The Perennial Source of Steadfast Motivation and Aspiration

The power of the pen and force of speech are the two indispensable media for inducing positive values in the masses. Above all, it is charismatic and powerful personality of the leader, who, by presenting himself as a role model, can motivate others for bringing about the desired changes in thoughts and action for establishing a new world order. These three aspects of revolution, namely power of pen and speech and personality of the leader, are amply exemplified in the success story of the founder, mentor and guide of this mission. Every moment of his life, and all his endeavors have remained solely dedicated to the desired objective.

Power of pen: His easily comprehensible commentaries (in Hindi) of almost the entire range of Indian scriptural literature (Sanskrit) are today available for the common man. The enormous literature created by him includes, inter alia, translations of the four Vedas, 108 Upnishadas, 6 Darshanas, Smritis, Brahmanas and Aranakyas, of which he carried out in-depth study and worked tirelessly to make these available to the common man at an affordable price. Besides, based on his own experience, he authored about 1500 books providing simple guidelines for applying the principles of spirituality in day-to-day living. His literature is relevant to all faiths and beliefs of the world. Many articles published in the aforementioned eight monthly periodicals have been translated and published in several Indian languages and in English. The most revolutionary concept of this Ideological Revolution is the system of distribution of its literature. Because of the prohibitive costs of printing-publication and distribution, most of the quality literature being produced these days does not reach the common man. The founder of this mission overcame this difficulty by creating a unique institution of mobile human-libraries. (Jhola pustakalaya) The mission makes books available to its members (and others) at no profit no loss basis and the missions volunteers, from moving door-to-door, motivate the educated masses to read and exchange books periodically without paying any subscription or cost there for. The readers are also advised to read aloud-relevant portions for the benefit of the illiterate members of family. Literature is also being sold for home libraries.

Power of Speech: Besides literature, the other medium for reaching the masses and inducing excellence in mass psychology is the power of speech i.e. by discourses and musical rendition of reformatory ideas through songs and slogans. Practical training in both these fields (public speaking and singing) is being imparted to thousands of volunteers in the courses run at Shantikunj round the year. The curriculum basically consists of man-making material. The students are specially groomed to be courageous and develop a higher level of character to be able to motivate the masses by example.

Power of Personality: The personality of the guide and preacher must be far more powerful and impressive than the power of his pen and speech. If the preacher lacks charisma or has a substandard personality, he would only provoke ridicule or curiosity instead of providing motivation to the masses. It is only the miracle of charisma of the founder-mentor of this mission which has been able to groom over one million social architect through training camps organized at Shantikunj.

In order to coordinate and monitor the activities the field workers have been groped into a large number of centers scattered all-over the country and abroad. These are called “Pragya peeths “ the seats of wisdom. The total number of such centres today is more than 24 thousand in the country and abroad. These institutions are self sustained being managed on meager voluntary contributions of twenty paise and two hours of time daily by each member.

-Shri Ram Sharma Acharya