.gurukul.edu/conference/conference-proceedings/. The effort still continues to join the forces of higher education initiatives including AMGK at Anandanagar, NHCA in USA, the Lotus Center in Holland, AMIA in Singapore, Yogis Academy in Italy, the Women’s College in Umanivas and the Juei-Ai Center Taichung, Taiwan.
