Miri Piri Academy

by Saraswati Khalsa, school Admissions Director at Miri Piri Academy, a boarding school in India where graduates earn a Cambridge Accredited education and Kundalini Yoga Certification.

There are many Sikh schools and Khalsa schools around the world. If your child attends a Khalsa school at home, most likely it is either a Sunday or after-school program at your local Gurdwara, or in rare cases it might be an elementary or middle school program that ends in eighth grade.  This is a time period in which peers assume greater importance to children, questions of identity and purpose in the world take central stage, and the influences of the social environment become extremely powerful.  Miri Piri Academy extends from third grade to 12^th grade, allowing children to live and complete their education in a positive environment that supports their spiritual identity and practice.

At MPA we pay equal attention to the School in Khalsa School.  Our academic program is accredited by the University of Cambridge International Examinations, and our graduates can earn a certificate that is accepted by prestigious universities around the world.  Like the swords of Guru Hargobind, our name represents the pursuit of excellence in both the spiritual and the temporal worlds.  Guru Nanak taught that a Sikh should be a householder, earning a living honestly by the sweat of their brow.  In this day and age, excellence in the role of the householder requires hard work and an excellent education.

Unlike many Sikh schools and Khalsa schools we enroll students from all walks of life.  Our students come from a wide variety of nations, races, and religious backgrounds.  While at Miri Piri Academy students are required to practice many of the facets of the Sikh lifestyle, but there is no expectation that all students are or will become Sikhs after they graduate.   We give each child a personal experience of living the Sikh lifestyle and ultimately they choose what to take from that experience.

This open enrollment also benefits our Sikh students.  Instead of the insular and unrealistic experience of a homogenous Khalsa school population, students at Miri Piri Academy live and learn side by side with many people who have different backgrounds, appearance, languages and cultures.  Students learn to communicate and respect each other’s differences and similarities.  This is a critical skill in this modern age.  Our students often describe MPA as a worldwide family.  They make lifelong friendships with people all over the world and these friendships help them to become more balanced and open minded people.

Like Sikh and Khalsa schools, Miri Piri Academy teaches the value of Bana, Bani, Simran and Seva.  However, our emphasis is placed on the purpose and technology of each practice.  Our founder, the Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan, gave thousands of lectures explaining how Bani and Seva work to change the mind and consciousness, how Bana affects our projection in the world, and the way that constant Simran affects the functioning of the mind. Our role is to teach our students to understand not only what a Sikh is, but also why it serves them to live as a Sikh. School staff and administrators emphasize the reasoning rather than enforcement at every opportunity.  Our students leave the school with an understanding of how the Guru’s teachings are relevant to their lives in the modern world.