Page 186 - SocialHarmony

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Equal Opportunity for Everyone

(At the inauguration of Shri Gujarat Dashnam Goswami
Charitable Trust Ambaji Bhavan and the 35th
Conference of the Shri Maha Gujarat Dashnam

Goswami Mahamandal, Ambaji. February 22, 2004)

The Goswami community has taken up an excellent task. They
live among the deprived and teach them the values and
morals from the Ramayana. They have tried to save our culture,
and have gained people’s respect for centuries due to their good
deeds.

Usually, a ‘sadhu’ has to renounce the family and the society,
give up his identity, and go through many obstacles on this path.
But the Goswami community is the only community where you
get ‘sadhutva’1 by birth. This community has been teaching
values to the society for centuries. Apart from the ‘sant’ (saint)
tradition, they have also developed devotional music like
bhajans, kirtan and katha of our own cultural heritage.

There was a time when it was a matter of pride to belong to
a higher class. People announced with pride, ‘We are equivalent
to Brahmins and we are from a high class’. They would not put
up with anyone who calls them anything lower than Brahmins.
But the time has changed especially after independence. In pre-
independent India, people struggled to show that they were
from a high class family. Now, people struggle to obtain
documents certifying that they are from the lower classes! Now,

1. Identity as Sadhu.