Page 240 - SocialHarmony

244 Social Harmony

Dayananda asked him, “Arre, where did you get this Mundan
(head-shave) from?” The Swamiji had taken his revenge.

There has been a tradition among the saints in our country
that they have worked continuously to do away with the evils
and ills from the society. If we looked at the life of Baba Saheb
Ambedkar, it appeared as if he was going to destroy everything.
When I look at him, it appears to me that Baba Saheb shook the
society in order to take it to the right direction, and he
endeavoured for this all his life. Baba Saheb used to say that he
was born in Hinduism, but he would not die in it. This statement
was a source of joy to the secularists; but Baba Saheb did what
he had to. “I will quit Hinduism because I feel the need of
shaking it, so that people rectify their mistakes.” He converted
to Buddhism. The Nizam of Hyderabad placed before him a
pile of gems; the Christians were after him to embrace their
religion and for this, they were ready to give him astounding
amount of wealth, but Baba Saheb did not think it proper to go
to them. He adopted Buddhism. Such was our Baba Saheb. He
said that he would convert to Buddhism which was born in this
very country. It inspires brotherhood. Buddhism becomes a
medicine to connect faiths. It is unfortunate that Buddha or
virtue links unites and connects; but Prabuddha or intelligence
becomes a cause of trouble, disunity. This distinction between
Buddha and Prabuddha, this divide often becomes the cause of
producing problems in the society. Baba Saheb was Prabuddha,
but he sought the shelter of Buddha, due to this fact, he became
a medicine to remedy the problems.

Don’t Limit Harmony within Caste and Faith
Social harmony should not be limited within caste and faith.

It has a broad meaning. Let us take illiterate and handicapped
people. We look at the physically-disabled people with a
different point of view. If a mentally-retarded child is born in a
family, I ask myself whether the society or the family is
responsible for his care. Just imagine the case when a newly-
wed couple has for their first child a mentally-retarded child,
when they are just about 25-27 years of age. They must have