It was in the year 1988 when Pujya Gurudev had come to Hyderabad for a Geeta Jnana Yagna. As all the devotees of Pujya Gurudev would know that when Pujya Gurudev came to any Centre for a Jnana Yagna, it was nothing less than a festive week. Rather, I would say, it was more than a festival.
Being with a Mahatma is a great divine opportunity to learn from him, through his actions, words, and even through his mere glances. All three types of learnings I had experienced with Gurudev. I have no hesitation to say here that like many other thousands (or even lakhs) of devotees of Pujya Gurudev, I always feel that I am blessed more than I deserve.
In the year mentioned above (1988), CHYK Hyderabad (Chinmaya Yuva Kendra, the Youth wing of Chinmaya Mission) had organised a ‘Youth Meet’ with Pujya Gurudev. Youth Meet is a special event where Pujya Gurudev would address the youth of the city or the town. Hyderabad and Secunderabad being twin cities, population was more and we could get a good number of youth to attend the talk of Pujya Gurudev. The topic for the talk was “CAN I…?”. Gurudev spoke so uniquely that day on the topic. He uttered ‘CAN I…?’ in different tones and intonations in such a way that the very mood of the mind of a person could be known instantly. Gurudev had demonstrated how people raise this question ‘Can I…?’ differently. Some say with pessimism or doubt, some utter with curiosity or inquisitiveness etc.
We had organised it in Ravindra Bharati, the most famous auditorium for all kinds of programmes and it was a government run auditorium. Its capacity is about 1500. On the previous day, Gurudev had commented, “Oh! You must control the elders. They also will come in to listen to the talk. Make sure that all the youngsters sit in front and push all the elders into the balcony.” As Gurudev said, there were more than 300 or 400 elders too who came to attend the talk. Of course, most of them were our Mission members only.
After a brilliant and inspiring talk, which is of course as usual for Gurudev, we announced that all would rise and stand for the pledge.
Gurudev stood. He was alone on the dais. After the inauguration, all of them climbed down. Our Master alone roared for about 45 minutes. The pledge was ‘lead and follow’. It was led by one of the CHYK members who was very devoted and most active. He did his job well. He read the pledge and all repeated, including Pujya Gurudev. I was standing on the stage, near Gurudev.
As soon as the pledge was over, the Chyk who read the pledge was called by Pujya Gurudev. There was no one except Pujya Gurudev, the Chyk member who read the pledge and me standing beside Gurudev. Gurudev called the pledge reader and bent forward and spoke softly in his ears. He kept quiet with a smile, when Gurudev spoke to him.
In fact, Gurudev had chided him saying, “Are you not ashamed to read the pledge by seeing it? All Chyks must memorise the pledge, and must also be able to lead without any difficulty.”
You all know, to lead the pledge and speak each sentence one after another, as the audience repeats, is a big challenge. The flow in the mind breaks. But, Gurudev did not agree to that thought. He knew the difficulty, yet, Gurudev wanted a standard from all the Chyks.
I too learnt a lesson that day that I must ensure myself first and also others, being the Secretary of CHYK Hyderabad, that all Chyks must memorise the Mission Pledge and also other stotrams.
Otherwise, I myself feel ashamed.
Salutations unto Pujya Gurudev.
– Swami Chidrupananda
Chinmaya Mission Noida
