There are different factors that inspire people to do something for their "Maatru Bhoomi." For me, it was a deep burning desire to trace some people of my ancestral village and unite them to perform activities that benefit the local rural communities. Neither me nor my father have ever lived in our ancestral village of Maharajapuram - a tiny hamlet near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu. So, finding people who hail from this village was like finding a needle in a hay stack! I tried googling Maharajapuram. It produced about 2,57,000 results in 0.61 seconds with prominence to the great singer Maharajapuram Santhanam who prefixed the village name to his own but apparently contributed very little to the village. I could not find any useful people contacts through google. So, what should I do further in pursuit of my desire?
I thought hard. In the first place, what attracted me to my ancestral village? It was the small, beautiful ancient village temple of Vishnu Durga that I happened to visit for the first time some 30 years ago - thanks to the trustee of the temple Sri Ramachandra Iyer who kindly hosted me at his home in the adjacent village of Baskararajapuram.
During my extensive travels, I discovered that people in India's villages are often united by the village temples. Temple festivals pull thousands, sometimes millions of people together. I witnessed it in the most recent Kumbabhishekam of a temple in Baskararajapuram. Besides being most colorful, such festivals provide livelihood to hundreds of local people who are skilled in various services. One way of helping the local communities is to perform some actvities connected with the temple. I felt there could be some people of Maharajapuram lineage who might still be interested in the village temple, if not in the village itself.
My hunch proved right! Through my network of contacts including the family members of Ramachandra Iyer, I found at least four people with Maharajapuram lineage seriously interested in renovating and maintaining the Vishnu Durga temple. In fact, one of them whom I had not met before was so good that he invited me to visit Mumbai and stay at his home. Another was my long-time friend and colleague from Greaves Cotton in Mumbai whom I met by chance after 40 years at the temple! Last week, we all met together in Mumbai and formed the "Maharajapuram Mitra Mandal"- an association of Maharajapuram friends - to work on our objectives. We decided to undertake the renovation of the temple and also planned to conduct a 'Laksharchanai,' a major temple event, in July 2016. Such activities are sure to provide jobs for local workers and further their livelihood. My fond hope is that we will discover more people of this village and the 3M group will grow to help a tiny part of rural India economically and spiritually too! Stay tuned to the group activities on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/509065412615138/?ref=bookmarks
There is a popular saying "Service To Humanity Is Service To God." To me, it appears that Service to God translates itself as Service to Humanity! Jai Durga Maatha Di!
