Indian Politician also get "Freedom" since Britishers left INDIA

I heard and see people, who are talking about freedom, but today one fact is eye-catching how Indian Politician using their "Freedom" by surpassing people's faith.



The latest issue of India Today (January 3, 2010) carries an interesting cartoon by Ravi Shankar with an amount boldly inscribed at the top : Rs.176, followed by eleven zeroes. The main cartoon shows Dr. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi declaring “We have ZERO tolerance for corruption!” and some minions of theirs declaring “We can tolerate many more zeros….”

            The total scam money lost by the Bhaaratiya government treasury is approximate 73 Lakh Crore and could be more during the last two decades. Here is glimpse of some(read it again it's some not all) major  (and again it's major not all, sorry Minor(ity) ).

The 2010 ending mail tells us NOT TO BE PART OF EVEN Re 1 SCAM!
WILL YOU?  Wake Up ...............IF U R ALIVE ..........

Republic Of Scams

Total Scam Money (approx) Since 1992:  

Rs. 73000000000000 Cr.  
(73 Lakh Crore)

Hard to digest ? 
Just check the below given details

1992 -Harshad Mehta securities scam Rs 5,000 cr

1994 -Sugar import scam Rs 650 cr

1995 -Preferential allotment scam Rs 5,000 cr
Yugoslav Dinar scam Rs 400 cr
Meghalaya Forest scam Rs 300 cr

1996: -Fertiliser import scam Rs 1,300 cr
Urea scam Rs 133 cr
Bihar fodder scam Rs 950 cr

1997 -Sukh Ram telecom scam Rs 1,500 cr
SNC Lavalin power project scam Rs 374 cr
Bihar land scandal Rs 400 cr
C.R. Bhansali stock scam Rs 1,200 cr

1998 -Teak plantation swindle Rs 8,000 cr

2001 -UTI scam Rs 4,800 cr
Dinesh Dalmia stock scam Rs 595 cr
Ketan Parekh securities scam Rs 1,250 cr

2002 -Sanjay Agarwal Home Trade scam Rs 600 cr

2003 -Telgi stamp paper scam Rs 172 cr

2005 -IPO-Demat scam Rs 146 cr
Bihar flood relief scam Rs 17 cr
Scorpene submarine scam Rs 18,978 cr
2006 -Punjab's City Centre project scam Rs 1,500 cr,
Taj Corridor scam Rs 175 cr

2008 -Pune billionaire Hassan Ali Khan tax default Rs 50,000 cr
The Satyam scam Rs 10,000 cr
Army ration pilferage scam Rs 5,000 cr
The 2-G spectrum swindle Rs 60,000 cr
State Bank of Saurashtra scam Rs 95 cr
Illegal monies in Swiss banks, as estimated in 2008 Rs 71,00,000 cr

2009: -The Jharkhand medical equipment scam Rs 130 cr
Rice export scam Rs 2,500 cr
Orissa mine scam Rs 7,000 cr
Madhu Koda mining scam Rs 4,000 cr"

SC refuses to quash PIL against Mayawati in Taj corridor scam
Orissa mine scam could be worth more than Rs 14k cr

CORRUPTION, MONEY LAUNDERING SCAM, Koda discharged from hospital, arrest imminent
'A Cover-Up Operation': 
"It's a scam involving close to Rs 60,000 crores"
Spectrum scam: How govt lost Rs 60,000 crore

 India's biggest scams 1, Ramalinga Raju, Rs. 50.4 billion
India's biggest scams 2, Harshad Mehta, Rs. 40 billion
India's biggest scams 3, Ketan Parekh, Rs. 10 billion
India's biggest scams 4, C R Bhansali, Rs. 12 billion
India's biggest scams 5, Cobbler scam
India's biggest scams 6, IPO Scam
India's biggest scams 7, Dinesh Dalmia, Rs. 5.95 billion
India's biggest scams 8, Abdul Karim Telgi, Rs. 1.71 billion
India's biggest scams 9, Virendra Rastogi, Rs. 430 million
India's biggest scams 10, The UTI Scam, Rs. 320 million
India's biggest scams 11, Uday Goyal, Rs. 2.1 billion
India's biggest scams 12, Sanjay Agarwal, Rs. 6 billion
India's biggest scams 13, Dinesh Singhania, Rs. 1.2 billion

1, Jeep Purchase (1948) :- Free India's corruption graph begins. V. K. Krishna Menon, then the Indian high commissioner to Britain, bypassed protocol to sign a deal worth Rs 80 lakh with a foreign firm for the purchase of army jeeps. The case was closed in 1955 and soon after Menon joined the Nehru cabinet.

2, Cycle Imports (1951) :- S.A. Venkataraman, then the secretary, ministry of commerce and industry, was jailed for accepting a bribe in lieu of granting a cycle import quota to a company.

3, BHU Funds (1956) :- In one of the first instances of corruption in educational institutions, Benaras Hindu University officials were accused of misappropriation of funds worth Rs 50 lakh.

4, MUNDHRA SCANDAL (1957):- It was the media that first hinted there might be a scam involving the sale of shares to LIC, Feroz Gandhi sources the confidential correspondence between the then Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari and his principal finance secretary, and raised a question in Parliament on the sale of 'fraudulent' shares to LIC by a Calcutta-based Marwari businessman named Haridas Mundhra. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, set up a one-man commission headed by Justice M.C.Chagla to investigate the matter when it becomes evident that there was a prima facie case. Chagla concluded that Mundhra had sold fictitious shares to LIC, thereby defrauding the insurance behemoth to the tune of Rs. 1.25 crore. Mundhra was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The scam also forced the resignation of T.T.Krishnamachari.

6, Teja Loans (1960):- Shipping magnate Jayant Dharma Teja took loans worth Rs 22 crore to establish the Jayanti Shipping Company. In 1960, the authorities discovered that he was actually siphoning off money to his own account, after which Teja fled the country.

7, Kairon Scam (1963):- Pratap Singh Kairon became the first Indian chief minister to be accused of abusing his power for his own benefit and that of his sons and relatives. He quit a year later.

8, Patnaik's Own Goal (1965) :- Orissa Chief Minister Biju Patnaik was forced to resign after it was discovered that he had favoured his privately-held company Kalinga Tubes in awarding a government contract.

9, Maruti Scandal (1974) :- Well before the company was set up, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's name came up in the first Maruti scandal, where her son Sanjay Gandhi was favoured with a license to make passenger cars.

10, Solanki Exposé (1992) :- At the World Economic Forum, Madhavsinh Solanki, then the external affairs minister, slipped a letter to his Swiss counterpart asking their government to stop the probe into the Bofors kickbacks. Solanki resigned when India Today broke the story.

11, Kuo Oil Deal (1976):- The Indian Oil Corporation signed an Rs 2.2-crore oil contract with a non-existent firm in Hong Kong and a kickback was given. The petroleum and chemicals minister was directed to make the purchase.

12, Antulay Trust (1981) :- With the exposure of this scandal concerning A.R. Antulay, then the chief minister of Maharashtra, The Indian Express was reborn. Antulay had garnered Rs 30 crore from businesses dependent on state resources like cement and kept the money in a private trust.

13, HDW Commissions (1987) :- HDW, the German submarine maker, was blacklisted after allegations that commissions worth Rs 20 crore had been paid. In 2005, the case was finally closed, in HDW's favour.

14, Bofors Pay-Off (1987) :- A Swedish firm was accused of paying Rs 64 crore to Indian bigwigs, including Rajiv Gandhi, then the prime minister, to secure the purchase of the Bofors gun.

15, St Kitts Forgery (1989) :- An attempt was made to sully V.P. Singh's Mr Clean image by forging documents to allege that he was a beneficiary of his son Ajeya Singh's account in the First Trust Corp. at St Kitts, with a deposit of $21 million.

16, Airbus Scandal (1990) :- Indian Airlines's (IA) signing of the Rs 2,000-crore deal with Airbus instead of Boeing caused a furore following the crash of an A-320. New planes were grounded, causing IA a weekly loss of Rs 2.5 crore.

17, Securities Scam (1992) :- Harshad Mehta manipulated banks to siphon off money and invested the funds in the stock market, leading to a crash. The loss: Rs 5,000 crore.

18, Indian Bank Rip-off (1992) :- Aided by M. Gopalakrishnan, then the chairman of the Indian Bank, borrowers-mostly small corporates and exporters from the south-were lent a total of over Rs 1,300 crore, which they never paid back.

19, Sugar Import (1994) :- As food minister, Kalpnath Rai presided over the import of sugar at a price higher than that of the market, causing a loss of Rs 650 crore to the exchequer. He resigned following the allegations.

20, MS SHOES SCAM (1994) :- Anyone who war old enough in 1994 to read will remember the advertisements- tens of them intriguingly headlined: 'Who is Pawan Sachdeva?' For the record, it was the peak of the public issued-led advertising boom and the ads were created by the Delhi branch of Rediffusion. Sachdeva, the promoter of MS Shoes, allegedly used company funds to buy shares (of his own company) and rig prices, prior to a public issue. He is alleged to have colluded with officials in the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and SBI Caps, which lead-managed the issue, to dupe the public into investing in his Rs. 699-crore public-***-rights issue. Sachdeva was later acquitted

21, JMM Bribes (1995) :- Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shailendra Mahato testified that he and three party members received bribes of Rs 30 lakh to bail out the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in the 1993 no-confidence motion.

22, In a Pickle (1996) :- Pickle baron Lakhubhai Pathak raised a stink when he accused former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and godman Chandraswami of accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from him for securing a paper pulp contract.

23, Telecom Scam (1996) :- Former minister of state for communication Sukh Ram was accused of causing a loss of Rs 1.6 crore to the exchequer by favouring a Hyderabad- based private firm in the purchase of telecom equipment. He, along with two others, was convicted in 2002.

24, Fodder Scam (1996) :- The accountant general's concerns about the withdrawal of excess funds by Bihar's animal husbandry department unveiled a Rs 950-crore scam involving Lalu Prasad Yadav, then the state chief minister. He resigned a year later.

25, Urea Deal (1996) :- C.S. Ramakrishnan, MD, National Fertiliser, and a group of businessmen close to the P.V. Narasimha Rao regime fleeced the government and took Rs 133 crore from the import of two lakh tonne of urea, which was never delivered.

26, Hawala Diaries (1996) :- The scandal surfaced following CBI raids on hawala operators in Delhi in 1991. But it was S.K. Jain's diaries that had heads rolling.

27, CRB SCAM (1997) :- Another scam forged by greed and discovered through accident. Chain Roop Bhansali, a smart-talking entrepreneur, created a pyramid financial empire based on high-cost financing. At its peak, his Rs. 1,000-crore financial conglomerate had in its ranks a mutual fund, a financial services company into fixed deposits, and a merchant bank. That Bhansali knew how to work the system became evident when he also managed to secure a provisional banking license. Then his luck ran out. An executive in the State Bank of India Inadvertently discovered that some interest warrants issued by Bhansali were not backed by cash. The bubble finally burst in May 1997, but by that time investors had lost over Rs. 1,000 crore. This was among the first retail scams in India and it was played out, in smaller avatars, across the country-especially in the South where financial services companies promised returns in excess of 20 per cent and decamped with the principal. Bhansali was arrested for a few weeks and released later on bail.

28, MEHTA'S SECOND COMING (1998) :- The Big Bull returned to the bourses. This time, he allegedly colluded with the promoters of BPL, Videocon International, and Sterile Industries to rig the share prices of these companies. The inevitable collapse happened sooner than planned, Harshad Mehta orchestrated a cover-up operation that included a high=jinks effort by officials of Bombay Stock Exchange to (illegally ) open the trading system in the middle of the night to set things right, but the damage had been done. SEBI finally passed its ruling on the scam in 2001, banning the three companies concerned from tapping the market-BPL, for two years. Mehta was debarred for life form dealing in Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in October 2001

29, VANISHING COMPANIES SCAM (1998) :- A passing remark heard by then Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram resulted in a furore over what was badly-kept secret on Dalal street. Chidambaram was told that hundreds of companies had disappeared after raising moneys form the public. An informal scrutiny revealed that perhaps over 600 companies were missing. Chidambaram ordered a probe by SEBI. The SEBI probe conducted in May 1998 revealed that while many companies are not traded on the bourses at least 80 companies that had rises Rs.330.78 crore were simply missing. Later that year, the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) was asked to probe and penalize these companies. DCA still investigating. Investigations continue to this day.

30, PLANTATION COMPANIES SCAM (1999) :- It was as innovative a swindle as any effected in the world. Savvy entrepreneurs convinced gullible investors that given the right irrigation and fertilizer inputs, teak, strawberries, and anything else that could be grown, would grow anywhere in the country. The promoters could afford to collect money from investors and not worry about retribution (or returns, for that matter). For, plantation companies fell under the purview of neither SEBI nor Reserve Bank of India. Indeed, they didn't even come under the scope of the Department decided to change things in 1999, enough investors had been gulled: 653 companies, between them, had raised Rs. 2,563 crore from investors. To date, not many investors have got their principals back, just another affirmation of the old saying about money not growing on trees.

31, Match Fixing (2000) :- Mohammed Azharuddin, till then India's cricket captain, was accused of match-fixing. He and Ajay Sharma were banned from playing, while Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar were suspended for five years.

32, KETAN PAREKH SCAM (2001) :- Ketan Parekh's modus operandi wasn't very different from Harshad Mehta's. If Mehta used banker's receipts, then Parekh used pay orders to ramp up the prices of his favourite scrips (the K-10). Apart from money form the banking system Parekh also rerouted money from corporated like HFCL (Rs. 425 crore), and Zee (Rs. 340 crore) to good effect. He was caught when pay-orders issued by Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank bounced. Although the total amount involved in the scam was just Rs. 137 crore, the impact was far greater.

Apparently, when a bear cartel sensed Parekh was in trouble, it stepped in and leveraged a dip in the NASDAQ to bear down stock prices. The resultant slump in the markets happened soon after Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented what he considered his best budget ever. Under pressure from the government, SEBI investigated the scam and heads began to roll. Among them: the entire management team of BSE, including its president Anand Rathi, CSFB, First Global, and, in an indirect connection, P.S.Subramanyam, the Chairman of UTL Evidently, for the 18 months that PSS was Chairman of UTI, the Trust had mirrored the actions of the bull cartel. The result? When the market tanked, so did the NAV of its holy cow, the US-64.

33, Tehelka Sting (2001) :- Tehelka, an online news portal, used spycams to catch army officers and politicians accepting bribes, in their sting operation called Operation Westend. Investigative journalism turned another corner in the country.

34, Stockmarket Scam (2001) :- The mayhem that wiped off over Rs 1,15,000 crore in the markets in March 2001 was masterminded by the Pentafour bull Ketan Parekh. He was arrested in December 2002 and banned from acccessing the capital market for 14 years.

35, Home Trade Scam (2002) :- Under the pretext of gilt trading, Rs 600 crore was swindled from over 25 cooperative banks in Maharashtra and Gujarat by a Navi Mumbai-based brokerage firm Home Trade. Sanjay Agarwal, CEO of the firm, was arrested in May 2002.

36, Stamp Paper Scam (2003) :- The sheer magnitude of the racket was shocking-it caused a loss of Rs 30,000 crore to the exchequer. Disclosures of the mastermind behind it, Abdul Karim Telgi, implicated top police officers and bureaucrats.

37, Oil-for-Food Scandal (2005) :- K. Natwar Singh was unceremoniously dropped from the Cabinet when his name surfaced in the Volcker Report on the Iraq oil-for-food scam.

What India Could Do With Rs 73 Lakh Crore?

Build: 2.4 crore primary healthcare centres. Thats at least 3 for every village, at a cost of Rs 30 lakh each.

Build: 24.1 lakh Kendriya Vidyalayas at a cost of Rs 3.02 crore each, with two sections from Class VI to XII.

Construct: 14.6 crore low-cost houses assuming a cost of Rs 5 lakh a unit.
Set up: 2,703 coal-based power plants of 600 MW each. Each costs Rs 2,700 crore.

Supply: 12 lakh CFL bulbs. Thats enough light for each of Indias 6 lakh villages

Construct: 14.6 lakh km of two-lane highways. Thats a road around Indias perimeter 97 times over.

Clean up: 50 major rivers for the next 121 years, at Rs 1,200 crore a river every year.

Launch: 90 NREGA-style schemes, each worth roughly Rs 81,111 crore.
Announce: 121 more loan waiver schemes. All of them worth Rs 60,000 crore.

Give: Rs 56,000 to every Indian. Even better, give Rs 1.82 lakh to 40 crore Indians living BPL.

Hand out: 60.8 crore Tata Nanos to 60.8 crore people. Or four times as many laptops.

Grow the GDP: The scam money is 27% more than our GDP of Rs 53 lakh crore."

Greed, graft, politics, bribery, dirty money. Just another day in the life of a nation still rated among the most corrupt in the world. Scan the scams that have grabbed headlines, destroyed reputations and left many people poorer.

Does the Indian citizen have an answer?

OPEN YOUR EYES INDIAN......
 

=========================================

108 - significance of Number

As per Indian mythology, Indian culture has a very special significance of number 108. What is this number represent, and why is it so important?

1) In one minute, we breathe in approximately 15 times, in 1 hour 900 times, and in 12 hours 10800 times, and in a day 10800 * 2 times.
A day consists of 24 hours, and if we set aside half the day for our day to day routines, then one can spend 12 hours for recitation of one's idol. Therefore, themaximmum number of times that one can recite "mantra", or perform "Jap" are 10800.
If one wants to obtain 100% benefit of its jap, then performing jap 108 times will give you the benefit of 100%. That's why in a "Mala", there are 108 beads. It is written in Vedas, that 1 Jap corresponds to 1 mala (which has 108 beads), therefore performing jap of 108 malas will result in 100% benefit.

2) Astronomically, there are 27 constillations in our galaxy, and each one them has 4 directions, and 27 * 4 = 108, In other words the number 108 covers the whole galaxy.

3) According to Indian scriptures, letter 9 corresponds to Lord Brahma (the creator of universe). Mathematically, the interesting property of 9 is
9x1 = 9
9 x 2 = 18 (8+1 = 9)
9 * 3 = 27 (7+2 = 9)
9 * 12 = 108 (1+0+8 = 9)

4) In Hindu religion, number 9 is very important. Keeping the importance of number 9, Rishi Vyas has created 9 Purans, 108 MahaPuran (Upnishads). Mahabharat has 18 chapters, Geeta has 18 chapters, Bhagavat has 108000 Shloks (verses).

The addition of digits of number 108 is 9, and number 9 is related with Brahma, that's why 108 is very important, and came into lot of Indian scriptures.

5) Indian Vedas, treats the Sun as God, and Sun has 12 signs (Zodiac signs).

In Yajurved, Sun is related with Lord Brahma (the number 9), remember - 12 * 9 = 108; therefore for Gods Prayer, the number 108 is very sacred.

6) According to Indian mythology, there are 4 Yugs
Satyug - consists of 172,800 years (1+7+2+8 = 18 == (1+8 = 9)
TretaYug consists of 1296000 years (1+2+9+6 = 18 = (1+8 = 9)
DwaparYug consists of 864000 years (8+4+6) = 18 = (1+8 = 9)
Kaliyug consists of 432000 years (4+3+2) = 9

Harshad number: 108 is a Harshad number, which is an integer divisible by the sum of its digits (Harshad is from Sanskrit, and means "great joy")

Desires: There are said to be 108 earthly desires in mortals.

Lies: There are said to be 108 lies that humans tell.

Delusions: There are said to be 108 human delusions or forms of ignorance.

Heart Chakra: The chakras are the intersections of energy lines, and there are said to be a total of 108 energy lines converging to form the heart chakra. One of them, sushumna leads to the crown chakra, and is said to be the path to Self-realization.

Sanskrit alphabet: There are 54 letters in the Sanskrit alphabet. Each has masculine and feminine, shiva and shakti. 54 times 2 is 108.

Pranayama: If one is able to be so calm in meditation as to have only 108 breaths in a day, enlightenment will come.

Upanishads: Some say there are 108 Upanishads, texts of the wisdom of the ancient sages.

Sri Yantra: On the Sri Yantra there are marmas where three lines intersect, and there are 54 such intersections. Each intersections has masculine and feminine, shiva and shakti qualities. 54 times 2 equals 108. Thus, there are 108 points that define the Sri Yantra as well as the human body. The angle formed by two adjacent lines in a pentagon equals 108 degrees.
Pentagon: The angle formed by two adjacent lines in a pentagon equals 108 degrees.

Marmas: Marmas or marmasthanas are like energy intersections called chakras, except have fewer energy lines converging to form them. There are said to be 108 marmas in the subtle body.

Time: Some say there are 108 feelings, with 36 related to the past, 36 related to the present, and 36 related to the future.

8 extra beads: In doing a practice of counting the number of repetitions of the mala, 100 are counted as completed. The remaining are said to cover errors or omissions. The 8 are also said to be an offering to God and Guru.

Chemistry: Interestingly, there are about 115 elements known on the periodic table of the elements. Most of those, around or higher than the number 100 only exist in the laboratory, and some for only thousandths of a second. The number that naturally exist on Earth is around 100.

Astrology: There are 12 constellations, and 9 arc segments called namshas or chandrakalas. 9 times 12 equals 108. Chandra is moon, and kalas are the divisions within a whole.

River Ganga : The sacred River Ganga spans a longitude of 12 degrees (79 to 91), and a latitude of 9 degrees (22 to 31). 12 times 9 equals 108.

Planets and Houses: In astrology, there are 12 houses and 9 planets. 12 times 9 equals 108.

Goddess names: There are said to be 108 Indian goddess names.

Gopis of Krishna: In the Krishna tradition, there were said to be 108 gopis or maid servants of Krishna .

1, 0, and 8: Some say that 1 stands for God or higher Truth, 0 stands for emptiness or completeness in spiritual practice, and 8 stands for infinity or eternity.

Sun and Earth: The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth. The distance from the Sun to the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun.

Moon and Earth: The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Moon.

Silver and the moon: In astrology, the metal silver is said to represent the moon. The atomic weight of silver is ?108.

Numerical scale: The 1 of 108, and the 8 of 108, when added together equals 9, which is the number of the numerical scale, i.e. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, etc., where 0 is not a number.

Meditations: Some say there are 108 styles of meditation.

Breath: Tantra estimates the average number of breaths per day at 21,600, of which 10,800 are solar energy, and 10,800 are lunar energy. Multiplying 108 by 100 is 10,800. Multiplying 2 x 10,800 equals 21,600.

Paths to God: Some suggest that there are 108 paths to God.

Smaller divisions: The number 108 is divided, such as in half, third, quarter, or twelfth, so that some malas have 54, 36, 27, or 9 beads.

Hinduism: 108 is said to refer to the number of Hindu deities. Some say that each of the deities has 108 names.

Islam: The number 108 is used in Islam to refer to God.

Jain: In the Jain religion, 108 are the combined virtues of five categories of holy ones, including 12, 8, 36, 25, and 27 virtues respectively.

Sikh: The Sikh tradition has a mala of 108 knots tied in a string of wool, rather than beads.

Buddhism: Some Buddhists carve 108 small Buddhas on a walnut for good luck. Some ring a bell 108 times to celebrate a new year. There are said to be 108 virtues to cultivate and 108 defilements to avoid.

Chinese: The Chinese Buddhists and Taoists use a 108 bead mala, which is called su-chu, and has three dividing beads, so the mala is divided into three parts of 36 each. Chinese astrology says that there are 108 sacred stars.

Stages of the soul: Said that Atman, the human soul or center goes through 108 stages on the journey.

Meru: This is a larger bead, not part of the 108. It is not tied in the sequence of the other beads. It is the quiding bead, the one that marks the beginning and end of the mala.

Dance: There are 108 forms of dance in the Indian traditions.

Praiseworthy souls: There are 108 qualities of praiseworthy soul

First man in space: The first manned space flight lasted 108 minutes, and was on April 12, 1961 by Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut

Time: Some say there are 108 feelings, with 36 related to the past, 36 related to the present, and 36 related to the future.

BHARAT RATNA on 26/11 Mumbai Attack

SALUTE TO BHARAT RATNE RATAN TATA

Ratan Tata is the chairman of Indian Hotels who own the Taj Mahal Hotel Mumbai, which was the target of the terrorists on 26/11/08.

See Ratan Tata @ WikiPedia

See Ratan Tata @ Tata Website

What Ratan Tata did for the Mumbai victims....

A. The Tata Gesture

1. All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed.
2. Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed
3. The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the “Pav- Bha ji” vendor and the pan shop owners.
4. During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent by money order.
5. A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help.
6. The thoughts and anxieties going on people’s mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided.
7. Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility.
8. Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person’s responsibility to act as a “single window” clearance for any help that the person required.
9. Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner – either through injury or getting killed – were affected.
10. The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks.
11. Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what they wanted him to do.
12. In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.
13. What is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months.
14. A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her.
15. New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts.
16. Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror.
17. This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the 3 days that were most horrible.
18. The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85 lacs [One lakh rupees tranlates to approx 2200 US $ ] in addition to the following benefits:

• Full last salary for life for the family and dependents.
• Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents – anywhere in the world.
• Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life.
• All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount.
• Counselor for life for each person

B. Epilogue

1. How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the way they did?
2. The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behaviour. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs
3. It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way Tata culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organization has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority
4. The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.
5. He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.
6. When the HR function hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to Ratan – he said – do you think we are doing enough?
7. The whole approach was that the organisation would spend several hundred crore in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the employees who gave their life?

This is NOT COVERED BY Any NEWS CHANNELS

=====Bottom Line=====

On Yesterday(28th May 2010) News : Tata Motors net profit more than doubles to Rs. 2,240 crore.

What a wonderful example of a law of "KARMA".

Vivekananda Kendra Prarthana : विवेकानन्द केन्द्र प्रार्थना

प्रार्थना

जय जय परमात्मन् संस्मरामो वयं त्वां
निजपरमहितार्थ कर्मयोगैकनिष्ठा: ।
इह जगति सदा नस्त्यागसेवाऽऽत्मबोधै:
भवतु विहतविघ्ना ध्येयमार्गानुयात्रा ॥१॥

वयं सुपुत्रा अमृतस्य नूनं
तवैव कार्यार्थमिहोपजाता: ।
निष्कामबुद्धयाऽऽर्तविपन्नसेवा
विभो! तवाराधनस्मदीयम् ॥२॥

प्रभो! देहि देहे बलं धैर्यमन्त:
सदाचारमादर्शभूतं विचारम् ।
यदस्माभिरङ्गिकृतं पुण्यकार्यं
तवैवाशिषा पूर्णतां तत्प्रयातु ॥३॥

जीवने यावदादानं स्यात् प्रदानं ततोऽधिकम् ।
इत्येषा प्रार्थनाऽस्माकं भगवन परिपूर्यताम ॥४॥
ॐ शान्ति: शान्ति: शान्ति: ॥

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Chanting of Prarthana by Shri Pravin Dabholkar, Joint General Secretary of Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari

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Explanation of Prarthana by Shri Pravin Dabholkar, Joint General Secretary of Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari

Profound Answer !!!

आचार्य देवो भव !!!

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.

One man, Mr. Raj, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Mrs. BeenaJi. Be honest. What do you make?"

Mrs. Beena, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make? (She paused for a second, and then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner. I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents CAN'T make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental. You want to know what I make? (She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)
I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions. I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding ISN'T EVERYTHING. I make them read, understand, think and do their own way. I make them show all their work in maths. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.

I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about other language like English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life (Mrs. Beena paused one last time and then continued.) Then, when people try to judge guru(teacher) what we make, with us knowing money isn't everything, we can hold our head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant.

You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

What do you make Mr. CEO? His jaw dropped, he went silent.

THIS IS WORTH SENDING TO EVERY TEACHER, EVERY CEO, AND EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW.

आचार्य देवो भव !!!

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गुरु भ्रम्हा गुरु विष्णु गुरु देवो महेश्वर: |
गुरु शक्शात परा भ्रमह तस्मेय श्री गुरु देव नम: ||

Sanatan Dharm Legacy : convert obstacle into opportunity

Sanatan Dharm Legacy is to convert every obstacle into opportunity.

I have so many thing in mind, but as my train is just in early morning and 5hrs remaining, I shall write more later.

Story of Vivekananda Rock

The Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari was inaugurated in 1970. The construction of this memorial started in January 1964 and was completed in 1970. Whenever we think of Benaras Hindu University, the only name that comes to our mind is that of its chief Viswakarma Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. Likewise, whenever we think of Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari, we think of only one remarkable individual who was the main propelling force behind the conception and speedy execution of this sacred monument. I am referring to Shri Eknath Ranade (1914 - 1982) who was a Swayamsevak of the RSS and who had served in various capacities in the RSS right from 1926 till he was assigned by Shri Guruji Golwalkar, the Sarsangchalak of the RSS, to look after the gigantic task of construction of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari in 1962. The story relating to the birth and growth of this great national project reads like an epic story. Eknath Ranade was indeed a Mahapurusha cast in a very grand mould.

In 1962, Shri Dattaji Didolkar was the RSS Prant Pracharak of Tamil Nadu. In the course of his state-wide tour, the Swayamsevaks of Kanyakumari broached the matter to him in these words: "Preparations are going on throughout the country to celebrate the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda who was born in 1863. It was in Kanyakumari that Swamiji remained in meditation for three days on a mid-sea rock and discovered the mission of his life; what is to be done further. The rock on which he meditated is known as the Vivekananda Rock. Therefore, we should install some worthy memorial on that rock to mark the great occasion".

In January 1962, some leading citizens of Kanyakumari got together and thought of putting up a memorial on the rock off the shore of Kanyakumari where Swami Vivekananda sat and meditated about India's past, present and future for three days on 25, 26, and 27 December 1892. Thus was born the Kanyakumari Vivekananda Birth Centenary Committee and the declared objective of this Committee was to put up a memorial on the rock and a pedestrian bridge from the shore leading to the rock. Almost simultaneously, the Ramakrishna Mission in Madras also announced its plan of a similar project at Kanyakumari.

What is the historical and spiritual significance of the rock on which the Vivekananda memorial has been put up? As an itinerant monk traveling all over India, Swami Vivekananda reached Kanyakumari in December 1892. He had traversed the vast land of India upon the soles of his feet. He had suffered from hunger, from thirst, form murderous nature and insulting man. When he arrived at Kanyakumari, he was exhausted. Having no money to pay for a boat to take him to the end of his pilgrimage, he flung himself into the sea, and swam across the shark-infested strait and reached the top of a mid-sea rock on 25 December, Christmas day, in 1892. He spent three days there, returning to the shore only on 28th December 1892. At last his task was at an end, and then, looking back as from a mountain he embraced the whole of the India he had just traversed, and the world of thought that had beset him during his wanderings. For more than two years earlier he had lived in a seething cauldron, consumed with a fever ; he had carried a soul on fire, he was a storm and hurricane.

Now on this mid-sea rock, There he meditated not on God but on Mother India who for Swami Vivekananda was Divine Durga incarnate. What a strange meditation ! It was as if all the pages of India's history opened up before him. The vast panorama of his experiences during his travels past before his mind's eye. He meditated on the past, the present and the future of India, the cause of her downfall and the means of her resurrection.

He felt in his heart of hearts that India would rise only through a renewal and restoration of that highest spiritual consciousness which had made her, throughout her history, the cradle of religions and cultures. He then, sitting at the last bit of rock in the Indian ocean, took the momentous decision to go to the West to give shape to his life's mission of spreading India's religion and culture throughout the whole world and also to seek help for the poor millions of India.

To come back to the main story relating to the Vivekananda Memorial. When the proposal for a memorial for Swami Vivekananda became known to all in Kanyakumari in the latter half of 1962, suddenly the whole atmosphere in Kanyakumari got surcharged with conflicting emotions between the Hindus and the Christians in the area. The very idea of a memorial to Swami Vivekananda was not taken to kindly by a sizable population of the local Catholic fishermen. Stealthily they managed to put up a big Cross on the Rock which was visible from the shore. This led to strong protests by the Hindu population who said the Rock was a place of worship for Hindus. A judicial probe was ordered by the then Madras (now Tamilnadu) Government and the finding of this Commission was stated in unequivocal terms that the rock was indeed known as Vivekananda Rock, and that the Cross put up by the Catholic fishermen was a clear case of trespass. Amid all this controversy and acrimony, the Cross was one day removed secretly in the night. The law and order situation turned volatile and consequently the Rock was declared a prohibited area with armed guards patrolling it.

The Government of Madras realized that the Rock was turning into an area of dispute with Hindus claiming it to be the Vivekananda Rock and Christians claiming it as St Xavier's Rock. The Government made it clear that although the rock was Vivekananda Rock, there would be no memorial constructed on it. The then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Shri M. Bhaktavatsalam, said that only a tablet declaring that the rock was associated with Swami Vivekananda could be put up, and nothing else.

Accordingly, with government permission, a tablet was installed on the Rock on 17 January 1963 to mark the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda. But the voices clamoring for a full-fledged Memorial on the Rock did not die. In May1963, some Christian elements who were seeking vengeance for the earlier removal of the Cross from the rock, demolished the Vivekananda commemorative tablet and threw it into the sea.

Kanyakumari Vivekananda Birth Centenary Committee, realizing its basic limitations as a mere District Committee, took the initiative to constitute an All India Vivekananda Birth Centenary Committee consisting of prominent persons in the country. This All India Committee felt the urgent need to have an effective and important person to deal with the project and one who could wield his influence in both the Central and State governments. It was at this point of time that Guruji Golwalkar, the Chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), requested Shri Eknath Ranade to devote his whole time attention to the proposed Vivekananda Memorial at Kanyakumari. This happened in January 1964. The first step he took on being asked to take charge of the Rock Memorial work, was to ascertain that this effort had the full support of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Next, he saw to it that he was made the Organizing Secretary of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee so that he could officially be in charge of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial mission in Kanyakumari. From that moment, this great and sacred project took off with electronic speed, thanks to the dynamic, unshakeable, inspiring and bold leadership of Eknath Ranade.

Another vital management decision that Eknath Ranade took was to requisition the services of a remarkable Swayamsevak Shri Venkataraman in November 1964. Venkatraman had been earlier a Sanghpracharak in Madurai from 1955-57. His name was recommended by Shri.Ramgopalji who today heads the Hindu Munnani in tamil Nadu. If Eknath Ranadeji can be viewed as Kodandarama, Shri.Venkatramanji can be viewed as his Hanuman in every sense of the word.

The first obstacle that Eknath Ranade had to cross was from Shri Bhaktavatsalam who was then Chief Minister of Madras State. He took a stand that he would not allow the memorial to come up on the mid-sea rock on the flimsy ground that it would pose a hazard to the environment by spoiling the natural beauty of the Rock. He was also concerned about hurting the religious sentiments of the Catholic fishermen in the area. Bhaktavatsalam's view was also endorsed by Shri Humayun Kabir, the then Union Minister for Cultural Affairs, who too had to give his clearance for this project.

To that end, on Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri's advice, Shri Eknath Ranade camped in Delhi. In three days, he collected the signatures of 323 Members of Parliament in a show of all-round support for the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, which was presented to the Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who in turn directed both Humayun Kabir and Shri.Bhaktavatsalam to give their immediate clearance for the construction of the Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari.

Shri Bhaktavatsalam had given permission only for a small 15" x 15" shrine. Knowing his reverence for the Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Shri Eknath Ranade approached the latter for suggesting the design of the Rock Memorial. Shri Bhaktavatsalam unhesitatingly agreed to the larger design (130"-1½? x 56") approved and suggested by the Paramacharya of Kanchi! Thus all political hurdles for the construction of the Memorial were removed in one stroke by the shrewd move of Shri. Eknath Ranade

After clearing up all the political obstacles on the path of his goal of speedy construction of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari, Eknath Ranade saw to it that construction activity at the site began in a methodical and organized manner. On 6 November, 1964, the first stone was cut. Eknath Ranade was a man of tremendous faith in his chosen mission, in God Almighty, in Guruji Golwalkar and Dr Hedgewar.

He often used to declare to those around him almost everyday : "All that I have seen teaches me to trust the CREATOR for all I have not seen". He also derived his Himalayan enthusiasm and energy for completing this gigantic task from his own working philosophy which he put in very beautiful words : "You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will never succeed and live in torment if you do not trust enough".

Swami Vivekananda's meditation as an unknown monk on the mid-sea Rock in December 1892 and the discovery of his life's mission at that spot were all established facts. Against this background, Eknath Ranade was very clear in his mind about his mission and the field of action that lay before him. As if in a flash, the image of Swami Vivekananda that formed itself in the mind of Eknath Ranade was that of the Swamiji who was ready to enter the field of action with gusto in 1892.

Eknath Ranade communicated this idea and image of Swami Vivekananda to some distinguished artists and sculptors. He also exhorted them to read The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda so as to have for themselves a clear picture of Swami Vivekananda in their minds. The famous sculptor D P Roy Choudhry who had sculpted the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the Marina beach He was a very famous sculptor. But he insisted that once he had made the sculpture, it should be accepted. But Eknath Ranade did not agree to that pre-condition. He said, "If the sculpture is satisfactory, it would be accepted. Otherwise, payment would be made just for the work done."

Accordingly, eight sculptures were got done, out of which two were finally selected. When they were placed on the pedestal on trial, the one with the Kamandlam in one hand was disproportionately taller than the other. That taller figure was installed later in Vivekanandapuram, and the other one with Swamiji"s eyes focused on the Sripadam, was installed on the Rock Memorial facing the Sripadam. This, in short, is the story behind the installation of the majestic statue of Swami Vivekananda in the Rock Memorial. The statue which was finally selected for installation was sculpted by Sonawadekar. The construction of the memorial was entrusted to Sthapathi S K Achari by Eknath Ranade on the considered advice of Shri Paramachariya of Kanchi.

Eknath Ranade threw himself into the forefront facing the multifarious challenges that came his way ? to establish scientifically that the Rock for the memorial was structurally sound and could support such a huge structure on it ; the logistics of quarrying and transporting large blocks of stone from great distances, and from the shore to the Rock ; the provision of water and power supplies ; meeting the growing demand for skilled persons, artisans, craftsmen, and labor ; building of jetty platforms on the rock and the shore (the pedestrian footbridge idea to the Rock was dropped) ; the need to ensure systematic de-silting around the jetty platform areas to enable bigger crafts to approach the shore, and so on ? these and several other unforeseen challenges were met by Eknath Ranade with a resolute determination.

The biggest and the most formidable and ever present challenge, however, was that of organizing the financial resources required for the whole operation. Shri Eknath Ranade"s belief in the success of the Rock Memorial mission was so strong, that he never slowed down the pace of work even when there was an acute paucity of funds from time to time during the course of construction of the memorial from 1964 to 1970. He often used to brush aside the pessimistic discouragement of others around him whose belief in his sacred mission was not as strong as his own and went ahead with his fund-raising campaign repeating to himself the words of a great poet : "Act, act in the living present, Heart within and God overhead". No wonder Eknath Ranade succeeded magnificently where others would have failed.

Eknath Ranade fervently believed that the Vivekananda Rock Memorial was a national monument of timeless significance and that every Indian should be invited to contribute to its construction. Shri Eknath Ranade launched the campaign of sale of one-rupee folders throughout the nation, which were used to mobilize the donations of the common man, starting from as tiny an amount as one rupee. By launching such a national campaign for collecting just an amount of Rupee one from every willing citizen, Eknath Ranade succeeded in raising an amount of Rupees one crore. Thus by his grand vision he ensured that so many common people visiting the Rock Memorial could have a legitimate pride that they too had contributed to that splendid national monument.

He also approached and succeeded in persuading almost every State government to make a decent contribution towards the construction of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. What is amazing is that he succeeded in making even the States of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh participate in the work of construction of the memorial . All the State Governments put together made only a paltry a contribution of Rs.35 lakhs. It was solely on account of the outstanding leadership qualities of Eknath Ranade that the Vivekananda Rock Memorial mission never got entangled in any unseemly political controversy or agitation at any stage during the course of construction of the Rock Memorial from 1964 to 1970. All the petty politicians finally surrendered to his unconquerable spirit.

Eknath Ranade has recorded in telling words about his experiences in dealing with the Chief Ministers and politicians of India : "Leaders of every political party, whether in power or in the opposition became willing partners of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari. The only Chief Minister who sent me back empty handed without contributing any amount to the Rock Memorial fund was the then Kerala Chief Minister Comrade E M S Namboodiripad. I can say this much about my abortive interview with him. It was like conversing with a sphinx. It was monologue all the way on my part. Only an empty stare from the other side!".

In this context the beautiful tribute paid to Eknath Ranade by Parameswaran, President, Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari is very relevant :It is instructive to know how Eknath Ranade made judicious use of various means at his command for the achievement of his end. Both speech and silence were equally effect instruments in his hands. To know when to speak and when to keep silent is a rare gift. Eknath Ranade possessed this abundantly. While he raised stormy controversies when necessary, he scrupulously abstained from them when they served no purpose. He utilized his contact with the Press for raising the right issues at the right time and also not to raise inconvenient issues that would only complicate the situation. Though he never dabbled in politics, he possessed a high political acumen of which any successful politician would feel envious.

In the beginning, the estimated cost of construction of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial was Rs 30 lakh. Then it increased to Rs 60 lakhs, then later to 75 lakh. Finally the total cost after completion worked out to Rs one crore and thirty five lakh. Just think what a great achievement it was to mobilize such a huge sum of money forty years ago and complete the work in six years!

The Vivekananda Rock Memorial was inaugurated on 2 September, 1970, and dedicated to the nation by V V Giri, the President of India. Kalaigner Karunanidhi presided over the dedication ceremony. There can be no doubt whatsoever that without the catalytic and stellar role of Shri Eknath Ranade, this grand national monument could never have been completed in such a record time. Emerson, the great American thinker of the 19th century said, "A great and timeless institution is the lengthened shadow of one man". If that be so, I have no doubt that the final verdict of history will be that the magnificent Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari is the lengthened shadow of Eknath Ranade.

I had the unique privilege of enjoying the friendship of Eknath Ranade for almost six years from 1976 to 1982. As a District Collector, I met him for the first time at the Collector"s bungalow in Thirunelveli in November 1976 when I was introduced to Eknath Ranade by S G Subramaniam, who was another great stalwart in the RSS. Later I got to know Eknath Ranade more intimately when I became the first Chairman of Tuticorin Port Trust in April 1979. We used to have lunch sessions from time to time at Tuticorin and I remember distinctly his talking with animated passion about the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. He was indeed a Mahapurusha who combined in himself the qualities of gentleness, strength, simplicity and faith. By his life and example he showed that making the simple complicated is common place ; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's indeed creativity. He demonstrated that simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought and that simplicity of character is no hindrance to subtlety of intellect. He showed that life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing. True eloquence consists of saying all that should be said, and that only. Eknath Ranade did just that.

Eknath Ranade was a man of tremendous vision and right from day one he had planned to achieve two inseparable objectives. The first major objective was to complete the work of installation of Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari. This work was started in 1964 and completed on September 2nd 1970 when the memorial was dedicated to the nation by V V Giri, the President of India. The second major objective of Eknath Ranade was to establish VIVEKANANDA KENDRA ? the Living Memorial alongside the stone-structure of the rock memorial. After going through a carefully planned process of groundwork for nearly nine years, Vivekananda Kendra was officially founded by Eknath Ranade on 7 January, 1972 which marked the 108th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda by the Hindu calendar. On that day, as the sun rose, a saffron flag with Om inscribed on it was unfurled in the serene atmosphere on the Vivekananda Rock Memorial so as to herald the founding of Vivekananda Kendra? a spiritually oriented service mission of non-monastic order.

This second phase of the Memorial for Swami Vivekananda was not just an afterthought which arose in Eknath Ranade's mind. The establishment of Vivekananda Kendra was conceived by him as early as in 1964. To quote the exact words of Eknath Ranade in this context: "As a whole timer of RSS from 1938 to 1962 , for about 24 years, I had a fund of experience. I had come across many people who were not full-timers as they were leading family life. But all the same, there was a great dedication in their lives. Sometimes it occurred to me, "This person is having a family ? is having children ? is in service ? is doing business. Still, with what a great dedication he is leading a householder's life? Suppose he was free of all domestic worries, what great amount of work he would have put in? We can have a particular order of workers in whose case marriage need not be barred and who can marry if they want. If we can provide for all their basic needs, we may get a fine class of workers out of such dedicated people we see all around". But what that work could be? I started discussing this proposal with Swami Ranganathananda, Secretary of the Institute of Culture. He welcomed the establishment of a LAY ORDER of life-time workers to work for the cause of Sanatana Dharma as expounded by Swami Vivekananda by his life and example. Likewise I had discussions with Dr.Radhakrishnan, the President of India, Shri Jayaprakash Narayan, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri and several other national leaders and all of them applauded and approved of the idea. The then President of the Ramakrishna Mission gave his concurrence to my proposal for the establishment of VIVEKANANDA KENDRA".

Great faith is not like an exact mathematical formula which can be agreed to if the weight of evidence favors it. Vigorous questioning can always propel a restoration and deepening of conviction. Paradoxically, it is the very questioning that causes the rubbing that polishes the pearl. This is what exactly happened with Eknath Ranade whose faith in his mission was invincible. He passionately shared Einstein"s affirmation that anyone who is not lost on the rapturous awe at the power and glory of the mind and the spirit behind the universe "is as good as burnt out candle".

During his last meeting with me in June 1982 when he was fighting against the machinations of some Christian clerics in Kanyakumari, he told me with calm determination: "It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own reason, and not of others, that should make you believe. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Faith has to be kept alive in us so that it gathers strength, more from practice than from speculations. Faith is not a series of gilt-edged propositions that you sit down to figure out, and if you follow all the logic and accept all the conclusions, then you have it. On the contrary, it is crumpling and throwing away everything, proposition by proposition, until nothing is left, and then writing a new proposition, your very own, to throw in the teeth of despair". As it was for his master Shri Guruji Golwalkar and in turn his master Dr Hedgewar, faith was the antiseptic of Eknath Ranade"s soul. Vivekananda Kendra was an outgrowth of such a kind of faith.

Thanks to the faith and vision of Eknath Ranade, the glorious tradition of penance established by Swami Vivekananda on the mid-sea rock in December 1982 has been continued by young men and women coming as Karyakartas of Vivekananda Kendra to spread the immortal message of Swami Vivekananda: "A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lion's courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising up, the gospel of equality". Everyday, at sunrise the saffron flag with Om is hoisted on the Rock Memorial and lowered at sunset.

The twin objectives of Vivekananda Kendra are man-making and nation-building. With great foresight, Shri Eknath Ranade decided that Vivekananda Kendra should be a cadre-based organization. Young men and women whose hearts long to serve the nation should be provided the opportunity and the right platform to serve God in man. As envisaged by him, carefully chosen lifetime workers called Jeevanvratis are properly trained and posted to different parts of the country. They work without any salary. However, their upkeep and wellbeing? Yogakshema ? are taken care of by Vivekananda Kendra. The mission statement of Vivekananda Kendra was given by Eknath Ranade in these words: "The remedy for the ills of our country, therefore, lies in launching a mighty movement of right thought sweeping the entire country. It has to be a two-pronged move. On the one hand, it is to be aimed (I) transforming our people's inherent God-wardness into right spiritual urge rising out of the teachings of the Upanishads , namely, (a) each soul is potentially divine and (b) faith in God, in turn means faith in one"s self, ie. In one's potentiality to rise to divine heights. On the other hand, it is (II) to convert the spiritual fervor thus released into works of national reconstruction".

During the last 34 years Vivekananda Kendra has grown from strength to strength covering different parts of India like Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madya Pradesh, Rajasthan, New Delhi, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Developmental and Welfare activities in the field of pre-education, primary education, secondary education, public health and various other aspects of rural development have been undertaken to initiate a new process of development in the remote and backward areas in order to open out to the poor people in those areas opportunities for a richer and fuller life.

There are two mid-sea rocks off the shore of Kanyakumari. One of the rocks is the Vivekananda Rock, on which a memorial has been constructed and nearly 12 lakh of people visit this memorial annually. There is another smaller rock, not very far from the Vivekananda rock, and many of the Christian missionaries laid their claim for constructing a small church or a statue of Jesus Christ on this rock in 1979. Eknath Ranade showed his clairvoyant vision by persuading Dr MGR, the then Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, agree to the installation of Thiruvalluvar statue on this rock. The foundation stone for the Thiruvalluvar statue was laid by Morarji Desai, the Prime Minister of India on 15 April, 1979. Eknath Ranade was a great statesman and he used the good offices of Prabhudas Patwari, the then Governor of Tamilnadu to make Dr MGR agree to this proposal. Like Mahakavi Bharathi, Eknath Ranade was a true nationalist and a true Tamilian rolled into one. Prabhudas Patwari was persuaded by the inspiring words of Eknath Ranade. "Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it". Eknath Ranade dared and succeeded.

After leading a glorious life of unexampled service and selflessness as a Karmayogi, Eknath Ranade passed into immortality at Madras on Vinayak Chaturthi day on 22 August, 1982. The main theme of Eknath Ranade"s life was to take the message of Sanatana Dharma to every home and pave the way for launching in a big way the man-making programmes preached and envisaged by great seers like Swami Vivekananda. By establishing the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari and by creating Vivekananda Kendra, Eknath Ranade has indeed made the following words of Swami Vivekananda come true in letter and spirit: "We want thousands of men and women, who will spread like wild fire from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari, from North Pole to South Pole ? all over the world. Let those who have come for child's play be off now, while there is time, or they will surely come to grief. We want an organization. Off with Laziness ! Spread ! Run like fire to all place. Who will give the world light? Sacrifice in the past has been the Law, it will be, alas, for ages to come. The earth's bravest and best will have to sacrifice themselves for the good for man, for the welfare of all".
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Thanks from Shri V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.



Here is Video of Vivekananda Rock Memorial

Part 1 of 2


Part 2 of 2