My early childhood memories have been those around caste. During festivals, like Diwali and Holi, I would always feel that our family lacked being part of this grandness in its entirety. To feel part of the community, and may be also because we never really understood clear distinction, we always did the celebratory essentials – playing with colors on Holi, and bursting crackers on Diwali. This constant question on why don’t we celebrate the mainstream Hindu traditional festivals in the same grandeur was always part of my sub-conscious. And perhaps that’s the ambit of religion in regular lives of as a kid.
There were however deeper details and engagement that I believe strongly seeded my foundations as a person. If a glass gets broken in the house and no kid (myself, my younger brother and an elder sister) is accepting that they broke it, my mother will simply ask us to look into Huzur/Maalik’s picture and say that you didn’t do. 10 out of 10 times, Ma’s strategy would work and the one who did will accept her/his mistake.
There have been many more that I recall clearly:
Specific Bachans/verses that we as kids were made to learn by heart, and slowly engrain in our lifestyle. The bachans of Mehtaji Maharaj on valuing your labour to broad principles of waste nothing. Each line of this 5 min long verse (as mentioned below) can be and did actually become a principle of one’s life for many satsangis including me. We have been constantly reminded of these principles in daily activities and routines through satsang activities including khet (field work), community service like medical health camps, sports days amongst others.
And it wasn’t just verses and teachings, we lived a lifestyle that was holistically enrichening.
What does a typical day look like for a satsangi in Dayalbagh?
For a regular satsangi in Dayalbagh, the day starts at around 3.30 – 4.00 AM in the morning, with morning prayers of half an hour, followed by an average of 3-4 hours of khet sewa, working on the field as labour. People who are working go to their respective jobs from here, and there is also an evening shift from around 4.00 PM to 6.30 PM attended by those who are available. For satsangis living outside Agra, people gather at their local satsang halls to do similar activities at much smaller scale.
I once got a couple of my friends to visit Dayalbagh with me, both of them were from traditional hindu families. And the one comment that I am reminded of right now is, “I hope I am not born as you Anshul, I can’t do so much hard work, just to be part of a religion. For me, religious practices means fun – having festivals, eating delicious meals, and celebrating important events of our Gods/bhagwans”
The only reason to put this here is that it is definitely not an easy life if you choose to be Dayalbagh Satsangi. Giving your physical body and soul to the service of humanity is the first principle; followed by abstaining of alcohol and non-veg. The biggest motivation to follow such path is a the hope of Grace from the almighty, and that is a long journey, but you experience His Blessings in smaller details of daily lives too.
What stands out in the Dayalbagh way of life that I am truly inspired from includes:
- Basic Needs:
- Food (SDG 2): Dayalbagh practices natural farming on the 1200 acres of farm land it has. And it is self-sufficient in all food needs of the people living in the Dayalbagh colony, and also serves thousands of people from across the country and the world who also visit Dayalbagh to participate in the activities here. Since the labour needs is shared by community on volunteering basis, the cost of food is extremely cheap. Any satsangi can contribute INR 0 to INR 20 for 1 meal from the community kitchen. Dayalbagh maintains a large size dairy as well as gaushala for availability of nutritious milk and milk products.
- Housing (SDG 11): Houses in Dayalbagh are not owned by people but are provided to anyone providing voluntary services in the institutions of Dayalbagh.
- Health systems (SDG3): Dayalbagh has both preventive and curative ways of managing health of the community. While the routine demands extensive physical work out, be in in farms or other aspects of maintaining the colony like making food, electricity systems, etc. This along with Spiritual meaning to people life, where songs and cultural programmes by kids are organized that brings the emotions of gratitude and grace amongst the followers. I don’t not want to delve deeper into the theological part of Dayalbagh, but mostly on how it caters to healthy lifestyle of many that it inspires. Dayalbagh also runs Saran Ashram Hospital, where reputed doctors are available for consultation every day, without any fees, to everyone, within or outside the community.
- Energy Systems (SDG 7): While no one is allowed to have air conditioning or televisions inside the colony, it caters to the basic electricity needs of everyone staying there. A large proportion of the energy is now being cultivated through renewable sources like solar.
- Aspirational:
- Education system (SDG 4): Dayalbagh had set up an autonomous university – Dayalbagh Education Institute, a deemed university that has done some incredible work in the domain of systems science, and other subjects. It has truly provided an opportunity of higher applied learning specially to those who are left behind due to scarcity of resources and opportunities. The alumini of DEI can vouch for a holistic development in this university which does not just emphasize on studies but co-curricular activities as well as inculcating values that makes one a virtuous and industrious person.
- Industries (SDG 8 and 9): Dayalbagh has industries for producing daily use products from soaps, clothes, shoes, medicines which are provided at cost to cost price to the people within and outside the community. Quality and affordability of the product makes it very popular amongst anyone who has ever used these products even once.
- Special focus on women and children (SDG 5): Back in 1980s, women were not allowed for farm field work assuming that it can be too hard and dangeours for them, but very soon, all activities provide equal opportunity for women, be it field work, community kitchens, creative workshops amongst others. Different regions also have Mahila Associations that are promoted to get together and work in groups to develop new products or enhance co-learning opportunities in any relevant field.
- Sustainable consumption patterns and production systems (SDG 12): Dayalbagh model strictly recommends to dress simply, preferably in dayalbagh produced clothes (primarily because they are affordable to all, and thus bring visual equality). There is strong value system on minimalism, as well as valuing everything you may have – time, energy, throught, wealth, food, clothing – in short of anything they possess, lest they find themselves in short of it at the time of need.
Who is funding such a big machinery?
Nothing against religious institutions that are heavily dependent on huge donations from its devotees but Dayalbagh is not one of them. Every person who is initiated in this community, is allowed to give INR 0 – INR 2000 every year, and the sum of the money collected is the budget of the institution for that year. These budgets utilizations are also publicly discussed in quarterly meetings. There have been times for special needs, during infrastructure development, where those willing can contribute additional sums on one-time basis only, which is also rationalized across the lists of volunteers.
I went too much into the mechanics of the Dayalbagh model, I have thought many times in my life to write an essay on the Economic model of Dayalbagh but have always found myself not fully capacitated to do justice. So these are only aspects that I could place from thoughts brimming on the top, I guess one day, I shall build a series of blog on different aspects of Dayalbagh.
But I want to get back where I began, what does a Dayalbagh satsangi identity means to me….
Some of the critical aspects of Radhasoami Dayalbagh philosophy that are closest to my heart, of the little I try understanding on religions and harmony:
- This is not a book-based faith, but a teacher-based faith system. Our Guru, who we also call Maalik/Huzur, is our guide to understand the essence of why life? Who are we? What is our higher purpose. For those atheists/antagonists who may find these questions meaningless, to each his own. But for those who these questions may have significance, they may ask why do we need teachers and gurus and not just rely on texts and our knowledge. The answer simply lies in the analogy with any subject – science, maths, literature – where we need teachers to guide us through what is in the books and in applied world. Having a teacher in fact is a great virtue, the religion does not follow practices written decades or centuries back, but they keep changing with the needs of the time. When I was a kid, we used to do our morning prayers at 5.30 in the main satsnag hall in dayalbagh and then move to the fields and work there till 8. Today, with the shift in natural farming, resulting in higher labour needs, we all go straight to fields at around 4.00 PM and do our prayers while working on the field. This is a small example but there are multiple instances where the practice evolved based on the guidance and grace of the guru. Our Gracious Huzur, our Guru is most precious to us followers, and like Guru Gobind Singhji said,
“Guru Gobind dono khade, kaake laagu paaye,
Balihaari guru aapne, Govind diyo milaaye”
Translation:
If the teacher and God, both are standing in front of you, I will first bow to my teacher who helped me reach God.
The most hurtful part of the narrative on social media is that god men in India are not looked in positive light and Dayalbagh could also potentially be another scam of similar religion based set up. Such generalization is extremely harmful, it is almost of the same nature, when people say, “All Muslims are terrorists”. So even a 1000 examples of potentially fake god men should not be used deductively in case of dayalbagh.
- A leader is someone who inspires and sets a role model: Our current Huzur, Most Revered Prem Saran Satsnagi Saheb shows us the path by practice. He is following the same things as he directs his followers to do. Not only is he reputed retired Professor with many academic accolades to his name, he now lives the Dayalbagh way of life, to its fullest. Even at the age of 86, he goes to the field and does field work with satsangis. While the people of dayalbagh and other followers of radhasoami faith may take breaks from field work, if they have other professional or personal work, but Gracious Huzur is on the field twice a day with hardly any misses. He is the eight leader of Radhasoami faith, and this faith came in light in the world back in 1818, with extensive history of demonstrating a sustainable spiritual way of life to the world in different phases.
- Cultural Amalgamation: House of Urdu-Sanskrit: The way we are trained in this society, we tend to box things into different ideologies. If the religion has texts in urdu, it might be closer to Arabic, Hindustani, north Indian origins. If it uses Sanskrit, it must be closer to native Indian Hindu set of beliefs. If one practices vegetarianism, it must be a Brahminical belief system. For many times in my life, I tried to place this (my) faith system in the standard ways of learning and deducing from religions, and my biggest learning is that it is a mistake to try doing that. Just like a book should not be judged by its cover, these broad practices of languages (Radhasoami faith uses multiple languages – hindi, Sanskrit, urdu), food habits, festivals and ways of celebrating are only outer layers, and trying to place the faith in groups adhering to Sanatan Dharm, or the opposite of calling them Anti-Hindu/Adulterated Hindu – are all misguided realities.
- Truly respect all religions: The faith strongly propagates fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. Followers of the faith are guided to love and respect all religions, and there is no animosity to prove our faith higher than any other. And that has been so engrained in the way children are brought up through listening to teachings of these Gurus that it builds true secular spirits. And so, in the midst of my own journey of living with people from different religions, different belief system, I never had a problem in respecting them, understanding their perspective, while also believing in mine. I can understand that this is expected from any human, but this faith has inculcated this thought in thousands and lakhs of its followers in a institutionalized way, and that is a big treasure.
anshulbhamra 