It was Ashadhi Ekadashi. I was observing a fast, and was working on my laptop, listening to some vitthala bhajans on my headphones. As usual, I had turned off the internet on my cell phone while working, in order to avoid the seemingly unstoppable whatsapp notifications. Disconnected from the net, I was blissfully ignorant of what was happening in the rest of the world. I took a break around noon, walked around, came back, and turned on the data on my phone just for a moment. And most of my active whatsapp groups were abuzz with the news: Abdul Kalam passed away, suffered a heart attack while addressing students at IIM Shillong. I was shocked, like crores of other Indians. I searched the net; the news was confirmed. An abhanga by Tukaram Maharaj was still playing in the background: "अणुरणिया थोकडा, तुका आकाशा एवढा". Tukaram, while describing his experience of self realization, says: Though I am insignificant as an atom, I am also as vast as the skies! Dr. Kalam has left the insignificant mortal body and has become one with the परब्रह्म (parabrahma). I couldn't stop my tears from flowing down my cheeks. After a couple of minutes, as I read through the news reports, the feeling of grief was replaced by a feeling of satisfaction and inspiration. He was 83, had accomplished the highest honors in life, and was still doing what he loved the most when he left us. What more can one ask for in life - or death? It was a death befitting a true karmayogi. Om Shantih.
Over the next few days, as the obituaries and eulogies started pouring in, I started reflecting on what his role in my life has been. And I realized that his life story has been a blessing —krupa— for me (and crores of others), even though I never had a chance to meet him.
I heard his name for the first time, in late 1990s from my father, who was reading the Vision 2020 book. With the help of my maternal grandfather, who was a retired professor of political science, my father pointed out some minor error in a reference in the book and wrote to Dr. Kalam; he promptly responded acknowledging the error. After that, my father read his two other books—Wings of Fire and Ignited Minds, and started telling us about him and quoting him in his talks, in the sangha circles and outside.
I was a highschool student when I heard about Kalam first, and being from a Marathi-medium school, reading the English Wings of Fire proved a bit tough for me. Thankfully, the Marathi translation अग्निपंख (Agnipankha) was available and is equally inspiring. When I went to college, my father gifted me Ignited Minds. During the same time, I happened to meet Dr. Mohan Bhagwat at a sangha shiksha varga near Surathkal. He asked me if I was reading any new books, and when I told him about these two, Mohan ji remarked, "Very good, his books are like our sangha baudhiks." Both these books had a great impact on me. Many incidents from Kalam's life and many quotes from his books still reverberate in my mind. I remember how he shares that the front page of the newspaper he opened on a morning in Tel Aviv was full of Israel's successful experiments with farming in the desert—a positive news, even though there was a terror attack just the previous night—it was covered on inner pages. This attitude of focusing on and highlighting our positive side, and not our problems, needs to be internalized by individuals as well as societies. His tryst with failure —when he wanted to become a pilot, went to Delhi to give the test, was ranked ninth on the list, and only the first eight were selected— is a representative scenario for every youth; the type and intensity of "failure" might vary. And what happened after that is an inspiration and a life lesson. In that disappointed, dejected state of mind he went to the Himalayas. By some divine force, he found himself at Swami Sivananda's Divine Life Society in Rushikesh. "Forget this failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path", Swamiji told him. The world knows that Kalam's destiny was not in flying a military aircraft, but in designing much mightier missiles for our nation. Swami Sivananda reportedly also reiterated Bhagwan Krishna's mantra: "Defeat the defeatist tendency". Kalam notes that this mantra comes to him whenever he is in trouble. I must say this incident has made a great impact on my own life and has kept me untouched by any depression or negative thoughts.
Kalam, along with Swami Vivekananda, Chhatrapati Shivaji, and of course the Sangha, continued to guide me throughout my college life, and beyond. In the year book of my final year of engineering, in the column for inspirational quotes, I noted: "For all your days prepare, And meet them ever alike; When you are the anvil, bear; When you are the hammer, strike." This is attributed to American poet Edwin Markham, but I read it in Wings of Fire first.
In January 2009, when my sister Madhura was studying to become a dentist in Nagpur, Ram Krishna Math, Pune organized a nationwide essary competition on Swami Vivekananda's message to the youth, as a part of their silver jubilee celebration. Madhura took part in it, inspired by Swamiji's life, as well as by the prospects of meeting Dr. Kalam, who, it was declared, will be the chief guest at the award ceremony. Madhura prepared well and wrote an excellent essay in Marathi that won a consolation prize. It was a moment of great pride for my entire family when she went on to the stage and recieved the award from Dr. Kalam himself. Since the event was in Maharashtra, and hers was the only Marathi essay to win a prize, the crowd cheered her with a relatively larger applause; the celebrated chief guest was sensitive enough to acknowledge it, and spoke a few words with her. (In the same visit to Pune, Madhura and our mother got a chance to briefly meet another Bharat Ratna - Pt. Bhimsen Joshi.)
Then last year, when Dr. Kalam visited Nagpur to take part in an event organized by Vijnana Bharati. He visited Smruti Mandir, the samaadhi (memorial) of Dr. Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS, and offered tributes. My father was one of the sangha karyakartas who received him at the venue.
We all know about the achievements of Dr. Kalam: his leading the missile program that developed Agni, Nag, Pruthvi; his role in India's successful nuclear tests; his vision to use the advanced technology in defense to also make low weight, easy to use equipments for physically challenged individuals; some of his decisions while at the Rashtrapati Bhavan; and of course his larger Vision 2020 for India's comprehensive development, and tireless work for inspiring the youth towards that. These are his blossoming virtures, or things that one would put in a resume; but we remember people not so much by what they achieve, but by how they behave with us, by what are called the ripening virtues. Dr. Kalam had both aplenty, and that's what makes him special. I think the memory of his last day that his colleague, Srijan Pal Singh, has shared speaks volumes about this: him asking the security guard who had to remain standing for hours about his well being, and offering some food to him, was very touching.
He lived a great life. His being a Muslim never affected crores of his "students" ever, even before or after his presidency. Unfortunately, it was brought up after his demise. "A great Muslim died on an auspicious day of Hindus in a Christian city. He maintained secularism and democracy in death too." — a message was being shared on Twitter and Whatsapp, mindlessly, like most other forwards. It's high time we learn to look beyond such token secularism constructs. Our youth, especially those who claim to take inspiration from Kalam, should be able to critically evaluate such goodie goodie but stupid messages: how does Shillong become a "Christian" city? If the answer is because it has 60% Christian population, why do the same set of people who cheered this message frown when our country with 80% Hindu population is called a Hindu Rashtra? Secularism was not something Kalam had to show off; it came naturally to him: he quoted from Gita and Thirukkural in his speeches, he routinely met spiritual leaders of all Dharmic panths and believed in their power to transform the masses—something our "secular celebrities" would scoff at, and in a true secular step, stopped the state funded iftar parties at Rashtrapati Bhavan, donating the money to orphanages instead. Anyway. The secularism debate is a separate and serious topic, and I will perhaps write about it another time, but my point here is, if we blindly follow and forward such messages, we are not applauding the real giants like Kalam, but in fact demeaning him, by reducing his real work to such tokenism.
Kalam always did and will continue to serve as an inspiration for several generations. Our job does not stop at sharing some tweets and pics about/of him for a few days, or even circulate petitions for naming universities and roads after him (Srijan Pal thinks he wouldn't have agreed with it anyways), and then get back to the same old routine. A real tribute will be if we —all of us— work towards strengthening the punyaatma, punya neta, punyaadhikari triangle he used to talk about. That is not an easy job. Each one of us should pledge to start the work from him/herself —becoming punyaatma (viruous individual)— and work on it every moment every day. As James Froude said, "You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one", and as we sing in a sangha geet:
Over the next few days, as the obituaries and eulogies started pouring in, I started reflecting on what his role in my life has been. And I realized that his life story has been a blessing —krupa— for me (and crores of others), even though I never had a chance to meet him.
I heard his name for the first time, in late 1990s from my father, who was reading the Vision 2020 book. With the help of my maternal grandfather, who was a retired professor of political science, my father pointed out some minor error in a reference in the book and wrote to Dr. Kalam; he promptly responded acknowledging the error. After that, my father read his two other books—Wings of Fire and Ignited Minds, and started telling us about him and quoting him in his talks, in the sangha circles and outside.
"Punyaatma, punya-neta, punyaadhikari.." - I still remember - ".. if the population of all the three were to increase in our society, then India would become the jagadguru" (Ignited Minds).Many of my friends, my father's friends and colleagues at work as well as in the sangha were introduced to Abdul Kalam's work by my father. Later, one of his colleagues, Prof. Dabir, presented Kalam's life in the form of a kirtan. In July 2002, when Dr. Kalam became the President of India, many people who had heard about him through my father called at our home to congratulate my father!
I was a highschool student when I heard about Kalam first, and being from a Marathi-medium school, reading the English Wings of Fire proved a bit tough for me. Thankfully, the Marathi translation अग्निपंख (Agnipankha) was available and is equally inspiring. When I went to college, my father gifted me Ignited Minds. During the same time, I happened to meet Dr. Mohan Bhagwat at a sangha shiksha varga near Surathkal. He asked me if I was reading any new books, and when I told him about these two, Mohan ji remarked, "Very good, his books are like our sangha baudhiks." Both these books had a great impact on me. Many incidents from Kalam's life and many quotes from his books still reverberate in my mind. I remember how he shares that the front page of the newspaper he opened on a morning in Tel Aviv was full of Israel's successful experiments with farming in the desert—a positive news, even though there was a terror attack just the previous night—it was covered on inner pages. This attitude of focusing on and highlighting our positive side, and not our problems, needs to be internalized by individuals as well as societies. His tryst with failure —when he wanted to become a pilot, went to Delhi to give the test, was ranked ninth on the list, and only the first eight were selected— is a representative scenario for every youth; the type and intensity of "failure" might vary. And what happened after that is an inspiration and a life lesson. In that disappointed, dejected state of mind he went to the Himalayas. By some divine force, he found himself at Swami Sivananda's Divine Life Society in Rushikesh. "Forget this failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path", Swamiji told him. The world knows that Kalam's destiny was not in flying a military aircraft, but in designing much mightier missiles for our nation. Swami Sivananda reportedly also reiterated Bhagwan Krishna's mantra: "Defeat the defeatist tendency". Kalam notes that this mantra comes to him whenever he is in trouble. I must say this incident has made a great impact on my own life and has kept me untouched by any depression or negative thoughts.
Kalam, along with Swami Vivekananda, Chhatrapati Shivaji, and of course the Sangha, continued to guide me throughout my college life, and beyond. In the year book of my final year of engineering, in the column for inspirational quotes, I noted: "For all your days prepare, And meet them ever alike; When you are the anvil, bear; When you are the hammer, strike." This is attributed to American poet Edwin Markham, but I read it in Wings of Fire first.
In January 2009, when my sister Madhura was studying to become a dentist in Nagpur, Ram Krishna Math, Pune organized a nationwide essary competition on Swami Vivekananda's message to the youth, as a part of their silver jubilee celebration. Madhura took part in it, inspired by Swamiji's life, as well as by the prospects of meeting Dr. Kalam, who, it was declared, will be the chief guest at the award ceremony. Madhura prepared well and wrote an excellent essay in Marathi that won a consolation prize. It was a moment of great pride for my entire family when she went on to the stage and recieved the award from Dr. Kalam himself. Since the event was in Maharashtra, and hers was the only Marathi essay to win a prize, the crowd cheered her with a relatively larger applause; the celebrated chief guest was sensitive enough to acknowledge it, and spoke a few words with her. (In the same visit to Pune, Madhura and our mother got a chance to briefly meet another Bharat Ratna - Pt. Bhimsen Joshi.)
Then last year, when Dr. Kalam visited Nagpur to take part in an event organized by Vijnana Bharati. He visited Smruti Mandir, the samaadhi (memorial) of Dr. Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS, and offered tributes. My father was one of the sangha karyakartas who received him at the venue.
We all know about the achievements of Dr. Kalam: his leading the missile program that developed Agni, Nag, Pruthvi; his role in India's successful nuclear tests; his vision to use the advanced technology in defense to also make low weight, easy to use equipments for physically challenged individuals; some of his decisions while at the Rashtrapati Bhavan; and of course his larger Vision 2020 for India's comprehensive development, and tireless work for inspiring the youth towards that. These are his blossoming virtures, or things that one would put in a resume; but we remember people not so much by what they achieve, but by how they behave with us, by what are called the ripening virtues. Dr. Kalam had both aplenty, and that's what makes him special. I think the memory of his last day that his colleague, Srijan Pal Singh, has shared speaks volumes about this: him asking the security guard who had to remain standing for hours about his well being, and offering some food to him, was very touching.
He lived a great life. His being a Muslim never affected crores of his "students" ever, even before or after his presidency. Unfortunately, it was brought up after his demise. "A great Muslim died on an auspicious day of Hindus in a Christian city. He maintained secularism and democracy in death too." — a message was being shared on Twitter and Whatsapp, mindlessly, like most other forwards. It's high time we learn to look beyond such token secularism constructs. Our youth, especially those who claim to take inspiration from Kalam, should be able to critically evaluate such goodie goodie but stupid messages: how does Shillong become a "Christian" city? If the answer is because it has 60% Christian population, why do the same set of people who cheered this message frown when our country with 80% Hindu population is called a Hindu Rashtra? Secularism was not something Kalam had to show off; it came naturally to him: he quoted from Gita and Thirukkural in his speeches, he routinely met spiritual leaders of all Dharmic panths and believed in their power to transform the masses—something our "secular celebrities" would scoff at, and in a true secular step, stopped the state funded iftar parties at Rashtrapati Bhavan, donating the money to orphanages instead. Anyway. The secularism debate is a separate and serious topic, and I will perhaps write about it another time, but my point here is, if we blindly follow and forward such messages, we are not applauding the real giants like Kalam, but in fact demeaning him, by reducing his real work to such tokenism.
Kalam always did and will continue to serve as an inspiration for several generations. Our job does not stop at sharing some tweets and pics about/of him for a few days, or even circulate petitions for naming universities and roads after him (Srijan Pal thinks he wouldn't have agreed with it anyways), and then get back to the same old routine. A real tribute will be if we —all of us— work towards strengthening the punyaatma, punya neta, punyaadhikari triangle he used to talk about. That is not an easy job. Each one of us should pledge to start the work from him/herself —becoming punyaatma (viruous individual)— and work on it every moment every day. As James Froude said, "You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one", and as we sing in a sangha geet:
साधना नित्य साधना, साधना अखंड साधना
saadhana - nitya saadhana, saadhana - akhanda saadhanaThat's what Kalam was doing, till his last breath.
