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To
many thousands around the world, Sadhu T.L. Vaswani
is a name synonymous with reverence for all life.
Indeed,
he was the living embodiment of an unsullied love that
knew no bounds, an all-embracing love that included
all mankind, animals and all creation. He cared deeply
about the birds of the air and the animals of the earth;
and he protected them whenever and however he could.
Born
on November 25, 1879, in Hyderabad
Sind, Sadhu Vaswani's life was touched with a spark
of divinity from a very early age. After a brilliant
academic career culminating in the M.A.degree, his natural
inclination lay in following the life of a fakir. But
this was not consistent with the wishes of his mother.
So he submitted to her will and pursued a teaching career,
becoming a professor and principal of prestigious colleges
in the country.
At
the age of 30, he went to Berlin as one of lndia's representatives
to the Welt Congress, the World Congress of Religions.
His speech there and his subsequent lectures in different
parts of Europe aroused deep interest in Indian thought
and linked many with him.
Sadhu
Vaswani belonged to a time when patriotism
manifested itself as a struggle for freedom from the
colonial yoke. He was a freedom fighter and worked as
a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi in the Satyagraha
Movement. A patriot of the purest ray serene, he wrote
many books which inspired specially the youth of the
country to offer themselves in dedicated service of
the Motherland. They include Builders of Tomorrow, My
Motherland, India Arisen, Youth and the Coming Renaissance,
Youth and the Nation and Awake, Young Indial! Through
his inspired words he enkindled the flame of patriotism
in the hearts of the young. He looked at the freedom
movement as something more than the ousting of the colonial
ruler. To him it included the spiritual upliftment of
India to free the masses from the shackles of poverty
and to restore a sense of human dignity to every man.
Later,
however, Sadhu Vaswani withdrew from
the field of active politics and turned his attention
to education, and other spheres, emphasizing that character
building is nation building. With this in view, he started
the "Mira Movement in Education" which has, today, its
headquarters at Pune and aims at enriching students
with vital truths of modern life and at the same time
making them lovers of the Indian ldeaI and Indian Culture.
The emphasis in this type of educational institutions
is that education is a thing of the Spirit and that
the end of all knowledge is service-service of the poor
and lowly, the sad and afflicted ones.
Sadhu
Vaswani's life was, in the words of Dr. Rajendra Prasad,
the then President of India, "a saga of unassuming service,
spiritual illumination and a source of inspiration to
us all". He worked on, day after day, wanting nothing
for himself, seeking only opportunities to be of service
to the poor, the lonely and the lost. In his efforts
to bring solace to the poor, Sadhu Vaswani knew that
they are as much starved of love as they are of bread.
And so it is that he gave them an abundance of his love,
filling thereby, a bigger void. "Not
in decorated temples but in broken cottages is the Great
God- wiping the tears of the poor and singing His new
Gita for the New Age!" he said.
Seeing
the beauty of the One in the many, Sadhu Vaswani felt
drawn towards all religions as he saw them as different
paths to the One God. "There are so many" he said, "who
can believe in only one thing at a time. I am so made
as to rejoice in the many and behold the beauty of the
One in the many. Hence my affinity to many religions.
In them all I see revelations of the One Spirit."
Implanted
deep in Sadhu Vaswani's heart was reverence for an life.
Every little thing he did was inspired by the Vision
Cosmic. His heart bled at the cruelties inflicted upon
animals day after day, for food. "Take my head," he
pleaded," but pray stop all slaughter!t' This deep awareness
of the need for reverence for all life, in whichever
form it is manifest, formed a very essential part of
Sadhu Vaswani's teachings and has been propagated by
the International Meatless Day Campaign.
Sadhu
Vaswarni dropped his mortal frame on Jan.16,
1966, at the age of 86. His
passing on was mourned by many. The poor, whom he tended
with so much love, miss him the most. They still come
to pay homage at his sacred Samadhi, at the Mission
Campus in Pune. To most of his devotees, Sadhu Vaswani
still lives on in every nook and corner of the Mission
and in the work carried on by Dada J.P Vaswani to whom
he bequeathed his Torch.
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