Interaction With the Students of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar

Evolution of Enlightened Women

I am indeed delighted to be here in Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar and interact with the Students and faculty of the College. My greetings to the members of the college managing committee, principal, faculty members, students and other distinguished guests. I particularly greet the faculty members for empowering women through quality education and thereby raising their capacity to contribute to the society. I find that the College strength has grown to around 2500 from 1914 in various disciplines such as commerce, science, arts, computer application, management and information science. I am happy to note that over 50,000 students have graduated from this institution during the last nine decades and many of them are working as administrators, teachers, doctors, engineers and lawyers in different reputed institutions in India and abroad. Few of the students of this Vidyalaya have also participated in the freedom movement.

I would like to share with you some thoughts on "Evolution of Enlightened Women".

Two Great Mothers

Womanhood is a beautiful creation of God. I am always inspired by two great women. One is my mother and the other mother is mother of music Bharat Ratna M. S. Subbulakshmi. Few minutes I would like to share my thoughts with you about these two great souls.

Embodiment of Love: During the II world war in 1941, it was a difficult time for our family at Rameswaram. I was a ten year old boy then. War had almost reached our doors of Rameswaram i. e. Sri Lanka. Almost everything was a rarity from food articles to anything. Ours was a large joint family. My father and his younger brother?s families were all living together. The size of our family was five sons and five daughters and three of whom had families. I used to see in my house anytime three cradles. My grandmother and mother were almost managing this large contingent. The environment in the home alternated by happiness and sadness. I used to get up at four in the morning, take bath and went to my teacher Swamiyar for learning mathematics. He will not accept students if they had not taken bath. He was a unique mathematics teacher and he used to take only five students for free tuition in a year. My mother used to get up before me, and gave bath to me and prepared me to go for the tuition. I use to comeback at 5:30 when my father would be waiting for taking me to the Namaz and Koran Sharif learning in Arabic school. After that I used to go to Rameswaram Road Railway station, three kilometers away to collect newspaper. Madras Dhanushkodi Mail will pass through the station but will not stop, since it was war time. The newspaper bundle will be thrown from the running train to the platform.

I used to collect the paper and run around the Rameswaram town and be the first one to distribute the newspapers in the town. My elder cousin brother was the agent who went away to Sri Lanka in search of better livelihood. After distribution, I used to come home at 8 AM. My mother will give me a simple breakfast with a special quota compared to other children because I was studying and working simultaneously. After the school gets over in the evening, again I will go around Rameswaran for collection of dues from customers. I still remember an incident which I would like to share with you. As a young boy I was walking, running and studying all together. One day, when all my brothers and sisters were sitting and eating, my mother went on giving me chapattis (even though we are rice eaters only wheat was rationed). When I finished eating, my elder brother called me privately and scolded ?Kalam do you know what was happening? You went on eating Chappati, and mother went on giving you. She has given all her chappatis to you. It is difficult time. Be a responsible son and do not make your mother starve?. First time I had a shivering sensation and I could not control myself. I rushed to my mother and hugged her. Even though I was studying in 5th class, I had a special place in my home because I was the last guy in the family. There used to be no electricity. Our house was lit by the kerosene lamp that too between 7 to 9 PM. My mother specially gave me a small kerosene lamp so that I can study up to 11 PM. I still remember my mother in a full moon night which has been portrayed with the title "mother" in my book "Wings of Fire".

Mother

I still remember the day when I was ten,

Sleeping on your lap to the envy of my elder brothers and sisters.

It was full moon night, my world only you knew

Mother!, My Mother!

When at midnight, I woke with tears falling on my knee

You knew the pain of your child, My Mother.

Your caring hands, tenderly removing the pain

Your love, your care, your faith gave me strength,

To face the world without fear and with His strength.

We will meet again on the great Judgment Day. My Mother!

This is the story of my mother who lived ninety three years, a woman of love, a woman of kindness and above all a woman of divine nature. My mother performed Namaz five times everyday. During Namaz, my mother always looked angelic. Every time I saw her during Namaz I was inspired and moved.

Radiating Divine Music: Dear friends, I will now talk to you about mother of Carnatic music M. S. Subbulakshmi. First time in the year 1950, I heard her when I was studying in the college at Trichy during Thiagaraja festival at Tiruvaiyar, which is conducted in January every year. I attended this festival with my close friend music lover Santhanam. After Pancharatna Kriti, MS Subbulakshmi sang the famous Thiagaraja keertana ?Endaro Mahaanubhavalu andhariggi vandanamulu? This song really entered into me and blossomed happiness in my body and soul. The meaning was so powerful; I was moved and became a lifetime fan of M S. I started liking her statement in the music academy, linking music with Bhakti.

Bhakti is nothing but the devotion we show to the divinity that resides within us. Once we regard the divinity within us with devotional fervour, we are bound to develop the same affection towards everything outside. The reason is that the same divine truth runs through all things. When the devotee has attained this state, service to the world becomes his creed.?

I used to meet her in music concerts. It was a great joy for me when M. S. was honoured with Bharat Ratna in 1998 at Ashoka Hall in Rashtrapati Bhavan. I was sitting by her side. She touched my head and blessed. That was my greatest moment in my life. She gave one statement which I would like to recall ?Any raga has the purpose of directing the minds of the listeners towards God and His manifestations?

Now, I would like to share with you an experience which I had during my visit to Karnataka.

Righteousness in the Heart

On 21st November 2005, I had visited Adhichunchanagiri Math, attended a function of FUREC (Foundation for Unity of Religions and Enlightened Citizenship) and interacted with over 54,000 students of various schools and colleges of Karnataka. There a 10th class student Ms. M. Bhavani studying in Adichunchanagiri Composite High School, Sharavathy Nagar, Shimoga asked me the following question.

?Dear Sir, What is the role of students to stop corruption which is deeply rooted in our county just like cancer??

Agony of the young mind is reflected in this question. For me it was an important question, since it came from a young mind. I was thinking what type of solutions we could give. My thought process was the following:

I said there are one billion people in the country and nearly 200 million homes. In general there are good citizens everywhere. However, if we find that people in few million houses are not transparent and not amenable to the laws of the country, what can we do? These houses apart from parents have one daughter or one son or both. If the parents in these houses are deviating from the transparent path the children can use the tool of love and affection and correct the parents to come back to the right path. I asked all the children assembled in that gathering, in case parents of few children get deviated from transparency, will you children boldly tell your parents, father or mother, you are not doing the right thing, that is what we are taught by you and in the school. Most of the children spontaneously responded, ?We will do it?. The confidence comes from them that they have love as a tool. Similarly I have also asked the parents in some other meeting, initially there was a silence, later, many of them hesitantly agreed that they would abide by the children?s suggestion since it is driven by love. They took an oath from me. The oath was ?I will lead an honest life free from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt a transparent way of life?. Finally I told the students that they should start a movement starting from their home. Youth of today have to fight to eradicate corruption by making each home righteous. I am sure every one of you can make the nation great by participating in the movement of the youth.

Conclusion: Empowering Women

When the child is empowered by the parents, at various phases of growth, the child transforms into a responsible citizen. When the teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems take shape. When individual or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When the leader of any institution empowers his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas. When the women are empowered, society with stability gets assured. When the political leaders of the nation empower the people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain.

While concluding I would suggest that the students assembled here choose and fix an aim in life. Let that become the mission of your life and you continuously acquire knowledge. Work hard for your goal with patience and perseverance. While you are working for your goal, you are bound to face hurdles and problems. You do not allow problems to become your master. You become master of the situation and defeat the problem. This is the secret of success in all your missions. Now I would like to administer the ten point oath to all of you. Will you all repeat?

Now, I would like to administer a seven point Oath for National Development.

Seven Point Oath

1. I realize, I have to set a goal in my life. To achieve the goal, I will acquire the knowledge, I will work hard, and when the problem occurs, I have to defeat the problem and succeed.

2. As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others.

3. I shall always keep myself, my home, my surroundings, neighbourhood and environment clean and tidy.

4. I realize righteousness in the heart leads to beauty in the character, beauty in the character brings harmony in the home, harmony in the home leads to order in the nation and order in the nation leads to peace in the world.

5. I will lead an honest life free from all corruption and will set an example for others including my home to adopt a righteous way of life.

6. I will light the lamp of knowledge in the nation and ensure that it remains lit for ever.

7. I realize, whatever work I do if I do the best, I am contributing towards realizing the vision of developed India 2020.

My best wishes to all the members of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya success in their mission of empowering women through value based quality education.

May God bless you.

Now I would like to answer some of the questions asked by the students.

Ruhi Dhir, B.Com. III

1. What according to your goodself can we, as citizens of India, do to realize your vision 2020?

Ans. You excel in your studies. If you have spare time you can educate people who cannot read and write. Also, you can plant five trees in your house or the neighbourhood. You can make your area clean apart from your house. You can also participate in energy and water conservation drives.

Sabina, M.A. II English

2. Education faces so many challenges today rising cost, lack of proper counseling and well-defined vision besides increasing commercialization. What can be done about it?

Ans. For making the education available to all meritorious candidate I have suggested liberal provision of loans by the banks without asking for collaterals. In some universities they have started earn while you learn programmes which will enable poor students to earn and meet the cost of education. There is a need for improving the quality of teachers. Recently, CBSE has taken up upgradation of teachers through a EDUSAT programme. This got to be spread for college teachers also. The teachers must also be trained in providing counseling to the students.

Priya Markanda, B.A. III

3. In our corruption-ridden system, how can we ensure that whistleblowers are honoured instead of being harassed?

Ans. Preventing the corruption should be the movement of the youth.

Himani, B.Sc.II, Bio-tech

4. The present youth looks up to your good-self as a role model. Who has been your role model?

Ans. Prof Vikram Sarabhai, Prof Satish Dhawan and Dr. Brahm Prakash.

Jaspreet, M.A. I English

5. Pandemonium and crude behaviour of our representatives in the Parliament is a disgrace on our democracy. How can we ensure parliamentary decorum?

Ans. I will convey your message and concern. Probably 33% of representation of women in Parliament and legislature may make these institutions purposeful.

Aastha Saini, B.A. Honours School in English-1

6. How can a social momentum be created to remove gender disparities?

Ans. Education at all levels and particularly the women education plays an important part in removing gender disparities.

Rupinder, M.S., Computer Science IVth Sem.

7. How can we ensure the empowerment of the deprived section of our people?

Ans. Creation of PURA cluster (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) is one of the methods by which empowerment of people in rural areas will take place.

Pallavi, B.A.II

8. How can we strike a balance between material aspirations and moral values in today's world?

Ans. Earning capacity of the individual will add to national economic prosperity. At the same time righteousness in the heart during the school education, parental guidance will enable development of integrated human being.

Bela, B.Sc., I Biotech

9. What should be the role of print or electronic media vis-a-vis cultural pollution?

Ans. I have suggested the media to project good things in the society. Of course, the people have to make their own choices that what they should see and what they should not.

Ravneet, B.Sc. II Non-Medical

10. You have mentioned many a time that India will become a super power. Is it a realistic goal, considering that we have 26 crore people living below the poverty line?

Ans. First we must have a vision. Then the nation has to work for it. That means people have to work for it. We will definitely achieve our goal.