DADA J P VASWANI leads the Sadhu Vaswani Mission from Pune. Interacting with NARAYANI GANESH in New Delhi recently on the eve of Cheti Chand, the Sindhi New Year, he points out that today’s culture of irreverence is a major obstruction to personal and societal evolution
He is all of 94 years, yet his eyes sparkle, his skin glows and there’s nary a wrinkle visible. The calm exterior comes from a tranquil interior, for Dada is humility personified, always playing down his own achievements while holding up those of others. A half smile playing on his lips, he greets me with palms joined in a namaste. I do likewise and introduce myself. “And they call me J P Vaswani,” he offers, much to my amusement. Does he need to introduce himself?
A disciple of his uncle, T L Vaswani (who is referred to as Sadhu Vaswani), Dada admits that until he came under Sadhu’s influence while in college, he was full of himself as an argumentative young man, flaring up at the slightest provocation. Why was that? “In school, I got four double promotions and passed the Matriculation exam at the age of 13,” he says, adding that he graduated when only 17. “I thought I knew everything,” he says, chuckling, “until I began interacting with my guru and that changed my life.”
Young Achiever
Dada studied physics and his Masters’ thesis on ‘The Scattering of X-Rays by Solids’ was sent by the University of Bombay (to which his college in Karachi was affiliated) to Bangalore, to Nobel laureate C V Raman, for assessment. Raman had won the Nobel for his Raman Effect on the scattering of light. “I expected to fail because my thesis was on another theory of a western scientist that was not in agreement with Raman’s theory.” After a six-month correspondence between the young Vaswani and Prof Raman, finally, the thesis was approved. “I never expected to pass the test,” confides Dada. “But this shows C V Raman had a truly scientific mind,” he says.
Reach Out To The Soul
The Sadhu Vaswani Mission is known for its work in education and its promotion of forgiveness and vegetarianism. The St Mira’s College in Pune is popular as are schools run in various cities. “Sadhu Vaswani started the Mira movement in education…in Mira, he found, on the one hand, intense bhakti for Krishna and on the other hand, she had not just humility, but was mother to the poor who came to join her in worship of Krishna,” explains Dada. Value education, according to Dada, does not take into account the fact that every human being is essentially a soul, for it only considers the physical and mental aspects and does not address the soul… “We need to go beyond value education,” he says.
So what did he think of the Sanjay Dutt case? Ought he to be forgiven? “The Sanjay Dutt case is different. It is the duty of the administrator to give dand or punishment. The law has to take its course. There have been cases where kings have punished their own sons. Without law enforcement, lawlessness could increase. We see so many women being molested. If such a thing happens in Dubai, the rapist will be sent to the gallows and so it does not happen there,” says Dada, who believes that while forgiveness is a personal decision, when it comes to implementing order in society, laws need to be enforced.
Why do people prefer to say ‘I am spiritual’ rather than say, ‘I am religious’? Dada points out that rituals, rites and ceremonies are the kindergarten of religion, whereas spirituality is that which has to do with the spirit. “Each one of us has been given human birth; the purpose is to realise that we are immortal spirits. Creeds and dogmas are specific to each religion, so they separate one religion from another…You have your own religion, I have my own religion. The separateness that we have gets completely lost when we come to spirituality — for you have the same divine spark that is in me,” he says.
Zero Is Hero
According to Dada, at the lower state, we are concerned more with words and when you reach the higher stage, words lose their meaning. In fact, if you enter samadhi and come out of it, you cannot describe it in words. “On the physical plane, we have to work for unity. On the spiritual plane, unity is already established; there is no difference between the two of us.”
Speaking of higher planes, would he explain the concept of zero in Sindhi tradition which is different than ‘nothingness’? “It is the point (not a circular symbol) where your ego has to vanish. Sadhu Vaswani used to say, ‘I am only a zero but not the English zero, because the English zero occupies some space. I am the Sindhi zero; am just a point.’ It’s what we call nukta in our Sindhi language.”
How do you arrive at nukta, and how do you vanish? Dada says it can only happen with the grace of the guru. “The guru first draws you to himself — so much so that you arrive at a point where you know you cannot do without him; you cannot live away from him. Once that point is reached, he starts his play. He becomes a butcher. He picks up the trident and strikes you (your ego). You cry, you want to run away, but the pull of the guru is such that you cannot even run away. Then, he takes you to a point where the ego vanishes,” he says. However, the guru’s grace and the disciple’s ego vanishing does not happen to all, for you have to be ready to receive that grace. “Narendra (Vivekananda) was ready, he was a prepared soul; therefore Ramakrishna could get results,” says Dada.
On God And Goodness
What would he say to young people? “We must turn back to God. We have thrown God out of our homes, schools, colleges and universities and the vacuum so created has been filled in by the devil. Children have no reverence for their parents; students have no reverence for their teachers. Reverence, I believe, is at the root of the right type of life. So many young people come to me with their problems, I tell them, don’t forget that you have this human birth only because of your parents, so please show some reverence to them. Only when irreverence changes to reverence, there will be hope for everyone.”
Even if one’s parents happen to be criminals? “Of course, reverence is the first step. I must learn from the life of my parents. Dattatreya said that he learnt a lot from criminals and prostitutes — you can learn only if you have the spirit of reverence. A person may be a criminal, but there is some element of goodness in him. The best amongst us falters somewhere. The worst among us has some good point.”