SAMYAK

It is that time of the year again when we celebrate the birth of Shri Krishna. It is interesting to note that he had two mothers. We, the Hindus living in Kenya have two mothers also like Bhagwan Shri Krishna. How you ask?  Most of us were born in Bharat and then we migrated to Kenya through various channels like business, jobs, education, relationships and several others. If not ourselves, our grandparents (or their parents) were born in the great land of Bharat. In short we are rooted to Bharat in terms of ancestry. It is the land from which we derive our values, culture, inspiration and even culinary and linguistic inclinations.  That said, it is prudent to underline the fact that we have spent most (if not all) of our lives in Kenya. It is in this country that we are learning the various lessons of life. It is in this country that we are making a living and raising our families. It is this country which has given us a new meaning in life while still holding on to the price...

When we think of archery, 2 great names come to mind from the epic Mahabharata. Arjuna and Karna. They were both valiant heroes with great skill in archery and they were on opposite sides during the great war of Kurukshetra. Arjuna was an obedient student of Dronacharya. He was able to learn a lot from his Guru, because of his  Samarpan  towards his teacher. This is the reason why he became the favourite student of Dronacharya. To learn something well, one must fully surrender to the teacher. He stayed in the righteous company of Shri Krishna and his brothers, the Pandavas. For this reason, he was able to easily walk the right path of Dharma. He had great character that he was loved by all. However, whenever anyone mocked his archery skills, he got furious. Karna on the other hand learnt his archery skills from Parshurama. He was actually Kunti’s son, but was raised by a charioteer. He despised it when people talked about his humble background because he always consid...

• Chose the Path of Dharma himself: Raam and Sita decided to go into exile in the forest to fulfil the wish of Kaikeyi. Laxman thought about it and made a choice. He decided to leave the luxury of the palace to accompany Raam and Sita in the exile. He sacrificed the comfort of being near his family. He knew that it would be a life of hardship in the forest. He chose to be part of the mission of killing Raavan and re-establishing Dharma. A sangh karyakarta also does the same thing. He understands the scenario and weighs out the options, but still chooses to walk the difficult path of serving the society which is the work of God. He stays away from the comfort and luxuries of the world to do the difficult, but right thing. The work of Sangh is similar to that of Shri Raam – to re-establish peace and harmony in the world. • The Laxman Rekha: Raam went in pursuit of a golden deer for Sita. Laxman stayed back to protect Sita. But later, he had to follow Raam to assist him. When he lef...

A few weeks back I joined the HRSC team on a trip to a school in Makindu. HRSC often has such projects to help the community across the year. For this particular one, we were going for the official opening of a borehole that had just been completed. A pit stop on our way was the sacred and well-known Makindu Sikh Gurudwara where we spent the night. After a heavy breakfast, we travelled to the school, which is a couple hours drive away.  Upon reaching the school, there was a welcome arranged for us by the students and teachers of the school. The students were unable to hide how happy they were to see us. It is not often that they get visitors from so far, and certainly not visitors who have improved their lives by building a borehole in their school. Their water problems were over and their smiles couldn’t hide how happy they were. After the ceremony was over, a few kids hung around me asking questions and trying to befriend me. Little did they know that they had alre...