गायत्री ज्ञान मन्दिर, इंदिरा नगर, लखनऊ के विचार क्रान्ति अभियान ज्ञान यज्ञ के अन्तर्गत बलरामपुर गार्डेन लखनऊ में आयोजित राष्ट्रीय पुस्तक मेला (22 सितम्बर से 2 अक्टूबर 2023 तक) गायत्री परिवार के संस्थापक युगऋषि वेदमूर्ति तपोनिष्ठ पं० श्रीराम शर्मा आचार्य द्वारा रचित जीवन उपयोगी साहित्य मेले में प्रदर्शित किया गया. यह गायत्री ज्ञान मन्दिर, इंदिरा नगर, लखनऊ का 34वां पुस्तक मेला था.
All World Gayatri Pariwar is devoted to cultural, ethical, moral and spiritual awakening of the masses. Development of divinity in mankind is its foremost goal and avowed objective. To accomplish this goal it is working on the following seven programs:
The structure and system of human society plays a major role in creation of ideal circumstances for happy and prosperous life on the earth. The convictions, traditions and customs of a social system influence the way of life of majority of its people…. It is a general tendency of human mind to adapt to the existing circumstances and contemporary customs and follow whatever appears to be acceptable as the majority opinion. If a social system is founded on high ideals of humanity and has maintained certain principles and values based on prudence rather than by rigidity, the mental setup of its members would also be molded accordingly and add to the multifaceted development of that society and its cultural elevation.
Mutual respect, co-operating and peaceful coexistence, sharing of pains and happiness, equality of justice, feelings of sacrifice for noble causes and devotion to selfless service - among the people, are the fundamental requirements for generation of what could be designated as a ”divine society”. Annals of human history show that whenever such virtuous tendencies pervade in the social environment, heavenly conditions of life are bestowed upon the society. Acharya Sharma has envisaged the advent of such an ideally civilized, cultured and divinely prosperous human society in the new era where selfishness would be completely wiped out by altruist sentiments and every part of our planet will be transformed into paradise of eternal beauty…. The present volume sketches his optimism and ideas on the possibilities of turning this ’Utopia’ into reality….
Spiritual sadhana (self refinement) is practiced to attain self-awakening. The starting point of any sadhana is self - introspection. Understanding the falsity of our egocentric identity through introspection is the first essential prerequisite on the path of self-realization. It enables the sadhak to pinpoint the ignorance-bred negativities lodged in the depths of our psyche. The second step is to cleanse our inner being of all the accumulated debris and weeds of ignorance and simultaneously sowing the seeds of self-elevating virtues in the cleansed and fertilized soil of our inner being; and vigilantly nurture these divine attributes of selflessness, humility, altruism, loving kindness, compassion, etc. Mechanically performing religious rituals and mistaking them as spiritual sadhana is a mere self-deception. In order to accomplish siddhi or success, sadhana has been considered a must. It is a proverbial saying that sadhak accomplishes siddhi. Those who work to achieve siddhi but shirk the endeavor of sadhana, have to remain unsuccessful, even though they might accuse some persons, circumstances or stars etc for their failures. In this world, everything is purchased after paying its cost...
Ayurveda (The Ancient Indian Medical Science) is believed to be the oldest repository of diagnostic, pharmaceutical and therapeutic knowledge. This Vedic science draws upon an integral approach to healthcare by considering the physical, mental and deep emotional well being simultaneously. All World Gayatri Pariwar is conducting innovative research in Ayurveda, cultivation of Himalayan herbs and production of effective medicines. Various branches of western and alternative systems of medicines are also being synthesized here.
Yagyopathy (Applications of Yagya for Healing) has been found very effective in the cure of both physical ailments and psychosomatic disorders like anxiety, depression, guilt, insomnia, etc. Yagya (A process of offering oblations to the sacred fire along with chanting of Mantras) renews the brain cells, revitalizes the skin, purifies the blood and prevents growth of pathogenic bacteria. Mental peace, emotional stability and creative development of the mind are the psychological benefits. Yagya is basically a healing process, as is clear from the following example.
Treatment of Diabetes : The urine sugar level of some acute diabetic patients was found to be totally absent and the level of blood sugar was reduced to normal just after two to three weeks of daily agnihotra (Yagya) (From the book “The Integrated Science of Yagya”, compiled by Dr. R. R. Joshi, Publisher – Yug Nirman Yojna, Mathura, 1999).
The program for Education focuses on both Shiksha and Vidya, i.e., ideal blending of moral refinement and intellectual development with school education.
Param Poojya Gurudev Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya designed a new school-education syllabus, emphasizing the need of revising the existing system, to make it more rational, dynamic, relevant and useful in assuring a happy and bright future to the world. He also justified the importance of incorporating vidyaa in the updated system of shikshaa, and gave practical guidance for doing so at the primary, secondary and higher levels of education. He devised specialized value-based syllabus for this purpose, to suit the gamut of students having different backgrounds and mental and intellectual levels. The primary and pre-secondary education offered in the school of All World Gayatri Pariwar at Shantikunj, Haridwar, sets a living example of how this syllabus can be successfully implemented with the innovative methods of teaching suggested by him.
The special syllabus and mode of examination of Bhartiya Sanskriti Gyan Pareksha (An examination testing the knowledge of Indian Culture), organized by the mission in thousands of schools in India every year, has been very successful in creating cultural awareness, and clarifying the concept of vidyaa among children.
The progress of any nation is dependent on the fully developed personality of its citizens, of which youth comprise a significant proportion. The personality of youth is highly influenced by education. However, worldwide, the current education system is not structured to develop the personality of students, and does not guide them towards a purposeful path of life, through which they can live happily and peacefully, as well as be competent enough to fight difficulties. In the olden times, universities such as Nalanda and Taxila accomplished the task of guiding students in the right direction, by imparting spiritual knowledge on a practical basis, i.e. how ideals can be incorporated in personality considering the prevalent trends in the society.
Gayatri Pariwar has taken up this challenging task by establishing, in year 2002, the Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya (Divine Culture University) – A University for the Cultural Renaissance of the World.
The one year swaavalamban vidyaa (self-reliance) course and training programs of self-reliant and moral education with spiritual refinement, offered by All World gayatri Pariwar at Gayatri Tapobhumi, Mathura, have been very successful in generating dedicated, disciplined and talented batches of young men and women, who are committed to altruist service for cultural elevation and global welfare. The well educated but unemployed youths, rather than suffering depression, and waiting for the government and other bodies for help, may also get new guidance from this kind of self-reliant vidyaa.
Self-reliant development of rural India through Adarsh Gram Teerth Yojna (Movement for the creation of ideal villages): Special shramdaan (collective labor) programs are organized by All World Gayatri Pariwar in rural parts of India – including the tribal bases in the interior – for ‘teaching by doing’. Programs like health and hygiene, literacy and reformative activities, and encouraging participation of villagers, are emphasized. Community services are also conducted through social functions, and mass participation in agricultural and small scale industry based developmental programs. Special emphasis is given to the use of cattle based resources and other local resources.
The huge industrial complexes, rapid urbanization, deforestation, air and water pollution, ozone-depletion, radioactive wastes etc., have disturbed and destabilized the natural harmony of human, animal and plant life cycles. The ecological imbalance caused by these criminal acts of the so called ‘civilized man’ has resulted in a disastrous threat, not only to the human survival, but also to life as a whole on our planet. Yagya has been found to be a viable cure for the ecological imbalance. Experimental studies have shown that Yagya or agnihotra creates a pure, hygienic, nutritional and healing atmosphere. Researchers from the field of microbiology have observed that the medicinal fumes emanating from the process of agnihotra are bacteriostatic in nature, i.e. they eradicate bacteria and micro-organisms, which are the root causes of illness and diseases. The following quotes by renowned scientists are noteworthy:
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh, India) Gas Tragedy and Agnihotra The tragic incident occurred on the night of December 3, 1984 when the poisonous MIC gas leaked from Union Carbide factory at Bhopal. Hundreds of people died and thousands were hospitalized, but there were two families – those of Shri Sohan Lal S. Khushwaha and Shri M. L. Rathore, living about one mile away from the plant, who came out unscathed. These families were regularly performing agnihotra (havan). In these families nobody died, nobody was even hospitalized despite being present in the area worst affected by the leakage of the toxic gas. This observation implies that agnihotra is a proven antidote to pollution. (English Daily – 'The Hindu' of 4th May 1985; news item under the heading ‘Vedic Way to Beat Pollution’.)
Everyone is aware of the disasters of deforestation. The only solution to this crisis is to create an awareness and enthusiasm in the people to plant more and more trees. All World Gayatri Pariwar is running programs for planting trees in several districts of India.
Nari Jagaran Abhiyaan (Women Awakening Movement) has been an integral part of the social reconstruction program of All World Gayatri Pariwar. Most remarkable has been its initiatives to revive the glory of women from the religious platform. In the Hindu society, where since the medieval times women were kept behind the veil, and were not supposed to chant Vedic mantras, we can now see hundreds of women priests chanting Vedic mantras, conducting all kinds of Vedic religious rituals, and guiding thousands of men and women. Not only that, they are leading many of the social reformative activities of the Pariwar. Groups of women (Brahmvadini Tolis) go to different parts of the country and organize special 3-4 days social awareness programs for uplifting women’s condition.
Women’s education and cultural ascent are given impetus under this movement, so that the better half of the human society can play its role more efficiently and effectively. Several self-employment schemes under the self-reliance development programs of All World Gayatri Pariwar are women-oriented.
Under the reformative projects of Yug Nirman Yojna (Movement for the Reconstruction of the Era), All World Gayatri Pariwar has successfully worked in many parts of India towards eradication of blind faith, religious fundamentalism, addictions, insane customs like dowry, expensive marriages and funeral rites, etc. Mass awareness about these problems is created by the organization of large-scale Deep (lamp) Yagyas, religious functions and Pragya Puran Kathas (Narrations of the scripture – Pragya Puran).
All World Gayatri Pariwar’s programs for Psycho-Social Engineering include:
Conduction of marriages without any dowry, constraints of caste or community, and expensive celebrations has been a remarkable social reformative activity of All World Gayatri Pariwar. On an average, the marriages performed under this noble drive have saved Rs. 12 billion of the Indian society since the past decade.