Dalits: A solution

[Guest guest]

Dear members, after reading the flurry of emails in response to the subject of Dalit Hindus being refused entry into a temple, I thought I should share with you how one man can make a difference in the lives of people. For a few years now, every Sunday, here in the U.S., I have been watching video recordings of lectures delivered by Pandurang Shastri Athavaleji, also called "Dadaji", in a Geeta paathshala in Bombay. Every Sunday morning starting from 1942, until his death 2 years ago, he would talk on slokas from the Geeta or the Upanishads. His lectures were always tailored to suit the commen men; most of the members of Swadhyaay group are business men, Gurjaratis dominating and then some Maharashtrians and South Indians. With Dadaji's death, like everything else, the group has seen differences within and pressures from outside and become involved in some controversies. But I would like you to read some of the work Dadaji did during his lifetime (compiled from different websites):-- ============================================ "Pandurang Shastri Athavale was born in the village of Roha near Bombay. His grandfather, Laxman Rao, was a renowned scholar and Brahmin and regularly, against the public opinion, visited Dalits to explain the Bhagavad Gita. He saw his grandfather taking a bath upon returning from such a trip, was surprised and posed the question that if in the Bhagavad Gita the Lord exclaims that God exists within all human hearts then how can anyone including the so-called 'untouchables' be considered inferior to anyone else? He became determined to see the God within others and from thenceforth became the proponent of "In-dwelling God." When Athavale was twelve

years old, his grandfather set up an independent course of study for the young boy with individual tuition. In 1942, he started to give discourses at the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Pathshala, a school set up by his father. Beginning in the mid-fiftees, an increasing number of young professional such as solicitors, accountants, physicians, engineers, teachers etc in Mumbai area were attracted by Dadaji's ideas. He picked nineteen of the young men among his early listeners and had lengthy and intense discussions. He inspired city-based professionals to go to the villages of Saurashtra region of Gujarat for a fortnight on Bhaktipheri (devotional tours or visits), with an intention to make the villagers aware of human brotherhood and to shake them off their cynism which had crept in everywhere. Eventually bhaktipheri was to serve as

key to mobilizational activities of Swadhyay. Though initially cynical, these city-bred young professionals went to Saurasthra (north Gujarat).The original trickle became a stream in a short time. Over the course of 2 decades Dadaji initiated several projects (see below) in Bombay and Gurjarat: Yogeshwar Krishi: It is the practice of collective farming of a single field (normally of three to five acres) in a village by the villagers who each offer devotional labour, possibly for one or two days per cropping season. The resulting crop belongs to no one except God. No one can claim ownership of the produce. The labour input is the offering of the peasant in their role as priests. The wealth generated by the sale of the output belongs to

God and hence Apaurusheya or impersonal. Shrambhakti (labour contributed as devotional offering) is the key instrument for generation of internal resources. The benefits of the harvest are redistributed in the village for common good as well as individual need not as loan or charity, but as divine grace (prasad). The recipient is under no obligation to repay it and definitely no interest has to be paid on such sums. Giving and receiving of these sums is done so discreetly and with such subtle grace that it removes any sense of inferiority on the part of recipients. Shree Darshanam: Shree Darshanam or (vision of prosperity), where swadhyayees from about twenty villages come together to work on a single large farm of twenty acre or more. The produce of

such divine communes, now about two dozen in number, is redistributed for the larger good of the community, even outside the villages involved in the experiment. But more than the economics of it, the idea is to build selfless relations among the neighbouring villages, inspire the people to sublimate their egos, and extend the inclusiveness of community, cutting across deeply rooted primordial affiliations. Matsyagandha: In a similar manner, Swadhyay has brought a cultural and socio-economic transformation to the fishing communities living in the coastal region of western India, extending from Goa to Okha. The stereotypical image of these children of the sea, sagarputras in Swadhyay idiom, was typical of marginal

and disinherited groups. Aggressive, adventurous and sturdy, they were notorious for heavy drinking, gambling, smuggling and all kinds of petty and major crimes. They were despised by others for their profligacy and for their supposed criminal tendencies. These children of the sea, started offering a portion of their earnings (normally a day's catch each month) at the feet of God. Soon enough they had substantial resources. A productive use of their capital and skill (sailing and fishing) had to be found. Ultimately suggestion came from Dadaji that with these funds, belonging to no one but God, they could buy motorised boats, more efficient tools and tackle. Fishing could be their way to express their devotion to the Creator. The sagarputras treat these Matsyagandha boats as floating temples. A crew of six to ten swadhyayee fishermen is onboard each

boat. Fishing goes on all year except for a three-month pause during the monsoon period which is used for repairs and refitting the boats. The volunteers are many more than the Matsyagandha boats. No individual fisherman gets a chance for more than one trip (of 24 hours) in a year. And when the boat is docked during the monsoon, the seamen among the swadhyayees take over the job of repairs and refitting the boats. The experiment in generating impersonal wealth through fishing on motorised boats and trawlers, and dredging sand from the estuary bed, is similar to Yogeshwar Krishi. There is no employer and no employee; there are no owners and no workers; none has claim over what he has willingly offered to God. Each fisherman and seaman is a pujari, while he is on his floating temple. The disbursement of

wealth created by Matsyagandha is similar to that of Yogeshwar Krishi. To date there are one hundred vessels and few more are added each year. Loknath Amruthtulyam: To restore the temples to their original role as socio-economic centers of the village, Swadhyay has taken a new initiative of non-sectarian temple-building called Loknath Amrutalayam. Built from locally available material and with voluntary labour of the swadhyayees, Amrutalayams are simple, semi-permanent structures without walls, but mostly with gardens around them. Each couple in the village, irrespective of caste origin, gets a chance to work as priest (pujari) for a few days in the year. Villagers gather in Amrutalayam every morning and evening for prayers. A Hindu can

recite the Geeta with the same freedom as Moslem the Koran or Christian, the Bible. After the evening community prayer, the assembly discusses individual and collective problems and attempts to sort them out informally. It reviews the progress of Swadhyay activities running in the village. At regular intervals the swadhyayee villagers offer to God a portion of their earnings; they do so anonymously and voluntarily. The collections so received are distributed to the needy as benediction (prasad) of God , and the surplus is spent on infrastructural needs of the village as a whole. Vrikshamandir For Dadaji, trees were living testament to the omnipresence of God. A large piece of barren land is acquired, swadhyayees from fifteen to twenty villages around and from neighbouring towns first

rehabilitate the land, dig wells for its irrigation, and then dig the pits for saplings.Finally the day arrives when at a given time, thousand of swadhyayees, from far and near, stand with a sapling in their hands to lower them into the pits. In about five minutes, planting of an orchard of, say, forty acres, is complete. Once a Vrikshmandir is set up, swadhyayees from neighbouring villages and towns take turns tending these saplings and trees for twenty-four hours, twice or three times in a year, in a spirit of devotion as pujari. As a result, large plots of totally desolate and barren land are now turning into beautiful lush green orchards, where the survival rate of plants is claimed to be nearly one hundred per cent. The first Vrikshmandir was raised in July 1979. These orchards uniting the rich and the poor, the high castes and the low castes, the erstwhile neighbourhood enemies, the

learned and the illiterate into closely knit fabric of Swadhyay brotherhood. A work of this magnitude under the government social forestry scheme costs million of rupees, with a high loss rate of plants and numerous complaints against it from those who are supposed to be its beneficiaries. ========================================= In 1996, Dadaji was honoured with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership; and in 1997, he received the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. These are real projects involving ordinary people like you and me. They have made tremendous difference to the lives of the poor, the alcoholics, and the so-called 'untouchables'. I have met people here in the U.S. who have participated in some of these

projects or visited these villages to see the transformation first hand. This is a good example of making a difference without resorting to laws, bills, bandhs or protests. Dadaji explained that "the true worship of God consists of taking the divine thoughts of the Vedas and Bhagavad-Gita to others in a selfless manner. One’s intellect is an incomparable gift from God. It is up to us humans to use this gift to take these divine thoughts to the masses". Om Namo Narayanaya.

[Guest guest]

Swami Saranam

Thank you Veenaji for the wonderful collection of materials on such

noble souls. All those project are really adorable, laudable.

However, for the present so called " Dalit Issues " there should be some

urgent and wide-ranging actions from one and all – Institutions and

individuals – concerned with Hindu Religion and Hindu Dharma. It is

all India issue and we have to take it with all the seriousness it

deserves. We should wakeup from this slumber.

I again repeat what Krishna Prasadji is exhorting through a quotation

in his signature: (As Poojya Gurudev said it) " Open your eyes. Burst

your shell. Spread your wings and fly! "

And let us not forget to take our less fortunate brothers and sisters

along with us!

Regards nb nair.

 

guruvayur , " Veena A. Nair " <veeus18 wrote:

>

> Dear members, after reading the flurry of emails in response to the

subject of Dalit Hindus being refused entry into a temple, I thought

I should share with you how one man can make a difference in the

lives of people. For a few years now, every Sunday, here in the U.S.,

I have been watching video recordings of lectures delivered by

Pandurang Shastri Athavaleji, called " Dadaji " , in a Geeta paathshala

in Bombay. Every Sunday morning starting from 1942, until his death 2

years ago, he would talk on slokas from the Geeta or the Upanishads.

His lectures were always tailored to suit the commen men; most of the

members of Swadhyaay group are business men, Gurjaratis dominating

and then some Maharashtrians and South Indians. With Dadaji's death,

like everything else, the group has seen differences within and

pressures from outside and become involved in some controversies. But

I would like you to read some of the work Dadaji did during his

lifetime (compiled from

> different websites):--

>

> ============================================

> " Pandurang Shastri Athavale was born in the village of Roha

near Bombay. His grandfather, Laxman Rao, was a renowned scholar and

Brahmin and regularly, against the public opinion, visited Dalits to

explain the Bhagavad Gita. He saw his grandfather taking a bath upon

returning from such a trip, was surprised and posed the question that

if in the Bhagavad Gita the Lord exclaims that God exists within all

human hearts then how can anyone including the so-called

'untouchables' be considered inferior to anyone else? He became

determined to see the God within others and from thenceforth became

the proponent of " In-dwelling God. "

> When Athavale was twelve years old, his grandfather set up an

independent course of study for the young boy with individual

tuition. In 1942, he started to give discourses at the Shrimad

Bhagavad Gita Pathshala, a school set up by his father. Beginning in

the mid-fiftees, an increasing number of young professional such as

solicitors, accountants, physicians, engineers, teachers etc in

Mumbai area were attracted by Rev. Dadaji's ideas.

> He picked nineteen of the young men among his early listeners and

had lengthy and intense discussions. He inspired city-based

professionals to go to the villages of Saurashtra region of Gujarat

for a fortnight on Bhaktipheri (devotional tours or visits), with an

intention to make the villagers aware of human brotherhood and to

shake them off their cynism which had crept in everywhere. Eventually

bhaktipheri was to serve as key to mobilizational activities of

Swadhyay. Though initially cynical, these city-bred young

professionals went to Saurasthra (north Gujarat).The original trickle

became a stream in a short time. Over the course of 2 decades Dadaji

initiated several projects (see below) in Bombay and Gurjarat:

>

>

> Yogeshwar Krishi:

>

> It is the practice of collective farming of a single field

(normally of three to five acres) in a village by the villagers who

each offer devotional labour, possibly for one or two days per

cropping season. The resulting crop belongs to no one except God. No

one can claim ownership of the produce. The labour input is the

offering of the peasant in their role as priests. The wealth

generated by the sale of the output belongs to God and hence

Apaurusheya or impersonal. Shrambhakti (labour contributed as

devotional offering) is the key instrument for generation of internal

resources. The benefits of the harvest are redistributed in the

village for common good as well as individual need not as loan or

charity, but as divine grace (prasad). The recipient is under no

obligation to repay it and definitely no interest has to be paid on

such sums. Giving and receiving of these sums is done so discreetly

and with such subtle grace that it removes any sense of

> inferiority on the part of recipients.

>

>

> Shree Darshanam:

>

> Shree Darshanam or (vision of prosperity), where swadhyayees

from about twenty villages come together to work on a single large

farm of twenty acre or more. The produce of such divine communes, now

about two dozen in number, is redistributed for the larger good of

the community, even outside the villages involved in the experiment.

But more than the economics of it, the idea is to build selfless

relations among the neighbouring villages, inspire the people to

sublimate their egos, and extend the inclusiveness of community,

cutting across deeply rooted primordial affiliations.

>

>

>

> Matsyagandha:

> In a similar manner, Swadhyay has brought a cultural and

socio-economic transformation to the fishing communities living in

the coastal region of western India, extending from Goa to Okha. The

stereotypical image of these children of the sea, sagarputras in

Swadhyay idiom, was typical of marginal and disinherited groups.

Aggressive, adventurous and sturdy, they were notorious for heavy

drinking, gambling, smuggling and all kinds of petty and major

crimes. They were despised by others for their profligacy and for

their supposed criminal tendencies.

> These children of the sea, started offering a portion of

their earnings (normally a day's catch each month) at the feet of

God. Soon enough they had substantial resources. A productive use of

their capital and skill (sailing and fishing) had to be found.

Ultimately suggestion came from Dadaji that with these funds,

belonging to no one but God, they could buy motorised boats, more

efficient tools and tackle. Fishing could be their way to express

their devotion to the Creator. The sagarputras treat these

Matsyagandha boats as floating temples. A crew of six to ten

swadhyayee fishermen is onboard each boat. Fishing goes on all year

except for a three-month pause during the monsoon period which is

used for repairs and refitting the boats.

> The volunteers are many more than the Matsyagandha boats. No

individual fisherman gets a chance for more than one trip (of 24

hours) in a year. And when the boat is docked during the monsoon, the

seamen among the swadhyayees take over the job of repairs and

refitting the boats. The experiment in generating impersonal wealth

through fishing on motorised boats and trawlers, and dredging sand

from the estuary bed, is similar to Yogeshwar Krishi. There is no

employer and no employee; there are no owners and no workers; none

has claim over what he has willingly offered to God. Each fisherman

and seaman is a pujari, while he is on his floating temple. The

disbursement of wealth created by Matsyagandha is similar to that of

Yogeshwar Krishi. To date there are one hundred vessels and few more

are added each year.

>

>

> Loknath Amruthtulyam:

>

> To restore the temples to their original role as socio-economic

centers of the village, Swadhyay has taken a new initiative of

non-sectarian temple-building called Loknath Amrutalayam. Built from

locally available material and with voluntary labour of the

swadhyayees, Amrutalayams are simple, semi-permanent structures

without walls, but mostly with gardens around them. Each couple in

the village, irrespective of caste origin, gets a chance to work as

priest (pujari) for a few days in the year. Villagers gather in

Amrutalayam every morning and evening for prayers. A Hindu can recite

the Geeta with the same freedom as Moslem the Koran or Christian, the

Bible. After the evening community prayer, the assembly discusses

individual and collective problems and attempts to sort them out

informally. It reviews the progress of Swadhyay activities running in

the village. At regular intervals the swadhyayee villagers offer to

God a portion of their earnings; they do

> so anonymously and voluntarily. The collections so received are

distributed to the needy as benediction (prasad) of God , and the

surplus is spent on infrastructural needs of the village as a whole.

>

>

> Vrikshamandir

> For Dadaji, trees were living testament to the omnipresence of

God. A large piece of barren land is acquired, swadhyayees from

fifteen to twenty villages around and from neighbouring towns first

rehabilitate the land, dig wells for its irrigation, and then dig the

pits for saplings.Finally the day arrives when at a given time,

thousand of swadhyayees, from far and near, stand with a sapling

in their hands to lower them into the pits. In about five

minutes, planting of an orchard of, say, forty acres, is complete.

Once a Vrikshmandir is set up, swadhyayees from neighbouring

villages and towns take turns tending these saplings and trees

for twenty-four hours, twice or three times in a year, in a

spirit of devotion as pujari. As a result, large plots of

totally desolate and barren land are now turning into beautiful lush

green orchards, where the survival rate of plants is claimed to

be nearly one hundred per cent. The first

> Vrikshmandir was raised in July 1979. These orchards uniting

the rich and the poor, the high castes and the low castes, the

erstwhile neighbourhood enemies, the learned and the illiterate

into closely knit fabric of Swadhyay brotherhood. A work of this

magnitude under the government social forestry scheme costs

million of rupees, with a high loss rate of plants and numerous

complaints against it from those who are supposed to be its beneficiaries.

>

>

> =========================================

> In 1996, Dadaji was honoured with the prestigious Ramon

Magsaysay Award for community leadership; and in 1997, he received

the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

>

> These are real projects involving ordinary people like you

and me. They have made tremendous difference to the lives of the

poor, the alcoholics, and the so-called 'untouchables'. I have met

people here in the U.S. who have participated in some of these

projects or visited these villages to see the transformation first

hand. This is a good example of making a difference without resorting

to laws, bills, bandhs or protests. Dadaji explained that " the true

worship of God consists of taking the divine thoughts of the Vedas

and Bhagavad-Gita to others in a selfless manner. One's intellect is

an incomparable gift from God. It is up to us humans to use this gift

to take these divine thoughts to the masses " .

>

>

> Om Namo Narayanaya.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>