It was 25 years back, around this time of the year, when Sri Swami Rama said, “I’m going.” I said, “But you can’t.” He said, “Why?” Looking over the canopy of the trees, pointing to the magnificent buildings, I said, “Swamiji, your work is not over. It’s not these buildings, we are not yet enlightened.” With a poised look, he said, “I’ve done my job. I’ve sown the seeds.”
Upholder of the Bharati (a lover of knowledge) tradition, Swami Rama sowed the seeds of service to humanity in this soil. Torchbearer of the sages, his practical approach to life ensured that his students and society at large appreciated the art of skillful living while aspiring for the Divine. Thus today, the flowering has been both at the hub (Himalayan Hospital) as well as at the outreach. Committed to service through health and education, he left behind a holistic health and living model, strengthened through keeping the goal of life in mind. As he said, “Himalayan Institute is a holistic health center and students, patients and visitors come from all over the world to learn, understand about life on all levels—body, breath, senses, mind and soul. It’s not only a simple health center.”
As for the outreach programs he said, “We have rural development programs, where we go to the villages, serve poor people, teach them how to live, how to be self-reliant, income generation programs, cleanliness, what type of education we should have. I don’t believe in the education that is being imparted in my country. I feel sorry. This sort of education is not going to help our rising generation. I want them to learn the basics that are not taught in our schools and universities. Our boys and girls are deprived by that education, how to walk, how to sit, how to be straightforward and how to have perfect control over mind, action and speech.” Today the Rural Development Institute has enabled each of these areas, health, water, education, income generation, to expand in a large way across the entire state as well as in other states, thus enabling the seeds to grow further across all generations.
Ms. B. Maithili, Director, RDI