HH Speech on Independence Day

On the occasion of 68th Independence Day celebration assembly, we offer many many Mangalasasanams (gratulations) to you all. Firstly, we pray the God, Acharyas (Preachers) and the great personalities in leadership to bless us and the country to be in the right path.

The meaning of “independence” is explained by Sriman Rangaramanujaacharya Swami varu. Independence is a state of being, which enables us to recognise the regulations of our living and make us live accordingly without any difficulties and hindrances. The great poet Kalidasa also expressed on this that independence was experienced in fulfilment during the realm of the Emperor Dasaratha.

You may feel a doubt on the experience of freedom during a monarchy rule, but, the variations in lifestyle or in professions was peacefully carried by people of those times with neither pressure from authorities nor any kind of influence from the government of the rulers. The rulers of those times could implement such practices for the people. Now, we need such kind of state for our country.

In a country, certain people or the population would be living with certain regulations and traditions followed from many generations, in that there may be variations in caste, creed, professions and businesses. Every individual irrespective of the caste, creed, profession or business, should be able to follow their regulations from their ancestors and practise the traditions given by their elders peacefully without being pressured by any one.

When we take an individual’s freedom, one should be able perform either a celebration event or an event of loss according to the principles of the family traditions. There should not be anyone criticising, objecting or restricting the individual’s way of performing the event. We need such kind of freedom.

When it comes to society, there will be a socially responsible system. Our country is called Bharath; we have an ancient tradition of principles and lifestyle. Our country is well recognised in the world for its traditional life style, respect and hospitality for guests, its diligent people with the attitude of not venturing into unnecessary issues but developing the culture, resources with the wide perspective of a belonging to the country and the God, under the support of spirituality and righteous duty. It is the responsibility of the leaders in every part of our country to continue this attitude in people and imbibe the practices in the people. But then, since 1945 and till date, we are in the wait of such freedom of being able to present ourselves as certain country with certain tradition and practices. There are still some hitches in being able to showcase our country and tradition with confidence.

Although for some centuries we were under a foreign rule and only from about six and half decades we have been in the feeling of free country, the existence of small Ashrams(hermitages), Gurukulam(ancient way of schooling) are able to sustain the age old traditions till date.

Generally a change in the tradition in a household happens with the influence of time and disturbance in practise for generations. If a practise is stopped for a number of generations, the newer generations would not even know of such existence of the practices. If any new practice is culminated into the family by one generation then the following generation would continue the newly adopted practice. A funny example is given on this, once a householder used to perform the traditional ritual of death anniversary for the parents. There used to be cat as well in their house. As the ritual requires certain practices at home, the householder used to make sure of all the preparations in place.  On the day of the event, to avoid any disturbance in the ritual, the householder would keep the cat under a basket until the completion of the ritual. The son of the householder observed this practice of keeping the cat under the basket for some years. After some time when the householder passed away, his son who is grownup now, had to perform the ritual for the father. The son started getting a cat specifically for the day and would put it under the basket claiming that as a practice of his family and must be followed without fail. Like so, new practices would be adopted with the change in generations.  The foremost Moghul invasion and realm in our country for about eight hundred years, the British rule for about two hundred and fifty years and some years of invasion by French and others on our country caused the loss of our scriptures and influenced the traditions and lifestyle. Although it is been few decades, since our independence, most of our traditions and practices are in the saying only. Our independence should have brought back the traditions in practise with openness. We awaited the state till now. Fortunately, our country and us seems to be having a golden age ahead with the newly elected, righteously duty oriented national leader and government. The great learned men in the world agree that our country, traditions, culture, lifestyle has stood strong against various challenges of changing times and is highly valuable.

The land of our country has an amazing power. It has a nice special odour. We have been to many countries and also many places with in our country. The sweet of smell of this land with the breeze of air when it rains, is special. We observed that our land has sweet smell and taste to it than any other land on the earth.

Every plant born on our land, every being on our land has that special smell and taste in them.

The special sweet smell in us is our moral strength in our hearts and the taste is seen outside. The kindness in our hearts to think for others wellbeing makes us care for others is the special taste. The smell is the attitude of revering our elders, ancestors and God for our idea and achievements without any ownership out of arrogance and false pride. The people of this land carry the lineage of the good qualities and attitude to think for others to be in joy even at the cost of their suffering.

These qualities are a blessing boon by the God to this land and its people. To retain these qualities in us, we have the leaders in the government now who think, strive for this purpose and would bring about a discipline to effect into our original selves.  After gaining independence, the country’s government should become the fence protecting the independence. So far we could only look for and prepare a fence only. At least now with newly formed government fence, let this Independence Day get them the blessing from God to become such fence protecting the variations in the country without any compromise of the independence of any individual or place. Along with them we also have a responsibility to contribute towards achieving the state of our originality. We should be able to declare our God, our traditions and practices without any hesitations. We should leave the negative thoughts like “what can I do, or what do I know” and start learning about our God, our Scriptures, our righteous action and protect the traditions to carry forward to others. We should build determination and strength to achieve this with the guidance of our Acharyas. Let us all start a mission in our hearts to achieve this mental strength. We should be able to confidently follow the practices of applying “Thilakam” on forehead, have a “Sikha” (traditional hair knot for males), without feeling any shyness or worrying about any criticism. This mission should eliminate any fear of being ourselves according to the traditions.  Let this Independence Day give us the required strength. We pray the God on this 68th Independence Day to bless us with all the required strength and we once again offer many many Mangalasasanams to you all.

We have started an educational Institution with the name Jeeyar Educational Trust in 1982, through that we are offering learning the “Agama Vdiya”,” Veda Vidya” and study of our traditions. We also started Vikasa Taragini, a service wing to propagate service activities like School for Blind (Netra Vidyalaya). The seated students in Violet are the students of the school for blind. They are encouraged to build confidence in them to feel equal to any other students in abilities and skills. We offer our Mangalasasanams to all the students of Netra Vidyalaya. The government does offer them levies and work placements without any requirement of education. The government levies should not make one averse from education and learning. The levies are to be taken as encouragement and support the capabilities of the disadvantaged individuals. The students of our Vedic school and Netra Vidyala should develop the ability to answer any rising doubts in comparison to their learning and the learning in ordinary schools and missing out in cinema entertainment. Let the teachers of these schools also possess the ability to answer any such rising doubts in students and move positively forward.

In the order of offering services to the disadvantaged people, VT Seva has helped Sriman Venkatesh ji to obtain artificial limbs. Sriman Sundar ji and his organisation provided the limbs for Sriman Vekatesh ji. We offer our Mangalasasanams to Sundar ji and his team of volunteers. God bless them to be able to develop and provide multiple organs and help the mission.

We are happy for Sriman Venkatesh ji to be able to stand on own feet. We all are given this ability to use our power to help others, like the saying by great poet Gurajada. We all have special skills and abilities in us; let us use them for the country and people. Let our mother land enfold us with her love, strength, courage and keep us in her warm embrace.

Jai srimannarayana!

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On the occasion of Independence day, JIVA Gurukulam students and Nethra Vidyalaya students gathered in the grounds of JIVA to hoist the National Flag. The program began at 8:30 AM with Vande Matharam. The students gave a warm welcome to HH Sri Swamiji, HH Devanath Jeeyar Swamiji and Sri Sri U. Ve. Ranga Ramanuja Swami. HH hoisted the flag. All saluted to the Flag while singing National Anthem.  JIVA Gurukulam students did the drill march as mark of respect to Mother Land.  

Sri Ranga Ramanuja Swami addressed the crowd about what real independence is and in what way we need to contribute to achieve real freedom. Sri Devanath Jeeyar Swami enlightened the gathering about our achievements and our duties we need to do. HH Swamiji delivered an amazing speech on what freedom means, how far we are currently from real freedom and how we need to lead our lifestyle  without any shame or fear in practising the age old traditions.

HH then invited Mr. Venkatesh who recently received support from VT Seva in getting artificial limbs.   He lost his two legs in an unfortunate accident.  Earlier, he was  a mechanic repairing Aquaguard water machines. But now he is unable to do it and support his two small daughters. Mr. Sundar , through his company which manufactures artificial limbs extended support by giving a concession. VT Seva coordinated with Mr. Sundarji and procured the limbs for Mr. Venkatesh.

Mr. Venkatesh thanking Swamiji and Sundarji on this occasion said, “I do not know what real Independence is until now. But I got real Independence now because of the blessings of Swamiji and Sundharji’s help. I came here with the thought that I will walk with help of a stick. But with the blessings of Swamiji and this peaceful environment of Asram , I got confidence to walk without a stick. I am thanking you all. This is my next birth. Because of you all I got a chance to help my family. We are celebrating 68th Independence day.  On this occasion, I am proud to stand on my legs and salute to our Mother Land. Thank you all once again.”

The program concluded with distribution of sweets to children and attendees.

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