Epitaph of a saint
Shashi Sagar Verma
Translated By: Ruchchi Sinha
"नैष तर्कणा मतिपर्णय" (This cannot be understood through logic) – Whether something remains after death or not, and whether it can be comprehended through argument, this is the essence of this verse. We may never be able to prove what remains after death, whether the soul remains after death or if it might be the final stop, whatever happens, but if you wish, you can feel the soul and today, feeling that same soul, I can say - तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय, असतो मा सद्गमय, मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय।- lead me from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality.
वह मोमबत्ती की तरह
काम कर रहा था
वह सहसा कांप उठा और
बुझ गया
He was working like a candle He suddenly trembled and went out
It is believed that when a person is approaching the jaws of death, all the events of his life flash before his mind’s eye, and surely, we must have taken some precious moments in Stan's thoughts at that time. If he were among us today, he would have been ninety, it's been five years since he passed, but it seems he still has to remain, until we are here or even long after we are not.
I still often visit the “Bagicha”(A center for social work name "Garden") he built, just as I used to when he was alive. The mind knows he is not there, but the atmosphere there gives a sense of his presence. Due to the rain, some activities are hindered, but they help in the task of extinguishing fires, just as his presence felt like a rain of hope, and after his departure, in the fog of depression and despair, the hope of controlling the fire with the rain of courage comes from his “Bagicha”. It means that which does not die until the end, lives and wins eternally, and if there is any grief in his departure, it is the comfort and satisfaction that we are still on the same path that he was with us five years ago.
For the last two decades, I have seen him working with PUCL and can say he was a true Christian, but you cannot remain a saint while fighting against state injustices, and as far as I have known and seen, without being influenced by personal or external factors, he fought for the rights of the oppressed and deprived, but in mind, speech, and action, he remained a saint. He kept expanding the conceptual scope of his “Bagicha”, a strange heavenly place, with truth, morality, cooperation, and coordination.
Surrounded by old trees on all sides, it feels like you could organize a public festival and keep running it for a lifetime. If you go there, take all your time with you so you don't regret not having more time to spend there. I think that place was for him to think, write, and read, a way to reach people without any struggle or confrontation. The faith that inspired his thoughts also had the effect of changing the views and beliefs of those who think, read, and write. Questioning his intentions or merely understanding him as a Christian priest is futile. By sticking to its religion, India and its society, without being defeated and without rejecting anyone, have accepted all religions with respect, and if ever any sharp corners pricked, they too, in the flow, have turned into smooth stones. We know from experience that politics has no ideology of its own, but rather it is the politics of different ideologies, so disagreement at the level of ideology, if there is or can be, is not a big deal, and the solution is to talk to them and tell them they are wrong.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the established concept of development, it is just that the vision regarding their implementation can differ, and that difference is important, and we want to bring Stan's vision into our debates, and if we want debate, we should respect the intentions and opinions of the other side in the same way we want for ourselves. If you do not have this respect, then you do not believe in thought, understanding, and logic.
As far as I understand, he believed that after independence, a hope was born, that all sufferings, evils, and problems would now end, and this state we have achieved will change everything. This hope associated with independence, which perhaps seemed a dangerous hope, gave politicians the opportunity to tell people to vote for them, and with the power of the state, they would make everything better. As a result, people understood their duty as only voting, and now, after so many years, it is being realized that the state could not be a means of change nor could the welfare state benefit everyone. A political saying goes that if the voting process ever seems to bring real change, the process itself will be changed.
A few months before his arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), during a private conversation at an event, I asked him about his opinion on development occurring through constitutional processes versus development occurring solely on the basis of outcomes without any process. He believed that constitutional processes must be followed, as they also safeguard rights, while the other way is lawless. All the progress in agriculture and industry has been possible due to this discipline, but perhaps due to our economic policies, the gap between poverty and wealth has also increased, and it is not just about poverty; the disparity in rights and resources, illiteracy, and population are also out of control, and achieving their goals still seems far off. In the political system, the vested interests of politicians, the division of votes based on caste and religion to win elections, and their desire to keep dependence on the government intact. In such a scenario, hope lies with the middle or lower classes, who are the biggest victims of this system, and the tribal’s, who consider water, forest, and land as their shelter and protector, and protect it. Being displaced by private enterprises without better rehabilitation and the government's lack of control over all these in the name of development only causes anger. In such a situation, hope lies with the young people from that time and that class, who need to be brought into this new struggle system.
What did this person, who came from almost the southern tip of India, see here that he made a permanent abode for his progressive life here, and now no one wants to let him go from here, resulting in the decision to preserve his memories in his room at “Bagicha”, with which he had a long relationship. As a student of architecture, I was given the responsibility to preserve his heritage while maintaining the originality of the room. During this process, I visited his room many times, seeing his cupboard, easy chair, iron bed, books, old mat on the floor, and felt what these walls would tell us if they could speak, what thoughts a person sitting here would have that made him so great. Perhaps this very distinctiveness seemed unfavorable to the power, and now everything is history. In the future, it might be hard for anyone to believe that a person over eighty, with trembling hands afflicted by diseases, could shake a power that claims it cannot be defeated. History bears witness that it does not matter whether it is colonial rule or social contract-based governance; the nature of power remains the same throughout the ages. After being convicted on charges of conspiracy in the 1857 rebellion against the British, the British exiled the last Mughal emperor "Bahadur Shah Zafar" to Myanmar (Burma). Zafar, who breathed his last in Rangoon, had wished to be buried in the soil of India, but unable to see this last wish fulfilled, Zafar, who was also a poet, said-
कितना है बद-नसीब 'ज़फ़र' दफ़्न के लिए
दो गज़ ज़मीन भी न
मिली कू-ए-यार में
(How unfortunate was 'Zafar' that he could not even get two yards of land for burial in the land of his beloved.)
These lines also apply to Stan; exiled in the solitude of the jail, he expressed a desire several times to be sent among his people before he was freed from imprisonment and his body, but either due to the tyranny of power or the violation of human rights, his voice was not heard.
Recently, during a PUCL meeting, I went to Bombay with Arvind and Solomon, where he was kept in jail. The place where we stayed in Andheri had several graves in the courtyard. When I asked if Stan was brought here from the jail for the last time, I found out that the place was quite far from there. Due to lack of prior planning and time constraints, it was not possible to visit there, but I hope the people at the "ashram" think about the plan to establish his memorial there.
We must always remember that this "Dadhichi" did not give up his body in vain, as described in the "Mahabharata's Vanaparva" when the gods, following "Brahma's" advice, asked "Maharishi Dadhichi" for his bones to create the weapon 'Vajra' to achieve victory over the demons. Similarly, the tree standing as a sentinel at the gate of this ashram was planted by the creator of this ashram, who saw his commander go to the political front and now stands in the same posture waiting for his return, like a child waits for his mother. Today, they are in awaiting, but as I feel, with the flow of time, the growing branches of this sentinel will enhance the dignity and glory of this courtyard, and tomorrow, the vast branches will be creating many new saplings before breaking. Like the tall and strong Eucalyptus trees lining the main entrance path of the ashram, capable of thriving anywhere in the world due to their usefulness, those sages await the return of the Maharishi's bones to create the 'Vajra' in this courtyard.
May the auspicious wishes of this ashram be fulfilled.
