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Dada
Athavale sparks a human revolution in India and the United States.
By Levina Melwani
http://www.littleindia.com/india/Oct2k/silent.htm
(Note: This article is specially for all those
self-righteous Western Christian missionaries and their much publicized social
service to poor in India!)
Oprah doesn't know about them nor has
People magazine sent out their reporters to cover them. They rarely make the
headlines or the Nightly News — nor do they want to.
In the United States there are about 15,000 of them spread over 38 states. They
are the Swadhayayis and they are dedicated to quiet, selfless volunteerism, be
it farming vegetables or packing boxes. The wages they earn for this work are
given to charity. Most are affluent Indian Americans, but their philosophy is
one of compassion and charity, of giving of themselves. Every Sunday they gather
to listen to the recorded discourses of Pandurang Shastri Athavale, the
remarkable man in whose footsteps they attempt to follow.
So who is Athavale? The eye sees a very fragile figure in a wheelchair, but this
85-year-old man from the village of Roha has the power to move multitudes. Known
simply as Dada (Elder Brother) to his followers, he propagates Swadhyaya (study
of self) that has spread to nearly 100,000 villages across India and improved
the lives of over 20 million people.
The year was 1925 and Athavale was all of five years old. Wrapping his tiny hand
around his grandfather's finger, he accompanied the Vedic scholar to the
forsaken tenements where the Harijans, the untouchables, lived. There his
grandfather, a strong believer in Gandhian values, would hold a discourse on the
Bhagavad Gita, especially for these outcasts of society.
At that early age, the child learned about the healing power of religion. But he
learned something more: when they returned home, his orthodox Brahmin
grandfather, having been in touch with the untouchables, would still undergo the
ritual bath to cleanse himself. Young Athavale questioned this custom: if God
resides in everyone as the Gita says, he reasoned, and the Harijans were worthy
of listening to its holy words, then why were they regarded as unclean?
The seeds of serving God through
serving humanity were sown in childhood for Athavale and through his
revolutionary Swadhyaya movement he has worked to move outcasts into the
mainstream of society.
Indeed, if there is a Utopia on Earth, it is probably the world created by
Athavale in thousands of obscure villages that are the heartbeat of India.
Through the concept of bhaktiferi (devotional visits) he has spread a healing
message of love to all communities. He has created amrutalayam (village
temples), built by joint efforts of the villagers for people from all religions,
castes and economic strata to worship together; yogeshwar krushis (farms for
God) where the villagers give a few days of labor a year to show their devotion
to God, with the village's needy sharing the produce; matsyagandas (floating
temples of God) fishing boats on which the fishermen give their time for a few
days per year, as devotion to God, and share the harvest with the needy.
There are also vrikshamandirs (orchard temples) which are cultivated
impersonally by the villagers and the produce given to the needy. Through the
ingenious jeevan sampada (wealth of life), religious songs are recorded on each
Swadhyaya activity, explaining in song, for example, the proper religious
attitude to take while caring for the trees in the orchard temples. There are
gauras (home dairies) which are village-level milk cooperatives, and bahna
kendras, (ladies centers.)
Nor are the children forgotten: bal sanskar kendras (children's value centers)
are socialization hubs for children, and dhananjay kreeda samuh (Arjuna's sport
group) promotes games and sports for the young. DBT (divine brain trusts )are
discussion centers for youth. There is also the tattavajnana vidyapeeth
(philosophic knowledge center), which offers a free two-year course in Vedic and
comparative religion.
Does this sound like a fantasy? It is every inch a reality, affecting the lives
of over 20 million people in 100,000 villages in rural India. This seeming
miracle is the work of Athavale, who has started a quiet revolution in India by
changing lives in remote villages. In March, 1997, the world doffed its cap in
recognition of his work, conferring on him the prestigious Templeton Prize for
Progress in Religion, valued at $1.21 million, the largest annual award in the
world. Global investor John Marks Templeton instituted the Templeton Prize for
Progress in Religion in 1972 because he felt the Nobel Prize unfairly excluded
spirituality from the disciplines it honors. This prize's monetary value exceeds
that of the Nobel Prize. Templeton says of the award, "It is not for
saintliness or mere good works, it is for progress."
Athavale's philosophy is logical and stunning in its simplicity. He explains:
"It is my experience that awareness of nearness of God and reverence for
that power creates reverence for self, reverence for the other, reverence for
nature and reverence for the entire creation. And devotion as an expression of
gratitude to God can turn into a social force to bring about transformative
changes in all aspects of human life and at all levels in the society."
Born in 1920 in the small village of Roha near Mumbai, Athavale was the son of a
Brahmin scholar, Vaijnath Laxman Athavale Shastri, who founded the Shrimad
Bhagavad Gita Pathashala, a seat of Vedic learning. His grandfather was a
headmaster and Vedic scholar under whose guidance Athavale learned not only
classic literature, Sanskrit and Hindi, but also English, comparative religions
and Eastern and Western philosophy.
By 20, Athavale was preaching the virtues of the Bhagavad Gita and attracting
people. In 1954 he addressed the Second World Religious Conference in Japan
where his message was so impressive that he was asked to speak in other parts of
the world. Athavale, however, chose instead to take the Gita to the villages of
India, to teach people to live by its tenets. In 1956 he established his first
social program, the tattvajnana vidyapeeth, to teach the Vedic way of life,
which eventually developed into the all-India and worldwide movement it is
today. Athavale's family are worshipers of Siva, but in his temples he gives
equal honor to all deities, for he believes that devotional temple worship is
vital for concentration on God. He leaves the choice of deity to the worshipers.
As a boy, Athavale would trudge miles rather than ask his father for bus money.
When he was reprimanded, he would say, "Asking for money is not in my
nature." Even today he never asks for donations or even for volunteers.
Says Dilip Patel, a member of Swadhyaya's U.S. Devotional Associates of
Yogeshwar, "I've been doing this work for 20 years, and it still amazes me.
Dada never asks for anything. He merely says, this is an idea, and if you
intellectually accept it, then it is your moral duty to do it. It has become
second nature to us."
At the awards ceremony, one of the Rockefellers asked what they could do to help
him. Athavale replied, "Nothing." The surprised member of the
billionaire family replied that no one had ever before answered that way to a
Rockefeller. The fame and prestige has not made a dent in Athavale's frugal way
of life. Says Patel, "He has a Spartan lifestyle; his needs are very few.
He's a man who enjoys ideas, not possessions." He lives with his wife in a
meager one-bedroom apartment in Mumbai, in the same place where he has lived for
45 years. He gets up around 3 a.m to meditate, and never misses his daily
worship. His day is devoted to discourses and work. In the evening he relishes
long walks, health permitting. Recently his poor health has put him in a
wheelchair, but work is still his way of worshiping God. He takes no credit for
the awards and the honors, knowing in his heart who orchestrates these happy
events. Since its founding, swadhyaya has spread across the sub-continent and is
now active around the world, from the United States to Germany to Kenya to
Sweden to the United Arab Emirates. Since 1978 Athavale has been visiting the
United States for Bhaktiferi in nearly every major American city. Like a handful
of seeds, these principles have scattered on every soil and bloomed in many
countries.
Over the years, Athavale has received many prizes and honors, including the
Mahatma Gandhi Prize and and the Raymond Magsaysay award for outstanding
leadership.
In jubilant celebration of the
Templeton Prize, over 6,000 members of the Swadhyaya Parivar gathered at Madison
Square Gardens to greet Athavale with flowers, song and dance. A lesser man
could be swayed by so much devotion but Athavale remains unfazed by material
fame. With the attention of the world press on him, and all the hoopla, he
remains unmoved by celebrity — even when the prize was presented to him by
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey. Athavale had a perfectly
logical and simple answer to the furor caused by his winning this prestigious
international award. He thought for a minute, smiled and said, "The
Templeton Prize is God's love-letter to me, and the delivery man is Sir John
Templeton."
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