Bhagawan ka kya itihas hota hai ? – Texi driver
Myself, Meera and Sujatha both Jeevanvrati Karyakarta of Vivekananda Kendra like me were going from Guwahati to Majuli for Bhavana Samaroh. Bhavana is the popular art form developed in Satra established by Srimant Shankardev. This art form inculcates the values, educates the illiterate and acquaint all with our sacred texts.
As we crossed Brahmaputra and came to the North Bank, Meera told me, ‘Didi, there is a very beautiful temple of Daul-Govind on this road. Daul means Palanquin in Assamese. During Holi, Daulotsava is celebrated here, where Srikrishna is kept in palanquin. In this temple Srikrishna plays holi everyday. That is why Abeer is applied to the devotees who come for darshan and everyday afternoon Kheer (Payasam) is made and given as Prasad. The Moorti of Daul-Govind is made of Shaligram found in the river Gandaki of Nepal. Didi, this Daul Govindji is very captivating.’
Tempted, I asked her, ‘Shall we have Darshan in the temple?’
‘No, Didi, we are already late. The Satradhikar Prabhu would be waiting for us. May be some other time’, said Meera. I sighed, resigning to the fate of taking Manasik Darshan from the distance.
The scholar in Sujatha was awakened, she asked the taxi driver, ‘Daul Govindji ka kya itihas hai?’ (What is the history of this Daul Govind)
The driver gave a peculiar look to all three of us and said in his broken Hindi, ‘Bhagawan ka kya itihas hota hai?’ (How can there be history of Bhagwan?)
Three of us were shell-shocked! How true he was! Though his Hindi was broken, his thoughts were connected to the thousands of years of tradition of this land. The One who is beyond Kaal – time how it can have history? Something moved within us. We all three were immensely happy and smiled at each other.
I felt as if I have seen something invaluable. Till date, I have not been able to go to the temple of Daul- Govindji but that day I got some insight into the Timeless – Kaalaatita; Daul-Govindaji who plays holi everyday did fill our hearts with all colours.
This happened few years back. Recently with some of the life workers, I was at Puri. We went to see the Shankar Math there. Within the precincts of the Math there are few temples. The devotee there told us, ‘This is the temple, where Adi Shanakracharya had worshiped.’
One of the Karyakartas murmured to me, ‘Didi, does the construction look that old?’
I remembered our Taxi Driver near Dol Govind temple and told him, ‘Bhagawan is there since time immemorial, the construction undergoes changes in every period. So the construction may look recent one. But do not doubt his words. Sri Shankaracharya must have worshipped here as there is continuous lineage of Shankaracharyas here.’
He looked at me thoughtfully and said, ‘This is true. I always doubted such claims. Now I realize -the tradition is unbroken, the structures may change.’
Beyond the structures, beyond the rules of various kings, beyond the invasions by barbaric invaders, beyond the destruction that these invaders tried to heap on India, the flow of Indian life was continuous. May be at times slow but always flowing. If one has to understand India it is that flow that one has to know.
Sri Rabindra Nath Tagore writes very beautifully in his article, ‘History of Bharat Varsha’, ‘It is not that this bloodletting and this carnage were the most important things in Bharatavarsha even in those miserable days. Despite its roar, the storm cannot be regarded as the most important event in a stormy day. In that day too, with sky overcast with dust, the most important thing for man was the flow of life and death and of happiness and sorrow that moves on in the countless village-homes, even though beclouded. But to an alien passer-by the storm is the most important thing; the cloud of dust devours everything else from his view. For he is not inside the home, he is outside. That’s why in the history narrated by the foreigners we get the accounts of the dust, of the storms, but we do not get even a word about the homes.…’
Yes, the driver’s view was insider’s view and we were seeking outsider’s view. And in a moment, he had connected us with our thousands of years of tradition with his broken Hindi.
Tagore continues further in his article, ‘…The current of life that was flowing then in the real Bharatavarsha, the ripples of efforts rising there and the social changes that were taking place — none of these find an account in our history textbooks. ‘
What was that current flowing? In spite of continuous invasions and vicissitudes and travails what is it that India has been striving for? Tagore answers in the succeeding paras, ‘…Amongst the civilizations of the world Bharatavarsha stands as an ideal of the endeavour to unify the diverse. Her history will bear this out. Amidst many travails and obstacles, fortunes and misfortunes Bharatavarsha has been seeking to experience the One in the universe as well as in one’s own soul and to place that One in the variegated, to discover that One through knowledge, to establish that One through action, to internalize that One through love, to exemplify that One through one’s own life. When through the study of her history we would be able to realize this everlasting spirit of Bharata, then the rupture of our present with the past will disappear.’
How beautifully Tagore puts it, the everlasting spirit of Bharat is in discovering the One through knowledge, internalizing the One through love, in exemplifying that One through one’ own life. When we realize this everlasting spirit of Bharata only then the rupture of our present with the past will be over.
FB post – Mananiya Nivedita Bhide. (Vice President, Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari )
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10220712582558689&id=1660323734
अस्तु।