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Activities Of Sadhu Vaswani Mission
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In 1933, Sadhu Vaswani founded the "Mira Movement In Education" which has, today, its headquarters at Pune. The Movement was started in Sind and plans were afoot to develop it into a Mira University, when the "partition" came to paralyse the best efforts of enlightened men in Sind. The Mira Movement attempts at enriching students with vital truths of modern life and at the same time making them lovers of the Indian Ideal and India's Culture, at once idealistic and spiritual. Such an education is essential to India's social and political salvation. The emphasis in the teaching passed on in Mira Educational Institutions is that education is a thing of the Spirit and that the end of all knowledge is service, - service of the poor and lowly, the sick and afflicted ones. In 1962, Sadhu Vaswani started St. Mira's College for Girls. It is inspired by the faith that, in the new unfolding of India's destiny, women have to play an important part. As Sahdu Vaswani often said:- "The woman-soul will lead us upward, on!" And while students in the College are trained to show good results at the University Examinations, the emphasis in the teaching passed on them is on three things:- (1) character building; (2) heroic living; and spiritual unfolding.
The Mira Movement in Education has grown and expanded to run no less than six educational institutions in Pune - all of them reputed for their strong sense of discipline, and their insistence on character building, love of Indian ideals, reverence for all life, spiritual, cultural, social and moral values. Over 5,000 students receive their education from these institutions, starting from the pre-primary level and going right up to post-graduate classes. Schools have also been established at Delhi, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Bombay.
The Mission has undertaken the work of village upliftment in the backward
areas of Maharashtra, Saurashtra and Kutch. Its village adoption programmes help provide
employment and improve the quality of life for villagers living below the
poverty line. The activities of the programme include the provision of
drinking water, digging of irrigation wells, tree plantation, soil conservation,
education of children, training households to work and earn their own
living, health camps, vocational training classes, service to mother cows
at times of famine, and rehabilitation of poor families, provisions of rations
etc.
In Pune,
medical services are offered by the Mission at the following centers:-
The motto of all the Medical Centers of the Mission is:
Every patient is a picture of God.
To serve him is to worship God.
Freeships and concessions including expensive medications and injections are liberally
given to poor and needy patients.
"For me not to love birds and animals would be not to love the Lord", Sadhu
Vaswani said. The Mission follows his precept that all life is sacred, and
that birds and animals are our brothers and sisters in the One family of
creation. These humble creatures are fed twice a day at the Sadhu Vaswani Ashram.
Students of the St. Mira's Educational institutions bring handfuls of grain,
slices of bread, chappatti etc. to feed birds and animals with their own hands.
Satsangs
are held thrice everyday including kirtans, bhajans, and recitations from holy
scriptures, Sadhu Vaswani's recorded upadeshes and Dada's upadeshes inspire
and thrill hundreds of brothers and sisters. Days sacred to the great ones of East and
West are also celebrated with prayers and service. The satsang forms the basis of
the Sadhu Vaswani Mission. "The noblest work", according to Sadhu Vaswani,
"is to cultivate the soul! ".
See A Day In Sadhu Vaswani Mission at Pune for
Satsang Schedule.
At the Dada Bhandara the poor are fed meals everyday with reverence and love,
and are asked to sing the holy name of God. Food and snacks are sent out to
other institutions for the blind, the handicapped, the aged, the orphans,
the mental patients and the lepers practically everyday. Daily fruits and
biscuits are distributed at the poor patients wards for children and adults
at the general Sassoon Hospital in Pune.
