Ashram Service

(i) Houses for the Poor

O PAPA, the lover of the humble! Many poor people who were wanting clothes to cover their bodies, food to satisfy their hunger and houses to live in, were coming to the Ashram, to apprise us of their state of abject poverty. Moreover, pregnant women, their husbands having abandoned them, finding no shelter anywhere, would come to the Ashram and tell us about their helpless and pitiable condition. How far could we help them in their distress? So many times they would come to us seeking help. Considering this we engaged some of them in Ashram service.

O compassionate Papa! Beholding the distressed condition of the people who sought aid from the Ashram, I felt great pain at heart. In the circumstances, I would speak with conviction that the redress of their sorrows was possible, firstly, only through Mahatmas, and secondly, through the Government. Therefore, I believed that the Mahatmas, instead of establishing and expanding their Ashrams, should build houses for the poor, suffering people who had no houses or land of their own, and also enable them to independently earn their livelihood. So also the rich, giving up their selfishness, should freely contribute towards the welfare of the needy and distressed people.

O all-pervading Papa! When you went on the third tour, that is, in 1938, from the money you were sending to the Ashram, I constructed five houses for you who came in the form of the poor and needy people.

O infinite Papa! These words I spoke to you with an agitated mind, “In the world there is immense wealth, but some have more and some have less of it. If the Mahatmas and wealthy people see to it that all get it equally, the coming generation will follow suit. Even though all cannot be equally rich, at least every one will have enough to live happily.”

To this you said, “Whatever Ashram lands are in Ramdas’ name, he is ready to part with them to those who are in need of them.”

Then I put forward the plea, “What is the good of giving them merely land; we must arrange also to provide them with houses to live in, and render financial aid for the first year’s cultivation of the land so that they can thereby eke out an independent living.” To this as well you gave your consent.

O Papa, the giver of bliss! In course of time we ourselves acquired fields and started cultivating them. The paid workers and the Ashramites together did the work of sowing, transplanting seedlings, harvesting and all other kinds of work. Since these activities were dear to you, you were coming to see us when we were at work. We did the cultivation only to know whether the workers would be able to make a living by cultivating the land given to them.

O love-incarnate Papa! After some years you built more houses for some Ashram workers and gave them parts of the field which the Ashram was cultivating. Even though we did not have sufficient funds to build all the houses for them we did so by running into debts. We have so far constructed over fifty houses for the poor workers and more houses are under construction.

O Papa, the lover of the humble! From the start of the Ashram you had a great desire to impart education to the children living in the vicinity. If they had no education, they would have to slave under others for their livelihood. Because a life of complete dependence upon others always involved immense hardship and misery, you were bent upon giving education to the children. As it was my nature to obstruct you in all your undertakings, I objected to the carrying out of your ideal.

To embark on the project we had to construct a school building and also provide food and clothing for the hungry and naked among the children. I felt at the time, that as the Ashram expenses had increased enormously and we were already in debt, how we could undertake this huge venture and assume all the responsibilities relating to the management of a school. Even if we imparted elementary education to the children, how would it be possible for them to go in for higher education? Further, how would they be able to secure proper employment thereafter? We would have to see that they got suitable jobs. For this we would have to open another school for training them in handicrafts and cottage industries. Besides, there would be a need to build a boarding home for providing them with meals. Why all this trouble? But as you were enthusiastic about running a school, instead of coming in the way of every undertaking of yours, I agreed.

Immediately you made your devotees aware of this scheme and many among them with all joy and love offered you the necessary funds. All of us in the Ashram with great zeal joined in the construction of the school building.

(ii) Three R’s & Handicrafts

O Papa, the love-incarnate! Although we had no idea of erecting a big building for the school, the plan made for it being an ambitious one, we had to carry it out. You admitted, “It is the will of Ram that we should have a huge building for the school.” So the school building became an imposing one. Moreover, a suitable boarding house had also to be constructed. The opening ceremonies of these two buildings took place on your birthday in 1942. The school was named “Sri Krishna Vidyalaya”.

O compassionate Papa! With the object of the spiritual uplift of the children, you made a rule of holding daily prayers at the opening of the school in the morning and at the closing of it in the evening. Also you set the rule for the children to attend the Ashram Bhajan every Monday morning and to hold Bhajan in the school every Thursday afternoon. In order to infuse enthusiasm in the children you were yourself attending the afternoon Bhajan. Besides, you arranged to distribute prasad at the end of the Bhajan. You in the forms of the teachers were also reading the Bhagavad Gita to the children and explaining its meaning to them. Further, you were giving prizes to those of the boys who had learnt one chapter of the Gita by heart.

O Papa, the ocean of compassion! You were also providing the pupils with the necessary books and slates free. In the forms of the teachers you were training them in spinning yarn on Charkas.

O Papa, the bestower of bliss! You were celebrating the anniversary of the school every year in order to afford joy to the pupils. During the celebration there were items of drama, sports and presentation of prizes to the children.

O Papa, the ocean of kindness! From the donations paid by a devotee you were presenting to the children annually five sets of dresses. The spare sets of dresses were kept in the boarding-house. A mother was engaged as warden to look after the children. The routine was that when the children came in the morning, before attending school, they had first to take a bath, put on washed dress and take Kanjee. At the midday interval they were again given a meal. On the closing of the school in the evening they would go to their respective homes. Workers were engaged for washing their clothes and cooking food for them. Whenever there was a celebration in the Ashram they took meals along with others in the Ashram, and prior to their dispersal they would exhibit their skills in music and games.

O compassionate Papa! When you were about to start the school, two teachers who were already trained in teaching, requested you to appoint them in the Ashram school as they were not able to get jobs elsewhere. In consideration of these unemployed teachers, you became more than ever zealous to complete the school structure as early as possible. Besides these two teachers, you engaged also others for the school work. For some years the work of the school went on very well owing to the sincere services of yourself in the forms of these teachers. But after some years all the teachers joined together and started to run the school as they liked. Consulting you only in a formal way the teachers, together with the headmaster, acted according to their own will and pleasure. In the end we discovered that they were apparently united but had conceived envy and ill-will with regard to each other. Of these, the unemployed teachers whom you appointed first, who were of course your own forms, started criticising us to our face.

O Papa, the bliss giver! Day by day the school was progressing very well. Now the teachers of the school, who were your forms, were contributing with all their hearts their capabilities towards the all round uplift of the school. They taught the children with all affection and helped them in all possible ways so that they might grow up into intelligent people and earn their bread by independent means. All who came to the Ashram in those days, seeing the working of the school, were loud in their praise of it.

O Papa, the ocean of kindness! In order to run the school on proper lines we used to change the headmaster whenever necessary. At last a new headmaster came, who was no doubt trying his best to raise the school standard, but the one defect with him was that he was punishing the children heartlessly.

O gracious Papa! Despite our repeated advice and reprimand, the headmaster, who is your form, did not stop chastising the children with great severity. The other teachers also joined him and behaved in an unseemly manner, making us understand that they were working in the school only to favour us. When you found fault with them in the matter of corporal punishment meted out to the children, they showed you an educational rule that you had no right to interfere in the workings of the school. To prevent further confusion, the school and the boardinghouse had to be closed. So all the teachers had to go away. For about two years, the work of the school and boarding-house having stopped, they were subsequently handed over to the Harijan Welfare Department.

O universal Papa! Before two years had elapsed after the opening of the school, with a view to train the children who had passed the elementary school in some handicrafts, you opened a small department of handloom weaving. The shed in which this work was started was destroyed by fire, with the result that you planned to have a bigger building, for the construction of which a devotee offered the necessary funds.

O Papa, the love-incarnate! The institution was called the “Sri Krishna Udyog Shala”. Here several kinds of handicrafts were taught and the work was going on beautifully. The subjects that were taught were hand spinning, handloom weaving, dyeing yarn, hand printing, tailoring, horn work, leather work, etc. It was expected that the children who received instruction in any one of these handicrafts would be able to get employment and thereby earn their living. Some of these students are now having an independent living from the training they received here. We ourselves arranged for the sale of the institute’ products.

O gracious Papa! As we found that all sections of the Udyog Shala, except handloom weaving and tailoring, were working at a loss, we concentrated only on these two sections and closed the rest. Later we discovered that we could not run the institution and so handed it over as a free gift, with the building and all equipment included, to the Nileshwar Weavers’ Co-operative Production and Sale Society. This institution is now carrying on its work.

(iii) Post Office & Hospital

O all-pervading Papa! In Ramnagar the place where our Ashram stands we had no post office. For getting our daily mail we had to send an inmate of the Ashram to the sub-post office in Kanhangad at a distance of about three miles. As our letters and parcels for transmission increased, we found it difficult and inconvenient to send one of the workers of the Ashram daily to such a distance. Hence some devotee suggested that we should apply to the Postal Department for opening a post office in Ramnagar itself. In response, the Government opened a branch post office in one of the rooms of the Sri Krishna Vidyalaya and it went by the name: “Anandashram Branch Post Office”.

O compassionate Papa! When we first opened Anandashram in Ramnagar, there was no dispensary or hospital for medical aid. Whenever any person was taken ill the patient would come to the Ashram and we used to treat him with homoeopathic or first aid remedies. But as days passed, the number of patients coming for medical aid increased. Then some devotees suggested that we should have a separate building in which we could carry out the treatment of the patients who sought medical aid. Accordingly, a house constructed by a devotee of the Ashram in memory of his departed daughter, was utilised with his permission for running a dispensary. A devotee who was at one time an inmate of the Ashram supplied us with necessary medicines. Later on, a doctor who came to the Ashram, agreed to take charge of the dispensary. We appointed a staff of workers to help him. The devotees who lived far away from the Ashram in different towns and cities were sending medicines free for the dispensary.

The dispensary was working on sound lines. On an average one hundred persons were receiving free medical aid daily in the Ashram charitable dispensary.

O compassionate Papa! In the dispensary there were in all five persons on the staff and they were serving the out-patients with love and affection. Later, with the financial help of some devotees we also constructed a building for in-patient and maternity wards. Sometimes we had to point out certain irregularities in the work of the staff although from the worldly standard what they did seemed to be right.

O universal Papa! We had already thought of closing down the hospital work as we were running short of funds and to manage the hospital was therefore found to be difficult. We asked the Government to run the hospital but, as they delayed to take it over, the dispensary ceased to function for about two years. At last the Government took over the dispensary and hospital and are managing the same.

O Papa, who is everything and beyond everything! In this way, whenever we started any charitable work, for some time we received great approbation from people about its work and progress. Although for a period the work would go on well, the paid staff would make us understand in many ways that they were working in the Ashram institutions in order to do a favour to us. Moreover, day by day the receipts of the Ashram by way of donations diminished, with the consequence that we were obliged to close down all of them.