gurumurthy: A mission that enriches the soul of the needy

jan 26th

and without attempting to steal their souls (unlike the m teresa brand of bullshit). of course this doesnt get any publicity.

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From: Sree 

Sree

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A mission that enriches the soul of the needy
Tuesday January 17 2006 21:21 IST

S Gurumurthy

Manikanta, abandoned on the streets, was begging from morning to night in Lalbaugh. Later, he was taken to Chennai to work in a country liquor shop. The shopkeeper read a newspaper article about `Nele' and brought the child to its doors. Today, Nele is Manikanta's home. He is in school, in 4th standard.

Nele is the home for children abandoned to the care of streets to beg, pick rags and do other menial work. It takes them into its bosom, nurses them to good health and mind and initiates them into man-making education. Many such street children picked up by Nele are today role models. They bag prizes in competitions.

Saraswati, just eight, had acute hearing impairment. Her ability to learn was so low that even special schools would not admit her. She joined Aruna Chetna. Today she has blossomed into a creative girl, excelling in dance and art. Groomed as a teaching assistant, she is now in vocational training division in Aruna Chetna itself.

Started in the year 1987, Aruna Chetna takes care of children like Saraswati and others suffering disabilities like cerebral palsy, mental retardation, hearing impairment, partial visual impairment, behavioural and emotional disorders. There are over 160 such impaired children today in Aruna Chetna.

Aruna Chetna has dedicated and experienced teachers who provide comprehensive services to the affected children including physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, academic education, self-management, vocational training, sports, music, dance, dramatics, drawing and painting and yoga.

'Prasanna' is a counselling initiative for mental health. Expert counselling is costly in this area and the poor can hardly afford it. So, qualified doctors from NIMHANS are networked as volunteers to counsel the needy. More than 1000 mental cases, 700 family issues, and 500 rehabilitation efforts were successfully handled by Prasanna.

The head of Prasanna, Dr Mrs Pankaja, was awarded `Vidyaratna' in 1998. Various public service outfits like Lions, Rotary, Inner Wheel and others have honoured Prasanna. Nele, Aruna Chetna and Prasanna are just illustrations, different manifestations, of the same mission, the Hindu Seva Pratishtana in Bangalore.

The work of Pratishtana is not limited to these initiatives, but extends to a vast area. Protection of environment is a key concern of Pratishtana. It launched a movement to `Save the Western Ghats' led by Anant Hegde who works with the Pratishtana.

It has instituted a task force to document the bio-resources of various villages in Sagar, Thirthahally and Hosanagara taluks in Karnataka - a far-reaching work.

It has special concern for women and conducts massive programmes mobilising them on the cultural plane. It conducts Deepa Pujas in which thousands participate every year. It organised a Matru Sangama in which 45,000 women from executives and professionals to ordinary slum dwellers resided together.

It also works vigorously to eradicate untouchability and alcoholism. Conceived and executed by Ajit Kumar, a dynamic RSS worker, 25 years ago, the Hindu Seva Pratishtana has over the years grown into a huge, high quality public service mission.

He died young, but thanks to his far-sight, the Pratishtana work has grown exponentially.

As he conceived this mission, Ajit Kumar did not think of building a huge corpus of funds. Instead, he built a team of dedicated volunteers and instituted a system of identifying, training and sustaining more of them.

The idea of public service is generally understood as raising, accumulating and spending funds. Sometimes it is even trivialised as a task, which can be accomplished by just money.

More often than not, skill in fund raising is considered more important to engage in public service. But Ajit Kumar was different. He believed that motivated men, motivated by the urge to serve the motherland through the service of the needy, are more critical than money.

He proved right. Thanks to his vision, today in the Pratishtana there are over 3000 whole-time volunteers - yes 3000! They are called `Sevavratis', that is, those who have taken a vow for service. They are competent in different fields, well-trained and motivated by high levels of compassion linking the service they deliver to the idea of man-making and nation-building.

A 'Sevavrati' takes oath to give full time to the Pratishtana for three years. But, there are `Sevavratis' who are working for over 15 years. In addition there are thousands of equally dedicated workers who work only part time.

This huge stock of trained, sincere and committed workers constitutes the real asset of the Pratishtana, not the moderate financial numbers disclosed in its balance sheet.

But the story of Pratishtana is still not complete. It is a mission whose service enriches the soul of the needy who receive its help, and not trade off its service for change of faith, God, or culture of the recipient.

Those missions that offer relief to the needy in exchange for the recipient being persuaded to disown his or her faith or God or culture are also celebrated as great social service missions.

But, the Pratishtana is different, because its services have no aim or intent other than building a mighty and prosperous India. This is real national service, man-making and nation-building service, which Swami Vivekananda repeatedly commended to the youth of India.

The Hindu Seva Pratishtana that serves the acutely needy is actually transforming into a movement in Karnataka. This illustrious mission is entering its Silver Jubilee Year on February 25, 2006.