Lord Krishna said: One who shall
study, practice, propagate, or help the propagation of this supreme
secret philosophy, shall be performing the highest devotional service
to Me and shall certainly attain Me. No other person shall do a
more pleasing service to Me, and no one on earth shall be more dear
to Me. (The Bhagavad-Gita, Verses 18.68-69).
In three days time, Bihar will be rolling out red carpets for
many sons of the soil who have taken voluntary exile in the modern
world's never-never lands earning pots of gold. Inveigled by Chief
Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav during his recent trips abroad, the
prodigals have responded to a well-high desperate call made in
the name of their motherland. A share of their lucre will be needed
to resuscitate the ailing industries, boost the economy and propel
the State properly on the road to prosperity.
Luncheon meetings would be organized, well-drafted speeches read
out and quite a number of strategies formulated in Patna. Apparently,
the visiting Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) of Bihar origin based
in some of the advanced countries of the world will deliberate
on ways and means to help the State make rapid strides. Being
fortune's blue-eyed boys who have not severed their umbilical
chords with the place where they were all born and brought up
in their formative years, they would not, or should not, really
mind parting with a chunk of their hard-earned dollars. If at
all that could open up the gateway to progress for Bihar. Materialistic
progress, to be succinct, with smoke billowing out of the chimneys
of the factories, villages awash with vaporised lights and skyscrapers
threatening to cause a few hiccups to regular flight pilots.
Even as those successful sons of Bihar would be busy making the
most of their materialistic fortune, a Bihari NRI settled in California,
USA will remain preoccupied in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.
For him the quest for materialism is symptomatic of the human
ignorance of metaphysics that is the humanity’s greatest
predicament. Ajana, the universal ignorance, is the mother of
all sins. "The giving of the gift of Jnana (wisdom) is (the
most cost effective and) the best charity. It is equivalent to
giving the whole world in charity." (Mahabharata, 12.209.13,
Shanti Parva).
Dr. Ramanand Prasad is no Samnyasi, nor has he any illusions
about being a propounder of any new religio-philosophical theory.
In fact, he is currently working as a supervisor with the US Navy,
though he has, to all intents and purposes, opted out of the rat
race for fulfilling what is known as the great American dream.
His only objective left is the attainment of freedom or happiness
from the bondage of life through performing his duty in keeping
with the philosophy of Shrimad Bhagavad-Gita. However, he is far
from being satisfied over his having imbibed the immortal teachings
of the holy book, for he wants to propagate them throughout the
world for the welfare of humanity. "The Gita teaches us that
basically there are two types (or castes) of human beings in this
world: the decent and the indecent ones (Gita 16.06)" and
its teachings are very relevant in the world today to establish
the much-needed harmony between diverse cultures, races, religions,
and faiths.
Guided by such an altruistic as well as holy objective, he set
up the American Gita Society (AGS) in 1984 to do the "greatest
service to Him by propagating His philosophy" in Fremont,
California, USA. Eleven years later, Dr. Prasad has succeeded
in putting the English translation of the Bhagavad-Gita on the
Internet and America Online that is free for those desirous of
assimilating the kernel of Gita’s philosophy into their
daily lives. He has also put free a correspondence course on the
sacred book on the Internet to teach people worldwide the importance
of the "mother of all didactical epics." No donation
is ever asked from the students of the course, because AGS does
not intend to build any more Ashrams, or Temples. Their aim is
to try to make every home an Ashram by placing the Holy Gita there
for the people to read, ponder, and practice in everyday life.
A registered, non-profit, tax-exempt religious institution, the
society’s primary aim is to put Bhagavad-Gita in libraries,
hotels, motels, hospitals all over the world on the lines of American
Bible Society. Formed to enlighten and serve the humanity through
the medium of Gita, it, however, has other objectives as well.
It seeks to spread the basic non-sectarian, universal teachings
of other Vedic scriptures in an easy-to-understand language for
the common people by forming local chapter of the society in other
countries, to be named as the International Gita Society (IGS);
to provide inspiration, help, and guidance in establishing satsang
(religious discourse) groups in the neighborhoods, and provide
free correspondence course to the youth, students, busy executives,
and others in any part of the world. The society also intends
to provide cooperation and support to persons and non-profit organisations
engaged in the study and propagation of the Vedic knowledge by
arranging lectures, seminars, and short courses on meditation,
yoga, and metaphysical science, as also to break the barriers
between faiths, and establish unity of races, religions, castes,
and creeds through the ever-relevant teachings of the Vedas, Upanishads,
Ramayanas as well as other major Scriptures of the world such
as Dhammapada, the Bible, and Koran.
That the importance of such attitude to life has not become obsolete
is obvious by the way the people have responded to Dr. Prasad’s
endeavours. Thousands of people of all faiths, including Christians,
Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs, mostly from the USA, Canada,
and Asia have already taken the free Gita correspondence course.
All chapters of Dr. Prasad’s complete translation of the Gita
are available in several computer formats such as plain ASCII, LaTex,
and Windows in Cyberspace. The address is:
http://www.digi-net.com/sunil/indian/geeta.html
"I have received a lot of very good comments from those
who have read it (on the Net) world-wide," said Dr. Prasad,
adding he was particularly pleased with the response of an individual
from Britain recently".
A complete stranger to Dr. Prasad, the Briton who answers to
Checkmate on the Internet, saying "It might seem unusual
for me to say this after being not very charitable in the past,
but I had a Samadhi experience a few months ago and during that
experience found that everything in the Gita is true." He
went on to say that "for brief minutes I was a Brahman and
knew as He knows. I am not a religious man and these words are
very hard for me to say but your faith, the words of Gita really
are true. Don’t look for any metaphorical meaning in it;
there aren’t any. It is a literal description of how things
are. Just thought that might help. Om Shanti." This message
was forwarded to Dr. Prasad by another person with the covering
note: "Namastey, your Gita translation is moving people all
over the world."
Dr. Prasad was pleased with the response to his translation of
the holy book. It was in 1988 that he published and distributed
over 5,000 copies of his effort. A pocket size version of this
first edition was also published in India. Having received tremendous
response to his maiden work, Dr. Prasad set out to work on the
enlarged version of the Gita that would be published by Motilal
Banarsidas, New Delhi next month. Commenting on his work, the
International Edition of the Hinduism Today wrote: "Dr. Ramanand
Prasad now offers his deft translation to the holy mount of Gita.
His renderings are elegantly simple, easy to understand, and unencumbered
by commentary." It also wrote that his forthcoming version
was "...an ambitious work that will be appre-ciated by all
who study the Gita ..."
Several notable scholars have also lauded the work of Dr. Prasad.
Rev. Phil Buzard from New York said that he usually found Gita
translations tedious because of complex structure and lack of
brief definitions of Sanskrit words. "But I found this translation
is simply beautiful because it is beautifully simple." Another
reader from Williamsville Trinidad wrote to Dr. Prasad that "....
I have read several editions of the Gita and never have I sprung
upon such a simple and lucid description of the essence of the
Gita and its background." The lucid translation that emphasised
the renunciation of the fruits of action of the Gita and its praiseworthy
attempt to maintain a high standard of metaphysical integrity
between the verses have brought him plethora of plaudits.
It was, however, not that Dr. Prasad had always remained preoccupied
in the propagation of the Gita’s teachings. Like all successful
first generation Indians who migrated to the USA, he was also
following the surefire routes to progress. So busy was he in his
job that he did not have time even for his family, let alone contemplating
the philosophy of the Gita. "It was around 1975 that I happen
to go through the complete epic and got influenced by its teachings,
particularly those of Karma Yog," said Dr. Prasad. "My
life has never been the same since then." Lord Krishna’s
sermons to vacillating Arjuna in the battle field had an extraordinary
impact on him as he decided to devote the remainder of his life
to the propagation of Gita’s philosophy as his hobby. "Everything
is divinely preordained. An individual cannot do anything in accordance
with his will; it is always His will that matters," he said,
rather philosophically.
Having had a roller-coaster journey of fortunes, he should be
a fatalist, who performed his duty without bothering for any rewards
in return. Born in 1938 in a tiny hamlet, Hargawan near Biharsharif,
in the family of a poor farmer who had three acres of land and
six children to support, he had hard times in his early days.
By dint of hard work, his father was somehow able to send his
sons to college. Ramanand had his preschool education in the village
from the late Mazahirul Haque, a retired (Muslim) headmaster who
gave him a sound background in English and Mathematics that kept
him in good stead during his advanced studies. After finishing
his high school education at Mahadeva High School, Khusrupur,
he passed his high school from Patna Collegiate in 1953. He attended
Patna Science College from 1953-55 and later obtained his Engineering
degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur.
"As the divine planner would have it all planned form me,
I did not even have the time to attend the convocation and claim
my hard-earned degree as I was offered a National Research Council
of Canada Graduate Teaching and Research Fellowship to do my Master’s
work on water yield of swamp lands in Ontario, Canada on the Guelph
campus of the University of Toronto," he walked down the
memory lane, saying it was all because of the recommendation of
Professor A.C. Pandya, Head, Department of Agricultural Engineering
at IIT Kharagpur "to whom I am highly indebted."
The scholarship, however, did not signal the end of hard days
for him. The airfare to Toronto was a huge problem. He had saved
some money, but that was much short of requirements. His doting
mother sold or pawned her jewellery but the requisite Rs. 2,500
was still a distant dream. Not one to get disheartened so easily,
he took an Italian Laura Line boat at a student discount rate
in the lower deck of the ship, 20 feet below the ocean surface.
Those days Indian Government used to give $8 to all foreign bound
Indians. Having slept sometimes on empty stomach during his journey,
he reached his destination with only $5 in his pocket on which
he had to live for 30 days, before getting his scholarship money
at the end of the month.
"But the great planner, creator, Aksharatita, Para-Brahm
Paramatma, Lord Krishna had arranged everything for me,"
he said. "Tiwariji, my senior from IIT, was there at Guelph
to help."
After finishing his MS degree at Toronto, he came to the University
of Illinois, Urbana, USA where he obtained his Ph.D. in Water
Resources Engineering under Dr. Ven Te Chow, an internationally
known hydrologist. In the meantime, he had two children, Reeta
and Sanjay from his wife Sadhana and took his US citizenship in
1974. He worked in research, teaching, several consulting Engineering
firms, as well as State and Federal Governments in the USA prior
to being promoted to a top position in the US Navy in the San
Francisco Bay area, California. He has also published several
papers in the Journals of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Nevertheless, despite the growing demands of his job, he has
not forgotten his roots and frequently comes to his native place.
Dr. Prasad even has his son studying medicine at Bangalore. His
affinity with Indian culture can be gauged from the fact that
he has been associated with several US-based "Indian"
organizations. He is a charter member and founder of non-profit,
tax-exempt, religious organisations such as the Universal Yoga
Center, the Ramayana Sabha, and the Vedic Dharma Samaj that now
runs the Fremont Hindu Temple and Cultural center.
"Ours is a closely-nit community in the USA and we have
kept our Indian identity despite being part of the big American
society," he said, adding racial incidents like "dotbusters"
against Indian women were confined to very small areas. "Otherwise,
the American meritocracy has a place for everyone."
But perhaps it was the cut-throat, mechanical competition for
proving merit in society that drove Dr. Prasad to seek solace
and new meaning of life in America. "Bhagavad-Gita provided
me all the answers I needed," he said, "One should always
remember the glory and greatness of the Creator and do his or
her duty efficiently without being attached to or affected by
the results even if that duty may at times demand unavoidable
violence. Some people neglect or give up their duty for the sake
of spiritual life while others excuse themselves from spiritual
practices on the ground that they have no time. One should do
one’s duty as a service to the Lord (or humanity) and see
God alone in everything in a spiritual frame of mind and remember
that all works are being done by the energy of Mother Nature,
and that we are not the doer but only an instrument. One must
strive for excellence in all undertakings but maintain equanimity
in success and failure, gain and loss and pleasure and pain,"
as he sermonised the basic tenets of the Gita.
No wonder he is not at all bothered about his "Herculean"
task ahead. How will he be able to put the Gita in all the remote
places of the world? "It is the Lord’s work; if He
wills it, it will be done, but it is not one-man one-life-time
work. Our Christian brothers did not achieve a similar objective
overnight. I want to plant the seed, let others take over, and
help it grow," he said. "I want to set up Gita study
groups (Satsang) all over the world. It has already been established
in main American, Canadian, and Malaysian cities. I want more
and more people to join me in this holy mission and share the
Grace of selfless service."
Dr. Prasad will retire from service in 1999 and after that he
would like to devote all his time to the "greatest service
to God". He wants the like-minded persons to lend their helping
hands in this mission. To his numerous fellow human beings perennially
preoccupied in a wild goose chase after the ultimate state of
bliss in a labyrinthine modern society, he has a verse from the
Gita to quote: "Ananyaas chintayanto maam, ye janaah paryupaasate;
teshaam nityaabhiyuktaa naam, yogakshemam vahaamy aham (I personally
take care of both the material and spiritual welfare of those
steadfast devotees who always remember Me with single-minded contemplation.
Gita 9.22)."
( Following is the address of the AGS: 511 Lowell Place, Fremont,
Ca 94536-1805, USA. Branch: Dr. B. P. Bajpai, International Gita
Society, C-3 Khapra Mahal, Kanpur 208004 (India).
Note: This article may be reprinted in any media. The permission
to reprint has been granted by the publisher of The Hindustan
Times, published from New Delhi and Patna, India.
