East and West Series - January 2019 Issue by East and West Series

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New Year Message On this New Year’s Day, my heart is full of prayers and the one supreme wish for everyone of you that you may grow into the constant awareness of God’s radiant presence. Again and again, let us say to ourselves: “I am not alone: God is with me. He is watching me— every thought I think, every word I utter, every action I perform. And He is watching over me— guiding me and protecting me, at every step, in every round of life.” Shining destinies are ahead of us. Let us keep our gaze on the Lord as we now face the future.

— Dada J. P. Vaswani

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SADHU VASWANI– THE ACADEMICIAN DADA J. P. VASWANI Infinite powers lie locked up within you, infinite treasures of the spirit are there within you. There is within you a hidden potential; if you will but release a very small part of that potential, frustration will not be able to touch you, even as water cannot touch the petals of a lotus in the lake. - Sadhu Vaswani

Sadhu Vaswani was born on November 25, 1879, in Hyderabad, Sind, a land that has given birth to many dervishes (contemplatives) and fakirs (men of renunciation). He was an outstanding student, a bright and brilliant scholar who combined knowledge with reverence. His teachers were deeply impressed by his conduct and character and held him up as a role model before his peers. He stood first in the entire province of Sind at the Matriculation examination of the Bombay University and won the Macleod Scholarship. He joined D. J. Sind College at Karachi, yet again excelling at all that he did. He became an “Ellis Scholar”, topping in English in his B.A. examination; in the year 1900, Principal Jackson, considering Sadhu Vaswani as a special case, conferred upon him the ‘Double Dakshina Fellowship’. This enabled him to pursue his Masters of Arts degree. And, soon after passing the M.A. examination, he was appointed as Professor of History and English in the prestigious Metropolitan College, Calcutta, now known as the Vidyasagar College.

Prof. Vaswani was a much sought-after figure in Calcutta. His students loved and admired him. The youth gravitated towards him and found in him a tremendous spiritual presence. The Brahmo Samaj requested him to address their gatherings. During his stay in Calcutta, Prof. Vaswani rubbed shoulders with the best of the city’s intellectuals. As a student, Sadhu Vaswani had been a great admirer of Shri Pratap Chandra Mozumdar, whom he regarded as a

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brahmajnani. Now, in Calcutta, as a Professor, he had a chance to meet Mozumdar. The latter was confined to bed when they met, but Prof. Vaswani was thrilled to meet the grand old man of Bengal. Mozumdar was delighted to hear that the young Professor belonged to Sind. He told Sadhu Vaswani that he admired the Sindhis, for they were wonderful people famed for their hospitality and devotion. How blessed the young Professor felt, to hear such kind words about his beloved community from one whom he revered and admired! Bengal’s greatest poet, Shri Rabindranath Tagore too, had heard of the young Professor from Sind and, in fact, sent for the young scholar to join him in the early days of ‘Shanti Niketan’. But that had not been possible. Now that Tagore knew that he was in Calcutta, he paid a surprise visit to Prof. Vaswani’s residence at Srirampur. Prof. Vaswani was quite astonished to receive the great poet. Courteously, he told Tagore that he need not have taken the trouble to come all the way to see him. If he had so wished, Prof. Vaswani would have been only too happy to call upon him. Tagore smiled and told him that he had indeed waited for the young Professor to visit him; now he had come to see the gifted young man himself, because he could not bear to wait any longer! It was indeed a historic meeting between the two great souls. Prof. Vaswani and Rabindrnath Tagore had a long, free and frank exchange of ideas, and were delighted to be in each other’s company. In the year 1908, Prof. Vaswani’s elder brother, Shri Pahlajrai, learnt that there was a vacancy for the post of Professor of Philosophy in the D.J. Sind College, Karachi. He

immediately requested his younger brother to apply for the same, as that would bring him closer to his hometown. Prof. Vaswani sent in his application, and Members of the D. J. Sind Collegiate Board were glad to have their outstanding exstudent and ‘Dakshina Fellow’ to join them. Prof. Vaswani taught Philosophy and History to students of the D. J. Sind College. His lectures were an intellectual feast and students who had taken up other subjects also felt tempted to attend them. His popularity grew by leaps and bounds. His amazing power of oratory drew many. Various organisations sought him out to come and address their meetings. Sadhu Vaswani believed that the students should be brought in touch with the rich heritage which belonged to them as children of the sages of the East. Therefore, he started a Gita Class. The Gita, at that time, was regarded as a seditious book, especially by the British rulers. This was because the Bengal revolutionaries always carried a copy of the Gita with themselves, even when they went up the gallows. But Sadhu Vaswani knew better and to bring forth the value and virtue of Gita, he conducted a Gita Class for students, and his talks captivated the audiences. Impressed by his eloquence, the Brahmo Samaj at Karachi, the Guru Sangat and the Theosophical Society of Hyderabad often invited him for lectures. He taught by precept and example that life was larger than livelihood. He urged that character, not money, should rule the world: and character must grow out of courage. He was careful to point out that courage must be distinguished from the will-

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to-power which made men and nations aggressive and selfish. He was a born orator. He addressed large crowds of men and women. They heard him: they marvelled at his words. He awakened new aspirations in the hearts of those that listened to him. When he spoke, he filled the hall with the rich music of his words and the richer music of his heart. He was a prolific writer in English and in the sweet, lyrical Sindhi language. In him intellect was blended with eloquence and both were penetrated, through and through, with a spiritual fire. In his life was the aspiration to meet God in sunshine and in rain. He preached the great truth of salvation through communion with the common man. Dear to him as children of the One Eternal Life were the “disinherited” and the “down-trodden”. And in his heart was reverence and love for all the spiritual leaders of Humanity, for all seers and Sages and saints, for Krishna and Jesus, Buddha and Chaitanya, Muhammad and Ramakrishna, Tuka and Dnyaneshwara, Zoroaster and Lao Tse, Socrates and Plato, al-Ghazali and Rumi, Nanak and Kabir. He was only thirty years of age when he went to Berlin as one of India’s representatives to the Welt Congress, the World Congress of Religions. His speech there and his subsequent lectures in different parts of Europe aroused deep interest in Indian thought and religion and linked many with him in his mission of help and healing. When he returned from Europe, he was a much soughtafter academician. In 1912, at the young age of 33, he was appointed as the Principal of the Sardar Dayal Singh College, Lahore, in

Punjab. Here he got an opportunity to come in closer contact with the Sikh scriptures and he wrote a number of books and articles on the life and teachings of Sikh gurus and martyrs. He succeeded Sir Brajendra Seal as Principal of the Victoria College, Cooch Behar. Later, he was invited by the Maharaja to become the Principal of the Mahendra College, Patiala. There was a brilliant career open to him: but he was still young, - barely forty - when the “impulse” came to him and he renounced everything to be, in his own words, “a humble servant of India and the rishis”. “Why do you give up your lucrative job?” They said to him; “you are still young. You have a bright future before you: you can make money, heaps of money”. “Life is not given to make money,” he replied. And they asked him: “What is the purpose of life?” He replied: “To dedicate it to Love Divine: to serve and be poured out as a sacrifice!” For nearly seven years had he remained in academics, devoting himself to the cause of his students and the administration of the educational institutions he served. True to the promise made to his mother, he worked to support his family. When his mother passed away peacefully, in 1919, in his own words, he renounced the world to announce God. Henceforth, he would plunge himself heart and soul into the pursuit of sublime ideals and serve God and Man to his heart’s content. Henceforth, he would draw countless hearts to the Lotus Feet of the Lord and lead innumerable souls out of darkness into Light!

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SADHU VASWANI– THE PATRIOT DADA J. P. VASWANI India has a message for the world; therefore has India lived on while many other ancient nations are no more. Young India must not imitate modern Europe which is in decline. Let the youths be true to Indian ideals and be eager to sacrifice themselves for the sake of India. Then, the chains will break, the fetters will fall, and India, rearisen in new strength, will go upon her mission of help and healing to a broken, bleeding humanity and be a teacher once again of the nations of the East and the nations of the West… — Sadhu Vaswani Talking of Sadhu Vaswani as a patriot, and outlining his contribution to nation building takes me back to the days of my youth, to an era of idealism and hope, patriotism and public spirit, when the political and personal came together in the quest for freedom, for independence from the colonial yoke. They were tough times; they were difficult times which called for sacrifice and selfless action. But they were also days of incredible enthusiasm and positive energy. Here in undivided India, “the empire on which the sun never sets” finally saw its sunset! I was privileged to be a witness to this “tryst with destiny”; if this was not privilege enough, I was thrice blessed to be in the sacred company of Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani, who played his own uniquely constructive and apolitical role in the great national drama that was unfolding around us, involving us in our day-to-day lives.

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In the beautiful and glorious land of Sind where I was born, Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani was one of the leading lights of the Independence Movement. Indeed, he was a patriot of the purest ray serene! His role in mobilising public opinion in favour of the freedom struggle, was, indeed significant. As far as Sind was concerned, he was the foremost interpreter, and in India, one of the earliest advocates of Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-cooperation Movement. In that early period, Sadhu Vaswani took on the task of promoting the new movement. At the Sind Political Conference of the Indian National Congress, he was chosen to move the resolution on the policy and programme of Non-cooperation. In fact, it was thanks to his stature and influence that the resolution was carried and passed, in the teeth of united opposition from veteran Sindhi leaders! It was thanks to Sadhu Vaswani’s inspiring presence and wholehearted support that Sind was pledged to Mahatma Gandhi’s Movement. Sadhu Vaswani’s belief in the Satyagraha movement was not just patriotic and nationalistic; it was also spiritual! He genuinely believed that it would spiritualise the life of India’s people. This belief, this aspiration, is reflected in the many books he wrote at that time, including India Arisen, Awake, Young India!, India’s Adventure, India in Chains, The Secret of Asia, My Motherland, Builders of Tomorrow and Apostles of Freedom. These inspiring books exhorted Indians, especially the youth, to dedicate

their lives to the service of the Motherland. The still living, flaming spirit of these wonderful books is an enduring testimony to the Master’s genuine nationalism! If some of you are wondering why Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani ceased to be in the political forefront of the national movement, the answer is not far to seek. The sad fact is that mass movements often tend to lose touch with the mind and the spirit; and their integrity is often compromised by utilitarianism. It made Sadhu Vaswani grieve, to see some of the patriots of the freedom-movement, scramble for power and position. He himself idealised the great Japanese leaders Kagawa and Sontoku, who flatly refused to accept salaries, when they were offered senior government positions. He would often quote their powerful and unanswerable question: “Why should men who want to help their country receive a salary for doing so?” He believed, with them, that leaders should, first and foremost, be servants of the people, and live as the poorest among the poor, giving all their time and energy to serving the country. He worked for swaraj; he sang of India’s freedom – and he wanted above all, that in our struggle for freedom, we must be true to the spirit of humanity. “What is your politics?” he was asked. He replied, “My politics, you ask? Service of the poor, is my answer, in brief. The Divine urge of freedom cannot be killed. It must grow from more to more. A state is not free until the poor have come into their own.

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How may we build such a state? The problem is beyond politics.” For years together, he kept on sounding a note of warning – that if, in our enthusiasm for political freedom, we neglect other aspects of freedom – social, cultural and spiritual – politics will fail in its purpose, and the nation will only wander from darkness to darkness. Alas, this became painfully true in the years following our independence. If Sadhu Vaswani believed in swaraj, it was not for this that one bureaucracy be replaced by another, or that Indian labour be exploited by Indian capital… Sadhu Vaswani pleaded for a new renaissance. He urged that in our struggle for freedom we must be true to the spirit of Humanity. Addressing a meeting of the “Association of Indian Culture” at Calcutta, in 1945, Sadhu Vaswani said, “To a Europe in ruins, to a West in the wreckage of her riches, India’s message is of freedom from greed and violence, so that the technical civilisation of today may become one of brotherhood, sympathy and service.” This is why he turned to work for Youth Movements. The problem of India, he told us even then, was a problem of transformation. It was only the youth, he felt, who could help achieve this goal and change India into a new nation. The promise, the potency of the future, he felt, was in youth-power. His aim was to train youth, to harness their shakti for the service of India. He believed in the youth, as the destined leaders of the nation, and wanted them to be trained and

disciplined, in order to fulfil their role in the great task that awaited them. To his last, long after 1947, he believed that the true work of Freedom, was, as yet, incomplete in India… In the second decade of the twenty-first century, most of you who are reading this were probably born in a free nation. The colonial rule that kept India in chains is no more than a chapter in world history for you. In a few years from now India will be celebrating the 75th Anniversary of her Independence. I would like to raise the very same question that Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani raised over sixty years ago. Is India really free? Free from poverty, hunger, strife, disunity and want? Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani said to us: “Independence is not enough; Unity is needed; Unity is not enough; emancipation of the poor is needed. What we need is a transfiguration of India; the transfiguration of the Indian as an individual and also a transfiguration of the social, economic and cultural life of India.” In short, we need a swaraj that will serve the people and save the people! Now, more than ever, it is necessary for us to heed the Master’s call: my words may be weak and feeble; but they are inspired by my Gurudev’s wisdom and spiritual power. And, in his voice, I say to the youth of this country, “Awake, India! This nation needs you!”

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SADHU VASWANI– THE EDUCATIONIST DADA J. P. VASWANI

The emphasis in St. Mira’s Schools is on atmosphere more than on rules, text-books and buildings. Knowledge is born and nourished in an atmosphere of love and service. — Sadhu Vaswani A brilliant and a reputed academician, Sadhu Vaswani always took a great interest in matters educational. “The nation walks on the feet of the little ones,” he would often remark. The more he moved among young people, the greater became his awareness that the current education system was failing to serve state and society. Imbued himself in the ideals of the rishis of ancient India, he was deeply saddened to see the education of the twentieth century moving farther and farther away from the values and ideals that were held dear by India in the golden days of her glorious past. As

he reflected upon this, he resolved that schools and colleges of the right type were the crying need of the nation. As he surveyed the situation, he found that most of the existing schools and colleges were, at best, so many caves in which students received only blurred images. The light of the sun, the light of Indian culture did not enter the caves. And students, as they grew up in ignorance and forgetfulness, busied themselves with chasing the shadow-shapes of wealth and power. Intelligence had been set free but self-knowledge and selfcontrol were forgotten. Intellect

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had developed but reverence was lacking. Critical faculties were given free play, but sympathy— the power that binds and builds— was receding. Knowledge without sympathy, like a double-edged sword, did more harm than good. It made men suspicious and cynical…Schools and colleges, he said to himself, must be freed from alien influences, and the ideals that inspired education in ancient India must be rediscovered and introduced in our institutions, if we are to make our contribution to civilisation and add to the freshness of human life. In conversation with his devotees, one day, he expressed his opinion that what Sind and India needed most was a girls’ school, inspired by the ideals of New Education. This was met with great enthusiasm by earnest volunteers, who felt that he would indeed be rendering a great service to the society by starting such a school. On the evening of June 3, 1933, as he paced to and fro on his house-top with a far-away, dreamy look in his mystic eyes, he heard within him a Voice urging him to initiate new lines in education. It was a great task; it would need a lot of money. He looked into his shirt-pockets, he opened his purse. There was only a two-paisa coin in it. That was all he had at the moment. What should he do? Again, the Voice spoke, “Give all you have and the All-in-all will not fail you!” In the early hours of the dawn of June 4, amidst the chanting of Vedic mantras, and in the presence of the sacred havan fire,

he announced the opening of St. Mira’s School for Girls… Sadhu Vaswani’s ideals for the Mira School were indeed lofty. He wanted the school to be an ideal institution, and for its teachers and students to reflect those ideals in deeds of daily living. He gave to the Mira School the four-fold motto: “Simplicity and Service, Purity and Prayer.” Why Mira? Sadhu Vaswani saw in her the true aspect of Krishnabhakti— dedication absolute and total. Mira was also a truly liberated soul, a true singer of the spirit. What better patron for a school imbued with Indian ideals? Sadhu Vaswani introduced in the new school, a unique feature— the Sanctuary Hour with which classes begin everyday. In the Sanctuary, he wanted the students to be educated in matters of the Spirit, inculcated with the wisdom of India’s saints and sages, with readings from the scriptures, recitations of holy texts, kirtan and inspired discourses on the Art of Living. He also wanted them to be imbued with love for their motherland, and devotion to Indian ideals and values. The Sanctuary, he felt, would be the very foundation of the characterbuilding education that the Mira School sought to impart. The one thought that he wished to pass on to the students at St. Mira’s is that the end of all knowledge is service. Service of the poor and needy, of the sick and suffering ones, service of the criminals and the deprived and downtrodden, are an integral part of the Mira education. Not intellect alone, urged Sadhu Vaswani, but also the intuitions, heart, emotions

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and will must be trained and used in the service of mankind. The girls are taught to dedicate their time and talents to the service of India. By precept and example, he taught St. Mira’s girls to prepare and purify themselves to be builders of a New Temple of Service. So is knowledge blended with sympathy in the teaching of the Mira Schools. True education, Sadhu Vaswani believed, is a Science of Life. And therefore, true educators cannot merely be teachers, lecturers or professors: the ideal Mira teacher is encouraged to be a friend and guide on the path of life. Before each Mira teacher is placed Sadhu Vaswani’s ideal: “The teacher is a friend! A friend of brother teachers, a friend of all pupils, a friend of all races and communities, a friend of all nations, of all men and birds and beasts, a friend of God’s creation!” On June 4, 1933, was planted the seed that has today grown into a vast sheltering tree, with International Schools in various centres in India and a Post Graduate College, a Nursing College, a Teachers Training Institute and a Management Institute in Pune. Nearly fifteen thousand students receive the value-based education that Sadhu Vaswani advocated with emphasis on training the hand, head and heart. The institutions revere their Founder, and his spirit still presides over their daily Sanctuary.

All his life, Sadhu Vaswani had been an educationist— teacher, professor, principal of more than one college. And in this Movement that he had started, he poured the best of his experience and the richest of his wisdom. Sadhu Vaswani chose his native place— Hyderabad-Sind—to start a centre of New Life. He came into contact with the young with whom, as he often said, it had pleased providence to knit his heart from the days of his manhood. He met students and communed with their minds and hearts. He saw the glow of a great faith in their eyes. He looked into their needs, their cravings and strivings and aspirations. The Mira Movement has rightly received recognition in East and West. Tributes have been paid to the Movement and its ideals by eminent educationists like Dr. Maria Montessori, Dr. Arundale and Dr. Radhakrishnan. Dr. Arundale spoke of the School as “an oasis in our educational desert”. Dr. Radhakrishnan was deeply impressed with the strivings of the Movement to reincarnate educational ideals of the rishis of India in modern forms and modern institutions. In an American publication, Where Do You Belong?, the authors describe this Movement as one of the twentytwo great movements of the modern world.

Today, Sadhu Vaswani’s dream lives on in the many schools spread across India and abroad. The Mira Movement now has 19 schools and colleges with over 16,000 students benefitting from the education provided. It includes  Sadhu Vaswani International School– Sanpada, Mumbai; Malad,

Contd. on page 30

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SADHU VASWANI– THE SAINT DADA J. P. VASWANI

The religions of the world are not contradictory or antagonistic... All religions are true, for all lead to the one Goal. And the Goal is God. There are so many who can believe only one thing at a time. I am so made as to rejoice in the many and behold the beauty of the One in the many. Hence, my natural affinity to many religions. In them all, I see revelations of the One Spirit. And deep in my heart is the conviction that I am a servant of all prophets. — Sadhu Vaswani

Sadhu Vaswani was a disciple of the Flute, a worshipper of the Cross. He had experienced the rapture of the vision of unity, of all races and religions, in the One Spirit. “There are,” he said, “so many who can believe only one thing at a time. I am so made as to rejoice in the many and behold the beauty of the One in the many. Hence my natural affinity to many religions: in them all I see revelations of the One Spirit. And deep in my heart is the conviction that I am a servant of all prophets.” His life was radiant with the great truth of fellowship with all creation. “The creation of God,” he said, “is bound by golden chains to the Feet of the One God, the One Divine Father of us all.” At His Lotus Feet are we all one– men of

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different religions and no religion. No one is an alien in the Kingdom of God; and his earnest advice to all seekers on the Path was to limit themselves to no one scripture but to regard all scriptures as receptacles of spiritual wisdom, for all do flow from the One Font of Inspiration. To Sadhu Vaswani, therefore, all sectarian strifes and quarrels in the name of religion were born of ignorance, illusion, maya. Sadhu Vaswani was not a teacher of the ascetic way. To fulfil the purpose of life, he taught us, man need not run away from the world to the solitude of a mountain-cave or a forest-grove. He must live in the world and fulfil his duties and obligations. To a young man, who wanted to resign his job and renounce the world and go out and live on a mountain peak, the Master said, “He whom you seek is not afar. He is in your office. He is in your home. He is with you, within you. Serve your old mother, live a life of purity and prayer, harm no one, cry out to Him in love and longing, and it will not be long before He reveals Himself to you!” Sadhu Vaswani’s ideal was to be in the world but not of the world. He repeatedly asked us never to forget that we are here as pilgrims, that our stay on this Isle of Enchantment, the Earth, was for a brief while, and that we must retrace our steps back to our Homeland which, alas, we had forgotten in the shouts and shows of an ‘empirical existence.’

“Where is thy native-land?” was the question asked of a dervish. And he answered in the words which God had said to Moses: “Thou art on this earth a stranger. I am thy native-land!” God is the Homeland of the Soul. This must we never forget for a single moment. Our thoughts and aspirations, our words and deeds must express our longing to return to the Homeland. Until the longing for God wakes up within our hearts, we are not truly awake. We are asleep. We walk, we talk, we work, we eat, we wake, we sleep in our sleep which is a deeper sleep. In words of lyrical beauty, Sadhu Vaswani sang: The waking ones, alas, are not awake And the sleepers sleep Until Thy Light on them doth shine! Awake are many called: But they are not the waking ones Nor do the sleepers truly wake Until they learn in silence and in love. To sing the Name Divine! In his heart, there was a deep yearning to live, “a hidden life in the Hidden God”. He led a life of simplicity and purity, of love and sacrifice, of truth and divinity. He touched the lives of many and awakened many a soul with his simplicity, unconditional love and timeless teachings. Having everything, Sadhu Vaswani chose to live as a fakir, a man who possessed nothing. Knowing everything, he lived as one who knew naught. His humility was profound. This prince among men, this uncrowned king of our hearts, chose to live as a

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servant of the poor and broken ones. His life was a source of perennial inspiration to thousands all over the world. He was a voice of the voiceless ones, our dear dumb defenceless brothers, birds and animals, who alas, are being slain by the million every day. Every little thing he did was inspired by the vision cosmic. Sadhu Vaswani’s life rings with the message: “Each day aspire to live in the love of God, in compassionate kindness to all, in fellowship with the broken ones and in the pure love of truth.” The Master’s Message Lives On… On the 17th of January, 1966, Sadhu Vaswani’s body - the house he inhabited for 86 years and more, the instrument through which he carried out his work of help and healing - was consigned to the flames. As the flames leapt upward, and enveloped the body which many of us had learnt to love with a love which is inexpressible, as the flames embraced the body until it became one with the flames, there surged within my heart the mighty words of the Lord in the Bhagavad Gita: He is never born, and he never dies. He is in Eternity, he is for evermore! Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth he forever. He does not die when the body dies! Speaking of death, Sadhu Vaswani himself had said to us on more than one occasion, “I cannot die! It is the body that dies! And the body is but a garment, an instrument through which works

the Atman, the Spirit!” “I cannot die!” Yes. Death has not been able to touch Sadhu Vaswani. He is deathless! He is immortal! He has not left us, though to many it appears that he has vanished. The Beloved Master has not passed away! He continues to be by us, with us, within us, blessing us, guiding us, guarding us, protecting us, pouring upon us his love, inspiring us, leading us on! His work is not yet over. “I am with you,” he said one day, “until the last soul has entered into the joy of that true life which is life indeed.” Yes, he is with us. He is now with us as he ever was. He is in the eternal now and here!

The kingdom of the Spirit is within. And to commune with it, thou must go into silence. – Sadhu Vaswani

The purpose of your life is to cultivate the soul. – Sadhu Vaswani

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GURU GOBIND SINGH– THE PROPHET OF FREEDOM SADHU VASWANI

Guru Gobind Singh was a mystic who loved to have quiet communion with God. Two centuries and a half have passed but the birthday of this nationbuilder lives. He is not of the Sikhs alone. He belongs to India. And his message has a value for us in the struggle of today. There is a pretty belief among the Polish peasants. They say that every year on Christmas night there appears between heavens and earth a ladder on which angels descend to bless the earth. Such a ladder in a sense, appears again and again, not on Christmas night alone; and mighty souls come from time to time to bless the earth. One such, I believe, was Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Gobind Singh, as he advanced in years there came to him a knowledge of India’s sad state. He saw that his country had become a victim to a policy

of fanaticism. His own father was cruelly persecuted by the Government, and endured the extreme sufferings of death in a spirit worthy of a Guru who taught that man should be “without fear”. The iron entered into the soul of Guru Gobind Singh. The mystic became a practical man. Let me say this: He loved India: he lived for her: he died for her: his sons died as witnesses to their father and the Sikh faith. I regard him as one of our early prophets of freedom. To convert every Sikh into a Singh— in that one line is summed up to my mind, the message of the Guru. It is a message we need today. I have felt, again and again, that the Guru’s message will help us much at this anxious hour: Let every Sikh become a Singh. ‘Sikh’ means a disciple. ‘Singh’ means a lion. Everyone who would be a ‘Sikh’, a

*January 13 is sacred as Guru Gobind Singh’s Jayanti.

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disciple of the Ideal, must become a man of manhood. This I regard as the central message of Guru Gobind Singh’s life. Three qualities, as it seems to me, were emphasised by the Guru as essential to everyone who would be Singh, a man of manhood. The first is self-respect. I have often thought of Guru Gobind Singh as a prophet of democracy. The Guru developed among his disciples a democratic consciousness, a characteristic common to Sikhism and Islam. What I speak of as self-respect is not without its responsibilities. The man who has self-respect will not take bribes; he will consider it beneath his dignity to take advantage of another in trouble; remembering that he calls himself a Sikh, a disciple of the Master, he will behave with moral dignity. The teacher who has self-respect will respect his pupils; he will not call them ‘liars’ or ‘fools’. He will see in every pupil a seedling of divinity. Yet another quality which a man must have if he would be a Singh— a man of Manhood— is courage. The man of courage stands for what he believes to be true regardless of consequences. And he has the strength to rebuke the wrong, and fight against injustice. To read the Granth Sahib— the second Granth written by Guru Gobind Singh— is to know how fearlessly the Sikh Guru opposed the government of his day. It was a

power-intoxicated government. ‘‘Thou,” he says, addressing the king in one of his verses, “with the intoxication of sovereignty art keeping on puffing up thy heart.” The Guru inspired the Sikhs with a new courage in the national struggle of those days. His ‘worship’ of the Steel and his prayer to Durga were a symbolic representation of his cult of courage. The German “religion of valour” was not inspired, as Guru Gobind Singh’s was, by a sense of the Internal. It believes in “Might is Right”. Guru Gobind Singh believed in “Right is Might”. He and his disciples combined courage with humility. In a hymn in the Granth Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh sings: Eternal God, thou art our shield, The dagger, knife, the sword we wield. To us Protection thou hast given The timeless, deathless Lord of Heaven; To us All-steel’s unvanquished might, To us All-time’s resistless flight; But chiefly Thou, Protector brave All-steel, wilt Thine own servant save! What the Guru called Steel, the Hindu scriptures have named Shakti.

Contd. on page 21

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Gandhi: India Hath Need Of Thee! SADHU VASWANI

Among the great ones I have met, I saw the ideal of the Gita reflected in Gandhi more, perhaps, than in anyone else. I may well speak of him as a bhakta of the Gita. He did not exaggerate, I feel sure, when he referred to the Gita as his “Mother”. Much he owed to the Gita, much more than many seem to be aware of. In the Young India, Mahatma Gandhi wrote:

of narrow nation-cults which obscure the vision of the unity of Humanity. The nationalisms of the West suffer from nationidolatry. Gandhi, I call a man of Light. Gandhi led his countrymen through darkness to light. I saw reflected in his face and his words the light of service to the poor, the light of friendship with the lowly and the lost, with the broken ones of India and humanity.

“When disappointment stares me in the face, and all around I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there and I invariably begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies, and my life has been full of external tragedies— and if they have left no visible, no indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita.”

I do not regard Gandhi as essentially a politician. And to me the problem of India is not merely political. There is a biology of the nation. This must be studied and its laws. No life without creative shakti. Until this is released, India may not hope to achieve her real freedom. The new shakti which India needs will be developed in the measure in which we enter into disinterested fellowship with the poor. Hence the significance of Gandhi and his message.

Who loved India more than Gandhi? But Gandhi kept clear

*January 30 is sacred as Mahatma Gandhi’s Martyrdom Day.

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He is not merely a nationalist. He is a bhakta of the Gita— a bhakta of the great Revealers of the human race, of Rama and Krishna, of Tulsi and Tuka, of Buddha and Jesus. “My patriotism,” Gandhi said, “includes the good of mankind in general. Isolated independence is not the goal: it is voluntary interdependence. The better mind of the world desires, today, not absolutely independent States warring, one against another, but a federation of freely interdependent states. I see nothing impossible about our expressing our readiness for universal interdependence rather than independence.” Where among India’s distinguished patriots is there, today, one disciple of Gandhi, inspired by his love of the rishis

and saints, his reverence for the village-folk, his readiness not to “patronise” the “untouchables” but to share their dirty work and so to bless them and be blessed? And is there one in our midst, today, who would find his greatest joy in sitting at the feet of children and, gazing at their wonder-filled eyes, exclaim as did Krishna and Jesus in the long ago: “Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven?” How many among India’s great ones, today, would say with Mahatma Gandhi: “All religions are true! And all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism?” My aching eyes behold the tragedy of the East and the tragedy of the West, and I exclaim: “Beloved Gandhi! India hath need of thee! And the world hath need of thee!”

Guru Gobind Singh– The Prophet Of Freedom Contd. from page 19 Another quality emphasised by Guru Gobind Singh was sacrifice. Often, indeed, the man of courage has to suffer for the truth he would serve. Sikh history is a wonderful record of sufferings endured for faith and freedom. His disciples were trained in a school of hardship, and his love impressed on their minds the truth that life must not be hoarded but poured out as a sacrifice. What makes the Sikh records almost unique in the

world’s annals is the number of women and young men and boys who entered into the great Sikh struggle for freedom. How cheerfully they suffered privations, persecutions, even death! And at this hour I fain would ask my countrymen to commune with Guru Gobind Singh and other heroes of Sikh history. Let the mighty Spirit that worked in them be our Leader in the struggle of to-day, and the Nation will not be left in the night.

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VIVEKANANDA– INDIA’S APOSTLE TO THE WEST SADHU VASWANI “Earth endures, stars abide! But where are men?” sings Emerson. Swami Vivekananda was a Man amongst men. A marvellous story this— of Vivekananda’s life. I see in it the grace of God. Vivekananda, a young undergraduate Vivekananda, a keen intellectual of the College, Vivekananda inebriated with the new wine of Western knowledge, Vivekananda meets the great mystic, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. “God can be seen!” is the bold declaration of Sri Ramakrishna. “As a lamp cannot burn without oil, so man cannot live without God,” he says. The saint loves young Vivekananda. “Do you see God?” he asks. And the saint blesses Vivekananda, lays upon him a spiritual spell: Vivekananda is a changed man! Not for him the ambitions of a college man! His life is henceforth a dedicated life. He becomes a Brahmachari-sanyasi, a servant of God. To a servant of God, dogmas and sects count for little. Creeds are broken reeds. Religion is life; Religion is Realisation. Religion is vision of the “Golden Purusha” in the heart. So Vivekananda recognises the great truths of world-religions. So he understands the value of Islam and its message of social equality. So he enters into the heart of the

message of Christ. Is it not, also, a message of spiritual Advaita? “I and my Father are one!” said Jesus. And again; “Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect!” And the Jews of his generation understood him not. Has the West understood him? Jesus was an Eastern yogi. To understand him, one must be imbued with the spirit of the East. Above all, Vivekananda realised the value of Higher Hinduism. He called it Vedanta. He wished to make it a world force. “With God, go over the sea! Without Him do not go over the threshold!” With God, Vivekananda went over the sea! With God, Vivekananda crossed continents and reproclaimed the Wisdom of the

*January 12 is sacred as Swami Vivekananda’s Birth Anniversary.

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Rishis. “Arise! Awake!”— was his trumpet call to the Hindus; to India and England and America! Of Peter the Hermit we read that he set on fire the hearts of Christians to recover the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Greater and wiser than Peter the Hermit was this Hindu monk of Vedanta. He set on fire the hearts of many with the Vision to make Hinduism world-dynamic. I believe profoundly in the world-values of Hindu Culture. Its message of the One Life in all is the need of the nations. The danger ahead of current civilisation is its blindness to the vision of the One. “Take us safe across the darkness!”— was the constant prayer of the rishi. Separateness is darkness. The rishis aspired to enter into the Light— the Light undying, to quote from an Upanishad, “dwelling in the inner heart!” Hindu Culture— Higher Hinduism, is a movement towards Light. “Light! More Light!” is the aspiration of the Hindu Dharma. The emphasis of modern nations is on forms of government. Constitutions, political machinery,

have their values. But there is something much greater, something truly vitalising— the Vision of the One Life. Out of this vision grows true humanism. Democracies without humanism have, in the West, developed aggressive nation-cults and imperialist ethics. And they move in a circle of war and violence. Modern civilisation threatens to fulfil the prediction of Samuel Butler that machines would displace mankind. Is it only a coincidence that warfare and machine-domination have run parallel in our times? Modern democracies have their “Leaders”, great in organisation, rich in resources, in their power over mass-mind. But more than “Leaders”, more than “Organisers”, are needed men of true spiritual culture, men of understanding hearts, seers and prophets, path-finders, lightbringers, torch-bearers, messengers of the Light, Apostles of the Ancient way. One of them was Swami Vivekananda. My homage to him!

Sadhu Vaswani– The Educationist Contd. from page 14 Mumbai  Sadhu Vaswani International School, Hyderabad  Sadhu Vaswani School Ahmedabad  Sadhu Vaswani Vidya Mandir Baroda  Sadhu Vaswani Rajkot- Main Rajkot  Sadhu Vaswani Rajkot, Gaikwadi  Sadhu Vaswani International School, New Delhi  St. Mira’s Primary School, Pune  Shanti Vidya Mandir Nursery  St. Mira’s Secondary School, Pune  Sadhu Vaswani Institute of Teachers Training, Pune  St. Mira’s College, Pune  Sadhu Vaswani College of Nursing, Pune  Sadhu Vaswani Institute of Management Studies, Pune  Sadhu Vaswani Little Lamps Nursery, London  Sadhu Vaswani Little Lamps School, Bangalore  Sadhu Vaswani Gurukul, Manjri, Pune (a free school for the underprivileged)  Sadhu Vaswani International School, Pradhikaran

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ADIEU! ADIEU! SADHU VASWANI

Ye children of my mother-land! Your leave I take, your blessings I crave, For at the threshold now I stand, Ready to sail with wind, and wave! The Call hath come from spaces blue, Fare-ye-well, friends! Adieu! Adieu! Oft have ye sailed in my fond dreams, With your presence have ye oft blessed me: Of the Great Beyond I now get gleams, My burden of grief lighten ye! The Call hath come from spaces blue, Fare-ye-well, friends! Adieu! Adieu! * January 16 & 17 are sacred as Sadhu Vaswaniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mahayagna Days

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In readiness doth stand my boat, Life’s game hath reached its destined end! As on th’ Expanse I set afloat, I, need good wishes of each friend. The Call hath come from spaces blue, Fare-ye-well, friends! Adieu! Adieu! With roses red and white jasmines Have I e’er gated and played life’s part! Come, fill your cup with love immense, And offer me ere I depart. The Call hath come from spaces blue, Fare-ye-well, friends! Adieu! Adieu! Gifts of this life I take with me, As I set sail for yonder Shore! Somewhere, somewhen I shall meet ye, The harp of life to tune once more. The Call hath come from spaces blue, Fare-ye-well, friends! Adieu! Adieu! ‘Tis not salvation that I seek, But ashes, dust, I long to be! At the’ feet of hearts sorrowing, weak, My Beloved’s beauty do I see! The Call hath come from spaces blue, Fare-ye-well, friends! Adieu! Adieu! With their dust I leave for that Bourne Where Krishna calls, where Krishna plays Upon His fire, where doth adorn The Cross from where Christ pours His grace! The Call hath come from spaces blue, Fare-ye-well, friends! Adieu! Adieu!

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Children’s Corner IDENTIFY THE LEADER Given below are key points of leaders who were the torch-bearers for the Independence of India. 1. Barrister, Civil Disobedience, Non-cooperation movement, Satyagraha. Answer: _____________________________ 2. Bramho Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission, Chicago, Advaita Vedanta. Answer: _____________________________ 3. Nobel prize, Writer of the National Anthem, profound author and poet. Answer: _____________________________ 4. First Prime Minister of Independent India, his birthday is celebrated as Children’s Day. Answer: _____________________________ 5. Former President of Independent India, his birthday is celebrated as teachers’ day. Answer: _____________________________ 6. Started India’s first English medium school, started first Bengali paper, worked to abolish sati. Answer: _____________________________ 7. First Indian to pursue Economics abroad, Father of the Indian Constitution. Answer: _____________________________ 8. Established the ‘Indian National Army’ and ‘Azad Hind Fauj’, expelled from the Congress leadership, travelled a number of countries during the second world war. Answer: _____________________________ 9. Nightingale of India, renowned author and poetess, first woman Governor. Answer: _____________________________ 10. Bombed the Central Assembly, New Delhi; Fasted for 116 days in jail; hanged at the age 23. Answer: _____________________________

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Crossword BASED ON SADHU VASWANI’S LIFE Across 1. 2. 5. 7. 9. 10. 11.

Birth year of Sadhu Vaswani Death year of Sadhu Vaswani Name of Sadhu Vaswani Name of the satsang started by Sadhu Vaswani for women Sadhu Vaswani’s Guru’s name. Birth place of Sadhu Vaswani Name of the Ashram started by Sadhu Vaswani for Youth

Down

1. The Mahayagna Day (Date) 3. The mystic, poet, philosopher, educationist, humanitarian. 4. 25th November is celebrated as _______________ 6. Country in which Welt Congress—the World Congress of Religions held.

Answers: Identify The Leader: 1. Mahatma Gandhi, 2. Swami Vivekananda, 3. Rabindranath Tagore, 4. Jawaharlal Nehru, 5. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, 6. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, 7. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, 8. Subhash Chandra Bose, 9. Sarojini Naidu, 10. Bhagat Singh Crossword: ACROSS: 1. 1879, 2. 1966, 5. Thanwar, 7. Sakhi, 9. Promotho Lal Sen, 10. Sind, 11. Shakti ; DOWN: 1. 16 January, 3. Sadhu Vaswani, 4. Meatless Day, 6. Germany

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SIMPLE RULES OF HEALTH MEDITATION IN PRACTICE SADHU VASWANI

Why is meditation a necessity of spiritual life? Spiritual life is the realisation of unity. And when you meditate, you rise above the tendency of separatism and enter into unity. In the hour of meditation, too, the Sat-Guru influences the pupil. To bless is to pour out a force— a spiritual force. It acts on the pupil’s consciousness in the receptive periods of meditation. One can feel a contact with the Guru, the Master: can feel his presence: and can feel that it has filled you! To practise meditation, keep the following in view: • Keep the body in a restful position. It is a spiritual loss to be very weak or very ill. • Be not in a hurry. Sit down to meditate, when you are not tired but fresh. • Open the windows of your mind and heart and quietly take in what comes. Hence the value of silence. Silence is essential to health, spiritual and physical. • “The Atman is Silence,” says an Upanishad. There is drain of spiritual and nervous energy in noise. Every prayer in the ancient books moves in an atmosphere of

“Shanti, Shanti, Shanti!” Beautiful thoughts visited the Rishis in forest ashramas. For there was silence. • Place your aspirations and difficulties at His Feet. Your sins, too. Don’t be afraid to take in His Presence the very “devil” within you. You will be dynamic when the “devil” becomes a servant of God. Sit at His Feet as you are. Sit under His influence. • Call up an object— an incident, say, from Krishna’s life or Christ’s or Buddha’s— a symbol, say, the Flute or the Cross. And through such incidents and symbols you may touch the Great Ones. They are of His Family, Do not think they are dead. The Great Ones live. Read their lives and sayings. • Offer yourself as a sacrifice— every day. By abhyasa, steady practice, every day draw the mind away from the body and the senses. Teach the mind to rise, stage by stage, until the mind is utterly quiet, without thought, emptied of all desires, of all wishing. Then have you reached the stage of peace: the mind has quietly slipped and rested in the Atman, the Self!

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