A Life with dignity

Written by Sudha Murthy, Wise and Otherwise


All that glitters is not gold. All that is white is not milk. All people who wear saffron clothes are not sages. these ageold sayings hold true even now, especially the last one.

we see a lot of people wearing saffron clothes, but all of them may not be sanyasis in the sense of the word. a sanyasi is one who guides his followers on the right path.

Recently, I attended the inaurgural function of a home for destitute women in Mysore. In most cases, the women were there because they were either harassed by their in laws or tortured by drunken husbands. And, owing to the socio-economic conditions, even the parents of victims were unable to take in and care for their hapless children. There have also been instances when young girls, lured by romance, have run away from their homes and have been deserted by their lovers after the honeymoon. There girls usually do not dare return to their parents either.
These women and girls need to be psychologically strong and determined to face difficulties with courage and go on with their lives. Maybe, even take up a livelihood. The more unfortunate ones even get caught in the ugly network of commercial sex or other unlawful activities, either knowingly or unknowingly.

The saying that "Success has many fathers, but failures has none" is true indeed. We get to see only the distressed women and their children, while the main cause of their problems remains hidden in the background. So, the victims cannot be blamed altogether. Often, it is circumstances, which force the into such Drudgery. Still, we should help them. After all , to err is human.

It is nice to respect or reward people who work for such women. But more importantly, it is also necessary to lend a helping hand to those who have stumbled or lost their way. Do we have such a system? There are hardly one or two institutions where such people are given shelter and efforts made to rehabilitate them. In such institutions, women are taught how to earn a livelihood so that they can live with dignity.

In Mysore, the first person who came up with the idea to open such an institution was not someone who had political powers or someone who wanted fame. He is the head of Suttur math. The swamiji is well read and felt the need to help the downtrodden and destitute, having truly understood the meaning of compassion.

He could have led a quiet life, performing his religious duties and looking after his own math. But he thought of something different. The swamiji has given a donation worth Rs 1 crore in the form of one and a half acres belonging to his own math. He has shown the true nature of a leader, exemplary in his behaviour. It is a matter to be highlighted that he has done all this without any expectations in return. Common people like us should look up to such great men as pathfinders and follow them.

Acharya devo bava say our ancestors, implying that the guru, the teacher or acharya is third in the heirarchy of respect and that God comes through guru. How truly the actions of the swamiji of the suttur math reflect this saying!