Author: Atul Rawat
Publication: Organiser
Date: August 6, 2000
Charity is a fascinating
word but an incomplete concept. The western emphasis on it may have
provided for food, clothes and shelter to some of the needy, but has it
also provided for their becoming as complete humans as possible?
Mind, body, intellect and soul are four basic constituents of human personality.
To satisfy the overall growth of them, something more than charity is needed.
More than mere fulfillment of food, cloth and shelter, it is necessary
that love, affection, care and positive attitude are available.
It is with this holistic
concept that Sadhvi Ritambhara began the quest for an alternative system
that could fulfill these requirements. The Param Shakti Peeth engaged
in uplift of needy women regardless of their age is her laboratory.
Her projects are her instruments and affection is her investment.
A visit to the Peeth will show that the alternative system, which has much
more than charity as its goal, is really evolving.
The whole concept is
a strange blend of elements of continuity and change, traditions and modernity-but
all within the parameters of Indian traditions. If mother Yashoda
is her ideal, her emphasis is on modern education. Her outlook is
to produce dynamic modern and patriotic daughters and sons of Mother India.
In a peculiar contrast to the West-inspired women movements who are more
or less concerned with problems of women of a particular age, the Sadhvi
and her Peeth serve women of all ages and also the male children.
Her emphasis is on "mother". She believes motherhood is a state of
mind more than a mere biological truth. One can be a "mother" of
a child even without giving birth to him or her.
A woman can even be the
mother of God-thus the emphasis is on Yashoda. This thought has been
translated into action in her Vatsalya Mandir. A young woman who
might be in need of help due to some reason may become mother for some
needy children who might have lost their parents or families. A new
family is thus born. It still has a scope for a grandmother.
The old needy women may provide the much needed guidance, affection and
care for the children as well as for the mother. And orphange or
an old age home may provide only food and shelter but the love, affection
and care that the Vatsalya Mandir of Param Shakti Peeth provides is unparalleled.
The orphanages and old
age homes are institutions which are based on the concept of charity.
Family on the other hand is much better an alternative where the mother
would feed the child, run behind him with the bowl of food in the hand,
play and shower affection. Without that how can a child grow into
a complete human? This experiment illustrates that however, socially
deprived one may be, one should never be allowed to feel the inferiority
of a recipient and at the same time the mind of a giver should feel that
his action is out of social responsibility rather than feeling of any ego
or that of charities.
The positive thinking
is not in that of an orphanage. Sadhvi Ritambhara avoids the word
orphan itself. Both benevolence and charity are negative as they
fill the person with the dangerous pride of being next to the Creator himself.
These feelings should be replaced with feelings of social responsibility.
This responsibility emanates from our being children of Mother India and
in a way is the social dimension of our divine nationalism. Taking
the responsibility of a child whom one has not given birth is the best
form of worshiping God as well as Mother India. No future human should
be under the unholy pressure of someone's pity. None should have
the crisis of his identity.
None should become a
villain in life just because of a childhood deprived of love and affection.
The Vatsalya Mandir is a project which wishes to bring up such human beings
on whom not only this nation but the world may be proud of. These
projects are not limited to one place. The work is going on for a
whole Vatsalya village near Vrindavan. Besides that two more Vatsalya
villages are going to come up (land has already been procured and work
is going on), one at Omkareshwar, where a Jagrit Jyotirling is situated
and the other in district Solan in Himachal Pradesh. The Vatsalya
Mandir is indeed a sentiment. It emanates from the core of the heart
of Mother India.
In his blessing address
Swami Paramanandji has very rightly said the God himself has send these
children here so that even their own parents may not be a hindrance in
their becoming soldiers of goodness. In reality it is a godly work.
The Vatsalya Mandir illustrates that however socially deprived one may
be, one is born in divine motherland of ours with a divine purpose to give
one's best to this universe of which one is an inalienable part.
By giving and sharing with others one can help build a constructive society
in which everyone is both a giver and a taker. The fulfilment of
basic necessities of life is certainly required. But the life is
much more than that too. It is equally important that no one should
ever feel purposeless about life.
