Shivakumara Swamiji: A sea of humanity that he was…
A country like India can never be devoid of swamijis and mutts almost at every nook and corner of the cities and villages. We even see some fake swamijis being exposed increasingly too. Known as godmen at some point of time, most of them are spending their days inside the jails for their crimes. Hindu dharma that had saints and social reformers like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Narayana Guru etc is being humiliated to the core by fake swamijis.
Many swamijis are in news owing to gruesome crimes too. Despite this, being a swamiji is a matter of benefit for many. They can earn crores in the name of service to humanity and open medical/engineering and other colleges from their mutts. They can be involved in real estate deals without being anxious about being caught some day. Any politician would pour massive amount of black money should someone turn into a swamiji and a thus a safe haven for many misdeeds. Because the IT officers don’t even touch spiritual gurus. A senior Indian politician hence remarked one that “Black money in India is more in mutts than in swiss banks”.
But there are some swamijis who are an exception to such misdeeds. Their humongous service, sacrifice and values are what make them ideal role models to the world. They show how a swamiji or a saint should actually be, to the country, the nation and to the world. One such gem of a saint has silently passed away. Dr Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga Mutt who lived to be an excellent example of silent social reformers who never delivered speeches or discourses and involved himself in only serving the humankind has breathed his last. Vachanakaras says the quality of a Sharana is seen in his farewell from the world applies very well to Siddaganga Swamiji. The response of the society to the death of Swamiji who lived a full life of 111 years and passed away says volumes about the life he led and the affection people had about him. This response to a death in the recent times is a very rare one, with Swamiji being the only exception. Normally those who mourn departed swamijis would be people from that community itself. But the demise of Siddaganga Swamiji has a sea of tears flowing from across all communities.
Swamiji was among those rare saints who followed 12th century social reformer Basavanna’s ‘work is worship’ and service by feeding the hungry – kaayakave kailaasa and daasoha. Through his life, Swamiji showed us the way a real Lingayata should live. Today a lot of Swamijis are aligning with political parties. Hardly any swamiji stays away from proximity to power circles. Someone like Pejawar Shree indulges in politics all in the open. Swamijis from every community have chosen their particular favourite political party. Many politicians are nurturing many mutts, swamijis and hence it is appropriate to conclude mutts are moneybags and political spaces that generate votes.
But Shivakumara Swamiji never identified with any political party while every politician wanted to be seen with the swamiji. He never used service as a mode to make money. He literally begged to bring contributions to feed his disciples in the mutt. All mutts have engineering and medical colleges. If Shivakumara Swamiji wished to, he could have got scores of such professional colleges for his mutt and minted money. But he wasn’t greedy. He was focused on setting up more primacy schools. He accommodated scores of children in those institution and served them food and education, totally free of cost. He did not allow casteism to enter into his mutt in any form. When someone made girl students stand out in the name of taboo associated with menstrual cycle, this swamiji told them it was a natural process and they must not be ashamed about whatever god had given them in the body. He asked them to sit in the same row as the others and served them food.
Siddaganga Swamiji did not build castles in the air with speech like the others. He always walked with a hunch and showed that those who bend, can grow beyond Bahubali in stature. People called him ‘moving god’ and are in a hurry to turn him into some sort of a miracle man. This happened with Mother Teresa too. Mother Teresa showed god need not come from the heaven to serve the needy, poor and the sick. She served them with her own hands. How would her service be any great if she was the form of some god? The greatness of Teresa is that she was human, yet she served everyone like she was serving god. This is the big possibility people have to see and understand. Shivakumara Swamiji has shown how a man can be a sea of humanity with his focus and service. Let us retain him as a human being who lived a noble life, instead of turning him into god and making him an impossible goal. Personalities like Mother Teresa and Shivakumara Swamiji should remain humans amongst us who turned divine with their deeds.
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ECI website faces outage amid vote counting in Jharkhand, Maharashtra
New Delhi: Election Commission of India’s official results website ‘results.eci.gov.in’ has reportedly experienced a technical outage on Saturday morning, at a time when India closely watches the high-stakes Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly poll battle.
Visitors visiting the site were met with non-functional links and a generic “counting in progress” message, leaving them without updated election data. The ECI has not issued an official explanation for the disruption.
Vote counting, which began at 8 a.m. with postal ballots, is underway for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 81 in Jharkhand. Early trends suggest a lead for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, currently ahead in 141 seats, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is leading in 96. In Jharkhand, the BJP-led NDA is ahead in 43 seats, while the ruling JMM-led alliance is trailing with leads in 33 constituencies.
Additionally, counting is underway for 48 assembly bypolls across 13 states and two parliamentary seats, Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala.
