Swadhyaya Movement
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The Swadhyay Parivar is a socio-religious movement based in Maharashtra, India. It claims to have over 50,000 study centers and 60,00,000 followers in India, Portugal, USA, UK, Canada, and the Middle East who carry out various activities of self-development, social welfare activities and socio-economic development in the areas of water management and agriculture.[1]
Swadhyaya means study of self for a spiritual quest.
Pandurang Shastri Athavale was the originator of this movement that promotes a particular interpretation and reading of the Vedic scriptures like Bhagavad Gita, Vedas and the Upanishads. His followers are still active with missionary work. For his efforts he was awarded the Templeton Prize in 1997, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership and India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan in 1999.[2]
History
In his early twenties, Athavale began to deliver discourses on the Bhagavad Gita in Mumbai, India. He argued that both liberal welfare centric approach and socialism were incapable of bridging gap between rich and needy. Even every form of charity results in eradication of human dignity and sense of self-worth. The differences between human beings can be eliminated only by taking principles of Bhagavad Gita to grassroots levels. So he started Swadhyay Movement, in 1954.[3]
Overview
Swadhyay literally means the study, knowledge, and discovery of the self. According to proponents, it is a "journey to work out a unity in a multiverse of cultures and world views, of harmonizing the self with a network of relationships, of creating and maintaining vital connections between self, society, and God, of knowing and enriching human action with sacredness."[4] [page needed] The understanding of an in-dwelling God imbibed into Swadhyayees (practitioners of Swadhyay) by Athavale is claimed to motivate them towards true expression of devotion (Bhakti).[4][page needed]
Athavale introduced educational institutions, developed wealth redistribution measures and social welfare projects.[4][page needed] Athavale has shown that individual transformation eventually can lead to wider social change.[4] Devotion, he says, can be turned into a social force. "Since God is with us and within us, he is a partner in all our transactions. Naturally, he has his share..."[4] God's part of our wealth, Athavale suggests, can be redistributed among the poor and needy.[4] [page needed]
Athavale also presented the idea of Yogeshwar Krishi (divine farming) to the farming community. In this social experiment, a Swadhyayee gives a piece of land for use for a season as God's farm. Thereafter each person subsequently, one day a month, works on cultivating that particular plot of land.[4] [page needed] Seen as God's plot, the income thus generated is called "impersonal wealth" and belongs to no one but God. The wealth is consecrated in the local temple (called Amritalayam) and later disbursed to those in need as prasad or divinely blessed food. Swadhyay emphasizes "graceful giving" where "the help to the needy family's house is taken in the middle of the night so that others may not know that the family concerned has received help from the community."[4]
Controversies
Reference and notes
- ^ The Other Gujarat, Takashi Shinoda, Popular Prakashan, 2002, ISBN 8171548741,
- ^ Padma Vibhushan Official listings Govt. of India website.
- ^ Swadhyaya: A Movement Experience in India - August 2003
- ^ a b c d e f g h Vital Connections: Self, Society, God : Perspectives on Swadhyaya, 1998; Weatherhill, ISBN 0-8348-0408-5.
- Swadhyay Movement Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths, by Mary Pat Fisher. Published by I.B.Tauris, 1996. ISBN 1-86064-148-2, Page 109.
- Swadhyaya: A Movement Experience in India - August 2003 Visions of Development: Faith-based Initiatives, by Wendy Tyndale. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006. ISBN 0-7546-5623-3. Page 1.
- Self-Development and Social Transformations?: The Vision and Practice of the Self-Study Mobilization of Swadhyaya, by Ananta Kumar Giri. Lexington Books. 2008. ISBN 0-7391-1198-1.
- Role of the swadhyaya parivar in socioeconomic changes among the tribals of Khedasan: A case study, by Vimal P Shah. Gujarat Institute of Development Research, 1998. ISBN 81-85820-53-8.
- Vital Connections: Self, Society, God : Perspectives on Swadhyaya, by Raj Krishan Srivastava. 1998; Weatherhill, ISBN 0-8348-0408-5.
- "Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability", by Pankaj Jain. 2011; Ashgate, ISBN 978-1-4094-0591-7.