Let us all pay homage
to the great personality who left us yesterday – Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, who all
of us would remember for a long time not just as a President, but as a great
human being who was simple, motivating and wanted each of us to dream about a
better India and world. Also, let us
imbibe the spirit of at least a few of his messages and practice it in our day
to day life.
Following is excerpted
from his book “My Journey: Transforming
Dreams into Actions”:
“My father loved to tell us the
story of our great-great-grandfather, who once saved the idol of Ramanathaswamy
Temple. The story went that on a
festival day, the vigraha, or idol, would be taken out of the sanctum
sanctorum and carried in procession around the temple precincts. The temple has number of tanks dotting it,
and the idol was taken around the periphery of these tanks too. During one such precession, in a sequence of
events no one remembers clearly any more, the vigraha fell into the tank.
What a calamity that was! People
stood rooted in horror, imagining the wrath of gods falling upon them very
soon. One person however, did not lose
his presence of mind – his great-great-grandfather. He leapt into the tank and
retrieved the idol in no time. The
gratitude of the priests and other temple officials was overwhelming. Yes, he was a Muslim. And yes, cast and religious purists would be
horrified at the most scared element of the temple being handled by someone not
authorized to do so, but none of these feelings were articulated. Instead my great-great-grandfather was
treated like a hero. The temple also
made a proclamation that from now on, at the festival, the temple would give Mudal Marayadai to him. This was a rare honour for anyone, let alone
for someone from a different religion.
It meant that on each such festival day, the temple would first honour
or give marayadai to my
great-great-grandfather. This tradition
went on for years and the marayadai would
be given to my father too. This sense of harmony continued into later years.
…
“My father was the imam of
Rameswaram mosque. He was a deeply
devout man with complete and utter faith in Koran. He inculcated all the habits of good Muslim
in his children and indeed in his entire family. For the people of the town, he was a
philosopher and guide – someone they could turn to with their problems, whether
spiritual or otherwise.
“One of his closest friends was
the priests of the Ramanathaswamy Temple, Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry. Sastrygal was not only the priest but also a
very learned man, well versed in Vedic knowledge.
“There was third person who was
as important in the spiritual life of our little community and that was Father
Bodal, the priest of the lone church in the town. He was as involved in the welfare of the
churchgoers of Rameswaram as my father and Sastrygal, and was as concerned
about the need for harmony and peace in Rameswaram.
“… the three men kept each
other apprised of anything that could potentially threaten the peace among the
people and together, they tried to work out ways of clearing miscommunication
or scotching rumours before they assume dangerous proportions. The fundamental requirement for peace –
effective communication among sections of the people – was always kept alive by
these three patriarchs. … They quietly
soothed the society around them, making it a harmonious whole where everyone
could have an opportunity to speak freely to them.
…
“As far as the fact of my
religion is concerned, from Rameswaram I followed my destiny that took me into
the world of science and technology. I
was always a believer in science, but the spiritual atmosphere of my youth has
stayed with me. I well understood
different points of view, particularly about God. I have read and assimilated the knowledge
contained in different religious texts – from the Koran to the Gita to the Holy
Bible. Together they have made me a
product of this unique land of ours, a syncretic creation of the best of our
diverse traditions.”
