Sheer Inspiratiion

Mataji is now in her late 80s.  Her stories from Bharat interested me greatly but what was even more heartening was the part Rashtirya Sevika Samiti had played in her life.  She had been an ardent karyakarta of Samiti during her younger days in Bharat, working tirelessly in various different fields towards the empowerment of women.  She was a big advocate of the philosophy of ‘letting your actions do the talking’ and one evening she did just that.

It was around 7pm and is the tradition in most houses in New Zealand it was time for the evening walk.  Despite the fact that Mataji walks with a limp, she makes a point of walking every day in order to give her body some exercise.   Generally she would walk to the end of the street and back, a walk that took her on average the best part of an hour.  However, on this occasion after that hour had elapsed she was nowhere to be seen.  We contacted her cell phone to see where she had gone only to realise that she had left it in her room.  Her son (current karyakarta in Auckland) then suggested she may have taken a different route so we waited in anticipation for another ten minutes but to no avail.  At that moment panic set in.  We got into the car and circulated the local vicinity hoping of some sighting of her but after a full further twenty minutes of searching, a further few enquiries with the general public, we arrived home with nothing.  As we were about to call some other karyakartas, Mataji calmly walked through the front door.  Some heated discussion ensued as to where she had gone and why she had not taken her cell phone with her.  She calmly sat down, got her breath back and then narrated what had happened. 

After becoming tired from walking to the end of the street, she took a seat on a wall outside a house.  She wasn’t seated for long as from within the house she could hear voices speaking in Hindi.  Without a moment’s hesitation she knocked on the door and introduced herself and from what was a chance interaction she ended up having tea and biscuits with her newly acquainted family.  She then went onto to say that the young family had two children who were now interested in coming to shakha!   

If there was ever a need to highlight the effectiveness of sampark, this example would surely silence any critics.  More than anything it showed and emphasised just what result can occur if we put ourselves out of our comfort zones and take a risk.  As a result of her pro activeness there was another family introduced to the Sangh parivaar, another family that would surely benefit from shakha and its activities, all through the actions of one person.

Praising Mataji is certainly one thing but it is also important to highlight exactly where such qualities and skills had originated from – none other than Samiti itself.  She never boasted about this and to be honest she didn’t have to.  The incident above is just one example of how a women in her 80s still possess the confidence, strength, belief and passion in Sangh work to such an extent that she would go and knock on the front door of a complete stranger to introduce them to the concept of Sangh.  And this is the effect that Samiti can have – the ability to create strong, independent women, with a sense of identity ready to go out into the world to make a difference.  Contrast that to some years ago and even today in some parts of the world where women are downtrodden and shoved to the side.  What we fail to realise is that the empowerment of women in society is arguably more important than anything else, even to that of men.  Imagine a society where all the women had a similar character to Mataji, what a different world we would live in if that was the case!  

  

Changing Perceptions

Of the many questions I was faced with on vistaar the most prevalent by far was whether or not I was from India.  Naturally my response to such a question was always a categoric ‘yes’ (I am Indian after all), but when I went onto describe the fact that I was born and brought up in the UK, the reaction of most parents was something to behold. 

I remember one particular incident in New Zealand that stands out amongst the rest for exactly this reason.  As is the case with most, if not all senior Sangh karyakartas there is a tendency to initiate conversations in Hindi.  I’d be lying if I said my Hindi is perfect because to be quite frank and honest, it isn’t.  I can however rustle together the basics without seeming too much like an NRI (Non Resident Indian).  Greetings over, this particular senior karyakarta began talking about Shakha in New Zealand, his own personal Sangh history, the challenges he had faced and various other topics of interest, all in Hindi of course.  Then after a full twenty minutes of one way dialogue he asked me a question which I didn’t understand.  At this stage, I revealed to him that I was actually from England and therefore my ability to speak Hindi was rather limited.  Suddenly his face went from normality to something I can’t even quite describe in words.  To say that he was shocked would be an understatement.  I remember him putting his cup down in a frenzy and quite literally running into the kitchen.  He was so shocked that he had gone to call his wife and two daughters into the room and without a moment’s hesitation he delivered the revelation that I was infact a vistaarak not from India… but from the UK!      

I couldn’t understand why he had created such a great scene to highlight something as trivial as this!  And to highlight what?  The fact that I was from the UK and not from India?  Exactly!  This stereotypical notion that western Hindu youth lack any sort of real passion to sustain their Hindu identity is one at the forefront of many of our seniors’ minds.  And for very good reason at that!  The picture that we present of us as a generation isn’t always pretty to say the least.  Yet the question we should ask then is what exactly are we doing to change this perception?  What efforts are we putting into upholding our Dharma?  If we do not heed to the calls of our seniors then I'm afraid there is no hope for us as a faith, nor as a generation.  Call me a pessimist you may but this last year has taught me more than anything, that there has never been a greater need to re-energise our youngsters.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still thousands of us who are engaged with who we are but there are even more that are slowly drifting away. 

We are well versed in academia but what does this matter when we do not have the ability to stop forced conversion of our people, to challenge major companies in the face of what can only be described as absurd misuse of our deities?  We forget that it was only some ten to fifteen years ago that our now current senior generation were organising yearly Hindu marathons that attracted thousands!  1984 saw the largest gathering of Hindus at the Viraat Hindu Samelan in Milton keyenes where some 10,000 Hindus came together in a show of strength and unity.  Where are we now?  We are young, educated and as of yet not able to take the Hindu samaj forward.  Speaks volumes really and it is therefore little surprise that we still haven't changed this perception as inactive Hindu youth!       

It is time for us to wake up from our slumber.  The world needs hard workers and academics but it also needs young men and women to go out and solve the worlds’ problems, to uphold their identity and to give something back to the community we live in..  We worship the feet of Vivekananda and the likes of Shivaji as if none such persons will come along for the next century!  Instead of waiting for that person, it is time for us to become that person, to put life into the quotes we preach.  'Be the change you wish to see' we say, well its time we start being that change.