Shri Prakash Gossai was also an educator

Jul 02, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
Most people seem to know the late Shri Prakash Gossai as a popular religious figure and melodious singer. But he was also a sound and exceptional educator.
Long before he became popular as a pandit, Gossai taught in NY City public schools like myself and so many other Guyanese. His teaching helped to transform him into a successful Hindu missionary.
I met Gossai through Vishnu Bandhu (former Chairman of the now defunct URP) shortly after he came to the US (in 1983) with his family on a private visit and decided to settle down in Brooklyn. We appreciated each other’s company because we shared the same concerns about education and other matters affecting our home country and West Indians living in NY.

I was a teacher at the time and advised Gossai how to navigate the maze of NY City Board of Education to become licensed and how to get a teaching appointment at a school.
My impression about and respect for Gossai were formed after our meeting and lengthy “gaff” at Bandhu’s business in Brooklyn. Gossai was humble, friendly, and a peoples’ person. No activity was too low for him if it would uplift peoples’ lives. He was knowledgeable about issues in Guyana and a charmer with his singing. But our discussion centered a lot on teaching as I was licensed to teach in several subjects with a concentration in the natural sciences (Bio-Chemistry) and Gossai tapped into my knowledge in obtaining a licence.
Gossai was a very successful teacher after becoming licensed to teach Biology and the Sciences. Biology passes in the State Regents and NY City Wide Exams at Jefferson High in Brooklyn went up by leaps and bounds during Gossai’s tenure in the mid to late 1980s. I was also teaching in Brooklyn and we met on occasions in the subway or at poojas.

As he told me, the students (mostly West Indians from the islands) were rough (throwing objects at him as they also did to me when I first became a teacher) but he (like me) weathered the storm and earned the respect and gratitude of his students for helping them to attain science passes to get a graduation diploma.
Gossai was a serious educator and held the interests of students at heart. He spent countless hours preparing lessons and quickly mastered the methodology of delivering his lessons to students whose attention span were limited and who were more interested in sports and music.
Students spoke well of him. Colleagues also held him in high esteem and respected his knowledge in the field and emulated his teaching style. I often saw him with handouts for students and huge posters displaying biological matters. He told me that although he enjoyed teaching, it was becoming too much for him to teach and perform religious services. There was a huge demand for his religious skills and singing which conflicted with his teaching.

After a few years on the job, he gave up teaching which became a serious loss to students seeking to widen their knowledge in Biology but a gain for those following Hindu discourses.
Gossai brought his teaching methodology to his religious discourses capturing huge audiences. What he picked up from his teaching at Jefferson helped him to transform the way Hindu discourses were conducted. He came armed with handouts and posters to illustrate complex concepts of Hinduism making them easy to understand – a skill utilised by few pandits in America.
What happened after Gossai left teaching has been amply written about making Gossai the most sought after pandit and perhaps the most popular Hindu religious figure outside India. But it should be noted that his experience as an educator made him the kind of teacher he was at satsanghs and other discourses that made so many become interested in Hindu scriptures.
Vishnu Bisram

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